question on how much powder to use

[CHAMP198]

i have been Blackpowder hunting for quite a while now and have a Traditions in line gun......now i have been shooting 100 grains of Triple 7 powder.....now a guy that has been blackpowder hunting a long time told us that each gun is a little diffrent in what ammount of powder shoots right out if it......he says that if you have too much powder that it will start to throw the bullet around and it wont shoot right...he also said that you can look at the Sabot after you shoot it and tell by how it looks how much powder you should shoot.......any of you all know about this? any truth to it

[nchawkeye]

If your rifle is grouping well then 100grs is fine...My Knight prefers 90grs of FFF
Goex behind a 250 Shockwave.

Sabots do well in mine until I reach about 120-130 grains, but my gun didn't group well over 100 anyway...

[wabi]

He's telling you the truth - every rifle has it's own personality and a variation of 10 grains of powder can make a big change in accuracy. If your rifle is getting accuracy that is acceptable to you, then there is no need to experiment, but if you are looking fo better accuacy you might want to test a few different powder charge weights. For hunting I usually start around 80 grains, then increase in 10 grain increments until accuracy drops off, thenback up to the highest accurate load I testedand use it for hunting.
Do NOT exceed the manufacturer's maximum recommended load!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sabotloader]

CHAMP198

A lot of what he is saying is correct. Not all ML's are alike some like this some like that.... Your gun will tell you what it likes and what it doesn't. If you are shootinga 100 grains and the groups on the other are what you are looking for - then shoot it. If you want to tighten up your groups you may need to move up and down in the powder range.

Reading your sabots can tell you a lot about your charge when you reach the max chrge area. If you look at the base of the sabot (the cup) and it is burnt, melted, severly distorted, you may be in the max area.

The most important thing is not to exceed the manufactures recommendation for the rifle that you are shooting.

Now that I have said groups are a function of the load - I will back trac and say there are a lot of things that can effect accuracy other than load.

Hope some of this helps....

[cayugad]

I'd just worry about what produces the best groups out of your rifle and leave it at that. What he was talking about is diminished returns. There does come a point that no matter how much powder you add the results of that powder becomes less and less on the velocity of the projectile and its stabalization in flight. Hence, diminished returns.

Also like already stated, 10 grains can mean the difference of a two inch group or a six inch group at 100 yards. It is why we look for that "sweet load" in our rifles. And as Sabotloader was explaining, if you're having accuracy problems, sometimes looking at the sabot can tell you want the rifle is trying to do. But the main things I always remember is; do not exceed manufacturer's recommendations on powder charges, more powderis not always better, and 100 grains of powder in any rifle is still a stout load.

Good luck with your rifle.

[falcon]

"I'd just worry about what produces the best groups out of your rifle and leave it at that. What he was talking about is diminished returns. There does come a point that no matter how much powder you add the results of that powder becomes less and less on the velocity of the projectile and its stabalization in flight. Hence, diminished returns."

Great post. At some point it goes the other way. One of the custom gun makers claimed unbelieveable velocities in their gun when used with 200 and 250 grains of Pyrodex pellets. Toby Bridgesdebunked their claimin an article for the 2005 Gun Digest. He used the Savage smokeless muzzleloader for the testing.The bullet used for the test was the 250 grain XTP. The results:

Three pellets-1,955 fps.
Four pellets-1,930 fps.
Five pellets-<1,900 fps.

"The only increase wasthe dramatic increase in recoil."

[lemoyne]

I believe the people that already answered you have covered it well. Lee