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I formed my opinion about Titewad thusly:
When Alliant started this business about manufacturers induced shortages pre-Obama, I was forced to buy from The Powder Trust, they being the only game in town like they intended to be all along. Much as I hated to, I bought a couple cans of Titewad to get me through the season and hope that maybe Alliant would make some powder eventually. Of course they never really did and I ended up using 700X for a while, and now that's gone so I've turned to Perfect Pattern but I digress....
We would shoot five stand all day long back then and I was loading a 5 gallon pail of STS hulls a week with a load that with Promo or Red Dot would function all my guns including the Berettas. 1oz, CB1100, Fio 616, and enough powder to run them about 1225 fps. With Titewad that was about 17.5 grains.
I instantly noticed the occasional low recoil shell. There would be unburned powder. Of course, I figured it was me loading crummy shells again. I checked the loader for full stroke, etc. but the about 3% incidence of incomplete combustion continued.
An internet search revealed that I was not alone in experiencing this. I carefully hand weighed 30 charges and shot them over the chrono. I had 2 shells of the 30 that ran under 1000 fps and left crud in the barrel. Problem verified.
A change to WW209 primers solved this completely. Since I'm not paying $100 a brick for WW209 until I have no other alternative, I was concerned that Titewad and the new Perfect Pattern would be flameproof with my NSI 688 primers. Fortunately, they both work fine. The NSI 688 seems a closer match to the WW209 than does the Fio 616. I'm not even going to try PP with the Fio 616s I have left, those will go in the 410 with the can of 2400 I have left that's in a bank vault and insured heavily. $355/can for 2400 today folks.
Miller commented on this when I mentioned it here, pointing out that ball powders in general are regressive burning and known to be hard to light. While Hodgdon insists their modern technology has solved all the problems of spherical propellants, I think they speak with forked tongue. All smokeless powders burn more completely at higher pressures, Titewad included. It remains my favorite for gas automatics.
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