recoil: blackpowder vs. smokeless

[vanbuzen9]

Hey guys,

I was shooting my tc encore today with some handloaded 375 winchester shells.  I was pushing a 225 gr hornady psp with 35 grains of H322.  Based on my loading manual, this was giving me about 2000 fps.  I then proceeded to switch out my barrels, and put my 50 cal. muzzleloading barrel on.  I decided to use a practice load of 300 grain xtp pushed by 70 grains of triple 7, for a published velocity of 1400 fps. 

To my amazement, the black powder load seemed to have kicked as much, if not more than the 375 load.  When I got home and calculated the recoils from both loads, the 375 gave around 15 ft-lbs, and the BP load gave around 20 ft-lbs.  I was wondering, does the bp load kick more than the other just because it has twice the amount of powder?  I know that powder weight has to be taken into consideration when calculating recoil, but I thought that black powder was less "energetic" than smokeless.  Any thoughts on this subject?

thanks,
vanbuzen9

[wncchester]

There is little, if any, difference attributable to the difference in powders, as such.  What you experienced was primarily caused by the difference in bullet weights and the more rapid acceleration of the BP load.

[gypsyman]

Black powder is more of an explosion, where smokeless is a controlled burn. Granted it's only mili-seconds, but there is a difference. The shape of the stock will also give you a different ''feel''.   gypsyman

[Lead pot]

DDDDoes mmy bbbig .50-90 SSSShars kkkkick mmore loaded with 118 grains of 2F Goex and a 720 grain lead bullet then my .458 yyyes iit does, but it hurts so good!!!

[wncchester]

"....yyyes iit does, but it hurts so good!!!!!!"

Lead, I don't want to spoil your fun but you might benefit from backing off a couple of grains in that 50-90.   

[coyotejoe]

"Cartridges of the World" has a reprint of an old Winchester ballistics chart from 1906, which includes "free recoil in foot pounds". Most cartridges were produced with a choice of black or smokeless powder and in every instance the black powder showed a greater recoil, in some cases as much as 75% greater! And yes, it is due to the much greater powder charge weight plus the fact that black powder has to accelerate most of its' weight down the bore in the form of solid particulates. Lots of folks will say "oh the recoil of black powder is more of a slow shove than a sharp kick" but I've never noticed anything like that and it doesn't stand up to reason. Since the recoil energy depends on gun weight and recoil velocity, for the same gun to have more recoil energy it must have more recoil velocity.

[jgalar]

The weight of the powder charge IS included when figuring recoil.