Pellets vs. Powder questions

[rcm]

I've been looking for some info regarding use of pellets (777,pyrodex) as opposed to powders (BP,777,pyrodex,etc.), but I've found next to nothing.
I have a (older)Traditions percussion ML, and am wondering if I can use pellets in it safely. What sort of misfire rate should I expect? It seems as though BP substitutes are more available locally than BP.
I've also noted that some of the subs seem to have a little more "kick" than BP. Also wondered about cleanup comparisons.
Thanks in advance! :thumbsup:

 

[ol vern]

Can you use them safely? Yes.
The question is why would you want to?

They are the solution to a non existent problem. Developed to part the plastic zip gun shooter from his money.

The damn things are higher than the nuts on a giraffe, and have no advantages over regular bp or any substitute.
:imo:

 

[bezoar]

the pellets are designed to ignite from the end with the thin black strip. No good if your flash channel hits in the non-black powder section.

 

[Pittsburghunter]

When I first got my Encore I went trough the pellet craze but out grew it when loose 777 came out and I found I could fine tune my loads the same as on my percussion guns. I also found the pellets don't work well in most of the sidelock percussion guns I use or have used with them. T/C makes a sidelock for pellets but why bother?

There is no field advantage to pellets it takes no longer to empty a speed loader filled with loose than it does to empty a speedload filled with 2-3 pellets.

 

[rcm]

Hmmm... You said yours was an Encore. I may be mistaken, but isn't that an inline? Mine is a sidelock. Maybe I should stick to powder form... :hmm:

 

[Zonie]

Although I haven't used pellets in any of my guns, I can make a educated guess about a potential problem with them in a sidelock.

The obvious is that these pellets were designed for inlines which have their primer not only "in line" with the bore, but it is very close to the rear of the first pellet loaded into the bore. The end surfaces of these pellets have black powder on them to help ignite them.
These end surfaces are no where close to the side drum that's on many side-lock guns so ignition will be undependable.

For those sidelock guns which have a patent breech like the TCs and the Lyman GPR, there will be no powder in the flame channel which connects the nipple with the bore.
Most of these guns will have noticable delays or even mis-fires if there is no loose powder in this channel.

I would suggest leaving the pellets to the inline crowd to shoot.
If you are trying to get rid of some pellets, and you have a GPR or a TC, I would suggest loading about 5-10 grains of loose powder first, followed by the pellets. This will allow the loose powder to get into the flame channel under the nipple so the gun will fire reliably.

 

[jdixon]

I don't shoot an in-lines - wouldn't let one in the house actually but, I have been told by those who do that you have to use those 209 primers (shotgun primers) for positive ignition of this pelletized powder. Don't suppose you would get a very high success rate of ignition with the #10's and #11's on pellets. I have never heard of anyone trying this stuff in a flinter. I guess the flash point is higher due to the compressed nature of the stuff.

 

[Tahquamenon]

You would not want to shoot pellets in your sidelock unless specifically designed to do so (T/C Firestorm and Traditions PA Pellet).

You will have very unreliable ignition.

The costs of pellets are about 36% more expensive.

For traditional black: Swiss or Goex 3FG or 2FG for larger bores.
For subs: Black Mag'3, Hodgdon 777 3FG, Goex Pinnacle 3FG.

:m2c:

 

[mewing6003]

I fell for the "faster loading" claim and bought some in .50 and .45(for my revolvers). While I do admit they make a C&B revolver faster to load, they :imo: do not ignite reliably. One thing if you do go ahead and try them, under no circumstances crush the pellet in any way. I was doing this at first and having serious ignition problems. I emailed the Pyrodex people and they said to not crush the pellets, this is the number one problem they received complaints about. I then asked "why isnt this printed on the label/directions?" havent heard a response back from that one yet, and its been over 2 years. I still had ignition problems even without crushing the pellets. I just got rid of them. :m2c: