Talking in one of my pyro and an older timer started sharing some cool info about Smokeless gun powder and the breaking up of DuPont. I figured I wouldn’t be the only one that enjoyed reading this blurb.
This used to be common knowledge, but maybe it isn’t any more -
Just about all IMR (former DuPont) smokeless propellants are single base (NC only);
Just about all Alliant (former Hercules) are double-base (NC/NG).This dates from the Taft administration anti-trust decree of 1912 that broke the old DuPont into three entities, one retaining the DuPont name, one called Hercules, and one called Atlas. The single-base powders were assigned to DuPont, the double-base to Hercules, and a line of industrial explosives that did not include small-arms propellants to Atlas.
The handful of exceptions are noted in a book called “Propellant Profiles” from Wolfe Publishing, the publishers of the “Rifle” and “Handloader” magazines. I believe there may be two or three IMR pistol powders that are double-based, and maybe an equal number of odd Alliant-Hercules single-based powders, all of which were added to their respective lines decades after the 1912 anti-trust decree. I think most if not all are powders imported from Europe and re-branded by IMR or Alliant.
Bullseye and Unique are the oldest US made smokeless powders, both dating from 1898. They were originally made by Laflin & Rand, so have survived through four changes of corporate ownership. They are also the highest in NG content, both being about 40%. Most double based powders contain between 10 and 30%.
Ballistite is (I think) still made in Italy, and is or was higher in NG content than Bullseye; I have used 12-ga. 2-1/2" shells made by Baschieri & Pellagri that were loaded with it. It used to be notorious for causing “gun headache,” which was really a nitroglycerine headache that arose from absorption of residual NG through the skin as a result of handling the fired hulls. I do not remember this happening to me, so maybe the formula has changed since Alfred Nobel’s time.