Originally Posted by
DoubleBuck
I shot the last of the first batch of Charmin T.P. powder I made awhile back, today. I was able to make a fair test of that 3fff powder which was finished without polishing, versus the same powder which was polished for 12 hours. The test was my first with the new (to me) Pietta .44 Navy I bought a couple of weeks ago. Powder was 1.6 density screened size <20 >50 and rescreened >50 after polishing.
290 grains of powder lost 19.8 grains of fines after polishing.
I had 12 shots of unpolished 25 grains each under a Wonder Wad under a .451 Round ball, kicked with a RWS 1075 plus cap.
They averaged 742 FPS, with a spread of 73 FPS and a average efficiency of 29.68 fps/grain.
11 shots of polished 25 grains averaged 798 FPS, with a spread of 62 and average efficiency of 31.912 fps/grain.
I had one shot of the last dab of powder which was 14.1 grain, which went 629 FPS with an efficiency of 25.16 fps/grain.
I think I will be polishing my powder from here out. The only difference in the two powders tested was polished and not polished.
I really don't know from inexperience if these numbers are good or bad. The efficiency of the polished powder was, I thought, very good. In my rifle experience, an efficiency above 31 fps per grain, is a good thing. Don't know about pistols.
I hope everyone else had as much fun, today!