Didn't do a very good job hoarding

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jr_roosa

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Just got to the bottom of my Bullseye powder. Somehow I had in my head that it lasts forever, and I had a year's supply on hand. Oops.

Gotta find me a four pounder somewhere. Going to have to order it and add in some other powders to make it worth it. Bummer.

Maybe we will see how power pistol works for target loads. I don't have high hopes for that experiment.

J.
 
W231 and HP38 are popular alternatives (with different load data) to Bullseye. Probably all hard to get.

Best way to keep track is to estimate how may loads from "X" amount of powder.

Say you're using a load that takes 3.5g of Bulleye. Each lb of powder is 7000 grains. So 4 lbs would make (7000*4/3.5) = 8000 loads (roughly).

Keep a chart of on-hand powder, primers and projectiles. Adjust as production continues. This will give you an alert in meaningful units about when to buy more, and how to balance your holdings.
 
Powder valley has unique which is a good if not better substitute for anything you would shoot bullsye in, they also have small pistol primers in stock too. they also have winchester WSF that works well in bullseyes place.
 
Well I get about 1500 rounds out of a pound of bullseye. That lasted me years, and I only just finished my second pound ever. Somehow seeing a bottle in the cabinet translated in my head to "plenty." Now that I'm shooting bullseye 2700s it goes much quicker.

We will see what I can find in stock. Might try some of the others, but if I'm ordering online I would want to throw in a keg of 4895 too to make the shipping make sense.

There are no pistol powders to be found around here. :(

-J.
 
It kills me because in early December I ordered a ton of primers and rifle powders from powder valley and didn't bother to get any bullseye.

J.
 
I dumped out a couple pounds of bullsye a couple weeks ago. was glas to see the end of it.
 
Power pistol works very well for target loads, I use it, on and off, for 9mm,.357mag, and .327fed mag. I really like it in my .357mag.

What I don't like it for is max loads, the flash is obnoxious and distracting.

It works as good for target loads as anything else I have here.

Of my pistol powders, Unique, Bullseye, Universal, and Titegroup, I keep on hand, I would have no problem using Power Pistol to replace any of these.

I just bought another 4lb jug of power pistol last week. That will keep me for a while until I can get Universal (my favorite) again. But I'm not in any hurry and certainly won't pay a hefty premium for Universal.
 
I use Power Pistol for full-power .45 loads...I've heard that when downloaded in .45 acp it gets messy. I currently use 3.6gr of Bullseye behind a 185 grain LSWC for rapid fire at 730 fps, and 4.2gr with a 200 grain LSWC at 760 fps.

I just hopped on PowderValley and put together a $600 shopping cart with kegs of rifle powders and 4lbs VV-N320. I'm probably a lot better off with just using my PowerPistol for a month until I can get my hands on some more bullseye or other common pistol powder. The only other pistol powder I have on hand is VV-N110.

I'm hesitant to try anything new since load development is harder here in the winter than it was when I lived in AZ.

-J.
 
Red Dot is another alternative till you can get more Bullseye. I like Bullseye better, but my 38spl, 45acp shoots just fine with the Red Dot.
 
For those of you using this thread as a shopinglist, powder valley is out of every powder mentioned here, with the exception of Unique. They also claim it wont ship for four weeks.

looking for win231/hp38 and LPP-standard primers, I have small pistol primers and 2400 to trade (sacramento area),
--edfardos
 
edfardos said:
For those of you using this thread as a shopinglist, powder valley is out of every powder mentioned here, with the exception of Unique. They also claim it wont ship for four weeks.

looking for win231/hp38 and LPP-standard primers, I have small pistol primers and 2400 to trade (sacramento area),
--edfardos
Click to expand...
Actually powder valley has all the powders i mentioned here in stock as well as small pistol primers.
 
I've heard that when downloaded in .45 acp it gets messy
Click to expand...

I won't load any of my loads so low with any powder that the cases won't seal up in the chamber. If I see soot down the side of the case I up my load until it goes away. Maybe that's why I never noticed this.
 
Consider yourself lucky, jr_roosa. There are any number of powders normally used for 12 gauge shotshells that are in the same burn rate range as Bullseye. I use Solo 1000 and 700X all the time to develop the same loads as Bullseye.

Don
 
Constrictor said:
Actually powder valley has all the powders i mentioned here in stock as well as small pistol primers.
Click to expand...
I only see cci musket caps, cheddite shotshell primers, remington percussion caps and muzzle loading caps, tula large rifle and berdian primers and winchester muzzle loader primers.
 
Yep...pretty much all the primers that you'll find are musket and percussion caps on most websites. I'm hearing that the manufacturers are beginning to get more in the pipeline so I am hoping that primers will begin to trickle in the supply chain in a month or so.
 
So you ran out of your favorite powder, but you still have plenty of Power Pistol? Sounds like you did a fine job of hoarding to me. I'm not going to be worried until my last powder can is dry, and my loaded ammo supplies are lower than they were prior to when I started loading. Back then, I suppose I was happy to have a couple hundred rounds.
 
Reefinmike said:
I only see cci musket caps, cheddite shotshell primers, remington percussion caps and muzzle loading caps, tula large rifle and berdian primers and winchester muzzle loader primers.
Click to expand...
They had small pistol from 9am till about 3 pm.
 
I agree, there are many alternatives to Bullseye.

Clays, W231/HP-38, WST, 700X, PB, Red Dot, AA#2 & Zip

For slightly slower powders there is:
Universal, AutoComp, WSF, Unique, Power Pistol, AA#5 & True Blue

IMO the best Bullseye alternatives are Clays, AA#2, W231/HP-38 and Zip.
 
Found an ammo can with five pounds of Bullseye forgot I had last week. Cardboard cans with metal tops. Retail price marked was $7.95 each. Must have hoarder it back in the late '70's. Opened a can, loaded up some pet 38 special loads and they shot fine. Just moved this five pounds to front of rotation.
 
That's OK we have all done it before. When it calms down this time just stock up better and you will be ready for next time.

FWIW I still have primers from before the '94 AWB...
 
Mom and pop shops around here, have alllll powders. Several little bite bigger shops have source powder because everyone goes there because the shop buys in "quantity" but yet mom and pop shops order in "quantity" too.

My local shop can order in kegs, but doesn't stock them. Needless to say I asked him on prices. A kegs is like getting pound free. My mouth hit the floor. He has them on order for me, and there has been no price spikes in the reloading world. Only panic driving prices.
 
As with 45lcshooter I have found all my LGS staying stocked on powder. Since you have to walk in door rather than Google search, hard for internet panic buyers to clean off the shelves.
 
NeuseRvrRat said:
we're all gonna have to get used to just using whatever we can find for a little while. maybe you'll find a new favorite.
Click to expand...
Power Pistol is great in various calibers. I use it in everything from .380 to .45 even including 10 mm. Not in 357 mag though.
 
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