Just starting to get into flint locks so this may sound like a stupid question. Could you use something like BullsEye pistol powder to charge your pan???
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pan powder?
- Thread starter Luke M
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Cannon
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Any smokeless powder has no business near a black powder firearm. Bullseye is great for center fire pistol cartridges and that's what it should be used for. Not sure I'd want it going off close to my face anyway. I know real black powder is hard to come by, but pan powder should be limited to 4F, 3F, or 2F. 4 or 3 preferably.
Just asking a question here, I'm just wanting to start into the flint lock world. I've got 4 lbs of BE. I've tested a hot ash from a cigarette on top of a small pile of BE and it ignited right away? I get this isn't the REAL way. Just wanted to see if anyone has tried? I have not. Yet.
I think it is good that you don't try it.
Thats not a good habit to start with black powder firearms.
Blackpowder firearms are made/ment for black powder,or black powder substitutes only . Never mix them.
Dave
Blackpowder firearms are made/ment for black powder,or black powder substitutes only . Never mix them.
Dave
Cruzatte
50 Cal.
Please don't! You really need to find a source of genuine black powder. Perhaps if you join a muzzle loading rifle club, you can take part in a bulk order. Or get a shooting buddy or two to go in with you and put in a bulk order together.
Save that Bull's Eye for reloading your suppository gun ammunition only.
What are you using for your main charge? Assuming it’s real blackpowder it will work in the pan.
As far as using BullsEye in the pan, I have never tried it, but I don’t believe it would work very well. Smokeless powder burns fast and generates pressure when contained, but in an open flintlock pan, if the sparks from your flint ignite it, it will just burn much slower than blackpowder does in that open pan (flintlocks can be slow enough to go off with real blackpowder) and likely wouldn’t consistently ignite the main charge. Biggest danger I see is having smokeless powder around when loading a muzzleloader. Get the two mixed and use the BullsEye for the main charge and you will have some real excitement if you manage to light it up. And not the good kind of excitement. I’d save the BullsEye for reloading smokeless pistol rounds.
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Rock Home Isle
54 Cal.
For flintlocks, the only powder that I’ve found to be reliable at all is blackpowder
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Egads!! NO, a hundred times NO! Just use the normal 2 or 3 F powder you're using in your "piece".
I was hoping for experience based answers. Flashing any kind of powder, particularly slow burning smokeless powder, seems like a reasonable proposition, particularly when traditional 4F is scarce. IraqVeteran888 has an interesting video on smokeless powder use in a BP rifle. It required a gross overload to rupture the barrel, thanks to modern steel and safety margin. Conventional wisdom is valuable but objectively pushing the envelope is also valuable. My conjecture, but I believe it would be safer to use hard to ignite smokeless in a FL rather than make your own 4F BP out of desperation.
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Cannon
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I'd like to post a reply, but the words escape me....
Trapper Scott
45 Cal.
4f is a by-product of making your own
Will it spark even with a flint?
Pyrodex won’t, or won’t reliably.
Modren powder I think has a higher flash point then black powder. (????)
Pyrodex won’t, or won’t reliably.
Modren powder I think has a higher flash point then black powder. (????)
The old test to see if you had blackpowder was to light up a small pile of the powder in question with a match. If it went poof and the hair was gone from your knuckles, you had blackpowder. If you a got a slow burn, you had smokeless powder. That experience says it’s way too slow to be practical in a flintlock pan for reliable ignition. Some complain about 2F being too slow……
What powder are you using for your main charge? If blackpowder, it will work well in the pan, no matter the granulation.
So what is your actual experience with smokeless powder? Probably need to let us know quick before this thread is locked.
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I'll try it for you and let you know. As long as Bullseye is not contained it won't be any more dangerous than if you lit it with a match on a cement block. I doubt it will be as fast of an ignition as would any granulation of BP but will have more energy release at ignition.
Might have to put your beard and eye brows out if you try it beside your head though.
I'll try it at arms length in an old gun I have. Remember only in the pan where it is not contained !
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It's going to burn too slow in the open if the sparks from the flint will even light it. I still wouldn't attempt it, just on principle. Yeah, Iraqveteran8888 did blow up a traditional ML and it took a copious amount of fast burning pistol powder, but still, not anything I would trifle with. Also, if anyone is familiar with Kentucky Ballistics Scott's near fatal accident with a counterfeit SLAP round in his 50 BMG...he later fired the remaining rounds in a safe and controlled way and most were way too hot. He then chambered and fired a round he made that was calculated to generate appx 190k psi. The rifle in the test failed in almost the exact same way as the first. He never disclosed the recipe for the 190k psi round, but I'd bet my last paycheck it was filled to the brim with a fast rifle powder or even pistol powder.
All that said to say this, when you mess around with propellants using them in ways they were not intended to be used, the results can be deadly.
Just keep an eye on the online sources for BP and order a pound or two of 3f or 4f when it comes available and be done with it. Sometimes the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.
All that said to say this, when you mess around with propellants using them in ways they were not intended to be used, the results can be deadly.
Just keep an eye on the online sources for BP and order a pound or two of 3f or 4f when it comes available and be done with it. Sometimes the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.
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Bullseye would not lite at all in my pan with three tries and good spark shower ! It burned fine with a lite from a propane torch.I'll try it for you and let you know. As long as Bullseye is not contained it won't be any more dangerous than if you lit it with a match on a cement block. I doubt it will be as fast of an ignition as would any granulation of BP but will have more energy release at ignition.
Might have to put your beard and eye brows out if you try it beside your head though.
I know from experience and many years of handling that progressive powders only burn when not contained but black powder will explode wither contained or not which is why it is used for a prime in large caliber artillery fire as well as flint guns.
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if you have a matchlock you may have some success lighting a pan full of bullseye.
i just tried a pan full of red dot which is #9 on the burn rate chart. Bullseye is #15. i tried it in the pan of a new kibler lock i had laying on the bench.
10 full showers of sparks only produced a flint with 10 shots removed from its life.
the slow relatively cool burn of smokeless isn't what you should be looking for. you want easy ignition, a HOT jet blasting fast through the vent . the red dot burn was so slow it makes me wonder if it could even overcome the ambient pressure inside the vent.
think in the spirit of science i will video the red dot burning alongside the black powder exploding.
i would urge you to keep your bulls eye for cartridges.
i just tried a pan full of red dot which is #9 on the burn rate chart. Bullseye is #15. i tried it in the pan of a new kibler lock i had laying on the bench.
10 full showers of sparks only produced a flint with 10 shots removed from its life.
the slow relatively cool burn of smokeless isn't what you should be looking for. you want easy ignition, a HOT jet blasting fast through the vent . the red dot burn was so slow it makes me wonder if it could even overcome the ambient pressure inside the vent.
think in the spirit of science i will video the red dot burning alongside the black powder exploding.
i would urge you to keep your bulls eye for cartridges.
I'm a newb to FL's but have burned a lot of smokeless. Much of my thread response was driven by the knee jerk warnings about smokeless in BP guns. It is of course a bad idea, though not the certain death many would assert. Thread drift on my part. The core question at hand is smokeless in a FL pan. My surmise is that it is not dangerous, but unreliable. It's a useful question in this era of scarcity. I burn a lot of BE and W-231 in pistols and intent to try them in my FL, just for the learning. My expectations are low.
