Is gunpowder charge and gunpowder capacity 2 different things?

I here things like some rounds have more case capacity then others but I also here things like higher vs lower powder charges for bullets in the same caliber like a 30-30 can have a different powder charge is this the same as a different powder volume or no?





Or is gunpowder charge not the same thing as gunpowder volume in a cartridge?





I hope I'm making sense.Is gunpowder charge and gunpowder capacity 2 different things?
Case capacity is the maximum amount of powder the empty case can accommodate. This is rarely used when loading ammunition. Some powders are faster burning and you use only a small amount of them and still get a good velocity. Others are very slow burning and it takes more of the slow powders to fill the case up. Using a fast burning powder and filling the case completely up ( case capacity) will get you only one shot. Then a free ride to the hospital and you will no longer own a rifle in one piece. Get a reloading manual and set down and read the whole section on reloading with the companies equipment. Always start with the low ';start'; powder charge and work up to a load that is under maximum but is giving you good accuracy and the cases are extracting easily. Avoid maximum loads, they are hard on your rifle and usually not needed for 99% of the hunting you will do.Is gunpowder charge and gunpowder capacity 2 different things?
You can't just take any old propellant and fill the case to the top. There are oodles of different propellants out there, and each has different characteristics from the others. While it often happens that a good load will have about 100% of capacity taken up by the powder, that isn't the end-point at which you stop putting in more. Sometimes the maximum load of propellant is a tiny fraction of the case capacity, and sometimes a lightly compressed load is used, with perhaps 104% loading and the excess actually being shoved into the case as the bullet's loaded into the case. It's a very delicate balance among multiple components.
A specific chambering (say 30-30) will always have a specific powder capacity. This is often given as 'grains of water filled to the rim'





This allows people to compare the total volume of different cases.





Now, an entirely different concept is Powder Charge...which is how much gunpowder a specific recipe calls for. Remember, not all powder is equally powerful. When someone says 'powder charge' they mean a specific amount of a given powder...like 31 grains of IMR 3031. different powder charges even with the same bullets can give different performance, especially in the accuracy department, and in the pressure department as well.





A powder charge of 35 graind of IMR 3031 may work well in a strong modern marlin lever action, but the same charge would blow apart a 100 year old winchester rifle. There, a powder charge of 33 grains of IMR 3031 may be all that it can handle.





Either way, max charge that a gun can handle is rarely the most accurate loading. Possibly in your given rifle a charge of 28 grains of IMR 3031 will give the best results.





Maybe your grandkids are coming over to shoot and you want them to try your 30-30...so you load up some cartridges that have only 24 grains of IMR 3031 so it kicks even less than normal. Heck, maybe a charge of 24 grains is enough quieter you get less complaints from your neighbor.
Case capacity is the volume of the empty case. Powder charges vary from about 20% of the case volume for handgun ammo, up to a little over 100% for some ammo, which causes the powder to be compressed in the loaded round. Typically on two different cartridges which use the same bullet, the smaller capacity case will require less powder to get the same velocity. As an example, my handy manual lists 44.5 grains of a particular powder driving a 150 gr bullet in a .308 at 2802 fps. The same powder and bullet in a .30-06 using 47 grains of powder only drives the bullet at 2752 fps. The case is 99% full for the .308 and 82% full for the .30-06.
Oh yeah, they are very different. Some folks will pour water into an empty case to determine the case capacity. I guess it is nice to know how much the case will hold. However, that capacity is very much different then the powder charge you are going to load the gun with. If you look at any reloading manual, you will find that there are different powder charge weights for the same bullet and case, but each produces different velocities.


Powders have different burn rates. While your case might actually hold 20 grains of gunpowder, that certainly might not be a safe charge load.
The powder charge is the amount of propellant used to cause a projectile to travel down range.


The shell capacity is the total amount of empty volume inside of the case. A good example is the 30-06. A typical load would be a 150 grain bullet with 53 grains of IMR 4350 powder. That would be a powder charge for a round of ammunition. However you can pour 72 grain of powder in the empty 30-06 case to top it off. It will not load a bullet because there is no room left in the case.


Hope this answers your question.
Plenty of good answers here, so there's no need for me to chime-in. Read what they've written and you will understand the differences of the terms. Capacity refers to total POSSIBLE volume. Charge refers to a specific amount of a specific powder, loaded behind a specific weight of bullet...and must be used with a specific model/type of rifle primer.





When loading rifle or pistol ammuntion, you must not deviate from the listed loading data.
yes.


Gun powder charge is how much you use to fire a shot. ex. i may use 5 grains to shoot a shot. gun powder capacity is the maximum amount of gun powder i can put into a shot.
Just as it means and sounds. Charge is the amount of powder from your manual and capacity is the max a cartridge will hold.
Put simply, charge is what is in there and capacity is what can go in there.











Dave