Please Note: Randy Wakeman, his agents, heirs and assigns, hereby disclaims all possible liability for damages including, actual, incidental and consequential, resulting from usage of the information or advice contained in these articles. Use the data and advice at your own risk, and with extreme caution.
Savage 10ML Muzzleloading: Powder Choices 2014
Perhaps you have looked at various "Burn Rate Charts" and wondered what good they are. Well, you have good reason to wonder. Burn rate charts seldom agree. There is no specific meaning for "burn rate," so it shouldn't surprise us that the numbers don't agree. They mean nothing by themselves.
What amateurs call burn rate is not used by professional ballisticians to develop loads. The actual term closest to burn rate used in interior ballistics is "Relative Quickness."
Relative quickness is defined by "closed bomb tests," which quantify pressure rise in a sealed container. However, professional ballisticians do not use relative quickness for load development, either. A closed bomb relative quickness value does not translate into any type of value outside of that 'closed bomb' test. Powder performance varies widely by actual application. Relative quickness is one of several preliminary considerations when assessing a powder's suitability for a particular application by ballistics, but nothing more than that.
Relative quickness does not tell us the physical shape of a powder, its composition, or the types of coatings. It cannot tell us whether a powder is single-based, double based, or triple based. It does not tell us the heat of explosion, the progressive / degressive gas creation values, the ignition characteristics, and so forth. There is no way to translate a double-based powder performance into a single-based powder performance level with any accuracy. Even further, relative quickness does not define the erosiveness of a powder, the residue left by a powder, its ability to meter properly; and on it goes.
Energy content of nitrocellulose varies by manufacturer. It varies by the amount of nitrogen in the nitrocellulose. The more nitrogen, the more gas a powder can make. Once you have a specific type of nitrocellulose the energy content is further controlled by the addition of nitroglycerin, which is basically what constitutes a double-based powder. Now you have further considerations, as nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin do not behave the same way as temperature changes. The amount of nitro percentage varies by powder to powder, and with it its performance in a specific application.
All this combines to make burn rate charts something to ignore, or to view with very little importance placed on them. Professional ballisticians do not use them at all, simply because they have no particular meaning. Ping-Pong balls are nitrocellulose, but not many of us would bother cutting them up and attempting to use them in a firearm.
Several of the above propellants, listed in order of relative burn rates, have proven to be less than ideal in the Savage application due to geometry, coatings, residue, and ignition qualities. Savage has recommended several propellants over the years for the 10ML muzzleloader. Powders such as Alliant 2400 and IMR-4227 were dropped due to ignition and residue considerations. SR-4759 has been discontinued. N120, never an 'official' Savage recommended powder is not available, and Savage has prohibited the use of Lil'gun right in the owners manual.
The only official Savage recommended powder according to the most recent 10ML-II owners manual, that is generally available, is Accurate 5744. Alliant Reloder 7 was one of the original Savage-suggested powders and was found by Barnes Bullets testing to be ideal. Those are the two most acceptable choices today in 2014, with 275 - 300 grain saboted bullets.
Henry Ball designed the Savage around a 300 grain bullet with a 1:24 rate of twist barrel. On the "Savage Muzzleloading DVD," filmed with Henry and Bill Ball, Accurate 5744 was the only propellant used. The Savage Muzzleloading DVD is available through Amazon: https://www.createspace.com/383633 . The caribou on the cover was a bull that I took with Accurate 5744 out of a Savage 10ML-II.
QuickLOAD predicted 2173 fps with 69.65 grains of Accurate 2015 pushing a 300 grain sabot out of the Savage 10ML-II, with a very low Pmax of 21578 psi.
Actual shooting with one of my Savage 10ML-II's with 70 grains by weight of Accurate 2015 with a 300 grain Parker M/H yielded 2194 fps on average.
With the 5% faster relative burn rate of LT-32, a 3% reduction in charge weight is indicated, or 67.9 grains by weight. For initial testing, 68 grains of Accurate LT-32 will be used and should produce velocities in the 2200 fps area., with a 300 grain projectile. Actual projectile weight is slightly higher than 300 grains, as the weight of the sabot is added to the undressed bullet.
NOTES:
Basic working load of the Savage 10ML-II is 42 gr. 4227 / 250 gr. XTP (33,400 to 36,000 PSI AS MEASURED). SABOT STRESS AND RESULTANT POOR ACCURACY MAY BEGIN AT 35,000 PSI PEAK, OR LESS. VELOCITY LIMIT ON SABOTS IS APPROXIMATELY 2500 FPS, UNDER IDEAL CONDITIONS, BASED ON MMP TESTING. FOR RELIABILITY AND CONSISTENCY, STAYING UNDER 2400 FPS and 30,000 PSI Pmax HAS PROVED TO BE BEST PRACTICE.
EXTREMELY HOT AMBIENT CONDITIONS AND HOT BARRELS MAY ROB ACCURACY. AS GAS GENERATION FROM PROPELLANT IS A SIMPLE CHEMICAL REACTION, CHEMICAL REACTIONS TEND TO SPEED UP IN CONCERT WITH TEMPERATURE, THE REASON A LOAD ACCURATE IN COLD WEATHER MAY BE UNACCEPTABLE IN HOT WEATHER. LOADING A SABOT INTO A HOT BARREL CAN QUICKLY SOFTEN AND WEAKEN IT. FOR THESE TWO REASONS CONCERNING SABOT INTEGRITY, STAY AWAY FROM HIGHER PRESSURE LOADS AND HOT BARRELS.
Above: Above, the first two Wakeman shots out of a cold Savage 10ML-II stainless steel / laminate, Federal 209A primer, Barnes T-EZ 290 Flat Base bullet, MMP HPH-12 sabot, 44 grains Accurate 5744. 87 degrees F. ambient, no wind, high humidity. By intentionally not allowing the barrel to cool, the third shot produced a picture-perfect keyhole. While it may be good for an interesting picture, it is good for little else.
NORMA 200 QuickLOAD prediction:
N110, in my opinion, is a very poor choice for 300 grain projectiles. The basis for this should be made quite clear by referring to the above QuickLOAD information.Where Does This Leave the 10ML-II Owner Today?
I. Good question. As the Savage 10ML-II has not been a catalog item for years and will not be produced by Savage Arms again, there is no motivation at all for Savage Arms to continue with any further load development. I can't say that I blame them. According to the most recent Savage Arms owner's manual, you can use Accurate 5744 and 240 - 300 grain saboted projectiles only, no conicals, and that is that. The other recommended propellants are not generally available. Of course, that hardly means there is a lack of propellant, for the Savage 10ML-II can be used with all commercially available "black powder replacement" inline propellants and the current pick of that litter is Blackhorn 209.
II. The "Dumbing Down" of handloading for muzzleloaders is hard to overstate. No major muzzleloading manufacturer has ever published load pressure data. No major powder manufacturer has either, in stark contrast to the reloading data for shotshells, handgun, and rifle cartridges. There are no SAAMI muzzleloading standards, there is no SAAMI data. It is there for most everything else, including rimfire at http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/index.cfm . It is all there, including those rimfire rounds that are not reloadable. Muzzleloading is ignored, the "red-headed orphan" of firearms today.
III. The original 10ML published loads are all poor loads, at least as far as I'm concerned. Over the last twelve years I've worked with countless combinations, and the old data featured inaccurate velocities combined with inaccurate bullets and sabots. I never could get reasonable accuracy out of the "XTP-MAG" bullets, out of anything. Henry Ball told me it was a complete waste of time, back in the day, and Henry was right. I wasted my time anyway.
IV. Savage no longer has muzzleloaders to sell, so current information is not something they are interested in. Hodgdon has enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the "black powder" market for a good long while, so they naturally aren't interested, either. If it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense, so it is hard to fault companies for being businesses. The dry-up and discontinuation of propellants gives Savage owners a headache, in any case.
V. The two most appropriate propellants generally available are Alliant Reloder 7 and Accurate 5744, shown above. The two most promising propellants for the future are Accurate LT-32 and Norma 200. More details to follow on LT-32 and Norma 200, when it becomes available.
Pure opinion by Randy Wakeman.
Smokeless muzzleloading is more popular than ever. http://www.ashlandguninnovations.com/ , http://www.gunwerks.com/ , http://www.performancegunworks.com/Big-Dawg-Muzzleloaders.html , http://www.hankinscustomrifles.com/rifles.html , http://www.rwhart.com/v2/index.asp , http://www.smithscustomguns.com/Smokeless_Muzzleloaders.htm , and http://www.dsscustomguns.com/custom-smokeless-muzzleloaders.aspx are just some of the outfits offering smokeless muzzleloaders using various approaches.
© Copyright 2003-2014 by Randy Wakeman. All Rights Reserved.
Please Note: Randy Wakeman, his agents, heirs and assigns, hereby disclaims all possible liability for damages including, actual, incidental and consequential, resulting from usage of the information or advice contained in these articles. Use the data and advice at your own risk, and with extreme caution.
