Strong enuff?

[bob in the woods]

Well, proved it again today. 7:00 PM  ,   Black bear , 10 yards,  .54 cal  .535  ball over 80 gr FFg   Went clean through lungs and heart.
Nice clean male bush bear : around 250 Lbs    He kicked twice and dropped.  I just got in from hanging him in the meat tree .     You don't need 150 gr of powder 

[satwel]

Pressure issues aside, is a 30" barrel long enough to completely burn 150 grains of powder? Wouldn't you just be pushing unburned powder out the muzzle behind the ball?

[Daryl]

Absolutely - 150gr. of powder - all of it will burn/ignite inside the 30" barrel AND produce it's peak pressure very near the breech, however that pressure will not have long
 (because of short barrel) period of time to generate additional velocity to the projectile over what would be generated by a smaller charge.

for example:

The 31" bl. in my 14 bore rifle burnt all of 200gr. 2F as well as 330gr. of 2F, however the 330gr. charge produced only 70fps higher velocity than the 200gr. load.  That happened
more than 20 years ago, yet I remember the recoil of that load quite clearly.

[satwel]

Daryl,
Thanks for that explanation.

Cheers

[mountainman70]

hello guys, I was just going to ask Daryl what kinda elephant he was shootin at with those kinda charges. Maybe it was back in the day when we all thought, or were told in the gun press, we HAD to shoot full charges at everything, you know, paper targets ar a might hard to kill.
Them steel silouettes really travel when hit by that kinda force. Get wore plum out retrieving them.hahah
Hava goodun,and thanks, Dave

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dave:  you have made a very astute observation.  When I was thirty, I was convinced that I needed minimum 120 gr. FFg in a .50 cal to get optimum performance, ie:  accuracy and knock down power.  Now I shoot 73 gr. in my .50's, and when I was living on the Queen Charlotte Islands, now called Haida Guaii, I killed dozens of Island deer and many black bears with 70 gr. FFg in a .50 cal T/C "Hawken".  All one shot DRT.

[Hungry Horse]

Maybe the rules of ballistics change when you cross over into Canada. I thought I would be smart at a night time candle shoot years ago. I loaded my old 50 caliber CVA mountain rifle with a hundred and twenty grains of powder and a tight patched ball, and intentionally shot an inch or two over the candle flame. The candle was about fifteen yards down range. At the shot the candle was extinguished by the muzzle blast, but the candle was impregnated with grains of unturned powder, so the charge did not burn completely even  in a 32” barrel.

 Hungry Horse

[kudu]

Just a observation I done some shooting thru a Chronograph for bench guns and cross stick matches and mostly just checking Deviation of FPS.
Its really interesting to see FPS increases with grain increase up to a certain point around 1900 fps. Most guns in alot of ways "peek out" .  I think patching is critical or lack of it's strength to be more specific,
I can tell you for sure that how hard you SEAT the ball on top of the powder matters alot! especially in a .40 cal I've seen 200 fps difference in weighed powder charges with nothing changed except seating pressure.

I do know alot of fellows who shoot bench , and have a friend who shoots .65cal with a 3" dia S.S barrel and 270 grains of fff he claims hes getting 2500fps I just said ok, ( but I would like to see it to believe it.)

I shot a little .50cal huntin type gun with 65g fff  (teflon Patching) and shot a 49x at 50yd  and a 48xx at 100yd and my gun weighs just under 9lbs. not 45lbs.

The small caliber guns seem to be harder to get over 2000 fps than the big ones.
I had a.40cal that no matter how much powder over 60gr fff  it would shoot only about 1880fps.
it had a 38" barrel.

I Guess what I want to see is the CHRONOGRAPH and powder charges. 
Im a "see it to believe it "guy i guess   

[Daryl]

Maybe the rules of ballistics change when you cross over into Canada. I thought I would be smart at a night time candle shoot years ago. I loaded my old 50 caliber CVA mountain rifle with a hundred and twenty grains of powder and a tight patched ball, and intentionally shot an inch or two over the candle flame. The candle was about fifteen yards down range. At the shot the candle was extinguished by the muzzle blast, but the candle was impregnated with grains of unturned powder, so the charge did not burn completely even  in a 32” barrel.

 Hungry Horse

The 330gr. charge was an error in loading - I was simply experimenting with load vs. velocity changes.
As to unburnt powder sticking into the candle - I'd have to see that for myself. Did you try igniting it, or simply think it was unburnt powder?