what pan powder do you use?

[Dphar1950]

I use FFFF or Nul B if I have it. The rifle in my avatar is slower with FF in the pan than with FFFF or Nul B. Flintlocks fire by heat generation since the pressure generated in the pan is negligible there is no way to force fire into the vent. So what fires the gun is the main charge "seeing" the 2000 odd degree fire in the pan. Since the finer powder is going to generate heat faster its going to be faster. Can you tell the difference? Not without a lot of electronic help I suspect. But if I recall correctly the difference in time between FF and FFFF from Larry's timing is greater the total lock time of a brass suppository gun I own. And lock time is highly valued. I also think the smaller grains may respond to the sparks faster. But there are other advantages to having some FFFF in the pouch. Like trickling through the vent to move a "dry ball" or waht every one wants to call it. Null B is a granulated powder. I suspect that its powder that falls through the FFFF small screen but is held in a smaller screen. The floor sweeping thing I read above somewhere is silly. Powder plants are careful about such things. Or they better be.

 

[Larry Pletcher]

quote from Dphar1950: "Null B is a granulated powder. I suspect that its powder that falls through the FFFF small screen but is held in a smaller screen. The floor sweeping thing I read above somewhere is silly. Powder plants are careful about such things. Or they better be."

Dan, I am responsible for that comment, but I was mis quoted. In my article I said, "The other sample is NullB. This powder is reputed to be tailings (sweepings) left from production runs of the other grades of Swiss." This was what I was told by the NMLRA rep who sold the powder to me in 2004. Perhaps he meant that it fell through the ffffg screen. I didn't ask for his definition of "tailings" and probably I should have.

I agree with your comment about trickling NullB through the vent of a dry-balled weapon. I have loaned Null B to a friend who dry-balled and who primed with ffg.

At the spring shoot a couple years ago I was told that a new version of Null B was in the works. Since I was timing locks in my booth, I was given a sample to time. It was slower than my own original Null B. It was closer in time to Swiss ffffg, which is still very good.I don't know whether the new version was put into production.

Regards,
Pletch

 

[hanshi]

With a lock that throws good sparks over and over, I really can't say I can tell a difference between 3F and 4F. Occasionally I think I do but the very next shot will say NO!

 

[JoeU]

3f works fine for me

 

[FlinterNick]

I just use 2F mostly, last time at the range I used 2F and had 1 miss fire out of 21 shots. I always found that having a nice charge closer to the touch hole makes the difference. If I’m using 3F for my rifle, I prime with 3F.

 

[Heelerau]

I use FFFg which is the main charge in my rifles, I use Fg in the brown bess which is its main charge. I have found this works fine for me. Guess I am in the same camp as Hanshi.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

I have a lifetime supply of Dupont and Curtis & Harvey 4f so that's what I use . Can't say I have ever tried anything else .