Hello, everyone.  Another beautiful sunday dawned..Had to get out to range.  Worried though..after working 60+ hours that week..kind of started slow..wondering if range would be busy on such a nice sunny day?...Not to worry..had the whole thing to myself!
  Since last time, I had it in my mind that 22.0gr. 3FG Swiss was "the" load.  Made up some with 22.5gr. just to cover bases.
   The  22.0gr. load was grouping in 3/4" at 50yds.
Tried the 22.5gr. load..this was kind of a complicated one..one .027" B.W. wad down on powder..1/16" SPG grease wad..one .027" B.W. wad on top..all pushed down to 1st. wad. 
   Still about 1/2" space..filled with .8gr. kapok..& seated bullet.
4 shots in 1/4"!...I pulled last one.
   I was running barely damp patch thru every shot..fouling soft and greasy,
   Next I tried the duplex..1gr.PB with 22.0gr. 3FG..two shots touching..have to work more with this one..increase smokeless and/or black.
  With du-plex..3 long breaths on blow tube & groups were around 5/8".  Wiping with 1 dry patch between shots had the two touching...Like I said this needs more experimenting.
   I did try straight smokeless..the tech. at Hodgdon gave me some good advice:  The usual method of weighing charge to bullet base, & taking 70% of that for start load...He said make that your Maximum load...on account of cast-action & age.
  Good thing..the sweet spot was between 2.9-3.1gr. TrailBoss.
Anything over & groups started to open.  Accuracy nowhere near like black.
  Will try 4227 and 4759 next time out.
But you know something..as I was firing the smokeless loads..in the back of mind I was wishing I had more of the black powder loads...I was actually missing that hollow boom, and smoke screen!...Something I would never have thought possible 20 years ago.
  Shooting that 1/4" group with black was far more satisfying than any smokeless group I could ever achieve. ...I guess I am hooked on
black!

Hello, J. Louis.  It is Ballard No. 3 in .25-25 Stevens