The study that I did was looking for the most versitile powders. The way I judged this was to look at all of the maximum loads in the Sierra, Speer, Hornady and Nosler manuals for all non-wildcat reasonably standard cartridges. The criteria for making the cut went as follows. Find the load with the highest velocity for a bullet, if all other max loads listed were within 100 fps of the high load discard all loads from the study because their were no clear cut leaders. If 1/2 or less than 1/2 were within 100 fps, include all that met that criteria. I compiled the data by caliber. I know that there are huge differences in capacities on some of them, but this was for reference to speed up looking for additional loads for the same powder. The study turned up some things that were surprizing. I am now working on a case capacity comparison, but it isn't promising. I can't seem to find much in the way of consistency there. The study covered 9,587 loads, with 2,309 being selected for inclusion. I like H414 its a good powder, but it isn't IMR 4350. Look at the differences on the list, obviously IMR 4350 is the most versitile powder on the list. Its really a quick look method that allows me to quickly find what powders have a chance of working the best in multiple cartridges. I did not have any data on the new Vita Vory 5 series powders, I would like to have seen how they fared, but they were too new. Some of the powders are new enough that they will probably climb on the list as more manuals list them.
224 243 257 264 277 284 308 323 338 357 375 416 458 TOTAL
1. IMR 4350 5 25 24 22 21 76 206 10 10 2 6 1 1 409
2. IMR 4831 1 35 19 8 17 68 54 9 11 0 3 0 0 225
3. IMR 4064 27 9 0 2 10 35 34 9 0 6 2 1 1 136
4. WIN 760 11 9 21 3 4 33 25 4 2 0 3 0 1 116
5. RL 19 1 29 9 3 1 37 11 0 10 0 0 0 0 91
6. RL 22 0 9 11 2 4 28 34 0 1 0 0 0 0 89
7. H 4831 0 0 8 10 14 26 25 3 2 0 0 0 0 88
8. IMR 4320 19 6 11 4 5 10 16 1 1 6 3 0 0 82
9. H 450 1 8 5 1 9 23 16 4 1 0 3 0 0 81
10. WIN 748 37 0 0 0 0 5 31 1 0 7 0 0 0 81
11. H 380 20 7 7 2 3 6 18 1 0 3 3 0 1 71
12. IMR 3031 32 2 5 0 0 4 17 1 0 3 1 1 2 68
13. IMR 7828 0 7 5 0 7 21 18 1 7 0 0 0 0 66
14. H 414 8 10 5 2 2 13 13 0 1 1 2 0 0 57
15. IMR 4895 20 2 3 0 1 1 20 1 0 4 1 0 2 55
16. RL 15 8 4 6 2 2 9 15 1 1 2 3 1 0 54
17. H4350 0 11 5 3 1 16 12 0 3 0 0 1 0 52
18. BL-C(2) 19 1 0 0 0 2 11 1 0 4 0 1 3 42
19. AA 3100 1 5 4 4 4 7 11 1 0 0 0 1 0 38
20. AA 2640 16 0 1 0 0 2 13 0 0 3 0 0 2 37
21. H 335 17 1 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 4 0 0 2 29
22. RL 7 15 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 1 2 0 0 26
23. AA 2520 6 1 5 0 0 2 8 0 0 3 0 0 0 25
24. H 4895 6 0 2 2 1 5 4 1 0 1 2 0 0 24
25. N 160 6 3 1 2 1 4 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 24
26. AA 4350 1 7 1 0 0 11 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 24
27. H 322 7 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 2 0 0 3 23
28. IMR 4198 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 21
29. H 870 0 0 3 7 0 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 19
30. AA2015BR 7 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 6 1 0 0 17
31. RL 12 4 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 2 0 0 0 17
32. N 140 5 0 0 1 0 1 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 16
33. N 165 0 0 0 1 0 11 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 16
34. AA2230 5 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 4 14
35. H 1000 0 0 1 0 1 6 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 13
36. MRP 0 0 2 0 0 1 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 10
37. WIN 785 0 5 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9
38. N 150 1 2 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 8
39. N 133 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 7
40. N 135 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 5
41. H 4198 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 3
42. VARGET 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
43. N 201 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
44. N 130 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
45. AA 2495 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2
46. AA 2150 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
47. N 203 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
48. WMR 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
31 March 1998
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