Muzzle velocity Hawken vs Longrifle

[Sonny from Vincennes]

The reason why I am interested is my ballistic program will take the chronograph (instrumental) velocity and calculate the muzzle velocity for the bullet trace. I do not think many of the programs will do this. My program is the Oehler Ballistic Explorer that goes along with the 35P chronograph. I just have fun shooting and testing loads. Some of the shooters on the line will stop by and see what I am doing.
Good shooting everyone

 

[ChuckJonesWagon]

The reason why I am interested is my ballistic program will take the chronograph (instrumental) velocity and calculate the muzzle velocity for the bullet trace. I do not think many of the programs will do this. My program is the Oehler Ballistic Explorer that goes along with the 35P chronograph. I just have fun shooting and testing loads. Some of the shooters on the line will stop by and see what I am doing.
Good shooting everyone

I use the Ballistic A E app on my phone,.

 

[M. De Land]

I thought I would show a test using a Cable's 54 caliber Hawken caplock rifle. Each powder increment had a standard deviation of 10 ft/sec or less. In this test, I had one powder increment at 7 ft/sec. This rifle had a maximum charge of 100 grV.

60 grV - 55.5 grW - 1224 ft/sec
70 grV - 65.1 grW - 1322 ft/sec
80 grV - 74.6 grW - 1394 ft/sec
90 grV - 84.4 grW - 1467 ft/sec
100 grV - 93.3 grW - 1540 ft/sec

Velocity change from one powder increment to another

60 grV to 70 grV - 98 ft/sec
70 grV to 80 grV - 72 ft/sec
80 grV to 90 grV - 73 ft/sec
90 grV to 100 grV - 73 ft/sec

You can see the change between powder increments. The shooter can make a choice on what to use. The more powder used the higher the cost and recoil. This test shows the powder efficiency. The shooter may want to check the grouping from one powder increment to another. I have had club members shoot through my chronograph with their muzzleloaders. The shooters were surprised with standard deviations of 50, 60, and sometime 70 ft/sec. It is the little things in the loading procedure that drives up the standard deviation. If the shooter has wide changes in velocity, the trajectory will be effected. I have noticed considerable change between rifles. Sometimes shorter barrels will have higher velocities than longer ones. Even rifle by the same manufacture and caliber will vary considerably. It is what ever the shooter wants. I just have fun taking a gun testing the powder increments. I have learned a lot from my chronograph.

Good shooting

Do you sock your powder to deal with the fines that come in each can or do you mix them in ? The powder brand makes a huge difference in the amount of fines that come in each can. Goex for instance has more then does Scheutzen or Swiss.
The fines can make a difference in both volumetric and weight measurement.
I use a drop tube and volume neasuring for all my black powder cartridge match loads in midrange competition (200,300 and 600 yards) but only volumetric in muzzle loading competition at maximum ranges of 100 yards. Come to think on it muzzle loading is more or less drop tube compression loading too, isn't it ?
I can't tell any difference in accuracy offhand shooting with patched balls at a max of 100 yards but you sure can at the midrange distances shooting conical bullets off cross sticks.

 

[Sonny from Vincennes]

I used Goex powders for this development. If I change to another powder as you mentioned, I will adjust the amount of powder. I will read on the bottle or contact the manufacture for the adjustment. I will adjust the powder using Goex powder as the base line. In my worksheet, I have a section for this adjustment. I try to do my volume to weight conversion chart in the winter when the humidity is low. In my shop, I want the humidity to be around 25% to 30% to keep the kernel size as small as possible. By weighing both the balls and powder for each shot, I get my standard deviation under 10 ft/sec for a ten shot test. I might be one in a thousand, but I just enjoy shooting and testing loads. I am too old to get out in field anymore. So I shoot on the range and visit with the club members. I learn something every time I go to the range. I use Gs drag function to calculate the trajectory for the round balls. I adjust the B.C. to fit the target data. Most shooters would not begin to do what I do. For me, I rally enjoy testing.

Have a good day and good shooting everyone