Has anyone been using Lil' Gun for .45's. I'm looking for a starting point for my 5-shot Ruger using 255, 300 and 350 Gr. cast bullets. Can anyone help me?

Will Hodgdon's tech dept. give you the info on this? I'd think there would be some kind of reccommendation. Just a thought.

Will Hodgdon's tech dept. give you the info on this? I'd think there would be some kind of reccommendation. Just a thought.

I already contacted Hodgdon, they only reiterated what was already publicly available on their web site. I'm looking for first hand experience with some heavier loadings.

Try Jeff Quinn over at gunblast.com.  I know he's used Lil' Gun extensively with the 44 mag...he may have data for you regarding the 45 colt.

What's John Taffin have listed on www.sixgunner.com  You might have to hit the back issues.

Have you found anything out.  I read an article about Lil gun having problems at high velocities.  Hodgdon was no help to me.  I have almost decided just to stick with w296 just because I have recieved no responsed to my emails to Hodgdon.  The least they could say is sorry we have no further information to share.

Enough of my griping.  If you have found any info for the Lil gun powder please share it  or where you found it.  

I've shared before, and will do it again, that our experiences here with Lil'Gun haven't been altogether agreeable.  True enough, there are some excellent loads using Lil'Gun in handguns.  However, we've found when developing top-end loads with this powder, that it has a nasty habit of spiking pressures very unexpectedly!

Unlike H110/W296 that have nice smooth, predictable pressure curves while developing loads, Lil'Gun, in our experience at least, tends to go along just fine, then with just a 0.2 grain increment change in powder, have pressures that are not only excessive, but dangerously so!  I really don't like the suddden surprises that this powder displays in terms of unexpected pressure spikes!

On an up-note, I've found nothing to rival Lil'Gun in loads for the .410 Bore shotgun shell, at least in the 2 1/2" loadings.  Great powder in this application, and no surprises here, other than outstanding performance!  I think I'll use my Lil'Gun for grouse loads!

God Bless,

Marshall

I'm using lil' gun for my heavy hunting loads in my 45 Colt. I use a load of 20g behind the 260g Nosler Partition. Pressure is low and velocity appears to be good, although I haven't chronographed it yet. The powder appears to burn quite clean and also appears to ignite quite easily. According to the Hodgdon web site, 19g would have been my starting load with this bullet and 21g, the max. No pressure problems with 20g. It actually appears that pressure is quite low with this load. Hope that helps.

 http://www.beartoothbullets.com/upload/cowboy.gif

(Edited by GilaMonster at 2<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://beartoothbullets.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->2 pm on Sep. 1, 2001)


(Edited by GilaMonster at 8<!--emo&:0--><img src="http://beartoothbullets.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'><!--endemo-->5 pm on Sep. 1, 2001)