Diamondback Powder Update

[cajun shooter]

Well my good friends I must say that I'm coming back to you a bit surprised. I never had any large amounts of the old elephant powder and only fired a few rounds that were loaded by others. Being that this new powder from Brazil was produced on that same equipment I had my doubts about it being a good sporting powder. I fired 3F in my 73 44-40 rifle and 2F in my revolvers at SASS match distance which is short range. The longest rifle shot was about 40 yds. As I had stated before the powder has a light grey color and not the coal black of other powders. The accuracy was very good and I was shot short of a clean match. I was worried as I had no sight in time and the sights were set for my Goex loads. The residue appeared very light. I was not able to clean my guns untill Tuesday afternoon. I sprayed them down with Moosemilk and allowed them to set for a few minutes. The rifle barrel required 4 passes with a bronze brush and only one wet patch followed by one dry one. This is less than what I do with Goex. My cases were loaded with 34-35 grs of 3F behind a .429 Lyman 427098 bullet. The revolvers shot the same bullet with 2F. The revolvers and shotgun cleaned the same. If the next lot cleans this easy then they are on to something. The one difference that I did find was that the ammo appeared to have less velocity and umph than the Goex I shoot. This is only felt recoil and is my personal feelings. I did not have my CED with me for a true test of velocity comparison. I also was shooting in a open field with no cover with temps close to 100 degrees and was not in the mood for bench rest testing. That will have to wait untill the devil leaves Louisiana. It is SASS accurate and easy to clean . Later David

[John Boy]

David, thanks for the report. Was surprised to read about the foul and light cleaning needed. Wondering out loud - how will the the foul be with a colder temperature and higher relative humidity. My guess for the light gray color is DB is using less or no graphite coating in their final polishing process.

As for the velocity of the powder, my primary purpose to buy some and test it would be for BPCR in the larger cases. If it is equal to or better than Goex velocities, that would be nice. Especially with the cost differential between DB and Goex!
I'm still miffed, no mad, that Goex raised their prices 22% in 2009!

Questions? Did you notice much fines in either of the FFg or FFFg? And again, wondering out loud ... would the powder be any better if it was socked?

Thanks again for the report, Pardner!

[cajun shooter]

There is no place on earth that has the humidity of Louisiana. Cooler Temps yes. We went through a cooler full of" Florida Water" It is not for drinking but to soak your rags or towels in. They become much colder than regular ice water will do. It's a trick I learned on the baseball fields. Walgreens Drugs has huge displays of it as soon as you enter the stores. It is the name of a cologne made in New York that sells for $4 for a 7 1/2 oz btle. It acts the same as rock salt and ice. You add water, ice and 4 capfuls to a 6 pk size cooler with your towels at the bottom. Now back to the powder. The grain size appears smaller than that of Goex with the fines on an equal amounts. Yes Socking could have an effect but the heat kept the testing down. Again I was only one shot short of a clean match and the cleaning was simple and fast. I can't wait to be able to run some bench rest time with this powder. John, I will send you a sxs pics to your e-mail. I will say this at this time and that is this powder works very well at SASS ranges. The rest will come later. I can load 35 grs of the 3F in a Starline case for the Lyman 427098 without a problem. The finished oal for the 44-40 is at 1.57