Any must have powders???

Rifle - Varget (more accurate in my rifles than good ole H4895)
I can reload for every rifle cartridge I own with it

Pistol - Blue Dot (HP38 is great, but doesn't make the full spectrum for me)
I can reload every for pistol cartridge I own with it

Nature Boy said:

Rifle - H4895
I can reload for every rifle cartridge I own with it

Pistol - HP-38
I can reload every for pistol cartridge I own with it

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Agreed:

badkarmamib said:

There is no perfect powder for everything.

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Varget for most all rifle loads. When it's available stack it deep as it wont go bad when stored properly. Back up is IMR 4350 as I have good stash of that. Of course I have a couple of rifles that like the 4350. Bullseye for the .45 and H110 for the magnum pistol loads.

Unique! (You would have never guessed, right?) I can load every pistol cartridge I load for with Unique in some fashion. There are newer powders that claim to be as versatile as Unique (BE-86, for one...) but in my rather limited experience with it I've not found it to be true.

A few years ago I started shooting my Marlin 1894 lever-action in .41MAG a LOT. Unique works well enough, but I needed a little more velocity to get those bullets out past 400yds... and I discovered IMR4227. I have been doing some tests with the Big 3 Handgun Magnum powders... IMR4227, 2400, and H110... to see which one works best out of the rifle, if I had to have one specifically for pistols where I needed maximum velocity... H110/W296, although 2400 would be a good runner-up. My issue with 2400 in pistols is I've not found an accurate load for it out of the pistols, specifically.

In times past I would also have said IMR4895 or H4895, but I've set that aside and now I say IMR3031. I use far more IMR3031 than IMR4895 now, but that is just me and my specific loading needs, and it wouldn't work well in big rifle cartridges where a slower powder has the advantage.

If you load a lot of cast rifle bullets, you simply must have IMR4198 on the shelf, with the runner-up being AA5744.

AJC1 said:

I was wondering where the 4350 series crowd was. Seems like anything with a larger case likes that series of powder.

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I love it for .30-06 with 165 grain bullets. That's what I use it the most for.

One I don't see a lot of people talking about is CFE Pistol. It meters great and the load data is interesting. 9mm Luger with 124gr bullet, 4.9-5.5grs, fps 1000-1120. You don't get very much variation in speed, so there isn't much reason to worry about accuracy of your powder measure. Just set it for the middle of the range and don't worry about it. I think it is ideal for a progressive. Probably would work well with powders scoops, too.

I'm new to reloading, so that comes with all the requisite disclaimers. Load data from Hodgdon's site.

Ramshot TAC for .223/5.56, also works in .308 Win and 338 Federal.
Alliant Power Pistol for 9mm, .357 Mag and .45 ACP
IMR-4064 for .308 and also works with light bullets in .243 Win
Reloder 26, if I could fInd it, for .270 WSM, 270 Win and .300 Win mag

I have others on hand that I also like, Titegroup, Universal, W231/HP38, Unique, W296 for handguns
And for rifles Reloder 17, H1000, IMR 8208XBR, Alliant Reloder 10x, Benchmark, but I only buy big kegs of Power Pistol, TAC and IMR-4064.

Arkansas Paul said:

IMR4350 for rifle
Unique and 2400 for handgun stuff

Those cover a very wide range of cartridges, and shotshell stuff too.

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Same here. That said, I am always tinkering with different powders for 38/357. 9mm, 30-30, 30-06, and 7mm Rem Mag. I don't hunt any more or shoot competitive, so the tinkering is where all the fun is for me.

I like IMR 7526, for .38 800X,Auto comp, Greendot for .45ACP

Nature Boy said:

Rifle - H4895
I can reload for every rifle cartridge I own with it

Pistol - HP-38
I can reload every for pistol cartridge I own with it

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This, only I use Green Dot instead of HP-38. If I could only have two powders, it'd be H4895 and Green Dot.

I don’t have a “must have” powder. I have my favorites. For many of the hand gun cartridges that I load I have worked up loads with a couple/few powders so that I better weather a shortage.

That said, I use alot of Unique, Accurate #5, H4895, and Accurate 2230.

Unique and H110.
Not the only two I use but by far the most important. Especially Unique.

AJC1 said:

One of the powders I have never tried but on the list is universal. It's supposed to be very versatile like unique but I cant find any.

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That is a very good option. I liked it. But decided to try other randomness and don't have it atm.

I'm never without imr4064, w760, h1000, cfe223, h110 and blue dot.
As you can see, I never found a magic wand.
It it was truly only one powder, I could muddle my way through life with blue dot.

The powder you need in your reloading cabinet.....is the powder that is running the lowest in the jug!

For pistol loads I’d go with Unique Bullseye and 231. AA#5 if available. These seem to be very versatile in my experience.

Weflyfast said:

The powder you need in your reloading cabinet.....is the powder that is running the lowest in the jug!

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Except r22, Titegroup, and Superformance. I know some people like them. But when they are gone, they won't be back on my shelf.
That's why we have so many options. One guy hates what I like. I hate what he does.

Must have W231.

Bfh_auto said:

But when they are gone, they won't be back on my shelf.

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Actually, I was just upstairs in the Reloading Kingdom sorting out powders. I've got about 6 different powders that I'm trying to burn up... and be done with them. TiteGroup for sure, but jeepers that stuff lasts forever. WST, W244, SportPistol, BE-86, and W231 are the others. I was trying to reinvent the wheel there for a while...

Charlie98 said:

Actually, I was just upstairs in the Reloading Kingdom sorting out powders. I've got about 6 different powders that I'm trying to burn up... and be done with them. TiteGroup for sure, but jeepers that stuff lasts forever. WST, W244, SportPistol, BE-86, and W231 are the others. I was trying to reinvent the wheel there for a while...

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I made the same mistake. I started pistol loading with 700x universal and h110. I should have stayed there. Everything else was finicky compared to them.
I went on a venture with rifle powders and realized the same thing. Nothing is a big enough improvement to make it worth changing. CFE223 excluded. That stuff is pixie dust.

I use a lot of IMR 4198 for 222 and my 38-55, IMR4895 for Garand and my AR really likes it although I am loading some with CFE223 just to try. RL22 works really well in 6.5 Swede, I use H322 in my 6BR. For pistol its Titegroup or Universal for 45acp, 2400 for 357mag and 22 Hornet. W296 for 44mag.

tlf65 said:

IMR4895 for Garand

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If I can get good results with IMR4064 in my Garand, that'll be it for IMR4895 for me, most likely.

Rifle-H335
Handgun-Power Pistol

I could make it the rest of my life with Unique, 2400 and Varget. If I get one more powder on the island it is either Bullseye or HP38/231.

IMR 3031 and 4198
Reloader 22
Unique and Bullseye
H-110

With these, I can reload anything I own.

Stay safe.