I live in South Dakota and finding the Holy Black is nearly impossible. I have a buddy that's going to split a case with me when he gets down to Nebraska but for now, I decided to try Triple 7. I've used Pyrodex and don't have a lot of good things to say about it.
I did a little reading and although there isn't a ton of available data out there, (not the most net savvy guy in the world) I settled on 50grains by weight pushing my 405grain bullet out of a roller I recently bought. (I don't know a lot about rollers or BPCR except what I've recently read) I had cast some 22BHN 405's (actually 388) and used Liq alox as lube.
When I first got it home, I loaded some rounds up with 42.5 grains of Varget and got 1435 fps on average out of them. I had trouble finding a place to get 200yds because of snow but finally found a spot and set up over the hood of my patrol vehicle (sand bagged). (Yep, we can do that out here) I set my chrono on the other side and shot a nice 6" group of five shots @ 200yds. I wrote down the load and sight settings for 100 and 200yds. The more I read however, the more I wanted to make the switch over to BP.
I checked all over the damn state and couldn't find any of the real thing. I had some Pyrodex left over but wasn't willing to waste my time on it. (the pellets are cr@p too)
Back to the Triple 7. I made up some bullet lube out of 50/50 bees wax and olive oil (cuz that's what I had here available) and pan lubed some of my 405's. I loaded them on top of 50gr by weight and a card wad that I made out of a cereal box using a 45 ACP case as my cutter. I put together 12 rounds and loaded my 44cal Navy with a light load of 15gr by weight.
I went out today and shot them over the chrono. The 45-70 clocked 1425fps and the 44 came in at 505fps.
I just shot off hand at 100yds but ended up with a seven inch group. I was pretty happy considering I wasn't trying all that hard.
I shot the revolver at a 7yd target and clover leafed them all. It was a very light load with almost no recoil.
Over all, my impression of Triple Seven is very good! Clean up was a snap! Can't wait to get the real stuff in there!!!
Tom