doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Safe shells forDamascus ?

Per 2-p and JW. Part of the primer "fire" is absorbed in warming up the powder and hull base. There is a point for each load where too much "fire" is absorbed and not enough left over to raise the pressure and temperature in the hull "combustion chamber" to the point where the powder will reach normal pressure in the correct time. If the wad moves too much before the powder reaches needed pressure, the load will not reach pressure and you get a blooper; the pressure can't catch up to the expanding combustion chamber volume.

Joe,
I agree about 7625 in the Winter. I have also had trouble with it
in cold weather and in Paper cases. Pb is actually the better choice all around..

The 10 turkeys I killed this past fall and winter using IMR 7625 couldn't tell.

Dead Turkeys tell no tales, matey.

yOu got me on that one...

I've heard bloops from the Win factory light loads in cold weather. I've tried the low pressure Federal 7/8 oz loads from Midway, below freezing, with no apparent performance issues. They certainly sounded fine. But that's also rated as a 1200 fps load; I think the light Wins are down around 1000.

I have had the Win Featherlights give 'bloopers' on nice SoCal days at the skeet range. I think the advertised velocity is under 1000fps. But, I've had some barely spit the shot out the muzzle.

Joe pretty well summed up my concerns with the slower powders in cold weather. One simply needs to understand, these powders "Were Not Designed" for producing lower pressure, they "Were Designed" for pushing heavier loads @ full velocities without increasing pressures. My learning curve on this came about 25+ yrs ago. I had loaded up some 1¼oz #5 lead loads taken directly from the old DuPont handloaders guide @ about 1100 fps with 7k psi. I shot a few & checked a few paterns, wonderful load. Just to further check them out I went out & shot a few early season squirrels (I was predominately a .22RF man for squirrels) & they dispatched them with aploom. Opening day of duck season my son & I were hunting a wooded swamp. Temps had dropped into the high 20's & we had to break ice on the outer edges to get the boat back into the woods. Short story is those loads even @ 7K totally let me down. Every thing got out the bbl fortunately but without enough force to penertrate beyond the near side skin of a fairly short range greenhead.
"Slow Powders" get that way by increased grain size &/or heavier coatings of "Deterrants". Neither of these are conducive to good burning characteristics at low pressures & cold temps.
Anyone is of course free to ignore this at will, but please remember when, sometime in the future you have perhaps laid out a good deal of cash for a hunt of a lifetime, & upon a great opportunity, your gun says "Bloop", just let it cross your mind "2-Piper Told Me So".

I looked on the Federal website but couldn't find the "Vintage Gold". Is Midway having this load made specifically for them?

Yes.