Smokeless is really a bit of a misnomer. It still produces some smoke, just dramatically less than the black powder used through the 19th century. The big improvements: higher energy per grain, no fouling cake building up in the bore between shots, and consistent burn rates that make load development meaningful.

Modern smokeless is nitrocellulose-based (single-base) or nitrocellulose + nitroglycerin (double-base). Burn rate is the variable that matters for cartridge-powder pairing.

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