There was a time, many years ago, when collective wisdom indicated that you load the little three-two until it "cracked", meaning until it sounded more like a modern rifle that a muzzleloader. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS!
That was not only for the little .32; I read it somewhere (maybe the Dixie catalog) many years ago as the way to find the optimum load for a rifle, and it has resurfaced fairly often on the Web. The theory is that the change in pitch means you are breaking the sound barrier. This brings with it the added turbulence of supersonic flight, reducing the accuracy of the shot. I agree totally with our favorite Uncle that this is NOT the way to find your best load.
~Kees~
You're spot-on Kees!
It's common knowledge that every muzzleloader wants, and looks for, the very flattest trajectory possible, to beat that old adage of a muzzleloader being at best, a limited range rifle.
The faster the ball, the flatter the trajectory...and that's just fine, up to a point.
Especially, when we depend on the Kinetic Energy Formula os often used today.
However, once that ball enters into true supersonic speeds, strange things start to happen, which are due mostly to its shape....still yet, a rifle that was once a great 60 / 100yd gun, now has all same those forces x10 or more, working
against it.
FWIW: (better pour yourself a cup of Jo, this may get long).......................
Knowledge of those forces were explored very early on, by folks like Cpt. John Norton, a British Officer stationed in India back around 1820 / 1830.
A well know Gunsmith / experimenter named William Greener in London England toyed with these same ideas during the 1830' & 1840's, and then, the now famous French Capt. Claude-Etiemme Minie, in 1849, introduced the world to the Minie-Ball, and this changed the face of War in every battle, in every country since.
The smoothbore had an effective range of 50 yards and an extended range of 200 yards (by volley). The rifled musket increased the lethality of ranged combat by providing an effective range of 300 yards, with an extended range of nearly a half-mile.
No longer could artillery crews set up 'just outside' musket range to deliver devastating grapeshot or canister fire, as they had done during the Napoleonic Wars, because the rifled musket could easily pick off those crews if they were within the 300 yard effective range of canister.
(Due to this fact, the development of conical-shaped cannon shells also began a revolution in artillery, as ammunition like the Parrott and James shells allowed for true rifling in cannon, giving the same guns longer range and with greater accuracy.)
Now, having said all that, it seems that a portion of the muzzleloading community has suddenly rediscovered ballistic coefficients, the importance placed on them has resulted in an idolatry of BC's far in excess of what they really mean in today's muzzleloading environment.
What is a Ballistic Coeffieient?
The Ballistic Coefficient of an object is a physics term, based around a formula that defines how an object will move and act while traveling through space and time.
The BC does not affect the gravitationl weak force, but rather the bullets ability to move through the resistnace caused by the compression of air around the object, and the flow of that air, first around, and then behind. This activity is usually referred to as External Ballistics. Wah?
It may be cute to denigrate a bullet or a ball as bad due to its flight "number," but it has comparatively little real world significance in the hunting field.
To begin with, we must first understand there is no "explosion" in the barrel, that sends the bullet or ball on the way, when we fire a gun...if that happened, we would destroy / melt the ball or projectile, possibly even destroy the gun with each firing....
The fact is, we have just converted a solid to a gas by means of heat, ie, flint, or cap ignition that starts the process.
The loud sound we hear when firing a gun comes from 2 sources:
A.) First is from the pressurized gases created in the chamber and escaping through the barrel.
B.) The sudden change in temperature and pressure is what creates the ‘gun blast’ we are all familiar with....there is no, none, zero, nada, "explosions" as we know the term, taking place.....albeit we often run into folks that believe just that.
Remember that when discussing such things around the camp fire.
A current day description of this process may well be described as .... "
The Sound of Silence".
When thinking of increasing the "speed" of a roundball for the sake of velocity, remember this;
A.)The forces working against the ball, don't rise as rapidly for a very short distance, but then they take off again exponentially.
If you look at the force on a 0.50 caliber ball at 1400fps, the ball loses 3.88 fpe for each foot it travels - no wonder it slows down so quickly, it is those "forces" working against it!
B.) The wind factor is "
always" present in some form, even 'unnoticeable' wind.
And then, when there is a cross wind, a portion of the speed of the wind is added to the velocity of the projectile (the vector sum), so the ball feels like it is going a little faster than it actually is.
That's because the forces on the ball, no matter what size, rise sharply with velocity, this extra forward resistance from what the ball would normally feel, is now translated to a side push, which accelerates the ball to the side, in the direction away from the wind.
This means that the most 'damage' done by a cross wind
occurs in the early part of the flight when the ball is at it 'fastest'.
The ball slows down, but the sideways velocity does not, so the path of the ball curves even more as it travels down range. This is why shooting in a variable cross wind is, and will remain, one of the most frustrating things you can imagine....no matter what size the ball, although a heavier ball will face these challenges a bit more easily.
I apologize for getting so long winded, but as a graduate of Colorado School of Trades, being a life long "Gun Nut" for better than six decades, and a one time fairly strong competitor in the discipline of Silhouette, along with hosting the 1983, and the 1985 NRA LRP Nationals at Ft. Bliss, Texas, I have a
very strong interest in ballistics, especially those of the lowly Muzzleloader....that, along with a strong desire to de-bunk all the 'old wives tales' that have plagued this noble sport since its popularity was regained, back in the early 1970's, has me sometimes preaching to the choir, and for that I apologize.
Uncle Russ...
Topic: CVA Varmint .32 (Read 2602 times)