Toxicity of Black Powder Residue/Smoke?

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Cosmoline

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I've noticed that black powder shooting is rather more hands-on than smokeless. And sometimes even teeth-on and lips-on. I end up with soot all over after a day of shooting the smoke poles. Some of it from blowing down barrels and the rest I'm not sure. As far as I know this stuff is all-natural. I'm using real black powder and lubricants made of nothing worse than bee's wax and other stuff. But is there anything I need to be worried about?
 
Just Lead poisioning if'n ya chew on one of them Balls. ;)

Just kidding, you should be fine being that you are using the real stuff with other natural ingredients.
 
best advice wear an old shirt. Then if you blow down the barrel of a muzzleloader. cup the mouth with you hand so you dont put your mouth over it. REmember to take a breath first
 
Handle with care it`s highly addictive . Send me all you have I`m a pro at disposing of the nasty stuff .
 
* WARNING*
The Surgeon General as determined that black powder is highly addictive.
The only Authorized Agent for disposal of Black Powder is BIGBADGUN.
Please send all blackpowder to this AUTHORIZED AGENT for proper disposal immediatly.:what:
 
Sulphur won't kill you. They used to use sulphur powder in WW II to prevent infections. Nitrates won't kill you either. It's used in treating virtually all preserved meats that we wolf down, ahem, consume. Charcoal is carbon and isn't harmful. Otherwise, why would man have invented fire anyway?

Now, the most dangerous thing (besides lead exposure) is going broke from shooting so much.
 
I didn't want to be reminded of this little incident but I guess the time has come. About two years ago I went on a one day fly-fishing trip up the Selway River. It has always been tradition on these annual trips at about midday to sit down and enjoy a cool drink of water out of a canvass water-bag and an onion-butter sandwich. Well my wife had been visiting and was gone for a few days and my daughter-in-law ask if she could prepare my lunch. I told her where the onions and butter were and left it at that. The previous day I had put my tube of yellow Bore Butter in the frig because it had sat in my dash and got hot. She mistook it for the edible kind and prepared my sandwich with that. The stout onions covered up the BoreButter taste thru half that damn sandwich. When you are sixty miles from home and have no toilet paper and only a Cabelas catalogue it makes for a very long, uncomfortable day. So, as far as my experience goes, Bore Butter is the only component in BP shooting that might cause ill effects.
 
Cosmo,

BP is pretty innocuous from a toxicity standpoint. The lead would be the greatest concern if you shot a lot.
 
I WAS going to come up with something stupid to say here as 'evidence' that black powder has not messed with my mind, but I bow to the master, Mr. Suggins, you have the crown! :D

The Doc is out now. :cool:
 
The components of gunpowder include a combination of potassium nitrate (saltpeter KNO3) sulfur (S) and charcoal carbon (C) sometimes dusted with graphite (another form of carbon). Saltpeter (KNO3) sulfur and charcoal have all been used for medicinal purposes, so the component ingredients are not a major health hazard, short of kaboom.

What are the exact results of combustion of gunpowder, the residue and smoke?
 
Potassium Carbonate and Potassium Sulfide are the non-gaseous combustion products of "black powder". They too are relatively innocuous.
 
There was a legend that feeding a dog gunpowder would make him mean.
Probably just P1$$ed him off.
 
Lead from handling the ball, and also from the percussion caps. I just try not to breath much of the smoke because of the lead compounds in it from the caps. Same goes for smokeless. That's why we're instructed to wash our hands before eating-- your hands get dusted with residue which includes some small amount of lead from the primers. Some lead-free primers are being used for indoor ranges, along with lead-free bullets, or at least a solid copper-based lead core bullet.

A friend of mine who shoots a LOT has had his blood lead level tested, and it comes in below average concentrations for humans. I tend not to worry much, other than taking a few obvious precautions.
 
Maybe someone will come out with a new air freshener scent someday named "Ellie Mae's Essence of Black Powder".
And if the scent ever catches on with the ladies, then next they can create a similar perfume or cologne.
I'm surprised that no one has invented it already! :D
 
mec said:
There was a legend that feeding a dog gunpowder would make him mean.
Click to expand...

I've heard that too. Probably due to the KNO3 being an early preservative. It may make him mad (insane) if enough is consumed over a short period of time, the KNO3 preserving his brain while he's still using it. :eek:
 
wash your hands REALLY WELL before touching your face, nose, mouth, drink, or food. that was one of the absolute cardinal rules at the muzzle loading range i worked at two summers ago. the lead dust/residue was of greatest concern/risk to us (the employees) health. of course, the range i was working for was located at a summer camp, so we were doing all the powder measuring, lead handling, loading, and priming for hours and hours on end for hundreds of kids (who didn't quite understand how much work goes into loading a .50 Caliber Hawkens, and as a result, just didnt take their time aiming). our hands would be blacker than onyx at the end of the workday. im sure you dont plan to do that much blackpowder every day for weeks. but still, WASH YOUR HANDS
 
Early in the history of gunpowder, the sulphur smell was associated with the Devil and his environs. When somebody had occasion to "maketh of his Asse a thrompet." it was thought that it was Satan's little step children rushing out of his digestive track.
This is probably the reason that demons (galenadryads??} were thought to sit on the lead projectiles and cause them to go astray unless there was rifling in the barrel that would cause the ball to spin and throw off the demon. Arrows by contrast, were pretty accurate because angels road on them.

Martin Luther had a different view on the subject. He had a life-long problem with constipation and ruminated frequently on the workings of his lower alimentary system. He thought flatulence was GOOD. " With but a single f--t, I can drive the Evil One from my presence!" The Evil One, it is understood, was Mephestopheles and not the family dog.
This was about the time it became alright to shoot Christians with culveryn and gonnes.
 
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Mec, what's your source on those myths? I've never heard that before and I'd love to find out more. I've heard of angels on the head of a pin but not on arrows. Certainly not on any I shot.
 
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