Pellets are convinient, consistant in size (each 50 grain pellet is 50 grains), and expensive.
Loose is infinately adjustable for weight, fits any bore size, and iseasily measured by volume.
A lot of arguments could be made for the advantages/disadvantages of both forms. Personally, I use loose. With a couple "speed loaders" in my hunting pouch I can reload at about the same speed with either form of powder and the loose allows me to easily vary loads when testing for performance & accuracy. I can use the same powder for my sidelock and inline with loose, and I can also use it in my pistol or shotgun.
After having used both pellets and loose powder extensively, i could make tha argument that pellets are not more convenient at all.It is just as easy for me to pourloose powder down the barrel from a re-loader tubeas it is to pour pellets down the barrel.
What's the tradeoff's other than pellets being more conveinent?
Less costly. Can work up an exact load for each rifle you own, many guns will shoot best with say 85g or 90g. Burns better, is consumed better/faster leading to cleaner shooting gun and more power. Those are the advantages. I use these instead of speed loaders to save powder in: http://rmcsports.com/catalog.htm
Chap Gleason
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Chapman Gleason
Purcellville Va
http://www.the-gleasons.com
If all you are going to do is shoot your rifle a couple times on the range, and then go hunting with it a few days, pellets might be a good alternative. They are more expensive then loose, but the powder charges come in 30 & 50 grains, so you can make some very good volume combinations. Also some rifles really shoot pellet loads excellent. Not that they will not shoot loose, but the design of some breech plugs do seemto lean towards pellets. In fact whenI was talking to a technician at Thompson Center about loads for the Black Diamond XR, he mentioned a couple times, "couple pellets and a shockwave."
Loose powder will save you money without question. If you shoot a lot, this would be the only way I would consider shooting.. unless you like spending lots of money. Also with loose you can custom measure your loads for the rifle. It is more fun to tinker with. And it can produce some extreme accuracy with rifles. The big reason though would be money. If the pellets and loose measured out to the same number of shots per dollar, I would shoot a lot of pellets.
Both are going to work just fine in most rifles with a 209 ignition system. If your rifle is not 209 ignition, then do not use pellets. Granted sometimes they will work fine and other times they will not work at all.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
Loose powder shoots better in my muzzle loader and it burns cleaner also but thats mine. On the other hand most of my friends like pellets.Different muzzleloaderslike different loads. I thinkwhat everyone will agree on is its a matter of personal preference and the performance from your muzzleloader. Dont be afraid to test a bunch of different brands and loads.As stated earlier you will have more options with loose.
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Remington 7600 30-06 carbine
T/C Omega 50 cal
My only comment is a buddy of mine and I both have Encores that are identical. He was shooting 2 t7 pellets over a 250 shockwave and I was using 110 grains of ffg t7 with a 240 grain XTP. His gun did not seem to have the knockdown power with 2 pellets that mine did with only 10 more grains of loose. On one hunting trip, he lost 2 deer and I know on one his shot placement was good. With my load, the farthest a deer has gone is 150 yards (1 time, big buck) with all others dropping within 20 yards of where they were shot.
My only comment is a buddy of mine and I both have Encores that are identical. He was shooting 2 t7 pellets over a 250 shockwave and I was using 110 grains of ffg t7 with a 240 grain XTP. His gun did not seem to have the knockdown power with 2 pellets that mine did with only 10 more grains of loose. On one hunting trip, he lost 2 deer and I know on one his shot placement was good. With my load, the farthest a deer has gone is 150 yards (1 time, big buck) with all others dropping within 20 yards of where they were shot.
Loose 777 is 15% more powerful than pellet 777, so you are in effect shoot about 125g of 777, which is 25% more powder and therefore a lot more powerful. The loose 777 burns faster and more completely giving more power. As for the 240g XTP, I have heard reports they loose their jackets and fragmentif shot too fast and hit too close, say a 25 to 30 yard "bow shot", see here for more details:
As mentioned by wabi, Chapman, cayugad, et alia, loose powder is infinitely variable in the amount you use, so you can tailor the load to your rifle. I measured some 50 grain 777 pellets one time, and, if I remember correctly without digging up some old notes, they were actually 33 grains+/-1 grain by weight (somebody correct me if you've measured them recently). I always got vertical stringing with them in my Omega. In fact,loose 777 and BM3 produced stringing until I started weighing out individual powder charges. After I started weighing out my BM3 charges, my 2" horizonal by 5" vertical groups shrank to 2"x2" at 100 yards from my Omega.
Caution:100 grains by volume is about 75.5 grains by weight for the bottle of 777 FFG I have. Measure out by volume first, and then weigh the charge on a powder scale to see what the equivalent weight is. Don't start with 100 grains 777 by weight -- that's close to an absolute maximum charge. Also, yourbottle of 777 might weigh a little different than mybottle (lot to lot variation), so weigh your own powder and get your own conversion factor.
I thought through the same issue last year until one day shooting at the deer lease using Pyrodex pellets and 250 gr. Shockwaves. I had touching consistant groups 3" high at 100 yards. Shot over 15-20 times and had no issues. With that being said, I'm going with the if it isn't broke, don't fix it.
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I fight fire cause the voices in my head tell me to.
Put the wet stuff on the red stuff...David
Loose vs pellets
