RAEDWALD
40 Cal.
The moral must be that going outside the manufacturers advice is unwise and finer powders do vary widely. If you do you should KNOW that it is safe and not just hope. Stuffing extra fine powder in place of a recommended coarser one DOES increase the pressure and gives a sharper spike to that pressure and your chosen unknown and untested finer powder WILL exceed the manufacturers design even if it, by fortunate chance, does stay within the design leeway. If you pour '4f' into your rifle you don't know if it is one of the very fine versions nor the strength of the powder itself; let alone the strength of the gun.
I mentioned above the only circumstances that would permit me to use '4f' in a rifle but that is only a personal decision for a very specific reason and would, as above, be proofed remotely and checked before using in anger. The thick wall 0.32 inch is a very different situation to larger calibres in the residual strength of the barrel against the chamber capacity and I would be using an Ardesa Crockett which has the stronger forged bolster as against their larger bores with drums. There is a general pattern amongst modern muzzle loaders to use a common hexagonal stock bar and bore differing size holes down them to the chosen bore. Thus a 0,45 inch bore has thicker walls than if a 0,54 inch bore is made into the same stock bar. Thus the more powerful charges have the thinner walls left. This is not recklessness on the part of the manufacturers. Merely production engineering and it leaves the smaller bores with excess metal rather than the larger ones with a paucity. It does not make the 0,45 inch invulnerable but it does make abusing the 0,54 inch even less wise. I am aware that the 0,32 inch uses a thinner barrel than the others. There are, of course, many fine manufacturers who do not use a common bar size but the principle does apply to a typical modern sidelock muzzle loader.
Again probably being safe means that you will only probably not lose bits of yourself, suffer excruciating pain, die and/or cause the same to others nearby.
Apologies for the rants and lecture mode. The OP was right to ask the question. Only a fool does not ask if they do not know. When I was 18 I knew everything. As I age I learn that there are more and more things that I did not know. I presume that, by the time I pass away of old age I will be astonished by my total ignorance of everything. In other fields that is why young people innovate. They don't yet know that you can't do it (whatever 'it' may be).
I mentioned above the only circumstances that would permit me to use '4f' in a rifle but that is only a personal decision for a very specific reason and would, as above, be proofed remotely and checked before using in anger. The thick wall 0.32 inch is a very different situation to larger calibres in the residual strength of the barrel against the chamber capacity and I would be using an Ardesa Crockett which has the stronger forged bolster as against their larger bores with drums. There is a general pattern amongst modern muzzle loaders to use a common hexagonal stock bar and bore differing size holes down them to the chosen bore. Thus a 0,45 inch bore has thicker walls than if a 0,54 inch bore is made into the same stock bar. Thus the more powerful charges have the thinner walls left. This is not recklessness on the part of the manufacturers. Merely production engineering and it leaves the smaller bores with excess metal rather than the larger ones with a paucity. It does not make the 0,45 inch invulnerable but it does make abusing the 0,54 inch even less wise. I am aware that the 0,32 inch uses a thinner barrel than the others. There are, of course, many fine manufacturers who do not use a common bar size but the principle does apply to a typical modern sidelock muzzle loader.
Again probably being safe means that you will only probably not lose bits of yourself, suffer excruciating pain, die and/or cause the same to others nearby.
Apologies for the rants and lecture mode. The OP was right to ask the question. Only a fool does not ask if they do not know. When I was 18 I knew everything. As I age I learn that there are more and more things that I did not know. I presume that, by the time I pass away of old age I will be astonished by my total ignorance of everything. In other fields that is why young people innovate. They don't yet know that you can't do it (whatever 'it' may be).
