SWISS POWDER

[Zonie]

I went out to the Western Nationals today and made a point of stopping at the powder tent.

They had Elephant ($7.00), Goex($8.00), Schuetzen($9.00) and Swiss($15.00) powder for sale.

Of interest: The owner said the Elephant he had was about the last of it. Said he "They tore the plant down because the land it was setting on was worth more than the Company).

He went on to say the Schuetzen is produced by WANG? in Germany BUT he stressed that someone (I forgot his name) analyzed the Swiss and Goex and made strong suggestions to WANG about what they needed to do to improve their powder. They made these changes and now produce a powder that is just about as good as SWISS. He went on to say that everyone who has tried Schuetzen Powder is very pleased.

As I have heard some good things about SWISS, I bought some of it. The owner said I should reduce my loads 15 to 20 percent as it is notably more potent.

Have any of you members shot other powders and then shot Swiss and seen a difference?
It is also supposed to be a lot cleaner than any other Black Powder. Any Comments????

 

Swiss powder is denser than Goex. For example if your powder measure is set up for 80 grains of Goex, it will measure out 80 plus grains of Swiss.

 

[albert]

I went to using Swiss in my .32 and I was impressed. I shoot 8 gr. of it for squirrel hunting. One day I hade some time to do a little shooting and I shot 50 shots with an 8gr. load, there was very little fouling after I was finished, also I did not clean anytime while shooting this string of 50 shots. You might not think that 8gr.is not much of a load, but it will drive a ball into green oak 5/8 of an inch at 25yds.
This rifle is a Bedford that I made and has a Bill Large bbl.,which is 44 in. long.

 

[musketman]

You would think SWISS powder would be less dense, because of the holes...

Wait a second, that's the cheese I'm thinking about, not the powder... :haha:

Cleaner burning may be the ticket for large muskets, I'll have to give it a go...


I found this while searching Swiss Powder:

Drought hits Europe HARD!
The drought of 2003 in Europe made history! Rainfall was so scarce that rivers reached record lows that turned out to be a benefit to historians as World War II equipment was discovered by the receding waters. In the former Yugoslavia, trucks, tanks and other equipment was discovered along the Danube River that was abandoned by the Retreating Axis armies.

How does this affect black powder? Well, due to this drought, moisture content of powder was abnormally dry allowing for dryer and harder granules during the polishing process. These harder granules produced black powder with sharper edges and lower densities. So, for the Swiss Black Powder produced in 2003, the powder is not as dense as the previous four years production.

What does this mean?
Well, a weighed charge of Swiss 1 1/2 Fg from 2003 will have more volume than from previous years. So all of you muzzleloader shooters out there will need to make a slight adjustment.

Here is a link to Schuetzen Powder Distributors in North America... :winking:

http://www.elephantblackpowder.com/Sporting/distributors.html

 

I've never tried the Swiss but have long wanted to. My BPC and double rifle buddies love it because of it's increased energy and quite possibly more importantly, it's less fouling. Particularly us BPC double rifle shooters like it. Some of us get our rifles regulated witout resorting to duplexing.

Yep, Swiss is hotter and cleaner....always was.

Vic