IMR-4227 burning?

It will probably burn completely in a rifle case.

According to QuickLoad, with 11.2 gr. you are probably at or very near capacity in .357 and you are probably getting around 19000psi. and 970-1000fps. And burning just a little over half the powder (55%). I can't even find a compressed load that will stay within pressure limit and burn more than 64%.

I like the way 4227 shoots, very accurate loads. But there is always some unburnt residue. I have the best results with compressed or full case loads and have learned to always use magnum primers.

I wonder if it would help to back off the load and use a small rifle primer. They are designed to ignite a lot more powder than pistol primers, but you do need to back off the load, maybe 15% or more and work up a new load.

You will always get unburned particles with 4227. However, as Jesse Heywood said, it seems to produce very accurate loads in spite of this.

Don

IMR 4227 is a small rifle powder, and does fine in that application. I loaded many rounds of ..28-30, .32-40 and .38-55 with lead bullets when I was shooting in ASSRA competition, and 4227 burned cleanly and completely in those low pressure loads. It's just not ideal for magnum handgun loads, even with heavy bullets, because there isn't enough barrel time to get complete combustion.

IMHO

IMR 4227 is my go to powder in handgun caliber carbines and long pipe magnum revolvers. Nothing I've found matches it's accuracy in my P.C. X-Frame. While it does not quite produce the velocities of H110/W296, it does seem less temperature sensitive. In shorter barreled revolvers it will leave what looks like dark sawdust behind.

Load it in a 357 Maximum and I get nearly perfect burn. I use small rifle primers though and max charges in general.

works perfect in my 7.62x39 loads

I personally think 4227 powder burns a bit too slow for 44 Mag and especially so for 357 Mag for optimum performance.

I get some unburned powder in my Super Blackhawk,but none with my 30 Herrett Contender with a 14"barrel.

The relative burn rate of 4227 is actually a little slower than H110/WW296. I would always use a magnum pistol primer or even a small rifle and always stay within 10% of max listed loads. Only load listed on the Hodgdon site is 140g FTX with 11.0g min 13.0g max about 33,000 psi so with that heavy a bullet you are just guessing. My favorite powder with 180g lead TC is 10.0g Blue Dot

Nothing burns completely to gas, all powder leaves solid residue or some sort. The problem is IMR4227 is probably the slowest powder that you can load in the .357 and .44 mag. Leaving some residue is just one of the issues you have when loading the powder and one of the things that need to be accepted if you use it for handgun loads.

Buck, If you look and Min - Max loads in the Hodgdon/IMR reload guide of both IMR & H 4227, the min loads are all about 90% of max. The slower powders will always burn more efficiently and evenly at higher pressures. Additionally, H4227 has more recipes than IMR. The max load for a 180g Partition was 13.7g and the min 12.7g That is 93% of max load. The 170 Sierra JHC was 14.5g max and 13.0g min that is 89.6% of max load.

I also think the Lyman data is a little dated as CUP (copper units of pressure) is not really used any more for load development and is NOT interchangeable with PSI. Most are now measured in PSI using piezio strain gauges. Max for .357 is about 43,000 psi.

http://www.shootingsoftware.com/ftp/psicuparticle2.pdf


For H4227 minimum pressure seems to run around 33,000 psi except for the 110g bullet, the max pressure is around 42,000 psi or a range of about 9,000 psi. If you compare those working pressures of WW296/H100 they are as much as 15,000 psi difference between min and max loads.

That is WHY I said, stay within 10% of max loads

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

MSgtEgress said:

Buck, If you look and Min - Max loads in the Hodgdon/IMR reload guide of both IMR & H 4227, the min loads are all about 90% of max. The slower powders will always burn more efficiently and evenly at higher pressures. Additionally, H4227 has more recipes than IMR.

Click to expand...

If you go to the .44 mag rifle recipes there you'll see they list the exact same powder charges for H4227 and IMR 4227 and that those charges produce the exact same pressures and velocities........same as they do for H110/W296. This tends to tell me that both the IMR4227 and the H4227 are now the same powder, even tho H4227 has been discontinued. I e-mailed Hodgdon about this and they said no. A while later another member here or on another forum e-mailed them and the same tech person told them yes. Also their .357 handgun shows no loads with IMR4227 and their .44 handgun loads show no data with H4227....even tho they list both in .44 rifle. :banghead:

Confusing, eh?

I have NEVER got it to burn completely in my 45 colt revolver or rifles. From min to max powder and crimp. Mag primers as well = crud in barrel.
On the plus side it is one of my best powders for accurate loads.
In my Winchester 32 special it gives a complete burn and is plenty accurate with my cast bullets

Doc.

Current IMR4227 is H4227 (ADI 2205). The original DuPont powder was discontinued when Hodgdon's took over but they kept the IMR name. 4227 was a good powder for the .357 Mag before SAAMI dropped the maximum pressure for the .357 to 35 kpsi. If you want a clean burning powder, try Scots 4100 from Accurate Arms or Enforcer from Ramshot; they are the same powder (as each other, NOT 4227).and work exceptionally well.