Black powder shortage

[MTMountainman]

Rush used to say "every generation thinks they are living in the last of times."
BP shooting was dying until the 1970's. The Bicentennial (1976) re ignited the interest in the past and BP weapons.
Fewer places to shoot, more urban sprawl have contributed to the current situation. Goex shutting down production is not the reason, but merely a sympton of the times we live in. Possibly the 250th anniversary of the founding of the USA may bring interest back.

Depends if there is a 250th anniversary. Not too hopeful about it these days.

 

[SPQR70AD]

Obviously you have never hunted in heavy snow fall. My brother and I were out once. I had BP and he was joining the "in crowd" and using Pyrodex. Both Hawken percussion guns. Snowing was so heavy we had to wipe of the tops of the barrels about every 3-4 minutes just to see the sights. He had 5 misfires that day and almost wrapped the gun around a tree until I gave him some of my BP. By the way, I touched off twice that day and never a problem with BP. Have never considered subs after seeing my brother and his great day in the field with subs. BP all the way, even if I have to make my own.

see I was right the pyro was mixed with water lol. I would say if you took 500 ML shooters maybe 2 would hunt in a snowstorm where you cant see anything

 

[SPQR70AD]

Were your shooting a flintlock or a percussion gun? If you got 100% ignition with pyrodex in a flintlock your rifle must have a touchhole as big as Kansas.

mostly cap guns but I had two of the cheapest flints you could obtain a cheap CVA pistol kit and a bare bones tradition flint. I ground Pyro P fine with a tablespoon for the flints. I did not hunt fish underwater or hunt in a blinding snowstorm just shot at a farm and a range and I got maybe 90% ignition and the times it did not go off was the flint got loose or the touchhole was clogged. I am not trying to convince anybody to use Pyro just saying what happened when I used it

 

[Omahkapi'si]

I'm going to try these guys. They seem to have lots of cool stuff. I'm sure they'll have black powder by the barrel. That Tornado Kit is interesting too.

 

[appalichian hunter]

The road runner beat you too it, said he needs all he can get for that coyote.

 

[springfield art]

The road runner beat you too it, said he needs all he can get for that coyote.

Ha!

 

[Nameless Hunter]

I find that at times you can make yourself some good luck with a little extra effort. I found a local shooting range this week that had a good supply of GOEX in stock for $25/pound and added 5 pounds of 3F to my supply. Then I located someone on a local guns sales website who had been sold some Swiss 3F by mistake and picked up 4 pounds from him, also for $25/pound. Sometimes you can make your luck. With the additions to my existing supply, I figure I've got more than enough to last until this current kerfuffle sorts itself out. Now to find some extra flints...

 

[Boston Bill]

Sometimes I am glad I am getting old and lived most of my life in better times, and will miss a lot of the accelerated national cultural suicide just over the horizon.

You and me both brother!

 

[sb 54 cal.]

Was

Cant say for Scheutzen Doc but I can tell you Swiss 3F vs Goex 3F is much more energetic and Charges can be lowered to get the same accuracy and FPS if shooting over a Chronograph. I have always been able to get Squirrel shooting accuracy out of my guns using both but mainly shoot Goex cause I have a larger supply of it. Fouling is a little harder with Swiss but cleans up almost as easily.

Was told to reduce powder charge by 20 0/0 from what you use with goex. Just got some swiss to try.

 

[smoothshooter]

The Pyrodex RS plastic can I have days right on it …” can be used effectively in flintlocks when a 5 grain black powder charge is used as a base. Reduce total charge by the 5 grains “.

I’ve not tried it, but there it is….

The duplex loading is not something new, but I do not like having to add another step to the loading process, but I may have to when my supply of The Real Stuff starts getting low.

 

[sawyer04]

I turned to my Nephew in law last season out......"We are going to be the last to do this" I told him. How little did I know at that time that I might have been correct.

Fellers, gun powder doesn't have to be store bought to be acceptable.

 

[smoothshooter]

Was out and about today, and for the hell of it stopped by Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, ME. (closest place that sells powder to me) Grabbed a couple of pounds. But they were out of FFg of all brands and only had some F,FFF,FFFFg of Goex.

It may get scarce for a while, but it won't go away for ever.

Goex will not come back, but maybe late next year small quantities of powders will be available from Europe again, but at a much higher prices, of course.

 

[smoothshooter]

My local gun shop & range says they can only store up to 40 pounds, Then they have to go and pick it up at a distributor in person; the store clerks have an Explosives License background check to do this. This is in SE PA. The distributor is in another county. They had a big run on the stuff Tuesday once the news broke, they didn't find out 'til Wednesday, then couldn't get thru to the distributor on the phone.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why we are just now hearing about something this important to our hobby 3 MONTHS AFTER THE FACT?????
I was on the phone with the woman at EMF ( major importer of Italian replicas ) in California that checks inventory and keeps track of orders from Italy on Friday. When I mentioned the news about Goex, she was truly alarmed, and said that was the first she had heard about it.

 

[Ohio Rusty]

I have hunted in heavy snowfall. It was 7 or more inches deep. I had 80 grains of Pyrodex I'm my hawken. I took three shots at deer walking up a hill in less than 40 seconds using conicals. No misfires or lag time. I used pyrodex for many years, thousands of shotsbinbevery kind of weather in my T/C hawken with 100% relability. I would think your friends gun had oil maybe that wasn't cleaned out or some other fault. It's easy to blame pyrodex when many times the cause is poor gun maintenance on the part of the owner. Like computers ... it is always the computers fault and never user error.
Ohio Rusty

 

[Ohio Rusty]

I tried to buy a couple pounds of 2F powder from buffalo arms, but they said some guy purchased 50 pounds online and bought all they had. Now none is left for anyone to order the lady said.
Ohio Rusty

 

[tc45dave]

50 pounds is a lot, should have put a 4 pound limit. That's just my opinion. My LGS has limits on ammo purchases.

 

[smoothshooter]

Easy enough to purchase Swiss or others.
Doc,

Easy enough?
That ship has sailed. For the time being, anyway.
Another difference now is we are at the mercy of a bunch of unelected EU bureaucrats that regulate absolutely everything, and are not known to be particularly fond of Americans and our widespread ownership of guns.
They could vote with a simple show of hands in 5 minutes to severely restrict or stop entirely the export of anything, black powder included. It then becomes law.
And there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it.

 

[jonathan hawkin]

If any European powder ever makes it over, the vesuvit, Czech powder is as good as anything below swiss, will work perfectly in anything, been using it in all my flint and percussion guns for a good few years now, can't fault it in any way.

 

[TexiKan]

...and just like that, EVERYBODY is now shooting and are short on powder! Amazing! Absolutely amazing.

 

[MTMountainman]

see I was right the pyro was mixed with water lol. I would say if you took 500 ML shooters maybe 2 would hunt in a snowstorm where you cant see anything

FYI -- We saw deer and got shots but no deer. I did make a beautiful dead center kill shot on a 3 inch sapling that jumped in the way of my would a been perfect shot on a doe!