Are Pellets
for Dummies?
Well,
the straight answer is a bit of "yes and no." There are
considerations when attempting to use pellets, and relying on pellets
for consistent performance that the savvy frontloader should be aware
of. As explored in other articles, there are pellets that in my opinion
are totally unacceptable in performance levels to bet an animal's life
on.
Goex Pinnacle "E-Z
Loads" are tapered, larger than bore size sticks as are the sticks
from "American Pioneer" that are marketed as "Sticks."
Also sold as "Jim Shockey's Gold Sticks," all three of these
substandard products are made by the same smarmy company, so they stick
it to the customer regardless of the name on the bottle that pokes you
in the eye.
There are severe
problems with the "sticks." Poorly formed, all three
have visible chunks missing out of them. As American Pioneer / Shockey's
Gold "company" was found to have violated Hodgdon's cylindrical
pellet patent under the "Cleanshot" pellets they sold, the "sticks"
are tapered-and are larger than the bores of most muzzleloaders. Well,
that helped American Pioneer / Shockey's skim around the patent. In the
process, the already erratic velocities just got worse. The sticks tend
to shave off a bit of themselves when you try to load them, adding random
parts of themselves outside the muzzle or on the ground where they serve
only as waste. As the most inconsistent muzzleloading propellant available
today, it seems that Shockey's Gold / American Pioneer may be for dummies
in all forms: the shaveomatic stick form just makes a really bad product
even worse.
From a cost
per shot perspective, pellets make little sense. Triple Se7en Magnum pellets,
in this area, go for $25 or so a box of fifty-- a dollar a shot. If you
read the fine print on the Triple Se7en Magnum pellet box, you'll find
the weight is 4.5 ounces. At a sale price of about $90 per pound, it isn't
hard to understand why Hodgdon loves to sell them. There is a built in
product shelf-life issue with pellets; the little plastic packet of pellets
is poorly sealed; I hesitate to call it sealed at all.
Unfired Triple
Se7en pellets, according to Federal Ammo information acquired during the
development of their Fusion primers, discovered that unfired Triple Se7en
pellets in humid environments can quickly absorb up to 30% moisture resulting
in decaying velocities as the water content increases. As the poorly packaged
T7 pellets suck water, their ignition becomes harder and harder in concert.
Bloopers, misfires, and smoldering pellets limping out the barrel are
what you may find with water-laden T7 pellets. This has only been made
worse by weak, gimmicky primers designed to fight the nasty "Triple
Se7en Crud Ring." It is a known issue with the Remington primers
and even the weak "Triple Se7en" primers. With small bore rifle
and pistol primers, misfires are a probability if not a certainty. The
hotter flame front of the Federal Fusion 209 primers (also sold as
CCI muzzleloading primers) was designed to at least give ignition
with T7 pellets in rugged hunting conditions where the Remington and Winchester
Triple Se7en branded primers have become failboat ignition attempts. It
is not the primer alone, of course, but the efficiency of the breechplug
that combine to give reliable ignition. Of late, the Knight breechplugs
gave become filthier and less efficient, invariably splashing primer crud
outside the breechplug. Currently, the Thompson interrupted thread breechplugs
and the Savage 10ML-II breechplugs give the most reliable ignition with
pellets, and about everything else.
Though dirty,
and more corrosive than the still corrosive Triple Se7en pellets, Pyrodex
pellets are easier to ignite and more reliable with borderline ignition
systems. No pellet attempt allows the muzzleloading enthusiast to properly
work up a load. Two 50 grain equivalent "preformed" charges
tend to be more accurate than three pellets, as a generality. They are
useable, but hardly the best of breed.
In the zeal
to sell $90 per pound "powders," efficiency, accuracy, and shelf
life have all been compromised. Reliability has as well, which is really
no option on a hunt. There are quantifiable reasons for all these issues
that may real their ugly heads contingent on individual rifle brand and
type.
Where some
opt to hold their noses and waste money on pellets, there are some recorded
severe problems with three pellet loads, particularly Triple Se7en loads.
Fracturing and crushing of pellets is a common occurrence, resulting in
huge pressure variations and wild accuracy fluctuations. Let's take a
look:
Warning:
The above graph depicts 150 grain volumetric loading pressure traces measured
under laboratory conditions via radial transducers. These loadings that
MAY be in excess of manufacturer's recommendations. The highest pressure
load combinations depicted here are recommended and touted by many: Knight
Rifles, Hornady, Thompson, and others. I obviously do not suggest their
use, for equally obvious reasons.
It should become
apparent that the average peak pressures generated by 3 ea. 50 grain volume
Triple Se7en pellets may be erratic, and perhaps dangerously high. A normal
tamping of the sabot and powder (pellet column) can easily generate
40,000 PSI or more. With substantially crushed pellets, the pressures
are way, way out of whack as compared to loose powder loads. A propellant
so very sensitive to standard loading practices is one to stay away from,
in my opinion, for the obvious reasons. A 10,000 PSI jump based on seating
a sabot is more than trivial.
This should call into question the peculiar notion that a pellet is a
"preformed 50 grain volumetric blackpowder equivalent." Nothing
could be further from the truth: it is one of the most infamous whopperdoodles
that can be found in muzzleloading today.
True blackpowder
in laboratory tests does not begin to breech even 15,000 PSI MAP with
reference loads. Yet, the "blackpowder equivalent" in Triple
Se7en loads creates more than DOUBLE the peak pressure in the best case
scenario, soaring past 275% of the blackpowder reference pressures if
the pellets are tamped with the same projectile-to nearly 40,000 PSI.
A load that develops more than double the maximum average peak pressure
is no "equivalent." In fact, a double pressure load would be
characterized as reckless, if not insane, by most reloading manuals. Somehow,
this type of nutball "equivalency" gets a free pass in muzzleloading.
It shouldn't. Does anyone think that double the pressure "blackpowder
equivalent loads" just might help poorly made CVA branded trashcan
muzzleloaders fly apart in your hands?
Note that the
Triple Se7en FFg loose powder is far more predictable, as is Blackhorn
209 that gives better velocities with lower peak pressure than T7 FFg.
The companies that direct you to take "three pellets and call me
in the morning" had better have product that is appropriate for 40,000
PSI MAP service levels. In my opinion, many do not.
So, yes, the
case is made that pellets can indeed be for dummies, based on cost per
shot, crud rings, radically high pressures in 150 grain "preformed
charge" configurations, and in the cases of Shockey's / American
Pioneer-it is just bad, unsuitable propellant made worse.
Loose
powder in not only provided in containers that are less prone to contamination:
they are intrinsically more predictable, more reliable, more accurate
as well as more economical. Let's just say that loose powder is what savvy
muzzleloaders use-- for all the right reasons.
Copyright
2008 by Randy Wakeman. All Rights Reserved.
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