.5 gr. Bullseye for 18" barrel [more powder in proportion to barrel length], 457" lead ball, the ball seated so deep into the case that the powder is compressed. Between the ball and powder are two layers of polypropylene wads. The mouth is chamfered on the inside until the mouth is sharp. The wads are cookie cutter into shape in the press with a stick between case and die. I cut from wads that are 28 ga shotgun wad over powder wads.

The load makes the sound of a pellet gun, with a click of the hammer, bang of the muzzle, and ping of the target. If the load is increased .1 gr. at a time, there will be a single loud BLAM!. That is too much powder for the volume of the barrel.

If the bullet is seated at the mouth, the bullet will bounce off wood. If seated deep as described, the bullet will penetrate 1" of wood. Both seatings make the same noise.

This load incorporates two things I have learned about quiet loads:
1) Muzzle pressure must be kept just below the threshold of supersonic gas. This is a function of the powder charge and the bore volume + case volume. To optimize: Make barrel length long and powder charge as small as needed.
2) By seating deep, the peak pressure can be increased, thus giving more velocity. With tiny powder charges dangerous pressures can not be reached. To optimize: make case volume tiny.

How I learned these things:

1) I noticed that Remington CB Longs in a 22 could be very loud or very quiet.
The 22" rifles were very loud, and the 24" very quiet.
I went around the internet for years asking for an explanation.
Then a gunsmith, Randy Ketchum, told me that the 22" barrel still has enough gas pressure for the gas escaping from behind the bullet at the muzzle to go supersonic.

That is the magic muzzle pressure.
When the gas ball slows to subsonic, a sound wave propates with amplitude at max that air can support at cavitation, with frequency content a function of the diameter of the gas ball. Obviously not much low frequency content from the 22" barrel shooting 22 CB Long.

In a 1911 45 acp, the primer alone makes too much pressure as the barrel is too short.

2) I figured out that a tiny powder charge was not going to blow anything up, and I could get more velocity.

--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.

[ 10-14-2003, 08:27: Message edited by: Clark ]