shooting dried black powder

[M. De Land]

Have any of you dried out some thoroughly wet BP and tried shooting it? Curios if it can be done.
Wonder how best to dry it out? Perhaps a heat lamp and slow fan with a remote switch and a small amount test for drying safety before attempting a larger quantity.
If it can be lit after drying than I suppose a velocity test would be in order , before and after to appraise potency loss. MD

 

[Matt85]

seeing that BP is made from base materials it should still be fine after its dried out. now if it was wet to the point of becoming mud it might be a different story though. could make an interesting test.

-matt

 

[Bill Hall]

Technically yes, it should be fine. Since it is mixed wet, the smallest grain will contain the same component ratio as the whole can.

But, if it clumps up to the point where you need to break it apart, then don't shoot it. Breaking it up will give you every grade imaginable, from fg to ffffg (maybe even 5f). So a single load might contain a bunch of black powder dust, rendering it too unsafe to shoot. Or at best, you will be using fg in your small bore. Bill

 

[54ball]

Even if it was mud it should dry fine, that's how it is made.
The only problem there would be breaking it back up to proper size like fg ffg fffg.

 

[mhb]

BP is a mechanical mixture of three ingredients, saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur, finely milled and incorporated together so that each component is evenly distributed through the resulting mass - its proper performance depends on this even distribution - it is not milled wet; only enough moisture is allowed to keep the mass together and keep dust down. It is true that the finished powder is dried to remove excess moisture, but it is never really damp, much less wet. BP which has been truly wet, even if dried, cannot be as good as new. Saltpeter is the one ingredient which is extremely soluble, and wetting the powder will dissolve some of it, which will migrate to wherever the water takes it in drying, leaving part of the remaining mass with less than the proper proportion of saltpeter, and some with too much. In addition, dissolving the saltpeter causes disincorporation of the powder, rendering the grain structure weak and crumbly.
Wetted BP can be re-manufactured, but that requires that it be re-milled, re-incorporated, and additional saltpeter added to make up any lost in the original wetting.
Keep your powder dry!
mhb - Mike

 

[tenngun]

Old saying from the mountian man times..."hars wet powder an no fire to dry it" must have happened some in the past :haha:

 

[M. De Land]

So what does clumping signify, dissolved and leached out saltpeter? Can that happen if the grains are still intact? MD

 

[George T.]

Yeah that was what I was thinking about. I made some years ago with all three components dry. We tried ti use it fine but soon gave up. The salt peter would leach out into the water if it got wet enough. Damp I think you dry soaked I'm not sure! Geo. T.

 

[mhb]

The clumping is due to the water and dissolved saltpeter forming new crystals in the areas where the moisture eventually settles, which cause the powder grains to stick together in clumps.
In manufacture, the stage after milling is compression into large cakes, under heavy (usually hydraulic) pressure - after this, the press cake is broken-up and sieved for proper granule size. The final operations are (usually) glazing the grains, by tumbling, and sometimes with addition of graphite, de-dusting, to remove fine particles, final drying and packaging.
mhb - Mike

 

[mhb]

In the mountain man days, damp powder was a disaster - it could be sometimes dried and used, but would have been weaker and unreliable. Still, poor powder was better than none, if you wanted to keep your topknot.
mhb - Mike

 

[DUSTY 14]

if you attempt to dry just spread it FAR FAR FAR from any ignition source. one group of voyageurs on flipping their canoe spread the wet powder on a tarp to dry and as it was almost done one person walked across with his pipe and dropped an ash. set the whole lot off and received some injury. few cared to offer first aid as they were now short powder for an extended trip. CAREFUL and good luck.

 

[Rev_William]

I kinda want to hear the story of how your powder got wet lol storage mishap or misplaced footing near water :blah:

 

[M. De Land]

I've never gotten powder wet, was just curious if it could be dried out and used if it did. MD

 

[cynthialee]

I've never gotten powder wet, was just curious if it could be dried out and used if it did. MD

yes, so long as it didn't get driping wet. If it gets dripping wet then the saltpeter will likely leach out.

 

[simeon england]

Howdy!

Have any of you dried out some thoroughly wet BP and tried shooting it? Curios if it can be done.

I have not tried it personally, but it is a historical thing. IIRC, it was Sam Brady who had the misfortune of dunking his powder horn into the drink, and had wet powder. He layed it out to dry, and used it.