A very good friend of mine once let me read his copy of Gough Thomas. When you get back to your copy & do thorough checking you will find First; Thomas did not run the test, but reported on one done by a "Powder Manufacture" (un-named) who obviously had A DOG IN THE FIGHT ie powder to sell. ABSOLUTELY no details of the test as to how it was done, what types of powders were used etc were given. Reasons given were pure "Speculation" on Thomas' part. What was meant by "Blind Test"??? If it was absolutely "Blind" how did a group of shooters tell which loads recoiled the most??? Would they not have had to have known there was some difference as they fired them or they could not have stated which group recoiled the most. There are simply far too many unanswered questions in the Thomas report & the reasoning so absolutely ridiculus for this to even be considered as any kind of data at all. The fast powders recoiled so quickly the shooters didn't have time to feel it as much!!! If you believe that my friend please send me your mailing address, I've got a few items I'd like to ship to you COD PRONTO.
8-Bore has very aptly stated the facts concerning modern powders, the available ranges of either charge wt or burn rate for a suitable load are narrow at best. Many years ago as the change was made from black to bulk smopkeless the charge wt for equivelent loads was reduced by about half. When the change was further made from bulk to dense the charge wt was again dropped close to half again. Thus a 3 dram load of black weighed 82 grains, a 3 dram equivelent of many bulk powders as Shultz, DuPont etc weighed 42 grains while a 3 dram equivelent of many dense powders weighed around 22-24 grains. These were significant changes in actual charge wts & each change of powder type did result in lowereed recoil when given similar ballistics. There is little doubt in my mind the loadss the powder/ammo maker Co had tested which Thomas "Reported on" were loads containg a bulk powder versus a dense one & they in fact did recoil less. As Thomas gave us absolutely no details on that test though, actually I don't think he had any, my guess is worth exactly what his was, a Big Fat "0", but I am at least honest enough to state mine is nothing but a guess. My reasoning though is much more belivable than his if a little common sense is applied.

Miller/TN
I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra