A dram to muzzle loaders is 27.3grs by volume, not weight. I started shooting BP back in the early 1970s, and spent many a hour on the National range and everyone I knew had powder measures for volume. No one carried around a weight scale. With BP or it's substitutes we're loading in the low pressure ranges, so other than accuracy a couple of grains one way or the other doesn't make any difference. In the 2nd edition of Lyman's BP handbook the highest pressures listed for a 12ga shooting 1 1/8oz of shot with 102grs of 3F BP [ 3 3/4 dram by weight ] is 4400psi. So if you're loading a " normal " 12ga 3 dram load of 82grs a slight pressure raise isn't going to put you in any danger. 3 drams in a 10ga would be even less pressure. You don't need to pressure test anything, you're perfectly safe.
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Paul Harm
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