sabotloader, thanks yes I do follow that and it makes logical sense to me. What I don't understand is why both the sticks (two 50 gr.) and the loose powder (100gr of Jim's gold fffg) shot high. I can understand the loose but the sticksI'm not for sure about. The only thing I can think of isthe Jim Shockey sticksmight bemade fromthe fffg powder. A friend of mine shoots the regular American Pioneer sticks and he looked at mine and said he thought by recalling from memory that the stick I had looked to be more of a finer grain compressed stick. I don't know this I've never seen those sticks to compare against. If so that mightexplain it. I still can't wait to do a more conclusive test, however from what I've seen my encore seems to like it (25" apprx. without QLA) and I do enjoy some of the benfits of powder. I'd like to try the Pinnacle but from what I've heard there's probably not alot of difference in the two. I have noticed that the fffg in the Pinnacle isfiner grain than that of the Jim Shockey's Gold in fffg and there's also a difference in color so I'm still not convinced that they are made buy the same organization. They might both be made from the same process (Asorbic Acid someone told me).Thanks for the input and advice, since I joined this forum I've really enjoyed the discussions.