Burn Rate Chart Inconsistencies

[Demi-human]

How cold we talking

Last time out with my 45Auto I was very surprised to find the recoil and report to be substantial, much more than what I thought I had loaded it for. Evidently Silhouette is inversely sensitive and burns faster at -10° than at the balmy seventy degrees I definitely prefer to be shooting in.

On the plus side, the Weapon Shield lubricant I was testing worked out just fine. But now that we’re talking about it, I wonder if it was the more energetic burn…

Now I’ll have to go out this next winter and do it again with some Ramshot Competition. Just to double check. And use my new battery powered vest!

 

[buck460XVR]

Burn rate charts are interesting, not informative.

I believe the reason there are so many published burn rate charts out there, is because they are informative. But relative burn rate is only one characteristic of a powder.

 

[AJC1]

Gordon's has a burn rate chart and I have to believe quickloads does as well. They have to get it right, I would believe those over published charts.

 

[Palladan44]

I've always been curious where exactly BE-86 sits....
I've been told a touch faster than Power Pistol, which I can vouche for their extreme similarities.

Yes, fun to look at the charts. A lot of fun, but that's about it.

What really gets things going is the style (really the size) of flake it is and whether it was originally designed to be a shotgun powder, pistol or both.
Lots of large flake shotgun powders work well (for the most part) in pistols, but most small ball powder or small flaked handgun powders are not really intended for use in shotguns (obviously .410 is an exception). I believe that stems from the larger flake taking up space in the case on purpose....where an efficient handgun cartridge has a denser powder packed in a smaller space to get more velocity, and it's not a big deal if the powder sloshes around in the case a bit. Where in a shotgun it needs to be packed tighter....

Once we step up to rifle powders, things become a bit more streamline and make more sense from top to bottom of the burn rate chart, with very few "ohh wow" moments. I'm personally how amazed at how Slow CFE 223 is in the charts, but how well in works in .223. There are faster powders published for .30-06!

 

[lordpaxman]

I‘ll go with published load data any day of the week, but that can be inconsistent too. Different testing and measurement methods may yield different results. The burn rate charts have a use for me, but I don’t read into them what isn’t there.

 

[jski]

Nothing definitive can be gleamed by looking at a burn rate chart, but they are informative in the fact that they should show which powders have a similar burn rate. It doesn't mean they can use the same load data or even that powders next to one another will have same uses in similar cartridges. But it is odd to have a powder that jumps from a fast pistol powder in one chart to a moderately slow pistol powder in another chart. Is Is Ramshot True Blue slower or faster than Ramshot Zip? What about compared to other popular powders like Unique, Power Pistol or HP-38?

Depends on which chart you’re looking at.

 

[black mamba]

I use burn rate charts as a starting point and then research the loading manuals for the cartridges I load and see which powders are faster or slower. To me, if a load reaches max before another powder reaches max, then it is faster. If more powder is needed to reach max than another powder, then it is slower. Velocity is another matter. Because a powder is more energetic doesn't mean it is faster. In the cartridges I load for, HS6 is a relatively slow powder but not too energetic. Powders which are faster can give more velocity than HS6, but it is extremely accurate, so you trade economy for accuracy.
The two powders which are most often wrongly placed on the burn rate charts are Silhouette and Longshot. In use they are very close to each other, but Silhouette is often placed as very fast burning while Longshot is ridiculously placed as slow as Blue Dot or even 2400 in some charts.

 

[Walkalong]

Evidently Silhouette is inversely sensitive and burns faster at -10° than at the balmy seventy degrees I definitely prefer to be shooting in.

Did you chrono them?

 

[Demi-human]

Did you chrono them?

I did not. I find that the precipitation and snowfall from the trees to always have something other than a bullet in the screens during the winter.

But, it was enough more that I thought I had done something wrong and, perhaps foolishly, only shot the two magazines that were loaded.

I still have some left, as rimfires caught my eye as of late. Maybe a cooler of dry ice could replicate it properly in the summer? My meta carpels should be healed and I have an infra red thermometer to chart the difference as they come back up to temperature.
But then I wouldn’t get to wear my vest!

Every temperature sensitivity chart I’ve seen, obviously geared more towards rifles, seems to leave these pistol powders out. However, and of course anecdotally, I read here and some other places that it was inversely sensitive.
It goes against my intuition, but I don’t know enough about the deterrents and additives to question it more than that it boggles my mind.

One thing is for certain, I now have something to look forward to, as my motorcycle plans for this season look to be evaporating before my eyes…

 

[AJC1]

I did not. I find that the precipitation and snowfall from the trees to always have something other than a bullet in the screens during the winter.

But, it was enough more that I thought I had done something wrong and, perhaps foolishly, only shot the two magazines that were loaded.

I still have some left, as rimfires caught my eye as of late. Maybe a cooler of dry ice could replicate it properly in the summer? My meta carpels should be healed and I have an infra red thermometer to chart the difference as they come back up to temperature.
But then I wouldn’t get to wear my vest!

Every temperature sensitivity chart I’ve seen, obviously geared more towards rifles, seems to leave these pistol powders out. However, and of course anecdotally, I read here and some other places that it was inversely sensitive.
It goes against my intuition, but I don’t know enough about the deterrents and additives to question it more than that it boggles my mind.

One thing is for certain, I now have something to look forward to, as my motorcycle plans for this season look to be evaporating before my eyes…

Ot oddly makes sense that I'm drawn to inverse temp powders as heat has always been my issue. High country Sierra desert to Tennessee and Mississippi summer and now Georgia, hot is more common for me.

 

[Demi-human]

oddly makes sense that I'm drawn to inverse temp powders as heat has always been my issue.

Through my perusal, WST seems to be another one. I haven’t looked at rifle powders really, but I wonder if there is any to be found there. I prefer to stick with “normal” powders I think. But I guess if I knew before hand I wouldn’t mind.