Smokeless powder pellets

Some years ago savage released a ML that was made to shoot smokeless powder Great Black Powder sucks and is acidic the minute its fired. Please keep the anger to yourselves if offended. All the ML brands slammed savage saying pressures were too high for barrels. You have to weigh smokeless and a few grains off target will explode gun in your face, damage barrel or change your sitein grouping. Blah bla blah.
Well after some time why hasnt someone made a smokeless powder pellet with uniform results, power, weight. Then the rest can follow suit. Beefy enough barrel strength, like IDK a rifle. As speed picks up it could come in 30 cal sizes.
Yes I know there are smokeless powder ML companies doing good things. But still weighing loose powder.
It makes me feel stupid that it only seems to be to notice this
Please save the advice if yea go ahead and make it so we all can have it. I thought about it and I simply am not a design engineer.
Happy hunting or at least ML hunting

I'm guessing the smokeless pellet would be like the black powder substitute pellet - less accurate for some and cost more.

For me, premeasured loose powder is just as easy to use as a pellet.

Thanks for reply and happy you are content with measuring your own and pouring it in in a treestand when its 10 degrees and windy. I just feel the pellets would be easier. Thats why the are popular to begin with.
Have a good season

Most of us using Loose Form powder don't measure it out in the field. We premeasure the powder at home and have it in vials. So in that since it is just as easy to use when hunting to pour a vial as it is to drop 2 pellets that you would most likely carry in a vial or speed loader too. I've used both and prefer the loose powder for several reasons.

The one possible down side I can see to Pelletized smokeless would be the volumes. The guys that load smokeless use lesser amounts than black powder subs. So it may be harder to figure a volume to pre-size into a pellet. I've seen some use as low as just about 40gnW and go up to around 70gnW or so. Loose is much easier to fine tune the load since you can weigh it out in charges as low as half grain or even less. Not sure how the coagulants used to pelletize black powder subs into pellet form would work with smokeless progressive burning powders. Smokeless is can be more load sensitive in 1 or 2 grain increments than black too when it comes to accuracy too.

Interesting question though. Not sure I have ever heard anyone bring that one up. You might get more reply's to your questions if you post this in the Smokeless Forum. Just a thought.

I cant imagine why i would want a smokeless pellet when i dont even like sub pellets. I would love to hear how you would fine tune the load for your barrel.

ghone said:

Thanks for reply and happy you are content with measuring your own and pouring it in in a treestand when its 10 degrees and windy. I just feel the pellets would be easier. Thats why the are popular to begin with.
Have a good season

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That sounds like a typical Iowa winter day :mrgreen:

I actually prefer to sit on a hilltop with a very large view of the surrounding area, that's why I assembled my SML, to extend my range and not have branches in the way artyman:

Hope you have a good season too :yeah:

BuckDoeHunter said:

ghone said:

Thanks for reply and happy you are content with measuring your own and pouring it in in a treestand when its 10 degrees and windy. I just feel the pellets would be easier. Thats why the are popular to begin with.
Have a good season

Click to expand...

That sounds like a typical Iowa winter day :mrgreen:

I actually prefer to sit on a hilltop with a very large view of the surrounding area, that's why I assembled my SML, to extend my range and not have branches in the way artyman:

Hope you have a good season too :yeah:

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Makes a lot of sense. Most of my hunting is done on public land because I like the challenge. What a thrill it would be to shoot the B&C on public land. Where I hunt a really long shot and I would most likely be shooting at a deer on private land where I don't have permission. I wouldn't hunt private if it were offered to me. Maybe it's just me but I have had lots of bad experiences with land owners and other hunters on said private land.

My guess is the number of smokeless muzzleloader shooters is very small, and the one's in the group who'd be interested in smokeless pellets even smaller. I don't see enough interest for a manufacturer to sell enough to recoup R&D, set-up and manufacturing of something new. Plus, from what I've read, most guys who shoot smokeless are also pretty serious about accuracy, and accuracy usually goes hand in hand with loose powder to allow fine tuning.

You can definitely increase the convenience factor of loose powder by measuring your charges in the comfort of home and then carrying them into the field using some sort of a tube. I bought some of Lane's powder tubes, which are basically plastic chemical storage tubes with caps. I'm incredibly happy with them. I measure my charge's ahead of time, and all I need to do is unscrew the cap, then turn the tube over into the muzzle. Easy, quick, I can do it with gloves on in pre-dawn darkness with just a red tint headlamp no problem. The tubes are cheap, so if I lose a cap or even a tube I'm out a few cents.

GM54-120 said:

I cant imagine why i would want a smokeless pellet when i dont even like sub pellets. I would love to hear how you would fine tune the load for your barrel.

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I think its safe to say this argument prevails since the OP has not addressed it. If pelletized powder had any huge advantage i think you would see it in automated production of ammunition including home reloaders.

Pouring powder from a tube is not really any harder than pouring pellets from a tube. Its pretty simple to master. Funnels are easily available for those that need or want them.

It has been proved over and over, if you build something to be idiot proof, the world makes dumber idiots. While I have never had an issue getting MOA accuracy with pellets, I like loose as it is much cheaper to shoot. I find it much more challenging to ram a tight fitting saboted bullet down the bore when the temp drops into single digits than pouring powder in the barrel, even when the barrel has a muzzle brake.

Not that I am saying it is not a good idea, heck I am always down for new products.