One gun, Three Powders, Two Bullets - Hogdon Powder Show down

[MountainDevil54]

I did this a couple days ago. I always hear, the 245gr Powerbelt doesn't shoot good in my gun, I use Such and such powder, tried the 295 powerbelts and they worked perfect and shrunk my groups greatly!

I decided to go ahead and use One rifle" CVA Accura V2", Two bullet weights "245 & 295" One primer, Hodgdons Big Three Pellet powder. The Big Three being, IMR White Hots, Pyrodex Pellets and Triple 7 pellets, all in 100gr Charge.


Making sure everything was equal i went and swabbed between shots for best accuracy, and mainly to be able to get the next bullet seated.

These targets were shot from 75 yards, and to be honest, No pellets offered me the accuracy that i desire and know the rifles can produce.

Starting out with 100gr IMR White Hots and a 245gr Powerbelt, Heres the result:
Now i did take 4 shots because shot #3 hit the bulls eye, i found that odd that it threw it off so far so i took another shot after cleaning and to my surprise, it hit down with that shot.


Changing targets, i again used the IMR White Hots, but this time the 295gr Powerbelt.


Having completed the IMR White Hot test, it was time to clean AGAIN, and load up with the 245gr Powerbelt and 100gr Triple 7 pellets.


100gr Triple 7 Pellets- 295gr Powerbelt.


Already i could see that both bullets with the Triple 7 and shrunk down greatly with just the powder change.

Taking the Quick Release Breech plug out and setting it up on the Best Gun Vise, i proceeded to clean the bore of the Triple 7 fouling. This powder produces some of the worse, hard to clean crusty crud ring i have ever dealt with. This fouling is baked on solid and took 4 patches to clean between shots where as the Pyrodex and IMR's only took one patch, using both sides.

T7 Crud ring,


Going over to 100gr Pyrodex Pellets and the 245gr Powerbelt i was very happy with the first two shots dead center of the bulls eye! Shot Three however wandered off.


Now switching over to the 295 powerbelt with 100gr Pyrodex Pellets, i did NOT expect this at all!


While most of the powders and bullet combo's produced decent hunting size groups, i didn't want to end it feeling poorly so i loaded Five powder tubes with 100gr Blackhorn209, CCI 209 Magnum primers and the 295gr Powerbelts. That actually is 5 shots, one shot apparently threaded into another hole and so it was impossible to figure out which hole it went into.


Now THAT was ending the day on a good note and feeling good about the accuracy it could produce.

It just goes to show you, One bullet may work great with one Powder, but the next bullet, may HATE that powder and not shoot for snot.

Muzzle Loading is a game of spending loads of $$$ on new powders, primers and bullets. Ain't Muzzle loading fun?!!?!
:face:

[Grouse45]

Two pellet loads are expensive and anemic. Loose powder loads are better in all aspects.

[Semisane]

Interesting report Devil.

When I read the set-up I said to myself "I bet the Pyrodex does best". Well, I was half right. But I have zero experience with pellets of any kind.

I have two 24-packs of T-7 50-50 pellets that I picked up for $3 a pack at WalMarts close out sale in January. I need to get around to shooting them one day.

[a1smokepole]

ive always liked powder better myself look at the last groups good report MD

[builder459]

Pellets are expensive,not as accurate as loose and a waste of time IMHO. i suppose the test was a way for you to kill some time lol.go shoot some coyotes or something..Ray

[Muley Hunter]

There's something going on with Pyrodex pellets. We all know that T7 has more power than Pyrodex. In loose powder. Yet, i've seen charts showing Pyrodex pellets out performing T7 pellets.

There's more than compressed RS powder in the pellets. Besides the igniter.

[cayugad]

In all fairness to FG, I really don't see pellets as the issue. I think (and I might be wrong) what Frontier Gander was trying to show by using pellets is.. they are commonly used by a lot of muzzleloader shooters. While I also like loose powder as I am sure FG does with results like BlackHorn 209 there.. shooting off the shelf powder in pellet form and power belts ... its very unfair to then announce that this bullet does not shoot well out of this rifle. Perhaps later down the road, the same test could be conducted with loose powder.

I have conducted similar tests using loose powder with rifles and the results are the same. Some rifles just plain hate some powders. Also 90 grains of this powder might produce accuracy, while only 80 of another is needed.

This is a game of test and test again. Try this, that and the other thing, and it can get expensive. Back before inline rifles and how many different brands of powder, shooting these rifles was a lot easier. Most all of the rifles on the market shot roundball pretty good, there was black powder and Pyrodex which are very similar in behavior, so all it was to shoot well was learn the load the rifle likes, and then practice. Today's gun are much different.

In today's gun market there is a urgency to shoot faster projectiles. We develop better burning powders, pellets, even breech plugs. And we all know the advancement in projectiles. What they have turned us into is a bunch of custom loaders. Anyone that's ever hand loaded cartridges for that special long range centerfire rifle understands this. It has to be this brand of powder, a certain amount, the primers are even considered into the mix as the projectile. Well we have done the same with muzzleloaders.

I have never seen (other then one dirty dog on my shelf) a muzzleloader that I could not get "hunting accuracy" out of. And again, even that level of accuracy is subject to argument. 50-75 yards is more then accurate to me for where I hunt. Yet some of you push for the 200 yard mark. Its all custom tinkering.

This was an excellent test FG. I liked it. If powerbelts were not so darn expensive, I would do a lot more shooting with them. Currently I am trying to move back to an all lead bullet I can cast.

[MountainDevil54]

I basically just wanted to test the difference & how certain powders reacted to certain bullet weights. The best pellet load by far for my Optima is 100gr pyrodex pellets with the 300gr platinum powerbelt. Runner up would be the 250gr Thor with 150gr IMR White Hots.