I can't imagine spending all that money to buy a powder that costs so much, deteriorates when its exposed to air( good for the marketers, bad for the buyers) so that it loses it power over a short time, leaves really tough crud in the barrel that is much harder to clean out, and has trouble being ignited with anything other than MAGNUM percussion caps, or those musket caps!
For What? Why would anyone use it, unless you are shooting those cheater guns we don't talk about here?
It doesn't fire in Flintlocks, as its ignition temperature is so high- almost twice the temperature that Black Powder ignites at. There are reports of hangfires with that powder using normal, stanard #11 caps.
So, to use 777, you have to pay more money for it, use it up very soon after you open the can, buy more expensive percussion caps, or modify your gun to shoot musket caps- all to do the same thing you can do with Black Powder, but not as well as its done with Black Powder. Why not use BP< and simply give those dollars you want to throw away to your local club treasury, or send it to the NRA ILA to help preserve your right to own a gun? At least use the money to buy a good cigar, and a good snifter of brandy and enjoy them both after your shooting is done.
The reason those zip guns use 209 shotgun primers to ignite the stuff is because that hot flame is needed to light the 777! Those primers are also more expensive the standard #11 caps, BTW. Some salesmen have been reported to tell shooters that since you are not shooting Black Powder, you don't have to clean the guns like you do with BP. That's true. YOU HAVE TO CLEAN THEM SOONER, and you have to use a couple of cleaners, instead of just soap and water with BP. Remember, you are either shooting Copper jacketed bullets in plastic shoes( sabots) which leaves plastic down your barrel to clean out, or you are shooting bare lead conicals (bullets ) down the barrel that leave lead in the barrel. You will need to use soap and water to remove most of the powder residue, but you will need to use a modern lead and plastic solvent to remove the primer residue, and the plastic or lead in the barrel. The powder forms steel eating acids that are actually worse- more fast acting-- than that created by BP. And you can't escape needing to use BOTH a bore brush, AND a cleaning jag with patches to clean those zip guns. With BP, shooting a PRB, NO lead is left in the barrel, and almost all the residue will dissolve in water.
Once in a rare time, particularly when shooting in freezing temperatures, I will get BP residue that seems to stick in the corners of the rifling grooves, and I have to use a bore brush to knock it loose. I can avoid using that brush by simply letting the barrel soak in soap and water for half an hour, but I am like most shooters, and want to get all that work done before I go on to doing other things. But, if I happen to be distracted after filling my barrel with soap and water, and don't get back to cleaning it for the next half or full hour, The cleaning is a piece of cake- very easy to do.
I got that advice from an older, wiser shooter, after complaining to him how long it took me to get all the graphite out of my barrel one night, and how many patches I used to get the barrel clean. Haste Does Make Waste.
He told me to fill the barrel with soap and water, lean the gun against some corner where it won't be knocked down, and go do something else for an hour or so. Then go back and clean it. He said it takes a bit of time for the carbon to be emulsified by the soap in the water. I was in too much of a " hurry". He had a very good laugh at my frustration, but I followed his advice, and it works. I did call him up and thank him, and he apologized for laughing at me. We are still friends. :thumbsup:
