Lil Gun. My experience is it outperforms H110 / Win296 and it does it with lower pressures. It also doesn't leak and fly. Neither one is a flake powder. They're both flattened ball powders but H110 / Win296 has smaller fluffy balls that misbehave. Lil Gun does not do that.
If you read the Internet, Lil Gun will erode your forcing cone and melt your revolver into a puddle of molten metal. The unproven Internet rumor is it has a higher flame temperature and this causes excessive erosion. The truth is all powders have flame temperatures high enough to create a heat affected zone on the inside surface of the barrel. This HAZ is very thin. The destructive temperatures only exist in this HAZ. Heating the huge mass of the whole revolver to 150 deg. F where it's too hot to touch does not do any damage. It's the metal that's closer to 2000 deg F in the thin HAZ that takes the damage and this heat exists on the first shot. Does Lil Gun punish the HAZ more than other powders?
Plenty of people have reported using Lil Gun over the long term with no particularly bad effects. Personally, I don't see how one could expect to shoot a large volume of hot
magnum loads of any powder without enduring some forcing cone erosion. Non-wearing guns don't exist.
Like other magnum powders, Lil Gun cannot be safely used to make light loads. For medium loads, I suggest Longshot powder. For light loads, HP-38 (W231).
Personally, I greatly favor powders and loads that fill the case for safety (prevent double-charges). So I am wary of using powders like Longshot or HP-38 that can be accidentally over-pressure. A good alternative for medium loads that still fills the case with powder is IMR4227. Most data show 4227 at the upper-end of velocities, but my experience is it is a much softer shooting powder. It's single-base with no nitroglycerin, but it tends to blow out powder skeletons.
If you read the Internet, Lil Gun will erode your forcing cone and melt your revolver into a puddle of molten metal. The unproven Internet rumor is it has a higher flame temperature and this causes excessive erosion. The truth is all powders have flame temperatures high enough to create a heat affected zone on the inside surface of the barrel. This HAZ is very thin. The destructive temperatures only exist in this HAZ. Heating the huge mass of the whole revolver to 150 deg. F where it's too hot to touch does not do any damage. It's the metal that's closer to 2000 deg F in the thin HAZ that takes the damage and this heat exists on the first shot. Does Lil Gun punish the HAZ more than other powders?
Plenty of people have reported using Lil Gun over the long term with no particularly bad effects. Personally, I don't see how one could expect to shoot a large volume of hot
magnum loads of any powder without enduring some forcing cone erosion. Non-wearing guns don't exist.
Like other magnum powders, Lil Gun cannot be safely used to make light loads. For medium loads, I suggest Longshot powder. For light loads, HP-38 (W231).
Personally, I greatly favor powders and loads that fill the case for safety (prevent double-charges). So I am wary of using powders like Longshot or HP-38 that can be accidentally over-pressure. A good alternative for medium loads that still fills the case with powder is IMR4227. Most data show 4227 at the upper-end of velocities, but my experience is it is a much softer shooting powder. It's single-base with no nitroglycerin, but it tends to blow out powder skeletons.