Sir: You misquote my writings, and do me a great disservice. I have merely provided the membership on this forum with Charlie Davenport's formula for determining the MAXIMUM EFFICIENT LOAD for a given bore diameter and barrel length.
I have never said that you can't put more powder in your gun and shoot it.
I have never claimed that putting more powder in the barrel will not result in greater Muzzle Velocity.
Neither assertion would be true- and I know those assertions are not true.
What Davenport was trying to tell Shooters was that the most accurate loads for a gun, at the lowest pressures( so as to preserve stocks, nipples, and other gun parts) can be determined by using his formula, as a maximum, and then searching for a load near it- he recommended 10% less for percussion rifles, but said Flintlocks could use the Max. efficient load because of the vent's reduction of both chamber pressure and Muzzle velocity-- that locates the " Sweet spot".
A Sweet Spot is that velocity that allows the barrels vibrations- or harmonics- to provide the most consistency for that particular gun, as shown by the smallest groups on targets.
Today, we can use Chronographs to find that " Sweet Spot " much faster, and once known, can change components, powders, lubes, etc. to fine tune the sweet spot accuracy even more- or at least we think we can! :rotf:
The plain truth is Charlie was correct: A Barrel burns 11.5 grains of black powder per cubic inch of bore, efficiently.
Because BP produces gas and expands as the powder burns in the barrel, unlike Smokeless powder, which burns much more rapidly, and creates much higher chamber pressures almost instantly, Black Powder pressures are distributed down the barrel, after the ball or conical already is moving forward.
You can delay the movement of the projectile by increasing its weight/ bore diameter, or by using fillers, and OP wads to hold back the gas pressures and add Mass that the gas has to push down the barrel in addition to the ball or bullet.
But the affect on barrel harmonics is unpredictable doing this, and you see erratic velocities on the chronograph indicating that something more is going on in your barrel than just pushing a standard size ball or bullet out the barrel!
Charlie- like most target shooters- was trying to eliminate the most UNKNOWN factors to get nice small groups. He was not interested in sending a single projectile down range that, on a good day, Might hit some game animal and deliver a knock out blow.
If you want to test the strength of your barrel, breech plug, nipple, nipple threads, clean out screw and its threads, BE MY GUEST!
If you want to see what it takes to blow your barrel up, you are on your own! I do not advocate doing these things. But, I have done them when I didn't know better, and I was very young. :redface: :haha: :nono:
So, please read my posts carefully. I usually try to spend a lot of time choosing the language I use when writing, so that I convey EXACTLY the information I am trying to pass on. That is the reason my posts tend to be longer than others.
There is grace in brevity, when the time is correct, but brevity comes up "short" for complete understanding. :hmm: :thumbsup:
