80º and 93% humidity. Over cast sky just waiting to rain
a slight wind out of the west.
50 yard line bench rest.
JSG 3f loose powder 80 & 90 grains used in test
home cast .490 roundball
pillow tick patch with moosemilk for a lube
T/C PA Hunter .50 caliber with single trigger and buckhorn sights

I wanted to see if the rifle reacted to a difference of 10 grains. Also there is a claim that APP powder reacts to humidity. I wanted to test that theory as well and see if the humidity affected the shot.



I started on a clean barrel. The first test was with 80 grains of JSG and the first hit was low left, in the black tape. It then for some reason started shooting to the right but still low. So I adjusted for the drop ball and the right swing and the next five in the orange and bull was the result. Not too bad actually once I learned the rifle. I did not want to adjust the sight as this is sighted in for Goex and shoots dead on.



Actually the top three are with 80 grains of JSG and the bottom three with 90 grains of the same powder. The patches look perfect. NO burn outs, and no tears. Even with the 90 grains of powder. These patches are cut from the muzzle which account for the ruff edged.



Shooting 90 grains of JSG on the fouled bore (at no time did I swab the barrel clean during the shooting) again I noticed with 90 grains if shot to the right. I adjusted and #3 came about. I then adjusted again and 4-8 appeared. For a 5 shot group, that is not too bad in my book. Of course this is only 50 yards. And the buckhorn sights were really easy to pick up on this over cast day.

My impressions of the powder in a traditional rifle...
it seemed to have good power. Having no chronograph I could only guess at the velocity, but I would not be afraid to deer hunt with that 90 grain load.

Accuracy was more then acceptable. Especially with the 90 grains of powder. Also because I use a liquid patch lube, I felt it was cleaning the muzzle of the bore and I did not get that crust build up in the rifle. Loading was easy for the most part. Although like Frontier Gander said, I really gave the roundball a good hard press. Also noted was the excellent condition of the recovered patches.

As humid as it was today (which could be attested to from the gallon of sweat I lost out here) the powder did not seem to react. Using a RWS cap, ignition was instant, and no hangfires or misfires the entire day. Also there was no clumping noted in the powder, and it poured easy. Also the smoke it gave off because of the humidity I am guessing, was most amusing. You'd fire and the whole table would be in a large white cloud of smoke.

Overall I was kind of impressed with the powder. It did real well out of that rifle. If it were not so expensive and was not so hard to find (I drove over 250 miles one way to get this stuff) around me, I would be using it more. Pretty nice stuff. Clean up was real easy also. But I should note, traditional rifles IMO always do clean up easy.