H-110 or Lil'Gun???

[BCB]

I have been contemplating purchasing a pound of Lil’Gun powder.  I shoot much H-110 in the 357 and 44 Magnums.  I also shoot H-110 in the 445 SM with minimal success.  I wonder if the Lil’Gun would be much different than H-110.  They seem to have the same, or very near the same, burning rate.  Yet, I would like to try it in the 445 SM.

Any thoughts on Lil’Gun being much better than H-110?  Or is this just a “nearly the same powder, different name” gimmick?  Thanks…BCB

[ricciardelli]

You might find Lil'Gun a Lil'Better with bullets 200 grains and lighter in the .445 SM.

[hubbard]

try a pound of it. used in in 2 .357's and a 45 lc. and they all liked it , accuracy wise.

[Paul H]

I just started trying some in my 480, after debating it for awhile.  It is faster burning then H-110, but slower burning then 2400.  It is at its best for lighter and medium weight bullets for magnum handguns.

So far it appears to give me at least as good and possibly better accuracy then H-110 does with the 400 gr bullet, and H-110 will put 5 into 1" at 50 yds.

[JohnK]

With all due respect Paul, I disagree that Lil'Gun is at it's best with medium or light bullets in magnum calibers, or at least not all magnum calibers. In my experience it has performed better than H110 with heavy bullets in 357 and 45 Colt, and in the 357 Magnum was no better or even worse than H110 with light 125gr bullets.

With 350gr Keiths in the 45 Colt Lil'Gun handily out performed H110 in the shooting I've done. Lil'Gun uses less powder for the same or better velocity and has been as accurate. For example with Dry Creeks 350 gr Keith 21.5gr of H110 pushed it to 1,202 fps in my 5.5" Bisley. On the same morning in the same gun 19.0gr of Lil'Gun went 1,204 fps and had a SD of only 7.1 fps compared to 29.4 fps for H110.

Maybe it's different in the 480 Ruger, I haven't loaded or shot that one yet, but in the 357 Magnum and 45 Colt Lil'Gun excells with heavy bullets.

[.45 COLT]

Might as well get my opinions in here too. I load .45 Colt and .357 Mag with both H110 and Lil'Gun, now going almost exclusively with Lil'Gun. In the longer barrel Rugers, 7 1/2", the two seem to perform almost the same, with Lil'Gun getting the nod, slightly. As JohnK notes, less powder for essentially the same velocity. In my short, 4 5/8", Rugers, Lil'Gun gives a better velocity - less dropoff from the longer barrel that H110. Lil'Gun also appears to produce less flash in low light. I haven't tried the lighter .357 bullets with it yet - I'm still stuck on HS6 for a lot of loads.

[Raging480]

I'm no expert in reloading, but I like Li'l Gun in my .480 and my heavy .357 loads.  Just my $.02