black powder pellets

[smooth]

can you use the pellets in a sidelock?
i was told you could with a little black powder in first yes no mayby?

help thanks

 

[mazo kid]

In a percussion gun...yes, flintlock...no. If you are gonna put black powder in first as a duplex load, why bother with the expensive substitutes?

 

[Zonie]

It depends on the sidelock.
Like mazo said, pellets won't work in a flintlock.

I'll say that with a black powder "prime" down the bore first they will probably work in a percussion gun if it has a "patent breech".
If it is one of the percussion guns with a side drum that screws into the side of the barrel they may not work at all even with a black powder "prime".
That's because the flame from the cap will be hitting the pellet on the side rather than at the rear where the black powder prime will be sitting.

If someone gave me a box of pellets, I might fool around with them just for something to do but if I was serious about shooting I would stick to loose powder.

 

[PreglerD]

Hi smooth,

I asked the same a while ago. Meanwhile I did some testings. I found that the Traditions rifles like Deerhunter or Woodsmann and pistols like Trapper or KY work well with Vectan bp pellets because the breech isn't to long so that the flame of a #11 magnum primer can go through it and ignite the pellets safe. The breech is about 10mm long. So you need no loose powder. Accuracy is similar to loose bp. I use 3 pellets in my .50 Deerhunter, overpellet wad and a .490 RB with 0.010'' lubed patch.

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[roundball]

can you use the pellets in a sidelock?
i was told you could with a little black powder in first yes no mayby?
help
thanks

Yes, both caplocks and Flintlocks that have a Patent Breech design...ie: T/C's sidelocks.
Just pour 10-20 grns real BP down first...a good way to use up left over substitute powers

 

[renovato]

I've never seen any pellets made from real black powder, only the substitutes. You can fire most of the substitutes fine with a small charge of real black powder under them as a priming charge. The substitutes generally don't perform as well as real black powder, so if you can get the real stuff to prime with, why not just use it for the entire charge?

 

[PreglerD]

In Germany you can buy real bp pellets made by VECTAN. This is a firm located in France. They are available in .36 and .44/.45. The .44/.45 work well also in .50 ML.You don't need a loose bp starting loadfor them.

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[jethro224]

yes no mayby?

Why?

If you are using loose powder for a priming charge anyway, why would you want to add an extra step by using pellets that will cost you more $ and waste more time?

I'm sure you could make it work if you really wanted to...

 

[musketman]

I've never seen any pellets made from real black powder, only the substitutes.

Not intended for muzzleloading, they do exist in other forms, like model rocket solid engine propellants.

Most model rocket engines (the Estes-type motors are an example) are propelled by black powder, and made quite similar to fireworks skyrocket powerplants. They pack a stiff cardboard tube with black powder, seal one end, and ram a clay nozzle into the tail. Actually it's not nearly that simple, but that is the general idea of how they're made.

So what kind of propellant powers your Estes-type model rocket motor? It's a well-milled, tightly-rammed and highly compressed grain of black powder.

Having stated that, I do NOT recomend that anyone take their model rocket engines apart and try to use them in their muzzleloaders, I simply posted this to show that compressed black powder pellets do exist in this country.