Originally Posted by
geargnasher
Well, it's like anything else, the system needs to be optimized for the components used in order for things to work the way we'd like them to. I "get away" with a lot using SL-68, for one thing it's stiff enough to make a pretty good stop-leak, and gives enough friction to help the powder burn a bit better. I'd likely need to size TO the cylinder throat dimension instead of a thousandth under, load the bullets longer to cork the throats, and up the powder charge with BLL and then it might work just fine.
This reminds me of some friction another member and I had over one of my lube formulas he tested. He was getting very poor accuracy, unburned powder, and IIRC maybe some sooty cases with my lube. While I don't pretend to know more about his gun and load than he does, it did seem pretty obvious that the lube changed the whole pressure curve of the powder and would dictate a re-work to get both the accuracy and proper function back. When you tune a system to a 'sweet spot' for accuracy and function, something like a major lube change can easily throw it back into a not-so-sweet spot. The difference is obvious with the high-soap lubes when you compare chronograph readings. I think the BLL is very slick and reduces 'bullet pull' a bit, necessitating a bump in powder (possibly) or smaller expander spud. I'm just saying that all systems need to be tuned and it's unrealistic to expect the same results when changing a major component. I just wanted to see what would happen, and I did.
Gear