With the recent discussions on High Performance Muzzleloaders, I had to start wondering where I'd be without the BP for my FL, and to tell you the truth, I'm stumped! would we have to lay aside our flinters if the life blood of our sport dried up? or is there a viable alternative?
-
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103
What would happen without Black Powder?
- Thread starter bnail
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Blizzard of '93
Cannon
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2006
- Messages
- 7,237
- Reaction score
- 13
BP ain't that difficult to make, and from what I've read homemade stuff may be more potent than factory!
hawkeye1755
54 Cal.
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2005
- Messages
- 1,775
- Reaction score
- 0
That's a nightmare.I will never think about that.And as Blizzard of '93 said you can make it by yourself.Our forefathers did it.
Where there's a will there's a way. Amen
:hatsoff:
Where there's a will there's a way. Amen
:hatsoff:
MikeFromON
40 Cal.
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2006
- Messages
- 133
- Reaction score
- 1
Historically speaking, all you need to make gunpowder is wood, bird droppings, and sulfur. I tried making my own BP from saltpeter and sulfur I got at the garden shop and birch charcoal I got from sifting ashes from my woodstove. I weighed everything out and put it in a glass dish and added some water then ground it all together into a gooey, grey mass. I let it dry out over a few days and then re-ground the resulting cake to about 1F or 2F. My homemade powder turned out light grey (not black) and ignites easily, although it leaves a good deal of molten white residue behind after it has burned. I will not be trying it in my flinter because of the residue. I have about 24 lbs. of Goex in my garage too. Maybe after that runs out ...
Bountyhunter
50 Cal.
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2005
- Messages
- 1,249
- Reaction score
- 2
Thats just why a guy oughta have a hundred pounds or so laid by where he can get to it. You are not supposed to store more than 50# at your house, but it dont say nothin about that you cant have another 100 pounds under your garage floor. Or under your friends floor.
I considered hoarding, but realized that Caches, regardles of size are finite. I was hoping that the technology in the Firestorm would be more conducive to shooting BP substitutes, but I guess that if we lose BP, then we'll lose BP substitutes as well.
Perhaps the answer is in our dilegence in not allowing our representatives to legeslilate this away from us.
Perhaps the answer is in our dilegence in not allowing our representatives to legeslilate this away from us.
Blizzard of '93
Cannon
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2006
- Messages
- 7,237
- Reaction score
- 13
WHAT A PACK - RAT :rotf:
Old Ironsights
40 Cal.
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2006
- Messages
- 454
- Reaction score
- 0
Ridge said:
Nope, because by then the Revolution would have already begun.
We ain't alowed to talk about Homebrew here - makes Claude & the BATFE nervous (or is it, makes Claude nervous of the BATFE? :hmm: :winking: ) but there are plenty of good recepies out there - especially on funny "furrin" sights like Ulrich's BP pages. Good stuff there on making Handgonnes too.
I made some powder once with my brother-in-law with the same results. It left a sizzling whitish residue and it was not a very strong powder. We thought it was because of the charcoal we used. We wanted to make alder charcoal, but we used willow instead. I never gave it a second attempt, but I have to admit, it ignited easier than triple-seven ever thought of. :rotf:
I'm sure if real black power were "outlawed" the powder makers would come up with a sub that'd work in our flintlocks. It's just at this point in time there's no need for a sub black that'll work in a flintlock. Necessity is the mother of invention. :hmm:
I think it was on Ulrich's site that I first read of brown powder, (was invented at end of BP era) it contains under-oxidized wood & only 3% sulfur, and is harder to ignite than BP, but can come close to some smokeless powder as to power.
A few years ago I started keeping my Goex supply at the maximum allowable 50lbs...as soon as I finish a case and get down to 25lbs, I order a replacement case.
From personal experience I know layered charges of a 20grn Goex ignitor and the rest Pyrodes RS work very well, and a couple cases of Goex ignitor charges will last a long long time that way
From personal experience I know layered charges of a 20grn Goex ignitor and the rest Pyrodes RS work very well, and a couple cases of Goex ignitor charges will last a long long time that way
The formula for blackpowder can be found in lots of places. But as this is a widely visited site and per the B.A.T.F. it is illegal to produce your own blackpowder in the U.S. lets not open a litigation trap here for our poor forum. When 11 year old Jabone Jr.s mom learns he blew his hand off with a recipe he downloaded here we all suffer.
We, the staff here, discourage the manufacture of your own and I'll lock this thread faster than Sister Theresa's knickers click if we don't get away from the homebrew discussion.
We, the staff here, discourage the manufacture of your own and I'll lock this thread faster than Sister Theresa's knickers click if we don't get away from the homebrew discussion.
Right on Stumpy, and you don't have to be a child to blow yourself up! After all these centuries of black powder production and all that has been learned and all precautions taken, even commercial powder plants still blow up. It is a simple but very dangerous process. 
Similar threads
