Questions

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

The things you say may be true. The fact that remains, regardless, is that the only way to answer the original question is to use original Civil War ammunition. It would really be of great historical value to do this.

[John Holland]

The destruction of original ammunition would be contrary the N-SSA Bylaws:

BYLAWS of the NORTH-SOUTH SKIRMISH ASSOCIATION

ARTICLE I: NAME, OBJECTIVES, ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION

SECTION 2

(H) To encourage the preservation and public display of Civil War era artifacts, manuscripts, and literature.

[Blair]

Just a thought on my part...?
But, would you not also need an original firearm to shoot the original ammo through?
There are almost too many modern variables to take into an accurate account.
My best,
Blair

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

Blair, Right on my friend. I'm sure some 1855 rifles exist out there that are not mint and are begging to be shot. Everything should be as period correct as someone can make it. Even down to the swagged bullet. Sort of a Myth Busters episode that has been not shot yet.

[Don Dixon]

I would strongly suggest even then you will not have your answer. Powder varied so much from batch to batch and improved year to year. It's known the Confederates had better powder with their process. So any testing.....especially with original ammo would be trivial at best.

Any competent ordnance officer knows that powder - black powder or modern smokeless - varies from lot to lot and manufacturer to manufacturer, which is why I find Gorgas' endless complaints to his ammunition laboratories that Confederate ammunition didn't meet the Confederate ordnance manual standards for powder charge weight to be interesting. If the laboratories were testing powder, the weights for almost each batch of ammunition should have been different.

As for the Confederate mill/process at Augusta producing superior powder. LOL. Pure lost cause mythology. No other black powder manufacturer, then or now, has ever used Rains' process. Although it was significant industrial achievement, Augusta produced no more than 3 million pounds of powder. Between 1861 and mid-1864 the Federal Army purchased over 15 million pounds. "Confederate" powder was primarily run through the blockade, not produced at Augusta.

Regards,
Don Dixon

[Eggman]

The following chart is based upon contemporary data, part of which comes from disinterested tests conducted by the Dutch Army Shooting School in 1859-60 when the Dutch Army was evaluating what it regarded as the best military shoulder arms in the world for possible adoption by the Dutch Army. Notably, the Springfield rifle musket was not among them. The Dutch, not surprisingly, selected the Swiss Feldstutzer for adoption, but then decided to hold off and ultimately go with breechloading technology:
Don Dixon

I'd be leery about what the Dutch had to say in those days. As Edgar Allan Poe observed about that time, "The Dutch have, perhaps, and indeterminate idea that a curtain is not a cabbage."

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

Ok, So what is the consensuses on a type of powder to use that would be close to original? Maybe try several types? By the way the Dutch did get the chocolate right!

[Eggman]

I should interject here that it's not wise to stigmatize the Dutch, being one of that ilk myself. You know -- "There's the Highland Dutch and the Lowland Dutch, and the Rotterdam Dutch and the ___ ______ Dutch." I pride myself in being one of the former.

[Eggman]

Ok, So what is the consensuses on a type of powder to use that would be close to original? Maybe try several types? By the way the Dutch did got the chocolate right!

So since GOEX is the direct descendent of the original (Civil War) Dupont, wouldn't an inquiry directed to GOEX about formula consistency be in order??? To me logically GOEX or some older but not antique Dupont (still have some) would be the ideal test bed.

[Don Dixon]

One the first issues in a test. Both Federal and Confederate musket powder was granulated so that none of it would pass through a sieve with holes 0.03 inches [0.762 mm] in size, and all of it would pass through a sieve with holes 0.06 inches [1.524 mm] in size. This is comparable in size to today?s 1.5Fg GOEX and Swiss No. 4 cartridge powder and is somewhat coarse compared to the FFg or FFFg granulations of black powder that modern competitive shooters use in their rifle muskets. (U.S. Army, Ordnance Manual, 1862, 242; C.S. Army, Field Manual, 72; Benton, Course of Instruction, 27-

I misspoke in one of my posts above. I should have checked my data rather than relying on recollection. The Lost Cause myth would have one believe the Augusta powder mill was the major source of Confederate gunpowder. Certainly Rains? estimate that his mill produced 2,750,000 pounds of gunpowder, and the estimate of the authors of Never For Want of Powder that Augusta produced 3,168,450.7 pounds of powder, is indicative of a major manufacturing achievement. However, between 1 January 1861 and 30 June 1864 the Federal Army procured 18,569,101 pounds of gunpowder; averaging 5.3 million pounds per year. At that rate, the Federal Army would have procured an additional four million pounds by the end of the war. Thus, the Augusta works could have produced during its entire production cycle an amount of powder comparable to only 14.8 to 17 percent of the powder procured by the Federal Army from January 1861 to June 1864. It is difficult to believe that the Confederate Army could have effectively fought the war with such a disparity in powder manufacture, and the obvious conclusion is that the majority of the Confederacy?s gunpowder was run through the blockade. (Benet, Ordnance Reports, IV, 997)

So, how do you account in a modern test for disparities in the quality of manufacture. The institutional wisdom seems to be that on the Federal side Dupont and Hazard made pretty good powder, while that from other manufacturers ranged from good to very marginal. Reports reprinted in the O.R. and from Confederate correspondence in the National Archives indicate that a lot of Confederate ammunition was really pretty lousy stuff. One can see the problem today in modern black powder. Having shot them over my chronograph, Swiss is by far the best, there is a lot of variation in standard deviation between lots of GOEX, and I wouldn't foul my bore with Elephant when that was available. All three were made with the same materials (saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal) in the same proportions, and while they all went bang the difference in quality was/is startling.

Regards,
Don Dixon