I've been reloading since the mid 80's and I finally decided to take a real inventory of my powder cabinet, I discovered that I had 18 different powders, which is interesting because I reload 18 different calibers, plus 12 gauge shotgun.
Here's what I found:
Clays
Trail Boss
Red Dot
Bullseye
Blue Dot
2400
RL-7
AA-5
Pyrodex RS
Pyrodex P
H380
IMR 4227
IMR 3031
IMR 4064
IMR 4198
W231
H4831
Lil' Gun
Since I load mostly pistol rounds, I find Red Dot and Clays to be the most versatile due to the wide range of calibers they're good for, from .32 to .45, and 12 ga. shotgun. However, other powders such as Lil' Gun have a very narrow useful range, such as .357 MAX and heavy .44 mags loads.
Here's what I found:
Clays
Trail Boss
Red Dot
Bullseye
Blue Dot
2400
RL-7
AA-5
Pyrodex RS
Pyrodex P
H380
IMR 4227
IMR 3031
IMR 4064
IMR 4198
W231
H4831
Lil' Gun
Since I load mostly pistol rounds, I find Red Dot and Clays to be the most versatile due to the wide range of calibers they're good for, from .32 to .45, and 12 ga. shotgun. However, other powders such as Lil' Gun have a very narrow useful range, such as .357 MAX and heavy .44 mags loads.