Shotshell Questions

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Mr. 16 Gauge, drams are not listed in the volume tables, only weight.

Hmmm.....that's interesting. I have some liquid measuring cups from when I did my chemistry classes in college; they say 'drams' on the side. Go figure!

[skeet]

Originally Posted by Mr. 16 gauge

Hmmm.....that's interesting. I have some liquid measuring cups from when I did my chemistry classes in college; they say 'drams' on the side. Go figure!

Remember in Chemistry..liquids are sometimes much different than dry measure.

Skinny as someone said the drams equivalent is a velocity comparison. Browning made(marketed) shotshell ammo for a short time in the US and tried to change the relationship to drams. Didn't work. I will try to find my old texts on black powder measures. But I distinctly remember 3 drams as being approx 76 grains of black powder(FFg) by weight. They loaded black powder shotshells by volume..drams which is a volume measurement. Then when they loaded the shells with say an ounce and an eighth of shot..the velocity came out to approx 1200 ft per second. So when they load say... Red Dot at approx 18 gr with an ounce and an eighth to get 1200 ft per second it was equivlalent to 3 drams of black powder in velocity. Just wwwaaaayyyy more energy in smokeless powder per grain. I have some bulk smokeless powder for shotshells and it is loaded to the same volume as black powder. Pyrodex is loaded to the same Volume as black powder and it delivers approx the same velocities.

And yep..you are right.. Doesn't seem to make much sense to us nowday. But it did when they changed over from Black to Smokeless. You do know we shooters do NOT like CHANGE