First & Foremost let me say I am not knocking 800X powder. For anyone it suits fine. I did look up a burn rate chart & it falls between Lillian's Herco & Blue Dot. I then went to Alliant's web site & looked at their Handloaders guide. GUESS What loads for either one of these powders can be found for 28 gauge through 10 gauge, they do not list 8 gauge. As I said there is Nothing "Magic" with 800X that makes it a universal powder.
Personally for my "Light" 12 gauge loads I use Green Dot. I am simply Not Hung up on this exceedingly low pressures & find the faster powder imminently better for light loads & also more economical.
Unfortunately Alliant only gave loads in the 10 gauge for 3˝" shells & mostly in the heavier loads. As long as one sticks to a bit milder loads a powder in the burn range of Unique can also be loaded in all the gauges mentioned.
When Black Powder was the only available propellant then of course it was used universally in all gauges. Loads were developed which fit its burn rate.
The same can be done with virtually any powder on the market which will burn successfully at shotgun pressures. One would of course have to vary the loads to fit the burn rates. 700X & 800X would of course not use the same weight shot charges, but either "Could" be loaded with appropriate charges in all gauges.
Quite often we find the small gauges being loaded heavier in proportion to their size than the larger bores so they often call for slower powders than do the larger gauges.
For instance very good loads can be had for Red Dot in the 12 gauge for 1 oz loads. It is not suitable for 3/4 oz loads in the 28, BUT, if you dropped the
shot charge to 9/16 oz then it would be ideal.
My main question is WHY would I want to limit myself to just one powder to begin with. I could do rather well with Three, one fast, one medium & one slow.
