Ball Powder History and Advancements

[padom]

Really good read with some good info on advancements in new ball powder that solve the temp sensitivity issues of the past compared to extruded stick powder...its called "Accu Flat" and they say "This family of powders matches Hodgdon’s Varget, H4350, H1000 and Retumbo for charge weight, performance and temperature sensitivity. Initial reports from the industry indicate that this propellant also offers high levels of accuracy."

Looking forward to testing this new ball powder....would be great for Dillons

Ball Powder Propellant: You Are Probably Shooting St. Marks Powder - Guns and Ammo

Since 1969, Ball powder propellant has been made by St. Marks Powder, not Winchester. The powder plant is now owned by General Dynamics.

www.gunsandammo.com

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

That was cool to read. To actually match H4350 with a ball powder would be something for sure. They are close with 6.5staball but maybe the "Accu-flat" will actually do it.

 

[6.5SH]

Hopefully lives up to the claims and is actually available in the quantities needed. The long range precision powder market is way too reliant on Australia.

 

[ShtrRdy]

What brand would handle St Marks powder?

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

What brand would handle St Marks powder?

They make powder for all of the main ones

 

[padom]

That was cool to read. To actually match H4350 with a ball powder would be something for sure. They are close with 6.5staball but maybe the "Accu-flat" will actually do it.

Varget in ball powder form....that would be amazing....

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

Varget in ball powder form....that would be amazing....

Yeah, they likened it to H4350 and Varget.... That's got to be the 2 favorite powders by far! It would be amazing to truly have that kind of SD ability and temp sensitivity with a ball powder, especially for volume loading. For single stage precision with my V3, I think H4350 is actually easier to load in a lot of ways because I can get the V3 tuned just right with it and throw dead on probably 9 out of 10 times.

For volume and 223 and such, the AccuFlat would be huge if it works as described.

 

[TheOfficeT-Rex]

Would always be nice to have additional options. I wonder how the ignition characteristics would be - If the ES/SD will challenge extruded powders, and if that remains stable across various case fills given the PRS trend of running slower lately.

 

[Ledzep]

Cool. Good to see this is going public. Hopefully it'll make its way to consumers soon enough. The stuff is absolutely stellar for a ball powder. Temp stability is 100% as good or in some cases better than the Hodgdon Extreme 'equivalent'. ES/SD has been very nice. Accuracy is usually pretty solid, though I've seen a couple of examples that got a little sideways. Seems to be barrel dependent. Accu-flat is absolutely a completely different and better animal than Sta Ball. Once it's out and about it'll definitely be worth trying because if it shoots in your barrel you get it all from a powder you can throw charges and spot-weigh.

 

[918v]

https://ndiastorage.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/ndia/2010/armament/WednesdayCumberlandSteveFaintich.pdf

They had this stuff for a decade. SMP768 temperature stable ball powder with the same burning rate as Varget.

 

[cmy six]

Winchester 760, specifically made for .30-06 it's a ball powder and it's right in the hood with the powders mentioned.

 

[CK1.0]

I might be full of it, but after a little web searching, seems Sta-Ball might be the first incarnation of what is or will be “Accuflat” powder..?

I’ve been using Sta-Ball for my precision rifle loads exclusively for ~2 years now and dig it. I’ve gone though 30+ pounds of it.

In fact, I sold my AT3 and canceled my AT4 order because it’s honestly faster to drop and trickle up manually with StaBall than to dick around with the AT’s for me.

I can just drop it straight into cases and it’ll hover around +/- 0.05gr, but since most of the drops are dead-on, I just trickle the rest now, and every single one of my loads is within +/- 0.02gr. It’s not as easy as with stick powders, but my SD’s hover around 5-8. The temperature sensitivity factor is usually 1.8% over a 15degF change, which, as long as your calculator considers that, isn’t hard to work with.

If there’s even better stuff coming, I can’t wait.

 

[Ledzep]

No, Sta-Ball and 768 aren't the same technology. Not that those are bad, but these new ones are in my experience notably better.

 

[MarinePMI]

No, Sta-Ball and 768 aren't the same technology. Not that those are bad, but these new ones are in my experience notably better.

Any idea when they're going to hit the market?

 

[CK1.0]

No, Sta-Ball and 768 aren't the same technology. Not that those are bad, but these new ones are in my experience notably better.

Sick. I can’t wait!

 

[Ledzep]

Any idea when they're going to hit the market?

As a commercial powder offering, no idea. I'd imagine Hodgdon or someone will have to work out a deal but I'm not aware of anything. Not my wheelhouse.

 

[Cascade Hemi]

Interesting article, thanks for posting it.

 

[padom]

Any idea when they're going to hit the market?

Million dollar question.

 

[918v]

No, Sta-Ball and 768 aren't the same technology. Not that those are bad, but these new ones are in my experience notably better.

What’s different between the three?

 

[Franko]

Something that meters like ball powder and is temp stable like Varget and H4350? Hell yes I am interested. If this is actually real, next stop Dillon 1100...

 

[GMZ]

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of Ball powder propellant is the time required to produce a typical lot, 40,000 pounds, of propellant: About 40 hours for Ball, compared to two weeks for extruded stick powder.

Very interesting.

 

[Ledzep]

What’s different between the three?

Something way above my understanding of chemistry.

Smp 768 and sta ball (764) are in a similar family. The newer ones are in a different numbering sequence.

 

[Gtscotty]

That is an interesting development, but much less so if only the .gov ever has access to it. With Hodgdon distributing Winchester, Hodgdon, IMR, Accurate Arms, Ramshot and (supposedly) Alliant powders, I wonder if there is any incentive for them to commercialize what would basically be a competitor to the planned StaBall line of powders? If Hodgdon doesn't commercialize these new GD powders then who would? It seems that SMP 768 has been available for use in M118 for a while and looks awesome, but hasn't made it to the commercial market, I wonder why?

 

[Mike Casselton]

I wish I could just drive up there and buy a 50 or 100lb keg.

 

[CK1.0]

It's funny, I just picked up an RCBS Matchmaster and loaded my first 100rds with it last night... I bought the thing specifically for Varget-type stuff because the extruded stick stuff will make you crazy dropping and trickling 100+ rounds to within +/- 0.02gr.

I'm still working on a 6CM barrel (Staball) and don't plan on getting into a 6GT (SW Precision Rifle) just yet, but wanted to play with it. Using Staball, it's almost a joke and not a true test of the machine, the thing performed beautifully just using one of its generic default settings, zero screwing around at all, plug and play. I probably could get the thing to scream through a bunch of rounds if I wanted to get into the weeds tweaking it.

But, it honestly is still fast and not too annoying to just use a dumb-ass volumetric powder measure, a good scale, and a manual trickler with the ball powders. If they can make a ball powder just as temperature stable as Varget, I'd also like one of those 100lb kegs please lol.