Elephant Powder ???

[excess650]

I have some of the "old" Elephant made prior to the 25/99 lot(1996-1997), and some of the 25/99. The latter is pretty good with shiny grains. The earlier stuff was dull grey and weaker.

The Diamondback being imported is made on the same machinery as Elephant was, but the plant has been relocated and is under different ownership. The Diamondback performs similarly to the 25/99 Elephant, 1996 Goex, and 2001 KIK (all ffg) in my flintlocks (.45 and .62). The earlier Elephant seemed to foul the touch hole in my flinters pretty quickly, so is being relegated to a percussion (TC New Englander 12ga)and BP shotshells.

 

[Zonie]

I noticed that the Lyman BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK (2nd ed) tested both GOEX and ELEPHANT powders.

Although the amount varies, equal loads of GOEX seem to always have a higher velocity and chamber pressure.

This agrees with my own experience with ELEPHANT powder which always seemed to be a bit weaker and quite a bit dirtier.

That said, ELEPHANT powder does work in flintlocks both for priming and for the main powder charge so if it comes to a choice between ELEPHANT powder and Pyrodex or 777, the ELEPHANT powder gets my vote.

 

[akapennypincher]

Elephant Powder is no longer made, the plant in Brazil is gone, and I am not sure what happen to the equipment.

I personally bought a lot of the Elephant Powder from Don the Traveling Powder Man.

IMHO it was cleaner than Goex, meaning the CLEAN UP WAS EASIER & FASTER.

When Elephant Powder was no longer available I switch to Swiss that I personally found I could use between 15-20% LESS of Swiss in Volume than Elephant Powder.

Swiss became too expensive a few years back, so I switch to Schuetzen Powder that I personally found was maybe the same, or slightly hotter then Elephant. Adding about 15% more Schuetzen Powder to my loads than when I was using Swiss.

IMHO it was a sad day when the Elephant Powder Plant closed, Elephant Powder was good stuff, and there was no more Elephant Powder being made.

JMHO.

 

[Dave K]

I got lucky! About 2002 I bought a case of Elephant at the spring shoot at Friendship.It was dated if I remember right, in 2001. Of course I shot it right away and was so happy to take it back to Friendship for the fall shoot. I was lucky that I only took about a $1 a can less than I paid for it and then went and bought a case of Schuetzen. Hard to believe the plant where they made Elephant blew up. How did they get it to light off? :idunno: It must have been a real accident, pure and simple. :rotf:

 

[spudnut]

I still have a couple lbs of 3f I use it as prime in my rifle too.

 

[Zonie]

The equipment apparently was bought by Diamondback who is now producing black powder in Brazil.

I suspect they are using the old Elephant recipe but maybe they have improved it.

I recall reading an article by Bill Knight which mentioned that Elephant was converting the bark as well as the wood to charcoal and that was causing some of their powders to produce excessive fouling.

Hopefully Diamondback has corrected this.

 

[VEARL]

Great minds think alike. :thumbsup:

 

I personally didn't care for it. It was overly dirty, and really fouled small bores. That said it is still better than the synthetics, and if you live in an area where it is hard to get real Black Powder, then its great stuff.

Bill