Oscar, what the folks using drop tubes are doing is trying to get the most consistant load they possibly can specially for longer ranges "hadn compacting will crumble some of the grains of powder. Tkhe more you compress, the more you crush. You can't control HOW the grains are crushed so with the droptube you can get more powder in the same space, or compact a given charge without compression. Now Black Powder needs some compression, to a varying degree, depending on the powder, but you can reduce the deformation of the individual powder grains by using a droptube which allows you to compress less, or compress the same amount with less distortion. Compressing can be done with a wooden dowel, or a compression die. Actually there are many ways folks have come up with to do this chore, but a compression die has got to be the most consistant way to do it.
