In the past, small arms performance has been limited by the powder’s ability to completely burn by the time the bullet exits the muzzle. To attempt to get higher performance, high charge weights of a slow burning powder were used to attempt to maximize muzzle velocity. Powders were not progressive enough to allow these heavy charges of slow powder to be completely burned by the time the bullet left the muzzle, especially with lighter weight bullets. The end result was very modest increases in velocity with heavy recoil and many times unacceptable accuracy. Superformance powders solve this problem because of their ability to completely burn by bullet muzzle exit. All loads are designed to fill the cartridge case. Yet, because of the efficient burning characteristics, virtually all the powder is burned by bullet muzzle exit.
This results in a much higher percentage of the available powder energy being transferred to the projectile, rather than being blown out the end of the barrel as unburned powder, producing higher velocities with a smaller charge weight. This also results in lower muzzle exit pressure and lower velocity of muzzle gases. A very useful by-product of the highly efficient burning nature of these powders is very small velocity loses with shorter barrel lengths. We tested a 300 Winchester Magnum load by firing it in a barrel that had been shortened to 20 inches. The Superformance ammunition gave up an average of only 18 fps per inch. This is roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the velocity loss per inch of barrel length that would be experienced with conventional powders in a 300 Winchester Magnum.
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