Originally Posted by
DoubleBuck
There is a reason the Military use small amounts of Black Powder, in their charge loads. If it didn't work, especially with the handling characteristics; they wouldn't use an ounce of it.
It confuses me to think about modern naval guns using BP when there is ample S L O W smokeless available and cost is certainly no object for a Navy and what about the pellets?
Slow is not what they seek and is the opposite reason they use Black. Black Powder is somewhere in the neighborhood of three times faster 'burning' than fast burning Smokeless. It also only develops about 1/3 the pressure of some smokeless. It's called an explosive, because that's what it does. Smokeless powder is not an explosive. It is a propellant, and requires confinement to operate correctly. Black operates in spite of confinement, not because of it. Black is added to the charge to efficiently ignite the whole charge, not to increase the total pressure.
Pellets? Nobody has came close to relevant velocities, using either pellets or substitutes. Nor have they reached relevant non corrosively clean burns. Nor have they reached the accuracy of RG Black.
I ask, "Is that 5% really that important to you?" Or would you be happier with 95% of Swiss, and a perfectly clean bore?
With black Powder, over the course of 1100 years, no one has made 'perfectly clean burning powder'. And yes, that '5%' IS important to me. When I started making powder, I was happy launching a round ball at 1300 feet per second. I can now launch one at over 1600 fps, with the same weight of charge. I'll take every 1% increase I can eek out. And, I have made powder that definitely is more than 95% of Swiss. And, as clean burning.
Black Powder and clean burning is an oxy moron. However, many guys here say they can make several shots, without swabbing.
One of those "many" here ---with my homebrew and my loading method in my rifle -- shoot all day without swabbing --- proved the point at a major match Easter 2019 with a win in the 3 position traditional rifle - prone, sitting, and offhand at 100yards - each leg a ten shot target - shot with a CVA 54 cal Hawken, Round Ball, Cotton Drill patch, moose milk lube, 90 grains (weight) FFg screened powder, no swabbing between shots NOR between events - I parked the gun in the shade, fired a full charge fouling shot into the berm at the start of next event and went for it - --
a couple caveats 1) CVA rifling is not so deep - 8 thou" I think, so a damp moose milk patch on the ball will give you a clean bore to shoot every shot 2) I dont muck about on the line (otherwise that damp patch might cause some inconsistent results damping the powder charge) load it, march up, shoot it - usually one of the earlier finishers not the last 3) that CVA is only a 28 inch barrel but my flinter is a 40 inch 45 cal and works the same, again shallowish rifling though, I would never trade one of my decent CVA barrels for a brand new Green Mountain - just dont like the deeper rifling in a ball gun ....
I think someone in this thread has shown us that weight/weight, larger grains produce slower velocities, but I can't find the specifics
I think that has been well proven but also believe much of the difference (not all) goes away with longer barrels and heavier projectiles
Besides the need of quality ingredients, there are mainly two 'regulators' concerning burn rate on Black Powder. Density and grain size. The smaller the grain, the faster the burn rate; and the lower the density, the faster the burn rate. Of course, there are other things that can also affect the rate. One being rough or smooth grains and another being simply atmospheric conditions. Given the two main regulators, grain size is definitely the most significant one, in my opinion. But, the options are nearly unlimited for finding the sweet spot on anything I've had experience with. Especially in accuracy.
However, whether it's high density small grain size, or low density large grain size, I think the most significant thing I have done as a true improvement, is consistency in production. Keep it simple and try to do it the same every time. It inspires the confidence to know where the next shot is going, before you pull the trigger.
Good luck with the cartridge stuff. I know zero about it.