warren
Alliant Powder makes Promo. Only one thing to remember. It can vary from lot to lot and even jug to jug, so be sure to weigh your drops, especially when opening a new jug. It's basically the equivalent of Red Dot. I shoot an 1100 and I use Promo and Green Dot for most of my shooting. The residue "looks" dirty, but it's really not any worse than the "clean" powders. It's cleans up real easy too. You just need to select a load that develops enough pressure for it to burn properly. 9000 - 9500 PSI works fine for me. Be sure your crimps are good too and Use a decent wad. Promo takes care of my 7/8 to light 1 1/8oz lods. Green Dot for Caps. 1 1/8 at 1250 or higher gets Unique. Clay Dot is also a good powder for 7/8 or 1oz loads, but pressures seem to go a bit higher than I like for many 1 1/8oz loads. Promo also costs a lot less.
I test my loads for cold weather performance before loading a lot of them. Some primers were problematic with Promo and other powders. The Federal 209A, Winchester W209, and CCI209M seemed to work well in most loads. The few loads I tried with Cheddite Primers worked fine. Fiocchi 616 primers were dismal in more than a few loads at cold temps. They worked ok in several others. I put a half box in the freezer for a day or more and kept the other half at room temp. I fired them over a chronograph to see how they performed. There weren't too many surprises. I've also tested some factory shells and found a few that were worse than anything I assembled myself. They were some bargain priced shells that are quite popular. Not Winchester, Remington, or Winchester. I don't think most or any WalMarts carry them and they were not Remington green or red.
I once did an experiment and tried three popular powders. One was Promo. I used once fired hulls, OEM wads, and quality primers. All loads were 1 1/8oz and chronographed as close to 1150 fps as I could get them, since one powder exceeded my comfort level for pressure at 1200. I thoroughly cleaned my 1100 and did not clean or lube it until after the third malfunction with each powder. I started with a new recoil/action spring and replaced the "O" ring after each cleaning. I counted the shells fired until the first malfunction and then to the third. Usually a failure to extract/eject or feed properly, and the third malfunction usually occurred within the next box or two. I then throughly cleaned the gun and then fired the next series of loads until the same circumstances occured. The last powder I tried was Promo and it went over 1250 rounds without one malfunction. That was about 500 more shells than the other two powders before the first malfunction with them, so I gave up and tore it down. It was rather dirty, but it cleaned up easily enough. The powder residue was actually easier to clean out of the barrel hanger than the other two powders, altghough the barrel took a little more effort to remove than usual. Maybe one day I will repeat the test with both of my Classics and another 1100 to see if it's repeatable. I know it isn't too scientific, but the results were not what I expected. I now sometimes commonly go 750 to 1000 shots before cleaning, using mostly Promo and Green Dot. I used to go no more than 500. The 1100 I use for doubles gets WAY more attention and cleaning, although it's probably unwarranted.
