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One thing which needs to borne in mind a "Dram" is a weight measure @ 1/16oz. While true Black Powder was more often dispensed by volume rather than wt, most folks then didn't have a sensitive enough scale to weigh charges. Even today we will set a powder measure's volume to drop a given Weight of the desired powder. If a rifle maker specified a 5 dram charg of a given powder & then supplied a fixed measure for that charge it would have been regulated to measure 5 drams weight of that powder, regardless of the volume it came out. Weight of a given volume of black powder can vary according to granulation & actual components used, in particular the charcoal. Thus any volume measure unless used with the powder lot of the powder for which it was regulated, will always be a compromise to some extent.

Tinker, this is my finding: I took a standard graduated powder measure from about the late 1800's. I set the measure to 2 1/2 drams and made a single pass through the powder to get a slightly heaped measure, then, without causing any vibration to settle the powder I struck off the top with a credit card to produce a level measure. Repeated again this was weighed. I did this a few times to get an average; which showed little variation. The result for 5 drams measured was a weight of 131.7 grains as weighed ona R.C.B.S. scale. Lagopus.....

Miller-

I understand the density issues with black powder across the range of makers and grades. It's good you posted your comments to the thread though. My interest is to satisfy a specific curiosity.
It would appear that the density of various breeds of black powder has some relationship with power.


I'd love to have a moment with this measure and others like it.
Just enough time to pour/strike/weigh a charge of today's Goex FFg powder -- it would be even better to have a couple vintage rifles *with* their measures to do this comparison with -- to load them with Goex to hit to the regulated sights, then weigh that Goex charge against the volume of Goex metered through the 'regulated' measure.




That would definitely be an interesting little exercise.
Really, there are so many variables here.
Cartridge case, primer, and wad column - lube and bullet alloy - even stock fit can affect 'the load' for a double rifle.

Note these H&H case labels.





Also note this Kavanaugh label.




Although the bore rifles tend to have relatively broad latitude in the load, everything counts and it's important to keep it all in the picture.

Can't go back in time - but with some things we can compare what we have now with what's left over from 'way back when'...




Cheers
Tinker