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Different Lots of Swiss Comparison

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:35 pm
by charlie young
I see and have commented on some of the topics on the Swiss powder recently. But thought I would start a new thread. Ordered and received a new case of Swiss 1 1/2 from BACO right after the first of the year. Pretty much loaded up for the upcoming season but decided to load a few rounds just for a comparison. Use a Lyman black powder measurer and my previous load was for 75.0 grains. Cleaned the measurer out so I have nothing but the new lot in the powder tube. Threw a couple charges and dumped them right back in the hopper. Finally put a charge on the scale and it is 69.5 grains. that's a lot of variation. Dumped and weighed a few more with the same results. Finally drop tubed into a case, and the powder column is exactly the same height as the 75.0 charge. I have switched Lots quite a few times in the past few years, but have never have had this much variation. So I guess there will be considerable testing this spring and glad I'm loaded up for the upcoming season. Probably need a new Shiloh to do the testing!!! :D :D

Re: Different Lots of Swiss Comparison

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:25 pm
by Kurt
Charlie a new rifle always makes it better :lol:

That new lot is it 26-02-2018? It sure made me scratch my head the first time out with a new load.

Re: Different Lots of Swiss Comparison

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:57 pm
by charlie young
Kurt, it is 16/02/2017. I generally load to a certain volume, and then weigh each through so I get the same each time, but this is so far off that I decided to drop 75 grains and then compress It more. Still not a "ton" of compression, about .180. Now for the weather to clear and get dry enough to see the misses at 900. Probably a couple months to get rid of the snow and dry enough to see dirt.

Re: Different Lots of Swiss Comparison

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:03 am
by Clarence
Charlie,

My current lot of Swiss 1.5Fg is from 2015-I forget the month and day. It is also very light for volume. With older lots, I would load the .40-65 with ~0.060" compression, weight of 53-54 gr., and get close to 1200 fps with very good accuracy. This time, a different rifle didn't start to group until I got to ~0.250" compression, with 54 gr, and a velocity of 1210 fps. I'll need to re-test the Shiloh; my impression at Atlanta last year was that the grouping at 600 yd. was not nearly as good as the prior lot. Different than many earlier lots, which generally needed only very minor volume changes to group similarly.

Clarence

Re: Different Lots of Swiss Comparison

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 7:34 pm
by charlie young
Thanks for the info Clarence, it will be interesting to see how it performs in the 45 2.4. I used to load just like you, just seating the bullet so you could just hear a very slight crunch. I shoot mostly 600+ yds. and do all my testing at 900 so it won't take long to find out if it's going to work and how much testing to hopefully bring it around.

Re: Different Lots of Swiss Comparison

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 8:03 pm
by charlie young
Quick update, so that U don't need to read the whole thread. New lot of Swiss 1 1/2. Powder measurer threw 69.5 grains when old lot threw 75. So I just opened measurer until I got 75 gr.s of the new Swiss. Everything was the same as far as seating the bullet....just more compression due to higher powder column. Tested it last night....very impressive, shot "really" well, but the thing that surprises me the most was when I cleaned the cases...almost no residue in the case, I mean like almost zippo...very clean burning.