Burning rates and conventional wisdom - Hand Loading

Gunpowder is really pretty simple stuff--nitrocellulose with some additives to help control burning rate, muzzle flash and flow properties. If we get only a little more complicated we have a double-base powder that adds a little nitroglycerine to the above ingredients.

Burning rate is controlled by the size and shape of the powder grain and chemical deterrents which can be either coatings or incorporated in the powder chemistry. Graphite is often added to make the powder flow more smoothly through loading equipment.

Within the last few years we've seen the arrival of a whole bunch of new numbers and names for canister powders used in reloading. A new one is created anytime a powder with a different burning rate is offered. And in the great American spirit of competition, new is better.

We can usually learn something about a powder by comparing the charge weights that it takes to produce a specific velocity with different powders. Simplistically put, the powder that has the heavier charge weight is the slower burning.

The profusion of new burning rates has complicated the process of deciding which powder to use for any given cartridge. And we are often bound, by convention in those choices. For example, conventional thinking says that Bullseye is the powder of choice for the .45 ACP and you surely can use it with great success, but Bullseye is one of the fastest burning powders we have.

In rifles, it is generally true that a powder charge that comes close to filling the case will be more consistent and often more accurate. Over the years, I've come to believe that can be true for handgun cartridges as well. This suggests that there may be an advantage to using slower powders where they are appropriate. And there is an added benefit since the heavier charges make it less likely that a double charged case will pass unnoticed.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group