These are valuable accounts of actual incidents that have taken place during the transition from black powder to smokeless powder.
One of the inherent potential dangers of reloading
at that time was measuring by volume rather than by weight. Many hunters were not fully aware of the pressure differences between black and nitro smokeless powders. They carried their black powder volume measuring techniques right into the smokeless
20th Century. Possibly adding to the potential confusion-for handloaders- were the various"bulk" powders which were created by powder manufacturers to allow measuring by volume, though they were modern smokeless or semi-smokeless in manufacture as powders for that era. Paul Mathews in
" The Paper Jacket" illustrates this potential confusion, as does the Ideal Handbook which
later became the Lyman Manual on reloading. The Ideal volume actually recommended the Hazard Powder Company of Connecticut during this period. Even today, the shotgun shell reloader must know exactly what he is about as to manuals, powder amount , shot loads and existing pressures.
|