A couple of weeks ago I posted Muzzle Velocity: Filler versus No Filler and used my Pietta 1860 Sheriff Model for the test. The results on that one made the impression on me that filler does indeed act as somewhat of a "Gas Check" thereby increasing Muzzle Velocity, at least it did on that one.
Sadly my optimism that I had discovered an unknown truth in the Black Powder world, today came to a crashing end.
The test that I ran this afternoon was as follows: The gun is an ASM 2nd Model Dragoon with a 7" barrel (one of my favorites). It was loaded with 45gr by weight of Goex 3f and on the filler tests I used 10gr by volume of cornmeal.
Average Muzzle Velocity without Filler: 1066 fps with a Muzzle Energy of 353 ft. lbs.
Average Muzzle Velocity with Filler: 1047 fps with a Muzzle Energy of 341 ft. lbs.
So....it seems that the results are pretty much exactly the opposite of what the Sheriff Model yielded. Does filler act as a "Gas Check" thereby potentially increasing the muzzle velocity of the round ball? It's still a definite maybe, but I wouldn't get my hopes too high. I think it pretty much largely depends upon the gun. One thing of note that did catch my attention was that the extreme spread was less than half on the "No Filler" loads i.e. 79fps with and 35fps without. My only explaination for this would be more consistant powder compression when you're not additionally compressing cornmeal.
Just for grins I did chronograph with 30gr 3f Goex and about 20gr of cornmeal as well. The extra 15gr of powder does provide quite a bit more umph shall we say. The 30gr loads averaged out at 848 fps.
Sadly my optimism that I had discovered an unknown truth in the Black Powder world, today came to a crashing end.
The test that I ran this afternoon was as follows: The gun is an ASM 2nd Model Dragoon with a 7" barrel (one of my favorites). It was loaded with 45gr by weight of Goex 3f and on the filler tests I used 10gr by volume of cornmeal.
Average Muzzle Velocity without Filler: 1066 fps with a Muzzle Energy of 353 ft. lbs.
Average Muzzle Velocity with Filler: 1047 fps with a Muzzle Energy of 341 ft. lbs.
So....it seems that the results are pretty much exactly the opposite of what the Sheriff Model yielded. Does filler act as a "Gas Check" thereby potentially increasing the muzzle velocity of the round ball? It's still a definite maybe, but I wouldn't get my hopes too high. I think it pretty much largely depends upon the gun. One thing of note that did catch my attention was that the extreme spread was less than half on the "No Filler" loads i.e. 79fps with and 35fps without. My only explaination for this would be more consistant powder compression when you're not additionally compressing cornmeal.
Just for grins I did chronograph with 30gr 3f Goex and about 20gr of cornmeal as well. The extra 15gr of powder does provide quite a bit more umph shall we say. The 30gr loads averaged out at 848 fps.