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As to the pros & cons of using ONLY black powder as opposed to “Nitro for Black” loads in our old rifles.
Keep in mind, I am just a shooter and careful reloader and not a trained Physicist or Engineer specialising in smokeless propellant internal dynamics.

There are enough very experienced people that in fact have tested and encourage well thought out “Nitro for Black” loads.
Starting with the old Kynoch firm circa 1890’s. More recently we have, Ken Owen, Ross Seyfried, Graeme Wright, Sherman Bell, Charles Dell, and others.

That “chamber ringing” happens with reduced loads in big cases is undeniable. That said, a blanket statement of “all smokeless is bad” may not be the whole story.
What is left unsaid is the type of powder and over powder wad that is implicated in this phenomenon.

This chamber ringing seems to have been seen when guys were commonly using pistol powders and a single wad to hold the powder back against the primer. It was and sometimes still is, common for guys to use Unique, Red Dot, Herco, you name it for very light loads in things like .30-30, .38-55, .444 Marlin, .45-70 and then hold the powder in place with a single hard card wad, cork wad, ball of toilet paper, etc.
This seemingly worked well enough with the smaller capacity cases, the trouble often came with cases of .45-70 size and larger.

The previously mentioned testers have successfully and safely tested and used fast and medium burning RIFLE POWDER to duplicate the ballistics of the old Black Powder Express cartridges. I would say that the typical most successful smokeless powder for this would be H4198 using appropriate Dacron, felt/fibre wads, or backer rod to completely fill the leftover air space above the powder.
The old original Kynoch in fact used appropriate amounts of “chopped rifle Cordite)” with filler wads in their period Nitro for Black Powder loadings.

I have not read of any rifles suffering chamber damage when using reasonable loads of H4198 or similar that were properly assembled.
Even to this day Kynamco (Kynoch brand) ammunition produces tested & safe Nitro for Black cartridges that are certainly meant to be used in rifles that are in good condition and “in proof” (even old BP Proof).
….As an aside, Kynamco uses their proprietary foam wads that would function very similarly to foam backer rod.

Thus it seems to me that a blanket statement discouraging Nitro for Black in old BP era rifles (or shotguns) is simply unwarranted.
I would still not use any “pistol powders” to get gallery load performance and recoil in bigger rifle cases old rifle or modern.
- Mike

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