Edgeofthewoods
Member
Well with the good old black powder getting harder to find here in NM other than ordering in bulk, I decided to try out that new fangled 777 from Hodgdon. Welll folks for this old soot shooter it is GREAT. Using about 10% less powder I get the same velocities as I did with the black powder, and the clean up has allowed me back in the house again after shooting. Just to try out the claims of Hodgdon I wen tot the range with a new bottle 777and a bag full of .490 round ball. I loaded and fired 20 rounds and the last went in almost as easy as the first. After i got the load worked out the accuracy was right where I needed it. 2.5" at 100 yards off of a rest. Hodgdon called for about 1925 fps off of 90 grains of FFg 777. Off of my chrono I got a low of 1942 and a high of 1987 fps. Using Newtons law of KE I figured I was getting 1543 ft lbs at the muzzle. This is with a Traditions Shennendoa rifle 32" barrel and 1:66 twist. At 100 yards I was getting an average of 1200 fps and 576 ft lbs energy.
Over all I am VERY happy with this new powder. The only problem I had was with ignition. I did by a Hot SHot nipple and CCI Magnum caps and this fixed the problem. Untill BP gets easier to find and the two places lower the cost I am going to be shooting that 777. I did try it in my NMA Remington and using Hodgdons load of 25 grains. she shot pretty well. A bit hotter than the black powder but accuracy did suffer and bit. But over all it works fine. Clean up 10 minutes from start to oilsing the gun. Now with the 200 grain conical I did drop the powder to 20 grains and worked up to the 25 that is the max but the old gun was happiest 22 grains. That heavy conical just wouldn't fly as well. Plus I was worried about pressure since the load by Hodgdon is listed with a .454 RB so that extra 60 grains may be pushing Pietta's design limits of this NMA. But with the easy clean up and at least here the equal to lower cost to BP it is a diffenet worth while change. At Sportsmans Warehouse it is going for 17.99 per lb. When I can find BP I pay 16.99 per pound. so with 10% less powder this stuff also save money. Now with Rendevous and such I still keep a stash of the Goex FFg on hand but for my every day shooting 777 is the stuff for me.
Chuck
Over all I am VERY happy with this new powder. The only problem I had was with ignition. I did by a Hot SHot nipple and CCI Magnum caps and this fixed the problem. Untill BP gets easier to find and the two places lower the cost I am going to be shooting that 777. I did try it in my NMA Remington and using Hodgdons load of 25 grains. she shot pretty well. A bit hotter than the black powder but accuracy did suffer and bit. But over all it works fine. Clean up 10 minutes from start to oilsing the gun. Now with the 200 grain conical I did drop the powder to 20 grains and worked up to the 25 that is the max but the old gun was happiest 22 grains. That heavy conical just wouldn't fly as well. Plus I was worried about pressure since the load by Hodgdon is listed with a .454 RB so that extra 60 grains may be pushing Pietta's design limits of this NMA. But with the easy clean up and at least here the equal to lower cost to BP it is a diffenet worth while change. At Sportsmans Warehouse it is going for 17.99 per lb. When I can find BP I pay 16.99 per pound. so with 10% less powder this stuff also save money. Now with Rendevous and such I still keep a stash of the Goex FFg on hand but for my every day shooting 777 is the stuff for me.
Chuck
