My order arrived and I got a chance to do some testing of the Graf powder. The first thing I did was to compare the volume vs. weight of Swiss, Goex, and Elephant against the Graf powder. I used a 100gr volume measure for all the measurements.
Graf 2F= 102.6 avg.
Swiss 2F= 106.6 avg
Elephant 2F= 104.4 avg
Graf 3F= 98.7 avg
Goex 3F= 97.8 avg
Next I went out a shot some of it to see how it performed against other powders. All of the testing was done with a Ruger 77/50, RWS caps, Harvester crush 50/45 sabots and a Lee 300gr FN cast bullet was used. During testing the only variable was the powder charge.
Graf 2F 120gr= 1455fps ES48 SD18
Elephant 2F 120gr= 1438fps ES37 SD21
Swiss 2F 120gr= 1724fps ES13 SD6
Swiss 2F 100gr= 1591fps ES13 SD4
Pyro RS 100gr= 1495fps ES29 SD14
I also tried the Graf 3F against Goex 3F, but testing was very limited. Using Goex 3F with 100gr volume gave a velocity of 1487fps. The same load using Graf 3F gave 1400fps.
During testing a few things were apparent that are worth mentioning. Swiss gave the highest velocity of the real black powders tested. The Swiss 2F performance was similar to Pyrodex P. One thing that the Swiss did that no other powder did, was it would vaporize the RWS cap. The whole nipple area would turn copper after a few shots and there was no cap to remove. After firing Swiss, I noticed that the fouling in the barrel was white. Black powder (Goex,Graf,Elephant) is either canary yellow or lt. green. I found this strange and began to wonder if the Swiss add some other secret ingredient. That might help explain its' superior performance. The Graf powder appears to have a performance level similar to Elephant Brand powder, which is lower than Goex. The Graf was cleaner burning than Elephant and about the same or better than Goex. The Graf powder showed the same accuracy potential as other blackpowders in my rifle, taking into consideration the limited testing. All things considered, I think that Graf Powder has potential and a good alternative to those who liked Elephant Brand powder.