What the heck was semi-smokeless powder that was used in the past to shoot some of those small groups??  DWS, maybe someone could write an article for the journal on those old powders that were available around the turn of the 19th century.  I think it would be very interesting!  Bob Saathoff

Semi-smokeless was a composition of sulphur, saltpeter, charcoal and nitrated cotton linters.  According to all the sources I've read, it seems to have been the stuff that gave "gunpowder" its popular reputation of being extremely dangerous.  Semi-smokeless had both the quick deflagrating qualities of black powder and the instability of the early smokeless powders.  It was apparently very static sensitive; there were warnings not to use it during thunderstorms, not to shake the can, etc.  It was very accurate in the smaller calibers, not only compared to black powder, but in .22 rimfire was more accurate than even the early smokeless powder loadings.  When that situation finally changed, Winchester dropped Lesmok and Peters dropped King's Semi-Smokeless with a sigh of relief.

I think Phil Sharpe's handloading book has a rundown on semi-smokeless powder history.