2F or 3F for a hunting load

[Seeking Trad Deer]

I am really confused about the difference between these powders. I have only used 2F. I read on another post that the 3F will give a load more horespower. If this is the case why doesn't everyone use 3F for hunting? I think there is more to this than I understand and would appreciate someone taking me through these differences on a basic level.

 

[playfarmers]

Accuracy is the big thing. 3F produces more preasure than equal amounts of 2f. I plan on trying 3f in my new .54, because I have 3 lbs of it, and it produces less fouling than 2f. Whatever gives the best accuracy is what I will be using in the end.

 

[jtmattison]

I use 3f in my .50's and .54's for roundball and 2f for minnies/maxies. 3f has too fast of a power spike for shooting minnies/maxies in my opinion and produces a lot of recoil. I like 3f with roundball. I can stoke it up to max with roundball and 3f and the recoil is not bad. Fouling is less with 3f than 2f and if you shoot flintlock you can use 3f to prime as well as the main charge so you don't have to carry two different powders. You just have to work up your loads with 3f. Usually dropping the charge 10-15% from your 2f charge will get you started on the right foot.

HD

 

[renovato]

A lot of folks do use 3F to hunt with. I use it exclusively in all my rifles except one. It shoots more accurately with 2F so that's the only reason I feed it that. Work up a good load of 3F in yours and see if it shoots well for you.

 

[ffffg]

they run black powder thru screens to size it at the factory.. 5f is very very fine.. 4f usually used for priming flintlocks.. 3f, pretty fine and is smaller than 2f.. flashholes for flintlocks are generallly a tiny bit smaller for 3f than 2f so it wont come out into the pan.. 1f is bigger and was used in old military arms in the past and some use it in 10 gauue and larger guns.... going up is cannon, and explosive grade. explosive grade comes in chunks up to baseball size maybe larger, and i dont know much about it. except it is much cheaper than other explosives and is used alot where legal.. we shooters use only a few percent of the black powder made, the rest is used for explosives...dave..

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have to agree with Hunting dawg's comments. I use both 3Fg and 2Fg powders in my guns, but take care with 3Fg because it has powder spikes as you go up in the amount of the charge, and can be very fussy to use in some guns. 2Fg seems to produce much less recoil.

The only way you are going to tell which to use for hunting is to work up loads in your gun with your compoenents and see which powder the gun shoots better. Some people find that 3Fg dirties their barrels less, but not all guns show that kind of difference between the two powders. And, these powders can vary some by lot number, so when you buy more powder, check the lot # on the can and do some testing to see if is going to burn the same way your last batch does.