Black powder

[mushka]

I just got my powder from Graf's too. 5 lbs of 3f and 1 lb of 2f. Took five days from order to door with a weekend in between. I too got the Graf's brand. Really a stellar company to buy from. Good prices, good service.

 

[Ames]

Grafs brand ran a little dirty I thought. But for paper and hunting in the back forty I use it too. Cant beat the price.

 

[87TT]

Curious to see if it's still like that now that as it is now made by Goex?

 

[Jdavis]

I’m down to about a pound of 2F and 3F each, give or take. My usual local source changed hands and the new owners don’t seem to have much interest in muzzleloading. Time to look for another source of powder. I have been reluctant to order on line due to Hazmat fees. Graf’s seems like a good source that will allow me to mix smokeless along with black to get a reduced rate.

 

[Cap'n Ball]

This was over 20 years ago in Santa Clara, CA but the general idea still exists, even if the details change. I tried to buy some real BP at a local gun shop. He explained that local fire department regulations kept him from having more than 10 pounds on the premises and that had to be stored in a special bulky and expensive container. He also said that he had the problem of needing to buy it 25 ponds at a time and store the other 15 pounds in 2 off site locations due to the 10 pound limit. It just didn’t make good business sense. He did refer me to a shop about an hour’s drive away in another county who had made the investment and was doing well by being the only source in a well populated area. The point is that storage requirements can be more restrictive than philosophy problems. I use only real black myself and get it from shared club 25 pound purchases.

 

[Ben Meyer]

I knew BP last forever in its container, but was wondering about in a powder horn. I generally pour it back out of the horn and into the can when I'm done, as opposed to leaving it in the horn for months. Is me doing thus a waste of time? Should I just leave it in the horn?

The 3f Dupont I just finished using was hanging on a wall in a powder horn for well over 30-35 years. It worked just like the new stuff. FYI, the Grafs store brand is made by Goex now. Says it on the bottle.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I knew BP last forever in its container, but was wondering about in a powder horn. I generally pour it back out of the horn and into the can when I'm done, as opposed to leaving it in the horn for months. Is me doing thus a waste of time? Should I just leave it in the horn?

As long as the powder horn is well sealed and stored in a humidity controlled environment, you can leave it in the horn. I have some of my paper cartridge blanks in my belly box or my cartridge box from my last event in the fall to the first event in the spring that perform just fine. I have used the paper cartridge loads with ball that I set aside after a fall woods walk that weren't used until the next year with no observable ill effects. Of course I am shooting a Long Land Pattern (Brown Bess) so accuracy in the best of conditions is an open group.

When I complete the Woods Walk, all the cartridges with ball are removed from the belly box and cartridge box and stored separately from the blanks. No ball is carried during a blank firing event.

 

[Ben Meyer]

If its sealed, why is humidity a factor? I keep my powder generally in it's original container in a closed wooden box in the corner of my attached garage. How could lack of humidity control effect my powder? Where I buy it(Friendship) keeps it out back in a steel semi sized shipping trailer, which is not humidity controlled. In a sealed powder horn, the only air the powder could be exposed to would be in the unfilled space, and that air isnt exposed to the elements.

I'm not saying I'm right here, but would like to why I'm wrong if I indeed am.

 

[Felix the Cat]

Humidity is the main factor in the storage life of gunpowder. Moisture gets adsorbed by the grains and affects the performance. Potassium nitrate attracts moisture (not as badly as Sodium Nitrate) and will eventually break down the structure. High moisture content also affects the burning rate.

Gunpowder stored in wooden barrels aboard Royal Navy ships would deteriorate fairly quickly and could either be "re-stoved" to reduce the moisture content, or if too far gone with the structure being affected ("clumping"), be sent back to the powder mills for re-milling to extract the Nitrate.

It was discovered in the latter years of the 19th C that gunpowder stored in sealed copper and brass cans lasted much longer, and this became the standard way of storing black powder at sea until it was replaced with nitro based powders.

Temperature cycling can also affect the structure of powder as constant heating up and cooling down causes the powder grains to expand and contract, eventually leading to breakup of the grains. This however affects nitro compounds more than black powder mixtures.

So.. Keeping the moisture content low is the most important factor. Sealed containers with low moisture permeability is what you should be aiming for, however storing in metal containers should be avoided because of the fragment hazard if an explosion occurs.. I do wish fire departments would not poke their noses in to subjects they know almost nothing about.. keeping black powder in steel mining magazines is an extremely silly idea!

 

[87TT]

I knew BP last forever in its container, but was wondering about in a powder horn. I generally pour it back out of the horn and into the can when I'm done, as opposed to leaving it in the horn for months. Is me doing thus a waste of time? Should I just leave it in the horn?

To be honest, I forgot there was powder still in the horn(s). I had 4f in a small horn for priming a flintlock and 3f in a larger horn with a wood end cap on the large end an a brass valve on the other. I could tell no difference in it and new powder from the container even after 30 plus years hanging with the rifle on a beam and several years in a box on a shelf in storage.

 

[smo]

Clumping is the only issue I've experienced with stored powder.

I've seen it happen in a horn as well as a the original can.
Both were stored in un climate controlled environments.

I just gave it a couple shakes and it shot just like normal...

 

[RonRC]

I just had to chip out FFF powder inside a horn.
The powder had been in the horn for many months and hung on a nail here in Colorado. Our humidity is typically low.
I tried to pour the powder into the original container and found large clumps across the middle of the horn.
That was unexpected. I ended up poking at it with a piece of copper wire.

 

[Texas Hunter]

I just saw on Midway USA that that they will be selling real black powder soon.

https://www.midwayusa.com/black-powder/br?cid=23963&customerSelectedSort=False

 

[Carbon 6]

Are our black powder rifles, pistols and etc that only favor real black powder soon to be just wall hangers?

No there is typically a shortage this time of year, but it is also exasperated by current panic and people spreading/fueling that panic on social media.

 

[Henry2357]

No there is typically a shortage this time of year, but it is also exasperated by current panic and people spreading/fueling that panic on social media.

Agreed

 

[Griz44Mag]

POWDERVALLEYINC seems to be well stocked. No shortages there....
I have dealt with these folks for a long time. Good people and decent prices.
No minimums, but you will save by buying a little more and mixing the order with smokeless and primers.

 

[ord sgt]

I have bought black from Friendship and from Back Creek in Virginia, just outside of the N-SSA. Back Creek used to have five pound bags for sale on Sunday after the N-SSA Nationals.

 

[nit wit]

Check out the Maine Powder House.Yarmouth Maine.
Nit Wit

 

[Bassdog1]

I had been pondering buying a full case for a while and bit the bullet and picked a case up from Deer Creek Products. Olde Eynsford has been shooting really good in my 32, 36 and 45 so I went with 20 Lbs 3F and 5 lbs 2F. When all was said and done I was under $17.00 a pound. Drove down and picked it up, real nice folks. Weather is looking up for next week ready to start shooting it up.

 

[ab44]

I use Goex triple F works fine in Remington.