Ballistic Basics – Grains, Cartridges and DOPE

When at the range one thing you want to do is know what you are talking about, especially if you are interacting with other shooters near your table. Sometimes a quick friendly conversation with them can gain a new friend and/or teach you something, while other times it may tell you that you need to move far down the line and NOW!

In that context there are some commonly misused or misunderstood terms you may come across and three (3) that I have come across are Grains, Cartridge and DOPE.

Before we go any further please note that if you think “AR” stands for “assault rifle” you are on the wrong blog.

IAC, again, grains, powder and dope are the three I hear most often used in error and this is basic stuff, so, while it may be old news to people who do their homework, to some newer shooters it might be of interest.

Many people still think of grains as the amount of powder in a cartridge. I am serious, I still hear this occasionally, it is the weight of the actual bullet/projectile. That sub or supersonic messenger delivering your intent downrange. A grain, 1/437.5 of an ounce, translate into .125 oz of weight for a 55 Grain FMJ bullet/projectile (divide the mass value (55) by 437.5.)

Next on my list is cartridge as this is what we feed into almost everything that shoots a projectile downrange. Bullet is often used as is round, and in normal speak these are so widely used that they are understood and accepted to really mean cartridge, even if the speaker really doesn’t understand it is really a cartridge. I have seldom heard anyone ask “did you bring the cartridges?” or “….the right cartridges?” Nevertheless, cartridge is technically the correct term since it contains the bullet/projectile, powder and primer to make the whole thing work. But in this case don’t get judgmental if they do say bullet or round. On the other hand, if someone at the range asks you “Do you pick up your bullets/rounds and reload them?” as opposed to asking, “Do you pick up your casings (or brass) and reload them?” never, I repeat never, chamber one of their reloads (yet another word for cartridge, bullet, round) in your weapon.

And while we are here, a bit on “powder” – as people need to understand there are three types of powder used in cartridges. Black powder, also known as gunpowder, and most likely really Pyrodex now, is still used in some older rounds and by enthusiasts of muzzle-loaded weapons. But due to the smoke it generates it has been replaced with double-based and triple-based powders that don’t smoke (as much.) The double-based powder is made of two components – nitrocellulous and nitroglycerine and a triple-based powder contains these ingredients as well as nitroguanidine. We will define these and their interactions in a future post. The bottom line is black powder is dirty and marks your location while the based powders are designed to be clean and much more efficient. But they all smoke to some extent.

Finally, to DOPE and DOPE cards – note that there is a company called Dope Cards that makes greeting cards with ready-to-use rolling papers for your recreational or medical smoking materials, some quite intricate, google “rifle dope cards” or “dope cards and ballistic charts” instead.  DOPE stands for “Data on Previous Engagements”. Not the kind of engagements that will make a fiancé or spouse freak should they spot them laying around, no, these are forms to record the range equipment and conditions on previous and current trips to the range. They usually include the specifics on the rifle, the cartridge, the weather and winds, altitude, temperature and humidity and on and on. If you really want to improve your accuracy with a weapon I highly recommend these as a method to improve your performance with each range visit. Running through a few boxes of cartridges to observe what you observed the last time you were on the range and ran through a few boxes of cartridge will be a waste of time and money and leave you open to deserved sarcasm from your dog when you call him out for chasing his tail.

Be safe out there, practice and strive to improve.