Some observations on powder

Something I learned about Pyrodex RS in cartridge or ML is that it needs substantial compression to produce its best accuracy. I have never used the Pyrodex Select grade because I think it is just a more expensive RS for people that feel if they pay more it is better.

Only barrel I use Pyro in is our 1.1" signal gun. I can look down into it after 3x hot water cleaning. And next day and next day as I wash and oil that nasty corrosive stuff out. But at 300 grain charges, it only cost $1 a pound 30 years back. A Target store was getting out of BP and had a big sale. Bought all the Pyro, percussion caps and a TC Hawken .50 for just over $100. I think I have 3-4 pounds yet to consume.

After the fire at the goex plant and the subsequent announcement of shut down they were bombarded with input from users to continue production. As I understand it goex is again available but is being manufactured by wano the same company that is making Graffs powder and I believe Schuetzen powder as well. All three are priced differently but are they different ?

An avid BPC competitor can easily burn a couple cases a year. Most BP cartridges will use upwards of 70 grain weight charge per shot and that is only 100 shots per pound. Most competitors will shoot that many at a match with practice and score shots combined. Add in practice during the week and you are burning a couple pounds per week. There are 52 weeks in a year so at two pounds per week that is 104 pounds per year. At 25 pounds per case that is four cases per year. If your a steady user it dont take long to burn a case of BP.

I thought about making BP but at less than $20.00 per pound the re-enactor powder is likely better quality than I could make and there is no danger factor as in making powder. Even in making powder there are still ingredients to by unless you go totally primitive. Did you know that in colonial times people kept a piss pot in their house and sold their urine for making potassium nitrate. The term "" didnt have a pot to piss in "" meant that you were so poor you didnt even have a urine receptacle so you couldnt even make a little money selling your pee. I guess they didnt have empty beer cans along their roads.

Pure potassium nitrate is available from hardware stores sold as a stump remover. It is something I have looked into for making nitrated paper for paper cartridge guns such as the early percussion Sharps rifles. Nitrated paper is completely consumed so there is nothing left to act as a potential barrel obstruction.

Maybe the beer industry is investing in BP stocks.

Today I was shooting a 58 caliber Remington Zoave using Pyrodex RS powder. I was trying a couple new things in it including bullets from a very interesting mold I picked up about a year ago at a gun show as well as a new front sight I found at Dixie gun works. The sight is a copy of a cross hair front sight that was used on Confederate Enfield rifles. This copy is very similar to what is on a Springfield trapdoor rifles I have but on that rifle the sight seems a bit more stout and is likely an original. Anyway this copy is a great sight that helps greatly in keeping vertical dispersion on target at a minimum.

The bullets used are from a custom mold made on Lyman blank blocks with no markings other than the Lyman code numbers for blank blocks. It casts a smooth sided bullet without lube grooves is plain base and round nose. It looks like the original bullet for the Snider conversion rifles but it is plain base not hollow base as was the Snider bullet. I had some doubt that it would shoot well in the very slow something around 66" twist of these rifles but now having tried it in the Remington Zoave muzzleloading rifle as well as an original Snider infantry long rifle I found my fear to be unfounded as both rifles shoot it quite well grouping well at 100 yards and making perfectly round holes in paper. I used it with a conventional two wrap paper patch in the Enfield Snider conversion but in the Zoave since it has a slightly tighter bore I used a cross patch set on the muzzle and pushed down with the bullet. With the cross patch there is only one thickness of paper between bullet and barrel but with the conventional two wrap patch there is a double thickness of paper. The cross patch seemed about perfect for the muzzleloader using about a .0025" thick cotton fiber paper.

I was shooting Pyrodex RS powder and having some small issue with hang fires. I had been making no attempt to compress the powder before loading the bullet but once I started doing that the hang fires ended. Before I was pouring in the powder and seating the patched bullet without trying to tamp on the bullet so as not to distort the soft lead bullet. That was giving me hang fires. Knowing the Pyrodex works much better in cartridge guns with heavy compression what I started doing was to put a wad on the powder then tamping the powder until the loading rod would bounce then with the powder compressed somewhat loading the patched bullet this change in procedure ended the hang fires.

This whole episode got me to thinking about weight to volume between Pyrodex RS and FFG black powder. After I came in from shooting since Pyrodex was in my powder drop after loading some 50-70 ammo I decided to weigh an equal volume of Pyrodex and some Graffs FFG that was sitting handily near by. With the large hopper in my RCBS powder drop full open it drops the perfect volume of powder for a 50-70 case which is just slightly under flush with the case mouth. After vibrating the filled case and compressing the powder with a thin over powder wad in go the bullets in unsized cases then a very light crimp applied to just keep the bullets from falling out. I am using a .507" pure lead bullet intended for 50 cal ML rifles but I like the bullet design and weight and it shoots good from my rifle. So much for the myth of bullets having to be larger than groove diameter to be accurate! I am loading these at .507" because that is what they drop from the mold.  They have to be sized down to .504" or smaller to load in a ML rifle so at .507" they are closer to groove in my cartridge rifle than they would be in a ML rifle with the same barrel dimensions, but I digress.

Anyway with the powder drop set full out the Pyrodex actual weight a 47.3gn and with the Graffs FFG the same volume actual weight was 67.3 grain.  This is why I believe Pyrodex needs to be heavily compressed because it is such a lofty powder that without heavy compression you cant get enough weight in a case for cartridge loading and as I found today without compression consistent ignition is iffy in a ML rifle.   So that was my after work project for today and it was rewarding.  I found that the cross patch shot well in the Zoave rifle and I learned if I will use Pyrodex in a ML rifle the loading procedure must include  compressing the powder.  I like to feel that at the end of each day that I have learned something or that in some way have made some small gain. By that standard today was a good day!

I was once told that Pyrodex leaves an alkaline residue so when I clean after using it I start with vinegar to neutralize the alkaline. Then after that do a regular cleaning with solvent and rust preventative. I do keep a close eye on barrels afterward but this cleaning method seems to prevent any problems.

Mike, I'll bet that our friend Daniel wears a very large sized hat, because he has to have a big head to hold all of the knowledge that he has acquired  thru the years.