Swiss 1/12 powder in 12 ga percussion?

[William Joy]

I have quite a bit of Swiss Nr. 1 1/2 black powder,( for 45/70 cartridge) and was wondering if it would be suitable for a 12 ga percussion shotgun?

 

[paulvallandigham]

Yes. The swiss numbering system is slightly different than ours, and the 1 1/2 grade is about the same as our FFg. Its FFg is more like our FFFg powder, and their FFFg is between our FFFg and our FFFFg powder. Confusing, but it explains why velocities are higher shooting the same grade size Swiss powder that we use in our system. In a 12 gauge, use charges between 2 3/4 dram( 76 grains) and 3 1/4 dram (89 grains) with loads between 1 1/8 oz. to 1 1/4 oz. You can load your gun down, of course, and actually get better patterns than if you used a smaller gauge gun with those lighter loads. You load up a bit, but performance( patterns) suffer.