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Message: <blockquote data-quote="buzzard" data-source="post: 835940" data-attributes="member: 3003">Well actually they used large powder charges because the powder was generally of low quality. Also black powder is extremely weak compared to modern smokeless powder. Comparing the size of the powder charges is not useful. Even today, the type of smokeless powder used can vary the charge size substancially. Muzzle velocity, or muzzle energy would be a much more useful measure. Hence, it is what is used to measure firepower these days. The bullets, however, did tend to be quite large. Even travelling slowly (which black powder bullets did), a 60 caliber slug is going to cause a world of hurt on the unarmored man. On the other hand, that large chunk of lead will be lousy at piercing armor because of it's low velocity. buzzard</blockquote>