777 in a 10 ga
 

Ladies and Gents,

I came into 5lbs of Hodgen 777 FFg I also shoot muzzleloaders. Has anyone tried the stuff in their shotgun? I was thinking of a 3 dram charge, any comments?

Best
Mike

I have not tried it but some one here should pitch in soon with some thing....charlie

I haven’t tried 777 as yet but have studied its chemistry, thinking of loading 12 gauge Federal paper hulls/fiber wads with it. Keep in mind that “dram” (relative to gunpowder) is a unit of weight, and that 777 is more energetic than an equivalent weight of black powder. That’s because its primary oxidizer is a perchlorate not a nitrate as in BP. Thus a 3 dram load of 777 will generate more pressure than 3 drams of BP. Well in any case for safety sake I urge you to contact Hodgdon for vintage 10 gauge load recommendations with 777 before starting out.

Ive seen a few people on the cas forum load it but when in doubt I suppose you could have the 777 loads pressure tested. Will Precision test BP or similar loads ? Probably worth emailing them and asking and its only $40 to have have a load pressure tested.

I’ve used it in a 10 gauge double barrel muzzleloader .

Craig's post reminds me how back in the day my friend George had a 12 gauge double muzzleloader his dad got in a barroom deal, and we shot the heck out of it using homemade black powder and even "better stuff" made with Science Club access to the stock room at the school chem lab. Wadding was usually a plug of newspaper and we shot regular steel BB's to good effect while rabbit and squirrel hunting. Percussion caps weren't available locally but we made our own with tiny dabs of another chem mixture held in small cups made of aluminum foil. All that and an interest in amateur rocketry started my life-long interest and schooling in chemistry. But for years now I've felt badly about scarfing those and other chemicals :nono: and have tried to repay by being generous with the school's Alumni Association and its goal to help needy students with tuition. Paybacks can be long overdue but good. :)

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.

I miss wrote down near the bottom of my reply I meant to say, 102grs of 3F BP [ 3 3/4 dram by volume - not weight.