Hoot wrote:Unfortunately, there are no (to my knowledge) temperature compensated powders in the burn range we need for this caliber. The closest candidate that I know of is H4198 and it is generally considered too slow for the lighter bullets we can load into the 450b. In all fairness, I have never tried it, but I bet Tim has.
Hoot
I never really understood what exactly was "Temperature Compensated". If were talking about fracturing the long grains of powder, as seen in the slower IMR Powders, then here is a little ditty sure to fascinate or worst confuse the issue..
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA510537 ..
Either of the 4198's are way to slow for our use and unless you Arc-Weld the bullet to the case, one can not get enough Bullet Pull going, to burn 4198 efficiently. Of course, if Huge Fireballs and slow speeds are the goal and you can put up with sooting so bad, that at times it will collapse the case in the chamber then maybe 4198 is for you. Of course TexasSheepDog loves the Fireballs, he says he can read in the dark better and I thought he was using the Fireball for cooking S'mores, go figure.
Now then, if temperature's are a problem, in igniting the powder, as in, "it's cold out"!! Then several things come to mind, changing AO's, from say Point Barrow, moving to Tex's AO could be a cure, or maybe just using a faster powder, could be a cure.
In my Klondike days, Professionally Hunting Caribou, I saw days wherein the 4895 powder, I was using in my -06, go click-bang, ever time I tried it, until I started to put that same ammo, on the same click-bang day, inside of my Arctic Parka, next to my body, only taking it out for a shot. This is a somewhat hazardous endeavor, especially when Mrs. Momma Moose says,.."Well, well, he's got an empty gun and I've got all the time in the world, to stomp holes in this silly, unarmed man". I started to use Blue Dot for my 30-06, when the temperatures dropped below -35 (I one time worked in -85, all night!). The speeds were way slower, using blue dot and 180gr Sierras, but sufficiently fast enough to kill what need to be killed and Mr.Click-Bang, went totally away.
If you were to assume that 1680, for over-all performance, was our slowest burning powder and Blue Dot our fastest burning powder, two things come to mind. First most of these powders, in this class are either Ball type or Flake and either, will not break-up, when the temperatures go south. Two, all of powders, in the afore mentioned range, are sufficiently fast enough to ignite under the coldest of conditions. If you were really going to go into serious Arctic conditions, then Federal 215 large rifle primers and Remmy 7 1/2's for small rifle primers, will over come any cold weather ignition worries, because they have the industry's highest Brisance rating and will get fast powders burning, no matter how cold it gets.
I hope I didn't confuse the issue, much..
..t