[Cpt. America]

How many grains of loose Pyrodex fffg per cylinder?

[Fingers McGee]

I normally use 24 gr fffg Goex or Scheutzen in each chamber of my 1860s. Loading five chambers would make about 120 grains in the cylinder :D. Pyro would be about the same. It's an 'in the middle' charge that is pleasant to shoot and gives good accuracy.

[Cpt. America]

Am I mistaken or is Goex closer to regular powder than pyrodex?

[Tommygunn]

Goex is a brand name of blackpowder.

[mykeal]

What do you mean by 'regular powder?

[Cpt. America]

Like real black powder. As in not a substitute.

[mykeal]

OK.

Goex is the name of a manufacturer of a wide range of explosive powder products. Amongst those products is a real black powder which has become so popular that the name Goex has become synonymous with the powder itself, much in the same way Kleenex has come to mean facial tissues and Xerox means facsimile photocopies. We have all come to understand that using the term 'Goex' means 'real black powder'.

However, Goex does produce a synthetic black powder, called Goex Pinnacle. Goex Express is a premium grade of real black powder.

They also make a wide variety of artillery powders for sale to the military and fireworks powders for sale to that industry.

The company Goex was purchased by Hodgdon's, the same company that produces Pyrodex and Triple Se7en synthetic black powders, about a year ago.

[Cpt. America]

Cool. Didn't know that. I also had no idea that Goex was bought by Hodgdon's. Thanks for the imput.

[Cpt. America]

The question still remains though. How much loose Pyrodex FFFG to place in each Chamber in the cylinder? I've used a 30 grain pellet but I understand that loose powder and compressed powders act differently. Such as if a rifle that says 150 grains max and only to use it in pellet form.

[Hawkeye748]

"I suggest you use 777 substitute powder or real BP. Pyrodex is notorious for slow ignition. After 25 years, I keep a small bottle of Pyrodex around for classes I teach. For shooting, I use anything but. The same volume should work for each.

[Cpt. America]

I'll look more into 777 but for now I have just plain old FFFG pyrodex, and #11 remington mag primers for my 1860 "colt". I don't care for the pellets, I've used them but its not the next greatest thing next to sliced bread. I've used 30 grain pellets and it handled those just fine, but I prefere to use loose powder. Should I just stick with the 30 grains?

[Fingers McGee]

24/25 grains is a good all round loading whether you are using Pyrodex or Blackpowder.

[Hawkeye748]

Most Competition shooters use 15 to 25 grains of 3Fg.
If you are planning on hunting, you might want to develope a heavier load.

[Cpt. America]

How heavy a load for hunting?

[mykeal]

With revolvers there is no such thing as a 'hunting' load. The most accurate load is almost always a partial chamber, and I think Fingers has answered that most adequately. You can certainly add more powder, and you will get more velocity, but you will also get larger groups (=reduced accuracy), and the small amount of velocity increase does not warrant the loss.

There is also nothing unsafe about full chamber loads; steel framed guns can safely take full chambers repeatedly, so if that's your desire (many people do shoot full chambers) go right ahead, nothing wrong with it other than the larger group size.

[arcticap]

However, Goex does produce a synthetic black powder, called Goex Pinnacle.

The company Goex was purchased by Hodgdon's, the same company that produces Pyrodex and Triple Se7en synthetic black powders, about a year ago.

I'm curious about the use of the term "synthetic" to characterize substitute powders which may or may not be synthetic at all.
What's the defintion of synthetic and what ingredients of the 3 substitute powders mentioned are actually synthetic which allows them to be accurately described as such?
Is it possible that some substitute powders aren't synthetic at all? :rolleyes:

Chemicals aren't necessarily synthetic since even black powder is composed of chemicals. :)

[mykeal]

One definition of the term 'synthetic' is "not of natural origin". Clearly most, if not all, the substitute powders use materials that are of natural origin, so the term does not strictly apply. I'm being a bit of a curmudgeon in using it here, because I'm implying, intentionally tongue in cheek, that the substitute powders are somehow, well, unnatural. It's a low pun.

[arcticap]

I see what you mean, using the word synthetic like "faux", fake or false black powder.
I don't really care for the term "substitute" powders either. Maybe we could call them "grey" powders to distinguish them from black powder?
It would certainly be easier to type! :rolleyes:
"Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" :D

[Sagetown]

Boy; arcticap: You sure do keep mykeal on his toes. And he does a pretty good job of pulling out of it too.