Now I normally don't venture far from my specific powders, and truly prefer to use the Hodgdon family of powders as they are great powders, but the simplicity of being able to go to their website, and get interactive data for all of their powder for jest about every caliber that exists is useful.
I decided to make a splurge one day on some powder. I didn't need more powder, but I had heard a lot of great things for Bullseye in match revolvers. I didn't own a revolver at the time, but decided to see how it did in my.45's for some lower pressure loads that would hopefully be just as accurate.
I loaded up about 50 or so for my .45's, and went to the range. It performed sub par in them from what I was expecting. It wasn't horrible by any means, but wasn't the greatest grouping like I was expecting. It is pricey for just a plinking powder compared to some others that are made specifically for that. So being the penny pincher I am when it comes to powders, and loads (I don't use expensive or at least what I consider expensive powders for plinking) I sat it on a shelf my powder cabinet.
Fast forward a bit, and I get my first revolver. I went straight to big bore .44 Mag. The .44 can get very tiresome on your hands when you are doing a lot of shooting with hotter loads. Your fingers start to get wore out from having a heavy grip, and even with good grips after awhile the palm of your hand starts to hurt from the recoil pushing a hard object back into your palm repetitively. Now besides looking for a lower pressure powder so I could do more shooting without my hands getting tired it is fun letting new shooters, or people who are nervous because it is there first time at a range shoot some interesting stuff. It is just how we do things around here. I wanted to be able to have these new shooters shoot this big handgun and enjoy it.
I dug out all my reloading books to see what powders I had on hand to try. It came down to Bullseye or another powder. I decided to go with Bullseye for no particular reason. So I work up loads, and couple days later made it to the range.Which I was astonished.
Now before I go further I want to let you know from having strokes my vision is crap. I have horrible vision, and some nerve issues. I also broke my back in my twenties which never healed, and caused my back to get to the point that right now we are looking at me possibly being in a wheel chair which they are now saying I have nerve damage from how by spine is twisting, and bending from all my back issues. All of these have messed with my shooting ability which I am working at.
Okay back on to the review. Now I got to the range, get set up and decide to shoot a couple rounds out of my .308 before heading down the the pistol range. I finish shooting my .308, and head down to the pistol range. I shoot 6 rounds, and they group great. Now this had to be a fluke with my health issues I couldn't shoot like that. So I load up some more, and again it groups great again. So I think this is a fluke, and call my shooting/hunting buddy down from the rifle benches to come check out this load. I just knew there was no way I could be shooting like that. So he comes down, and the gun groups even better. He says that my revolver is actually grouping that tight, but a little high. So head down to the 25 yard line. Shoots great groups. Of course the grouping opens up, but still a great grouping. Of course my buddy's grouping is better. Then we head to the 50 yard line, and it still groups great. Now during the day at the range I discovered that Bullseye is a very dirty powder, and I mean scrub that baby down good when you get back home dirty. I was even cleaning it some at the range.
We continued our day at the range, and I keep shooting my 44 here, and there testing out some different loads including 300 grain flat points I am considering using for bear defense for when I hunt in Wyoming.
So our day at the range comes to an end. I have to head home, get everything carried back into my house, spend some time with the wife and kiddos, and then head to Junkie Bass Studios get set up for my weekly broadcast of Psychedelic Sunday. Which meant no time at my reloading bench that day.
A couple days pass, and I am finally able to reload some. Over that week I loaded over 500 44 Mag with my powder coated 240 grain SWC up front with Bullseye fueling the fire for them. I have never loaded that much revolver ammo in a week let alone have that many 44 rounds loaded, on hand. Now for me to be willing to load a bunch like that, and making sure there is no deviation in the powder charge, and all the O.A.L. had no more then a 0.01 variance. This powder astonished me that much that I was wanting to load as many as possible. By the time things were said, and done I used up every single powder coated bullet I had on hand.
My final thoughts on the powder are that it does have a couple cons. The powder is very dirty which if you don't clean your gun regularly (I have been guilty myself in the past) then you either want to change your cleaning habits or pass this powder up. The other two cons are it is a high density powder similar to Titegroup so you need to pay close attention when you are charging your cases, as you can easily go over on your loads which can cause a bunch of potentially dangerous issues. The third which is not really a con, but more of a grey area for me. The powder can be higher priced then some cheap plinking powders. So if you are out to just plink while not worrying about having great accuracy, or spray and pray there are some powders that will be cheaper, but do not give you the accuracy this powder does. So that is a grey area that is up to you.
The pros for this powder far outweigh the cons in my opinion. This powder meters great for those not using an automatic powder dispenser. The powder runs at lower pressure which for shooting a 44 Mag with a 9" barrel means a lot more shooting without sore hands. Let alone the consistent accuracy for outweighs the cons. Even if the powder wasn't lower pressure like it is or metered horribly when not used in an auto dispenser I would still by this powder.
If you are looking for accuracy, and lower pressure out of big bore revolvers so you can shoot more during range trips or are looking for extreme accuracy I suggest you buy this powder.