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Forums10
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,034 Likes: 47
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,034 Likes: 47 |
Hodgdon has their head up their corporate ass.
They have dropped some very useful products like PB, 4756, and AA Lite.
Yet, they keep 800X which wasn't particularly good for anything when it was new and still isn't.
"The price of good shotgunnery is constant practice" - Fred Kimble
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,269 Likes: 521
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,269 Likes: 521 |
Well.....I like 800x. My experience with it metering in my 600 Jr. has been excellent, the only complaint being it’s a little messy (flakes like to sneak out of the rubber grommet on the charge bar). I have killed a lot of birds with loads using 800x as the powder. Everything from Doves to Geese. I think it’s extremely useful, especially in classic guns where pressure is a factor. I’ve enjoyed using it for two decades. I haven’t used it in awhile, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it when I need a specialty low pressure heavy hunting load for a classic gun. My Lefevers and Foxes absolutely loved the loads using 800x. I’ve used it in the Midwest (late season pheasants...late season ducks) for at least a decade during the coldest parts of winter...never had a blooper.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,718 Likes: 479
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,718 Likes: 479 |
800X is discontinued. Go to their web site and look. Dropped last year and now getting hard to find. Worse with all the panic buying people will buy it because it is all they can get and then find out that it does not meet their needs. It will sit on their wall until later when they either find a use or resell it. I bought over 40 pounds of PB in this way. In a year or two I hope to buy the same amount of 800X which will run me for the rest of my lifetime.
I understand why it was discontinued. Slow sales, very slow sales in dollar amounts. When a powder falls below one percent of your sales volume there has to be a real question of do we still need it or can we just drop it and shift those sales over to another number and by in large, that is exactly what has happened. I just wish they would do a limited product run every two or three years. Announce that there will be a special run of 10,000-50,000 pounds of powder X, available on a certain date. Let us stock up in bulk, on slow numbers, but keep them available. If they can do knock off Red, Green, Blue, Clay ... Dot, Unique, why not do a limited run of older powders? It is all volume and turn overs.
Sometimes there are no great replacement choices. We are working against the basic powder company goals. A powder must generate pressure at a certain minimum pressure level and curve so that it can work a semi automatic action. We want a powder to reach a peak pressure load, as low as possible, for a given performance. We want 5,000--7,000psi loads and they need 8,500- 10,000 psi just to keep semi autos running. It is getting worse because we are happy with 1100-1200 fps loads and all the new data seems to be 1300-1550 fps and the pressures for new stuff are all high to my needs. Most of the loads we are after are failures or at best very marginal loads for semi autos. I always wonder how many unpublished loads they have worked up that never met their minimum levels and we will never know about.
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1 member likes this:
graybeardtmm3 |
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 687 Likes: 47
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 687 Likes: 47 |
I am another fan of 800x, it is my goto powder for 12ga 1 1/4oz NP BB coyote loads for my combo guns. It is a great powder for reduced loads(small game/finisher) in my 222 Rem and 5.6x50R Mag, the load data is from the Calhoun Bullet company. I squirrelled away enough to last me till I'm done shooting as I don't use alot but it is very useful.
After the first shot the rest are just noise.
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Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 548 Likes: 86
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 548 Likes: 86 |
Used up my 12 lb container on 2 1/2 20ga have 1 lb left no 20gaues any more. Those are f209 not f209a
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,218 Likes: 121
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,218 Likes: 121 |
Hey all,
Plus 1 for what Dustin said.
I really like 800-X. I use this powder for my LP 12ga loads. Yep, it meters like crap, but I use it for my hunting loads only. For the limited amount of rounds I reload using this powder, I can and do weigh each drop. It's a bit of a pain, but worth it to me.
I use Longshot for my 16ga LP loads, but as I'm so low on it (and can't find any local or on the net) and have 9lbs of 800-X, I thought perhaps someone may have worked up a LP load for 16ga. It appears that 800-X is not a powder for smaller bore LP loads. But, it was worth a try.
When I first got into reloading I had so many different recipes that it got confusing. I now just have 3 I use, one for clays, and one each for 12ga and 16ga. A person learns thru experience and some helpful tips from others who've been around the block a few times.
KY Jon, great post also. I was not aware that 800-X was discontinued. Glad I got that 8lb jug.
Anyway, thanks all for the great comments and tips etc.
I pray things get better, guess we'll see what happens next.
Best,
Greg
Gregory J. Westberg MSG, USA Ret
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 640 Likes: 6
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 640 Likes: 6 |
I've had good luck for years using Unique (not 800X) with a 1 oz. load in Remington black hulls and a spreader disk atop it, because the Parker I use it in is choked F/XF. It opens the pattern enough to enjoyably use the gun for sporting clays and closer targets. I'd check the recipe, but where I have my ammo in the garage it is currently -8F and it isn't very comfortable to poke around there in my robe and slippers.
Last edited by Grouse Guy; 02/13/21 09:26 PM.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,815 Likes: 4
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,815 Likes: 4 |
I USE 17 1/2 GR PB IN MY OLD STEPEHN GRANT 16 GA. WORKS GREAT AND LOW PRESSURE
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,961 Likes: 9
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,961 Likes: 9 |
I admit I made a serious mistake, I did mean 800X , not 700x 700X has served long and well.
bill
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 518 Likes: 4
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 518 Likes: 4 |
It was originally marketed as a do-all 12 ga. target powder. That joke didn't play very long, and people ran from it. It's been something of an orphan for the last forty years, looking for a place to be loved. Where to start? Its filthy, and meters very poorly, which means your velocities will be all over the place. It's loud and makes dogs howl. Whatever you want to do, there are at least a half dozen other powders that will do a much, much better job. Convert it to cash and get one of the good powders.
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