Originally Posted by Kinman

Possibly the original 44-40 cases were balloon cases like the early .44 special otherwise I can see no way you could get 40 grains of 3F, let alone 2F without significant compression. Part of the reason I prefer Swiss over Goex (no longer in production) is that it requires much less compression and produces better results, cleaner, snappier ignition. Perhaps that is the reason someone would want to use 4F, silly me. I had a muzzle loader buddy that once used 4F in his .50 caliber rifle. He said that the recoil was significant and it even re-cocked his hammer for him. I do know some guys that use 4F in diminutive .22 caliber muzzle loading gallery rifles, using .22 caliber target pellets over a couple grains, one of them is still in the developmental process and thinks he's onto something. Cheap shooting muzzle loader fun...cheaper than a .22 rifle.