Sam Fadala and Grain Precision Tolerance on Black Powder

10 grains of FFF black powder

An excerpt from "The Complete Blackpowder Handbook" (2006, 5th Edition, Krause Publications, USA, ISBN 978-0-89689-390-0) by reputable expert Sam Fadala (bold highlights are my own edition):

"(...) Giving the Lie to the Pet Blackpowder Load

I didn't think that Pet Loads with half-grain blackpowder charges made sense. The chronograph proved the point once and for all. This was an easy test. I used the very rifle that was claimed to do its best with, if I recall, something like 60.5 grains of powder. The chronograph proved that no velocity or SD difference existed between 60.0, 60.5, and 61 grains of powder. 

Blackpowder is not sufficiently efficient to show differences between miniscule charges. Nor are blackpowder substitutes. This does not take away from careful loadbuilding. Not at all. It simply shows that half-grain blackpowder charge variances are insignificant. This is quite untrue of smokeless powder. Also, as bore size diminishes, small changes in powder charge have more meaning. Regardless of this fact, muzzleloaders in bore sizes 32-caliber to 2-bore show no value in varying tiny increments of powder charge. I also have no faith that half-grain blackpowder increments do anything in the blackpowder cartridge. The chronograph proves it.

The Chronograph Speaks '* [page] 187 (...)"