dram equivilant
- Thread starter big-gun
- Start date
telesquirt
CGN Regular
- Location
- Fort Frances
You can NOT equate Drams to grains of SMOKELESS because of the diff. burning rates/ and pressure levels in the "Progressive burning", trying is extremely dangerous. That's why they use the word equivalent(from a velocity standpoint). Black powder is a different story and approx. 30 grains equals 1 dram.
BattleRife
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- of No Fixed Address
I believe that a dram is unit of volume, while of course a grain is a unit of weight. If so, there cannot be a conversion between them without knowing the specific gravity of the thing you are weighing.
A dram is a unit of weight, just like a grain. In the avoirdupois system (as differentiated from the apothecaries system), a dram is 1/16 of an ounce. An avoirdupois grain is 1/700th of a pound. 7000gr/lb / (16oz/lb * 16dr/oz) = 27.34gr/dr. This comes up in muzzleloading sometimes because original writings generally gave powder charge weights in drams (with fractions of 1/4dr[6.8gr] or sometimes 1/8dr[3.4gr]) until well into the 19th century.
The use of "dram-equivalents" in shotgun cartridge info is a rather archaic holdover from the early days of smokeless powder, in the days before shotgun velocities were commonly measured. It was used to give shooters a comparison of the velocity with the "known" B.P. load performance that they were familiar with, and apparently was not that precise to start with.
Regards,
Joel
The use of "dram-equivalents" in shotgun cartridge info is a rather archaic holdover from the early days of smokeless powder, in the days before shotgun velocities were commonly measured. It was used to give shooters a comparison of the velocity with the "known" B.P. load performance that they were familiar with, and apparently was not that precise to start with.
Regards,
Joel
