Stick Powder

Stick powder is a smokeless powder extruded into small cylindrical grains that look like tiny cut rods or sticks. The long grains tend to bridge and shear in a powder measure, so the thrown weight varies more than it does with spherical powder, and the metering cavity can clip a grain on each cycle. That makes throwing precise charges slower, since loaders often drop a light charge and finish it on a powder trickler.

Despite the metering challenge, extruded powder is a favorite for precision rifle loads because many of the slow, temperature-stable propellants shooters rely on come in stick form. Stick powders are produced across a wide range of burn rates, so they cover everything from small cases to large magnums. The handling tradeoff is simply the price of access to those well-regarded precision propellants.