1851 Navy .36

[Old Charlie]

I got my 51 Navy out yesterday to have another go at it. I have been shooting some T7 that I bought two or three years ago. Thought that would be a good way to use it up. Couldn't hit nothing .
I decided to try some Goex 3f and WALLA, the thing started shooting! It was putting all the hits in the scoring rings and most in the black!
I think this has several reasons. The T7 is so much more powerful it was making the gun shoot way high. It is also so fine grained that with 25 grains and a .45 wad over the powder the ball was sitting way back in the chamber. With 27 to 28 grains of Goex 3f and the wad the ball is sitting right at the end of the chamber. I think this improves accuracy a great deal. I still have some work to do but am a much happier camper now.
Old Charlie

 

[Blizzard of '93]

never shot any 3-7. seems I read that it is hotter measure for measure than black?

 

[mykeal]

777 is at least 10% and probably more like 15% more powerful than regular black powder. You must reduce your loads by 15% when using 777 to get performance equivalent to black powder.

Old Charlie: If you loaded 25 gr fffg 777 then you were shooting the equivalent of about 29 gr fffg real black powder. I've seen accuracy go to pot in my own 1851 Navy as well as others at that level (well, actually 30 gr, but that's closer than I measure). You might try that as an experiment.

Blizzard of 93: yes, 777 is more powerful than real black powder. See Hodgdon's web site,[url] www.hodgdon.com[/url] and compare their data; In an 1851 Navy shooting a .375 round ball 15 and then 20 gr of 777 got 662 and 832 fps; if you extrapolate that to 30 gr the resulting velocity is 1000 fps. 30 gr of Pyrodex got only 935 fps.