I've never given " cleaner burning " powders with a shotgun a second thought - it's a smooth bore, not a rifle. If there's a little more fouling at the end of the day, so be it. It all comes out with a couple of passes with a tornado brush, a soapy water patch, and a clean water patch. But that's just me. Grafs sells their brand of BP cheaper than the others. I usually get 20 pounds at once to make the hazmat fee a little more bearable. Or get a couple of buddies to go in with you. In the past I've used 1F, 2F, and 3F for shotguns. It takes less powder for the finer the powder. For 1oz loads it's 75/3f, 82/2F, and 94/1F. Actually 82grs is the load normally used with 1 1/8oz 12ga loads. And probably 2F is what most guys would use. That's a 3 dram load that is suppose to have a 1200fps velocity. But my Lyman BP handbook shows a 3 1/4 dram load of 2F to achieve 1200fps with fiber wads. This is in muzzle loaders, but I don't think there'd be much difference if it were cartridge loads. I sometimes use a star crimp for BP, but normally cut the 1/4" of crimp of a paper or plastic shell and use a roll crimp. Then I can write or use one of my stamps on the over shot card of what's inside. With the stamp I use black ink if it's a BP load and red ink if it's a nitro load. You can get the stamps and roll crimper from BPI. A star crimp is used for good " friends "- I just slip one in their shell pocket when they're not looking. A buddy left his plastic container of WWs in the club house one day. I load just Remingtons so I had to find a couple of WWs and load them with smoke. It took me about 3 shells before I could get them looking exactly like his so he wouldn't notice the difference. Once about 9 years ago there was 5 of us shooting skeet and one friend was shooting twice at birds he missed. At station 6 he was getting low so I said here, have one of mine. At that time I was loading BP in Federal shells only so I knew what was what. It was just getting dark out and he was shooting a ported Browning O/U. When he shot, the gun with flames coming out of the ports about 12" went up in the air almost out of his hands. After a bunch of cuss words he said he thought he blew the gun up. NO BODIEE ask me for a shell anymore. I can't even give one away.

I really like the story above about the BP load in a modern Browning O/U.
I picked up a D grade this last year and it is now with a gunsmith to recut the checkering. Meanwhile, I managed to pick up a #2G grade with Damascus barrels that also need some cosmetic stock work. I was not prepared to do partial restorations on the stocks and finish on two Parkers at the same time but the opportunity was there! I could not bear the thought of someone tossing these guns away. To me; shooting a vintage Parker with BP loads is just another cartridge to reload. I think I will stay with BP loads for ease of reloading, plus RST loads are still higher in pressure than the original BP loads were. These early guns were not proofed for smokeless, so why shoot it with smokeless? The reaction from other shooters at the trap range is worth it.

Kingston, shooting BP is fine. I do it for fun, but normally shoot nitro in all my SxSs, even the Damascus barrel ones. Don't think you can't, or shouldn't shoot nitro in them. It's easy to keep pressures down at 7000psi, or even under. Now you're at BP pressure loads. Those barrels won't know the difference. I know Remington claimed their barrels were proofed for nitro loads so I'm sure Parker guns would be every bit as strong. I just got done shooting a 1873 Damascus barrel gun at 5-stand with nitro. No problems.

I’ve not loaded BP or a substitute in shells . I do however have an original 10 gauge percussion SxS I shoot some . Charlie’s correct Pyrodex is just as much trouble to clean as regular BP . In my 10 gauge I use granulated Hodgdons 777 . Pyrodex like BP has corrosive properties 777 does not . I’ve left ML deer rifles fired and uncleaned for a couple months (by accident) and when I went to clean them there was NO corrosion . With 777 all you need is tap water I prefer hot hot water but cold will do the job . You can take unburned 777 drip some water on it and it dissolves .

I agree 200% I don’t want BP in my damascus/twist cartridge guns and use smokeless exclusively . Nothing wrong with others that wish to use BP but it’s my choice NOT to .