reduced charges with Lil' Gun

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Does anyone know if it's safe to run reduced charges of Lil' Gun.  By reduced I don't mean severely reduced.  I'm thinking that it might make a good cast bullet powder with it's low pressures.

Perhaps the lower pressures and more gradual acceleration will wreak a little less havoc on cast bullets.

I know it's a slow-burning magnum powder which runs into the category of those detonations I keep reading about.  Will someone please correct me if I'm wrong - but aren't those horror stories of reduced charges always involving very reduced charges?

The max load for a jacketed 158 grain (.357) with Lil' Gun is 18 grains.  A ten percent reduction would be 16.2.  That's a bit fast for bullets without a gas check.  I'm thinking of running something around 12 or 13 grains.

[cukrus]

Lil'Gun is not a low pressure powder - it just has a nice pressure/velocity ratio with a 158 Hdy XTP in a Win .357 Mag case.  Different story in different cartridges.  Reduce  the charge and reduce the efficiency, i.e. without enough pressure a propellant won't burn as well.   I don't think you'll see a place for Lil'Gun in low pressure cartriges like .38 Spec. .44 Spec. or 45 ACP for a reason: disappointing results.
I save the Lil'Gun for high performance loads with gas checked  bullets.
I havn't gone much below 16.5 gr or much above 17.5 gr with cast.
I did notice velocities falling off as charges were increased incrementally over 17.5 gr to 18 gr. with  condoms.
p.s. I've done some havoc with vises (low acceleration) and hammers (a bit more acceleration) to bump bullets and flattten nose profiles without noticing target group deterioration.   At least some havoc is o.k.

[Blackhawk44]

According to most published load date, Lilgun likes to operate between 25,000 and 40,000psi which makes it a very poor candidate for low pressure loads.  While they have not been able to consistently prove the effects of secondary explosion effect in handguns, why take the chance when there are so many proven powders available.

[Joe Kool]

The best powder I've found for low pressure, low velocity loads, with cast bullets is Alliant Red Dot. It's bulky, taking up more space for it's weight then other fast powders. Of the powders I have tested, it give the lowest velocity variations, when the powder is oriented to the front or rear of the case. I've just developed a sub sonic load for my 30/06 using 9 grains of Red Dot and a 220 gr cast bullet. In my 32 H+R mag Contender barrel, 3.4 gr. of Red Dot and a 115 gr cast bullet at 1050 fps, will shoot under an inch at 100 yds.  I'm using  the old Red Dot, not the new 'cleaner burning' Red Dot. I'll be testing the new, cleaner burning Red Dot soon because my last can of the old, unimproved Red Dot is just about empty.