Dram equiv.?
My question is what is the Dram equiv.? i see it on the boxes of my 12 guage rounds so i was wondering what it is?
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A Dram was a unit of weight used when loads were using blackpowder. I forget what the actual weight would be in grains. It was determined to produce a certain velocity with a specific amount of shot. Whe things went smokeless, the weight went out the window, just as it did with the blackpowder metalic cartridges, so to keep some resemblance of order, they used Dram Equivalents- which is to say a smokeless powder charge that produced the same velocity for a given amount of shot as would have been produced by that much black powder. 0 -
Tyler,
Webster states a dram as 27.343 grains or 0.002083 ounces.
American Ammnition and Ballistics states this on dram equivalent: The accepted method of correlating relative velocities of shotshells loaded with smokeless powder to shotshells loaded with black powder. The reference blackpowder load chosen was a 3-dram charge of black powder, with 1-1/8 ounces of shot with a velocity of 1200 fps. Therefore, a 3-dram equivalent load is one using a charge of smokeless powder that pushes 1-1/8 ounces of shot to a muzzle velocity of 1200 fps. Modern ammunition smokeless powder charges are drastically lighter than the dram-weight charges of the old blackpowder cartridges. Never load shells using a dram-weight charge of smokeless powder.
From the Hodgdon web site:
Quote: Q. What is Dram Equivalent?
A. When using BLACKPOWDER a Dram equals 27.34 grains. Smokeless powder does not measure the same way as blackpowder so an Equivalency was developed. In the smokeless world, any 12 ga. 2 3/4 inch, 1 1/8 oz. load traveling 1200 fps is a 3 dram equivalent load. In the 20 ga., and 7/8 load in a 2 3/4 inch shell traveling 1200 fps is a 2 1/2 dram load.
You cannot measure smokeless powders in Drams.
Best.0
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