All around powder or powders?

[Critch]

is there an all around powder that i could use in 223, 308, 257 roberts, and 7mm Mag?

[Rocky Raab]

Yes and no. There are a few powders that would work in all four, but your loads would be undesirable at either the small cartridge end or the large end.

Any powder fast enough to work well in the .223 would be dangerously fast for the 7 Mag. And vice versa with a powder slow enough to perform in the 7 Mag.

You'll need at least two - and even then you aren't likely to get optimum performance. Varget or RL-15 are excellent in the .223 and .308, and good in the .257 for lighter bullets. RL-19 or 4350 are ideal for the Roberts and quite good in the 7 Mag. But you still won't get magnum performance in the 7mm unless you have a really slow powder on hand just for that round. That means one as slow as 4831 or RL-25.

The rub comes when one of your guns simply doesn't like your compromise powder - and that happens quite often.

[Joe Boleo]

The only powder that comes to mind might be IMR4895. I use it in the .223 and .308 and it will work in the .257 and the 7mm Mag. Take care...
Joe

[Catfish]

When one says that them have a good alround powder that they use in all of their rifles that means that all of their rifles preform well with powders that are very close in burn rate. Rounds that have a similar case volume to bore diameter use powders of a similar burn rate. Case with a low volume to bore diameter use the faster burning powders. Cases with very large case volumes to bore diameter preform best with slow burning powders. The .223 and .308 share several powders with which they both preform well, and like wise with the .257 and 7 mag. If you try to use juse 1 powder for all 4 rounds the 1 that preforms best in all will preform well in any. If you reall want to keep down the number of different powder you buy I would you still get at least 2 kinds of powder.

[Rapier]

With a cast bullet, a powder that by any other name would still be; Unique.
Ed