Rank these powders

[jtmattison]

For those of you with experince with multiple brands of powders please help me here.
How would you rank these various powders?

Goex
Kik
Schuetzen
Swiss
Elephant

Did I miss any?

HD

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

#1 - Swiss
#2 - Schuetzen
#3 - Goex or Kik
#4 - Graf & Sons
#5 - open
#6 - open
...
Elephant brand - never tried it
...
#101 - Anything that purports to be like or similar to BP, like Pyrodex, Triple 7, etc.

Oh yeah, my scale only goes to '100'! :rotf:

Myself, I use the Schuetzen powder and have no reason to use anything else.

 

[jdixon]

One that you missed is Graf & Sons - though it is probably a re-labling of one you have already listed.

Only used two of those you listed and it is a tie in my mind.

1. Swiss - Pro - consistently more powerful, usually a very low standard deviation on velocity Con - expensive, foreign made, plastic bottle.
1. Goex (Red) - Pro - American made, costs less - still comes in a metal can like God intended! Con - less steam than Swiss with a higher SD.

 

[J.D.]

Of the powders I have used, I would rate them in this order of excellence to less than excellent.


1 Swiss
2 Dupont; no longer available
3 Schuetzen/Grafs; one in the same.
4 GOEX
5 Elephant
never used KIK

 

[paulvallandigham]

J.D. Have you tried sifting your Goex Powder? We found that if you sift it, the SDV comes down dramatically with some lots. A recent lot was very much more consistent than earlier lots we tried, and sifting yields only very small amounts of 3 and 4 Fg powder " fines " in the 2Fg powder we were sifting. That alone was a pleasant surprise, as it indicates the folks at Goex are doing a better job of sifting and sorting their powders. I do not have enough experience with Swiss to say much of anything about it, yet. I have never bought any Kik or Wano, or Schuetzen, although I saw a can of Shuetzen for sale somewhere, and didn't like the price.

 

[jtmattison]

#1 - Swiss
#2 - Schuetzen
#3 - Goex or Kik
#4 - Graf & Sons
#5 - open
#6 - open
...
Elephant brand - never tried it
...
#101 - Anything that purports to be like or similar to BP, like Pyrodex, Triple 7, etc.

Oh yeah, my scale only goes to '100'! :rotf:

Myself, I use the Schuetzen powder and have no reason to use anything else.

You rank Schuetzen number two and Graf & Sons number four.
I thought they were the same powder :hmm:

HD

 

[jdixon]

I have never tried sifting powder yet. I looked into one of those sifting tumblers a while back - after I looked at the price I figured it was cheaper to buy Swiss for a while if I truely was in need of the performance. Glad to hear the Q.C on the Goex is heading in the right direction!!!

 

[J.D.]

I have never sifted powder, though I have "socked" powder to remove dust and some fines.

Sifting is probably more efficient and less time consuming.

I received the the article BTW, I found it to be very educational. I do appreciate your help.

Thanks
J.D.

 

[Bob Riegl]

:hmm: (1) Swiss/Schuetzen
(2) Goex
(3) Kik
(199) Elephant (dirty junk)
I have used them all and I find very little, if any, difference between Swiss and Schuetzen. Goex I have also used and really find it to be great powder ,but not equal in anyway to Goex. Kik and Graf I have tried and found them to be somewhat "dirty" shooters. In dead last on whatever scale---never to be recommended is Elephant, which is undeniably the absolutely dirtiest and most unreliable burning powder out there. Once they burned out their factory in S.A., if anything it was worse than before, if that's possible. :shake:

 

[shmrck1]

Huntin Dawg,
G&S and Schuetzen are the same or at
least supposed to be. As for me although I have
used G&S and Swiss I prefer Goex. Just never had a problem with it.( or the others for that matter)
snake-eyes:hmm:

 

[roundball]

Goex.

 

[Slamfire]

Schutzen and Grafs are both made by Wano, but that doesn't mean they are the same powder. After all Goex makes two different grades, AND Cowboy which may be just ordinary Goex in a different granulation. :v

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you look at the hornady reloading manual, they give you the wire sizes for sifting. YOu can order the correct size screen from many sources for much less than that tumbler. Just build a square frame to tack the screen to, borrow a plastic clothes bucket, and sift your powder into the bucket. Use a news paper to be a funnel to powder the sifted powder into your cans, or jars, or what have you.

My brother bought the tumbler, and after he told me the price, I choked a bit,and thought there must be a cheaper way to do this. I think you can buy the screening wire from harbor freight, or other suppliers on the internet.

 

[jdixon]

I never considered looking up the screen sizes and building one myself. Didn't think I would be able to find the correct screening, interesting. I found this information during a quick internet search - does this sound correct?

"2Fg is screened to pass through a 16 mesh screen abd stop on a 30 mesh screen.

3Fg is screened to pass through a 20 mesh screen and stop on a 40 mesh screen."

 

[jtmattison]

How did this turn into a powder sifting thread?

HD

 

[jdixon]

Blame Paul - he started it :blah:

 

[Mad Monk]

Slamfire,

They are indeed the same.

 

[Mad Monk]

J.R.,

3F is 20 mesh to 50 mesh.

There was a brief point in time when one powder maker used the 40 mesh as the 3F stop screen.

 

[Chiefs50]

While I agree that Elephant is extremely dirty, I have found it to be very reliable. It also produces very accurate loads in my Lyman Trade Rifle.

 

[Mad Monk]

Something to think about.

If it was such bad powder how did 3 million pounds of it end up in the U.S. between 1993 and 2001.

Then there was 1995 when a rep from GOEX visited the plant in Brazil. The game plan was to have Elephant produce powders for GOEX. GOEX would have bought all of their powder needs from the plant in Brazil.

The fun part of these threads is they show how little most shooters actually know about the different powders and the inner workings of the business.