doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com IMR SR 7625 or PB for low pressure loads...

Finally I may have an opportunity to get IMR powders for my elderly damascus Wilson reloads.
It is a special order so I have to choose one of: SR 7625 or PB.
PB seems to be slightly cheaper, but do they have other characteristics to guide my selection: pressure wise they seem to be identical, what about volume, temperature sensitivity, etc.?

regards, jaakko

I am very happy with PB, Thousands of loads worth. It doesnt seem to be cold sensitive and produces good results on game and targets.

Jaakko, I don't know what gauge your loading for.
I load 1000's of low pressure loads.
I would recommend PB for a 12 gauge, and SR-7625 for 16 gauge.

At least in 12 ga. you can load slightly lower pressures with the 7625. However, I have heard that the 7625 can be a poor performer in cold weather. How cold is cold? It rarely freezes where I hunt, and I have loaded both powders with great success. The only difference obvious to me is that the PB seems to leave a lot less residue in the barrels. Bill Brech

There is no doubt that 7625 will generate the lower pressures. Years (and years) ago I went through a bunch of 7625 loaded into target loads. I was loading 1 1/8 oz. at the time and shot year 'round (Ohio). Had no problems. As for dirt, dirtier, or dirtiest, the barrels get swabbed at the end of the day regardless, so I don't fall on that sword.

I've used both for about 2000 rounds and see no reason to favor one over the other.

I have used both and have settled on PB. I can load low pressure 12 ga. and standard pressure 20 ga.

I shoot skeet year round and have not noticed any cold weather effects but I have not sat for hours in a frigid duck blind.

Good shooting

In the late 70's I had been reading Ross Seyfried's glowing reports of 7625 for use in low pressure loads for Damascus bbls, so bought a small (fortunately) amount of it to try. Tried a load taken directly from the old DuPont guide which used Rem cases, Power Piston wad & CCI primer to fit the old Rem small pocket. I had a steel bbl'd Lefever I was going to take duck hunting so loaded some shells with 1¼oz #5's & recommended charge to give just over 1100 fps @ about 7K psi pressure. This is low pressure, but not the super low some speak of using it for. Itook a few to the back yard (I live in the country) & shot some informal patterns & they did well & seemed potent. Come squirrel season, though I normally used a .22LR I carried the 12ga to a big stand of hickories & they killed squirrels authoritativly, so put the rest away to await the Nov duck season. With the temps in the low 20's we broke ice across a flooded bean field to get a boat into a swamp. First chance we got was when I had called in a couple of Greenheads. We shot about the same time & he killed his cleanly with one shot from a 20ga using 1oz of 6's. At my shot I noticed virtually no recoil, a very light report & the duck "Flinched" a bit but kept flying, so I hit the other trigger. Virtually same results except with this 2nd shot he did come down, but hit the water swimming. He was leaving fast so I told the son, if you've got a shell in hit him quick so he finished it off. Limits were quite low then so we finished out by swapping out with the 20. When we dressed that duck the 5's were just under the skin, with no penertration with the 6's going well in & doing the job. I know it could be said I should have experminted with other combos of hull, wad primer etc, but I just went back to "Green Dot" & never looked back. If you do go with the 7625, my advise would be to never go below 7k psi & only then if you can accomplish it in a "Hot Hull" as AA or STS & using a "Hot" primer. While some have reported no problems, the potential for failure is there with low pressure as the temp sags.

As I said above I have settled on PB in the 12 bore, but am fussing around trying to get a LP load in the 16...Fiochi hulls, sg 16 wads 1oz shot.....Any one got a recipe for the powder component????