Goex FFG VS Swiss VS Pyrodex P

[mec]

Some light preliminaries this morning with the 60 Army, A Dragoon and a Lyman .50. Swiss has the rep for being hotter than other black powders as well as cleaner and more consistent. I haven't debunked any of those claims.

The 60 Army- on different days with different conditions has clocked 855/37fps spread with Goex FFFG and: 1047/116 with Pyrodex P. Bullet was the 140 gr 454 RB. Most of my Pyrodex P loads are lighter and show extreme spread in the 50-70- fps range with this revolver.

The Swiss FFFG ran 1040/ 69

The Dragoon holds 50 grains of black with the ball right at the front of the chamber- more than likely, ballistic wonks haven't changed much and the early shooters would stuff as much powder in the chambers as possible just like modern reloaders.
50 grais of Goex FFFG has averaged 890/37 for me. I haven't loaded the volume equivalent of Pyrodex P, but have loaded 45 gr vol/equiv. for 1157/55 fps.

Fifty Grains of Swiss averaged 1217/51

Best guess is that the Swiss is pretty closely equivalent to Pyrodex P in these two revolvers and clearly outruns Goex FFFG.

My .50 Lyman Pistol and the.490 Hornady Ball with 40 gr Goex FFFG gets 884/24. Pyrodex P does 934/72.

the Swiss averaged 1041/48. Again the Swiss left the Goex equivalent in the dust and this time, stomped all over the pyrodex P load too.

All of the above was based on six rounds over the chronograph at about 70f for the swiss. Other powders were shot under unrecorded weather conditions but do not seem to vary a whole lot over time.

I'll be checking other revolvers with fairly maximal swiss loads but I think some trends show up here and are much like a number of shooters have reported. I haven't done enough to say anything about any difference in extreme spreads though black generally does show more consistency than the substitute in that regard.

 

[Jim Watson]

Swiss is good stuff. It really shows an advantage in a rifle at mid and long range. (Although good work can be done with the right lot of Goex.)

Double check your guns after shooting Pyrodex. That stuff is filthy and corrosive. A friend was using it in a Marlin 94 for CAS BP because it would foul out before a day's shooting was done. His sixguns and scattergun shot with real powder cleaned up easily and stayed clean. The rifle has patches of rust throughout after complete disassembly and cleaning.

 

[mec]

Check out the swiss in a couple more guns. From a Uberti Walker, initial shots with .454 Ball over 60 grains of fffg swift clocked in the high 1200s. 55 grains put the first three shots from the cylinder out in the middle 1100s. The chambers of this revolver measure about .450 and a ring of lead shaved from the ball on seating. Nevertheless, velocities began to drop off and we confirmed that both of these loads were enertia pulling the balls. We have not seen this with other loads in the Walker or with Swiss in my Dragoon.

My 61 Navy will average 966 with 22/ gr/Goex with a .375 ball showing a 66 fps spread. 22 grains equivalent by volume of Pyrodex P did 1046/36
and the Swiss averaged 1070/37

The Lepage averages 868/ 104 with 20 grains Goex and a .433 patched ball. Pyrodex at the same volume does 949/110. Twenty Grains of Swiss did 1005 /62.

The Swiss is no more nor less dirty or prone to fouling than Goex ffg.

 

[mec]

In Remington and LeMat

I was shooting over the chronograph at a target 40 yards down range. Sitting on the ground, resting over my knees and consentrating more on getting the bullet over the screens than marksmanship. The 35 Grain /Swiss fffg/ 454 Ball load went into about 2x4" while the 22 grain Swiss/ 200 grain lee bullet load opened things up to five or six inches.