MLKeith

I just ordered five pounds of Pinnacle fffg from Powderinc and will compare it to Black Mag'3 which has been to date my best powder by a long shot. I agree the four pounds of Black Mag'3 cost me about $37.00 a pound with shipping and hazmat. The Pinnacle will be about $25.50 a pound with shipping and hazmat. I am with you wishing that someone would stock these cutting edge powders in the Phoenix Arizona area. I am working on distributors and dealers but apparently they are only interested in stocking the east coast. If the Goex measures up to the Black Mag'3 performance and ease of cleaning and multiple no swab shots it will be difficult for the Black Mag'3 sales to compete unless something happens to lower their costs. I would really like to see the Black Mag'3 make the market as the people I have talked to seem to be very cordial and willing to assist as much as they can. Goex will stay afloat regardless just due to the size of the company and the inertia of the real Black Powder sales. Comparison will be interesting. I do have a chronograph. When compared with Triple Seven I was amazed at how little velocity Triple Seven makes for the amount of recoil that you feel. Black Mag'3 feels a lot softer on recoil but makes considerably more velocity in my Omega. I believe it is better in longer barrel rifles whereas the Triple Seven can function fairly well in shorter barrels due to the almost violent initial light off which is what the high felt recoil comes from.

cayugad

MLKeith.. I will sure be looking forward to some of your readings ... also your opinion of the powder. I have my brother picking me up a pound of the Black Mag3 right now. Then I am going to see how they compare also...

Another great powder at that site is the Swiss 3f Black Powder. Burns cleaner then most black powders and the power from it is exceptional. You really have to cut back on the charge with that stuff...

MLKeith

I almost ordered some swiss as I have always read about how great the stuff is. I noticed that the price is not that much better than the new synthetics however. I might still get some for my sidelock T/C Hawken .54. I just bought one from a gun store that has not a scratch on it and came with a tackle box full of accessories. It has the Lyman 57 peep sight installed and the original sights in the box. I think the accessories and bullets primers etc add up to about $50. I got the whole package for $190 out the door. I usually don't find deals like that and almost broke my arm reaching for the wallet. I think I am going to order a drop in barrel in slow twist .50 for competition target shooting with patched round ball.

cayugad

That really is a great deal... thats the reason I have three of them. When I see a deal like that I just can not pass them up. Those Green Mountain Barrels are sure good shooters. I have that .58 caliber with the 1:70 twist and it is one excellent shooting rifle. Kind of heavy, but really a good shooter. I am getting one of those .50 calibers for my flinters with the roundball twist just for some fun shooting....

cayugad

ML Keith... when you test the Pinnacle, I would be interested to see how it shoots heavy sabots. As I found out before it did not shoot the large conicals very well. Today I tried some Remington 405 grain FP .458 diameter .45 caliber projectiles. Usually accuracy with Goex or Triple Se7en is outstanding. With Pinnacle the accuracy was [:'(] terrible....

If you happen to have any large sabot combinations, give them a try...

Mark whiz

cayugad.......................what powder charge of Pinnacle did you shoot those 405s with? It used to take 125gr of the 2fg CleanShot to get results with the 400gr Precision Extremes I used to shoot. I would suspect your Wolverine would probably need at least 110gr of the 3fg Pinnacle/CleanShot/American Pioneer powders to get that monster downrange well.

cayugad

I was shooting 100 grains of Pinncale because with the other powders I did 100 grains for the best accuracy also. At first I started out with 80 grains and they were all over the place. So I kicked the charge up, but they did not get better at all.

I then loaded some 240 grain Nosler HP's and they would not group at all. To make sure it was the powder and not me, I went and got some 240 grain T/C XTP's and then drilled a hole right through the ten ring. For some reason, the Wolverine and 240 grain T/C XTP's is like THE LOAD!

Mark whiz

I know how that goes. Using the 300gr XTPMags, I can't even MAKE my Knight miss - even when shooting off-hand. What a horrible predicament.

MLKeith

How long is the barrel on the rifle you were using? I am a little surprised that the accuracy is not better. I think the Pinnacle is similar in chemistry to the Black Mag'3 (both ascorbic acid based powders I think) and the Black Mag'3 seems to like heavy bullets although I believe it takes a long barrel to get the velocity due to the slower pressure rise rate compared to "hot" powders like Triple Seven that start with a sharp initial blast and high pressure spike. I have done most of my comparisons with my Omega which has a longer barrel than some of the other rifles. Black Mag'3 works great with 300gr. sabot/bullet combinations and 348gr. Powerbelts. The only heavy bullets I have in .50cal are the 348gr. Powerbelts. I have a mold coming from Lee to cast heavier conicals of a sort. If it gets here soon I may be able to start wringing out those bullets and powder also. My big problem is I have a small retirement business making lubricants for Bicycles and smokeless firearms and finding time to shoot has become a problem as my lubricant business has become more than part time. I am also curious as to how you can shoot a .458 bullet in a sabot. The largest bullet I can cram down my Omega barrel is a .451 and I have to go to a Harvester sabot to get those to load.

Mark whiz

MLKeith..........

My Knight is a 22" barrel and I believe cayugad's Wolverine is also a 22" barreled rifle. Ours are basically the same rifle, just a different trigger.

Mine did just fine with Clean Shot and the large sabots - I just needed a big cherge to get them there............115gr of 2fg for 350gr sabots and 125gr for the 400gr sabots. Those loads equated to 105gr and 115gr of Pyro RS.