What about Schuetzen brand black powder?

[PEteacher]

It seems that most on this forum seem to prefer Swiss or Old Eynsford powder. I rarely see Schuetzen mentioned. It is only slightly more costly than plain old Goex. What are the benefits or disadvantages of Schuetzen (and/ or Goex) for use in our Shilohs?
FYI I have 45-2.1, 40-65, and hopefully soon a 14 lb. barrelled 50-2.5.

Thanks,
<><
Jeff

[DeadEye]

It has been a few years since but when I tried it (3 cases worth) I could not get enough velocity out of it to hold a group together to the Ram line. Schuetzen is shot at 200 yds.(meters??) and for that it worked fine, Pigs at 300 m. were fine but as I got out to Turkeys it started coming apart. Before I gave up I was up to 75 gr. in my 45-70 but a large part of that was burning after it left the barrel. Quite a display of fireworks at dusk. It appeared to be a slower burning powder. Others with more recent experience may want to correct me on that.

Paul

[Woody]

One word - consistency. Swiss has it, the others are still trying to catch up. OE is getting close, but not there yet. The others pale in comparison.

Woody

[gunlaker]

I agree with those guys. I shot a couple of pounds of Schuetzen FFg through my .45-90 Borchardt. At 200m for practice it was fine. It lost 80 fps over Swiss 1.5 though. I could not get it to shoot with a reasonable velocity SD so I didn't bother to buy any more as I doubt the loads I cooked up would hold paper at long range. Maybe I could have made it work but I wasn't interested in spending piles of time on it when Swiss 1.5 worked so quickly and easily.

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

A few years ago I loaded quite a bit of Schuetzen 2f 65 grs.under the saeco 645 bullet and the rcbs 82084, and used it in both my wife's Winchester bpcr and my #3 Shiloh. The Winchester got along with it better than the Shiloh, but that was likely more a result of not fully developing a load for the Shiloh.
Had the front sight on her rifle not shook loose of the dovetail at the end of the first and only bptr midrange match she shot, she would of got an expert classification, but as it was she ended up with a Sharpshooter card. She also put it to good affect in a number of gong matches.
Since then I've spent quite a bit of time with OE and like the results that it is giving.
So give that Schuetzen a try if you're a mind to, just be mindful of the fouling control especially in hot dry weather, it's fouling tends to get a bit problematic when the temps get high and the humidity gets low.

[PEteacher]

Thank you all for that information. My supply of Kik is about gone so it's time to buy powder. Will likely go with Old Eynsford.

<><
Jeff

[PEteacher]

Thank you all for that information. My supply of Kik is about gone so it's time to buy powder. Will likely go with Old Eynsford.

<><
Jeff

[Don McDowell]

OE 2f and 1 1/2 both work well in the 45-70, but I prefer the 2f with bullets under 530, 535 1 1/2 gets the call.
Start with about 1/4 inch compression and work from there. Probably around 3 tenths is where both will do their best work.
2f works the best for me in the 40-65.

[Whitehorse]

I shoot 3F Schuetzen in my 40/65 and it shoots great. I shoot 62gr. Under a BACO bullet 420gr. It's going 1250 and that's what my rifle likes. It's very consistent.

[40-65rl]

Don, what is the OE 2 load for your 40-65?

[Don McDowell]

62 grain with greasers, 64 with patched

Thats in starling cases.

[losttrail]

In 2012 I was given a C. Sharps 1875 in .40-65 by my oldest brother. I think he's just trying to destroy my ability to retire since he also got me into CAS. He had inherited it from an older friend that had passed and my brother already has his own Pedersoli "Down Under" .45-70 so he wanted me to get into BPCR so we could shoot together.

So in preparation for the 2012 Quigley shoot, we spent a week trying every manner of powder, primer, bullet we could find for the .40-65. What we finally determined was it likes heavier bullets, 420-430gr Money 2, Win LRM primers and Schuetzen 2f powder. I ended up buying several cases (at $10.95/lb then) of powder and have almost used it all up. Sadly, don't get to shoot as much now as I was then.

Will try the Schuetzen 2f in the Shiloh Quigley .45-110 when I get it late this year or early next and hopefully I can have only one powder for both BPCR and the flintlock. But I hear the OE is a very good powder but it was not released when I bought all the Schuetzen. Have also heard the .45-110 likes 1f so may not get lucky.

[bpcr shooter]

100+gr of 2f is really going to bark!! I shoot 108.5 in my 45-100 and its a handful, hopefully you got a heavy barrel

[jackrabbit]

The question is "Do you want to win?" If you don't care about being competitive, or you are just plinking and messing around, sure use something else. But if you want to win, order some 1 1/2 Swiss. The numbers don't lie, virtually all of the winners of any big BPCR or BPTR matches are using Swiss powder.

[Don McDowell]

Yeh, but what about the occasional shooter that shows up shooting OE and outshoots a number of Swiss shooters?