Hodgdon Gray B recipies?

[GCW5]

Can any one please help me?

I was given 5# of Hodgdon Grey B powder about 6 months ago, It was stored in a metal army ammo box and looks fresh. I contacted Hodgdon to get some information on it. It was manufactured in the 1960's and was mainly a shotgun powder. I asked if they has any recipies for it in pistols, they said no, they didn't.

Does anyone have any pistol load data for this? I have a .38 special/.357 mag, a .44 special/.44 mag and a .45 ACP. if I can't find any data, I'll probably just fit rid of it.

Thanks

 

[Walkalong]

Never heard of it, how about it guys, somebody will know.

 

[DWARREN123]

That sounds kind of old to me to be reloading. Even if kept properly it may have degraded somewhat. Be careful.

 

[scott5]

Grey B Data

Hey GCW5,
I have and old Hodgdon's Reloading Data Manual #21 that has Grey B loading data in it.
They used a S & W model 39 4" barrel and don't show starting loads but max loads for 9mm.
Grey B loads
90gr. jacketed HP 5.6gr. 1407fps
108gr. jacketed SP 4.8gr. 1150fps
125gr " SP 4.3gr. 1028fps
125gr. lead 4.3gr. 1074fps
130gr. jacketed 4.2gr. 997fps
160gr. lead 3.1gr. 808fps

I know this isn't the caliber you wanted but I will repost and scan in the other calibers.

 

[scott5]

Grey B

Hello all,
Here are some more of Grey B:
I hope this helps.

 

[GCW5]

scott5,

Thank you very much! I'd of sure hated to throw all this powder away. I let you know how it works.

 

[GCW5]

I loaded up the 50 .44 mags I had ready to try out the Gray B yesterday afternoon, here's the results.

The powder is grey (who'd a guessed?) with a hint of green, with granulation like sand. I loaded up 6 gr (weighed each charge), max load shown (16,500 psi) with 250 gr cast bullets and WLP primers in 6 and went out with the crony to see what I had.

The sheet showed 883 fps with a 7 1/2 " barrel, I got 766.3 with a 3", no smoke, mild recoil. I ran the other 5 through and got 766.7, 767.1, 766.8, 766.6, 766.9. I'ver never ran anything through my crony that was that consistant. I ran some hot 44 mags through to make sure it wasn't stuck or broken, they all ran around 1200 to 1210 like the last time I checked (21 gr H4227, WLP primers with the same 250 cast bullets).

I went to check the target, which was a 2" orange spot on cardboard, and had a nice clover leaf 1 inch under the spot, not bad from about 15 yards.

The empty cases didn't have that familar black streak on the outside of the case you normally get from low pressure loads not expanding fast enough to seal the case aginst the cylinder.

There wasn't very much power in the bottom of the big .44 cases, I probably won't use it much in them, and will try it out in the .38 Special next. With 2.4 to 2.8 gr and 158 gr bullets, I should get around 12,500 loads with what's left, not too bad.