ok I have been away from much time at the reloading bench for quite a while. When I got rid of my SRH in 480 5 yrs or so ago my favorite powder was lil gun but everybody was concerned about lil gun and throat erosion. I have the 480 back and want to get serious about reloading for it again. Have the erosion concerns with lil gun proved out? I have about #10 of H110 so I am not without options.

If I remember correctly the issue with Lil Gun is that it burns at a higher temperature than say H110, and the fear is of flame cutting on the top strap. Unfortunately I can?t remember if it was a perceived threat or an observed and measurable one. I do know I chose not to risk it in my SBH .454, and only use the powder in a .357 lever gun and .300BO bolt gun.

It was a real problem particularly in .454s. I use it in my .480 but in limited amounts. I load up the ammo sight it in then hunt with it. If I am going to practice I use H110. The Little Gun does give great velocity in the 480 and is very accurate. My gun will put 5 shots under 2" at 100 yards with the 370gr CPB.

I shoot the below in my 480 with these bullets. Shoots very well.

480 Ruger 275 gr Speer GDHP CCI 350 2400 28gr 1,500ish
480 Ruger 325 gr Speer GDSP CCI 350 2400 24gr 1,400ish

I asked this same question recently on another forum and had many members have to get on oxygen before they responded. Apparently, the hotter burn rate has a real history of destroying forcing cones in revolvers. I?d stay away from it in wheelguns.

The performance benefit of LilGun over H110 is so small as not to be worth the risk of throat erosion with LilGun. It has been proven that you can shoot a lifetime of loads with H110 without any significant detriment to the gun so why chance it?

If you are looking to mix it up a bit 4227 is another powder that will give you magnum level performance in the 480R.

Thanks guys.
H110 has always been my go to 44mag powder but I started reading stuff claiming H110 to be much less stable in cold temps than lil gun. Its been further back than last week so I can't remember for sure but if I remember correctly the chronograph backed it up so I made the change. Never really tried any other powders. Even though I live in alaska as I rule I dont hunt in really cold temps. Moose season is over end of Sept and bears are in bed by the end of November so I will probably start with H110 and see how it does. May try 4227 also.
Thanks again

I had to look at my notes. The Load from the Hodgdon manual gets 1560fps from my 7 1/2" SRH and shot a 5 shot 1" group at 100 yards. That was my best wheelgun group ever.
By comparison the H110 max load gets 1434fps. As I said above, I use the stuff sparingly. Sighted it in SLOWLY. Barrel barely got warm. Shot a couple of groups with it then hunted with it. The H110 load would kill anything on this continent though.