ORIGINAL: AmericanPioneer
Boy i wish they could come out with something better than those sticks. They seem to be oversized for the rifle bore sometimes causing some of the stick to crack and break off when loading. I guess they cant use pellets for patent reasons. Does anyone know anything about why no pellets. There were cleanshot pellets at one time I think. I may be wrong. I think they were stopped due to a lawsuit of some kind. For me I like the loose powder due to the sticks having air pockets around them. It has to affect accuracy somewhat.
The way I always heard it was;
American Pioneer Powder Company used to be called Clean Shot Powder. They had a pellet almost identical to the Pyrodex pellet produced by Hodgdon Powder company. Hodgdon's sued Clean Shot powder over a copy write infringment because of their pellet shape. Clean Shot suffered in the courts because of it. They Clean Shot Powder Company stopped producing pellets all together. They finally even stopped making loose powder. I shot off a bunch of the stuff with excellent results.
American Pioneer Powder was the new parent company that formed from the ashes of Clean Shot Powder. When they came out with their pellets, they of course put them in stick shape. There is one end more narrow then the other that goes in first which helps in the loading I was told. I never shot their sticks but shot their powder off. When shooting loose get the FFFg grade it is easier to work with..