Originally Posted by
Grouse45
Sabotloader, WCW is a perfect reason why it's so important to do testing and supply people with information that they can try on there own if they want. Hodgon and CVA gave him false information. but everyone has opinions and opinions is all they are.
I am not sure that Hodgdon or CVA's information was '
false' at the time.
Hodgdon still maintains that 100 grains of loose T7 is the max that the 'company' will recommend in shotting a muzzleloader. Personally i think ths might be a fair stance by Hodgdon. This recommendation provides them a safety margin considering all of the different ML out there that one find and shoot, including older and newer models. Plus it takes in account all the different weights of projectiles one might put down the bore. Western covers themselves the same way maintaining 120 grains as their max, and they are even being a little more generous that Hodgdon's, but they can be somewhat because BH requires a 209 ignition source unless you duplex.
CVA's information on the other probably was quite responsible at the time they were using the 100-300 recommendations. Back in the early days of the orginal CVA followed by the BPI-CVA models barrels and breech plugs were not of the quality that are using today, so their 100 grain max may well have been warranted...
Even their (CVA) expression and thought - that after 100 grains anything else might be wasted could have been accurate with some of the poorer quality black powders and ignition systems of the time.
I think most are aware of the 'law of diminishing returns' shooting black powder or black powder subs from a ML. One of the easiet methods to measure this effect is by shooting through a chrono graph.
If you look at the chart i posted, i think you can see that i reached that point 'diminishing return' shooting 130 grains of T7, the velocity at 130 consistenty was lower than 120 grains. Yet if you look at BH velocity continued to climb between 120 and 130 a testiment to the 'progressive burning' nature of BH