[mec]

Of course, I've been collecting them for sometime. Today, I played around with a can of new Pyrodex Rifle/Shotgun and an old, depleted one that has been around for more than ten years. Got lower velocities with the old can- just like I saw with some 25 year old Pyrodex P but, the shot to shot variations didn't get wider.

Also noted some significant velocity differences with the only change being a switch between .454 and .457" balls. Possibly the most interesting part- Interesting because I don't quite UNDERSTAND Hodgdons H777, was the result with it. When I have used loads equivalent to the same volume of black powder or pyrodex in some revolvers, I have gotten wild velocity spreads with some extremely high numbers thrown in. Hodgdons warns against compressing H777 and it does seem to work best when not compressed much beyond the top of the powder column. I was careful with this today and the results are pretty good. http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=16313&stc=1&d=1134505821

The possible variables are nearly endless which is why it's hard to make any concrete statements about load performance

[TexasRifleman]

Interesting results. I have been using 777 in my Walker simply because I like the cleanup of the stuff, but it does behave in some strange ways.

Thanks for this post.

[mec]

In my Lepage .44, I use 15 gr/vol to get the same results as 20 pyrodex and 20 gr/vol in my 50 plains pistol to virtually duplicate 30 grains of pyrodex.
We've gotten good consistencey with 24 gr/vol in a .44 Remington and 18 gv in a .36.

It really does shine in the low fouling/easy clean-up areas.

[Across The Pond]

I had some time at the range Sunday, so I did some experimenting with compression of 777 in my .36 navy.

I took a length of dowel that's a tight fit in the chambers, wrapped paper around it and sealed one end. I then poured in my current favoured load of 15 grains of triple seven. The resultant column height was then marked on the dowel and the difference between this and the depth of the chamber noted.

From this info, I guesstimated that with a wonder wad on top of the powder, seating the ball about 1/8 behind the face leaves no airgap but would not compress the powder at all....

So I loaded six and shot them at 30 feet. What happened was weird; a kind of double-crack with odd recoil. So, I compressed the powder a little more the next time, and found that the odd sound and recoil characteristic went away; I fired thirty rounds this way - a photo of the target (and a few of my newly cast RB :D )is attached.

My (very,very unscientific!!) conclusion is that some compression is essential but not a lot. Pyrodex seems nowhere near as fussy but as you've already mentioned cleanup is waaay easier with the 777.

Fascinating stuff - I must borrow the club chrono and be a little more scientific next time.. :rolleyes:

[mec]

excellent! I used 22 gr/equivalent in a 36 and you've seen the results in the chart. Much spread and some extremely high velocities. Keep this up, in the fullness of time, we will all know more about 777