Alliant Pistol/Shotshell
Alliant Herco
A heavy shotshell and handgun powder suited to high-base hunting loads across a broad range of gauges, and to magnum revolver cartridges.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Alliant |
|---|---|
| Product family | Alliant Pistol/Shotshell |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | shotshell, pistol |
| Grain form | flake |
| Burn-rate position | 41 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 10 gauge, 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge, .44 Magnum |
One of the longest-running powders in the Alliant line. The current version is described as cleaner burning with improved flow.
Burn rate
Slower than Power Pistol, faster than Blue Dot - a heavy shotshell speed.
Chart agreement: DISAGREEMENT — Alliant's own Reloader's Guide orders BE-86 FASTER than Power Pistol and Herco; this list, following the Hodgdon spine, orders them the other way. Ranked here per the Hodgdon chart used as this list's spine. Ranked by: Hodgdon, Alliant, Vihtavuori, Shooters World, Wolfe/LoadData.
Powders charted near it — neighbours on the chart are not substitutes, and adjacency tells you nothing about what charge either one takes:
- Alliant Power Pistol (position 38)
- Shooters World Ultimate Pistol (position 39)
- Vihtavuori N330 (position 40)
- Winchester Super Field (WSF) (position 42)
- Shooters World Auto Pistol (position 43)
- Vihtavuori N340 (position 44)
Sources
Other Alliant powders
Verify the charge, not just the recipe
Good data gets you a safe starting point. It does not tell you what actually went into the case on stroke 340 — a bridged measure, a double charge, a squib. That is what an RCM Laser Powder Check is for.