How Long Can Black Powder Remain Loaded?

Comments were interesting.

That is so cool.That must have been a fun day at work for the guys that found it,especially loaded Thanks for showing that smokin ' Joe

I read recently that they have found several kegs of black powder that had been buried during the French and Indian war that was still working. It seems the dug it up doing an excavation of an old fort.

OMG!

An 18th century Revolutionary War era assault weapon, fully loaded since the 1860's, that didn't kill anybody for a century and a half?

I left my flintlock loaded from Sept till this January with the touch hole plugged by a tooth pick. Took it out back, primed it and it went right off. Even hit what I was aiming at..

One of our Southern Generals had a pair of '51 Navies if memory serves that were loaded sometime late during the War of Northern Aggression and not fired until after his death, around 40 years after the war ended. All twelve rounds went off without a hitch.

Every year hundreds of Muzzleloaders from generation past are handed down and discovered to be ready to go with ball and powder still inside them. That's the way it was and the way it still should be.

Every year hundreds of Muzzleloaders from generation past are handed down and discovered to be ready to go with ball and powder still inside them.

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Howdy

Yes, that happens all the time. At least it used to. C&B pistols were found in attics and when fresh caps were put on they fired. Black Powder will remain potent forever as long as it is stored in a dry place. A C&P pistol stored in an attic is a pretty dry place.

Since black powder absorbs moisture, I would think that in Central Park it would be soggy being near the rivers and the harbor.

I think that anti-gun Mayor Bloomberg should be the one to test fire it BEFORE they remove the cement plug. All in favor raise your hands.

In a city with such draconian victim disarmament laws, such a destructive "assault weapon" was stored so carelessly. Gasp!

They should have taken the cannon to the range and fired it, that would have made it a much more interesting relic. They could have filmed it and put it on the news. History needs to be made a bit more interesting if todays youth are to value it.

Catweazle said:

They should have taken the cannon to the range and fired it, that would have made it a much more interesting relic. They could have filmed it and put it on the news. History needs to be made a bit more interesting if todays youth are to value it.

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Hmmm...

Could have been quite a bit more excitement than some people would expect, however.

Setting off an unknown powder charge with an unknown shot load, with a 2 century old cannon with an unknown firing history and probably a century and a half of corrosion.

Well...excitement might not be quite the proper word for that!

Nonetheless, the pyromaniac in me would have yearned to set that up safely in a remote field, somewhere.



Ah, well...I'll just stick to the 6 foot carbide cannon I made for the Fourth of July last year. It's a wee bit safer for my kids to play with, too!

http://youtu.be/X6xhYELYVDw

Check it out...in the words of my wife, when she finally saw it: "That's actually pretty cool!"

(That's high praise from my wife!)

Nice cannon Chief

Thanks!

My next project (time permitting) is a pair of scale replica Civil War era mortars.

I took the opportunity during my recent trip to Charleston to go to the Battery downtown and take some pictures and make some sketches & measurements.

These will be used to actually launch fireworks.

If I get them done in time for July 4th, the kids and I will one-up my wife's cousin (who brings four figures worth of fireworks every year). He's been getting on my wife's nerves for a couple years now, so this will earn some points from my wife on this.



Last year we had the "cool" factor...his fireworks display was awesome as usual...but the cannon was the center of attention.

Black powder is not a chemical compound, it is a mechanical mixture. It has no known "shelf life" and if kept dry will remain good for centuries.

So beware of old guns, mainly muzzle loading shotguns, that might be loaded. Check, then double check!

Jim

A C&P pistol stored in an attic is a pretty dry place.

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Not in Corpus Christi, Texas, it ain't... Still, I ran a test of cylinders, loaded one and sealed with candle wax. Loaded one and sealed with clear nail polish. Both ends were sealed, ball side and cap side. After storing four months in the garage in the fall (quite humid), the candle wax had a couple of hang fires. The one sealed with nail polish fired like fresh. I'm goin' with the nail polish, myself. One thing, though, on a Colt, I found the candle wax had an advantage, the caps didn't fall out of the nipple, no cap jams. So, with the colt, I'll do both nail polish first, then wax the nipples.

This was a test to see if a cylinder could be left loaded for some time in humidity and still fire if sealed with something. I didn't apply fresh caps, fired as was after 4 months sitting in a humid environment. These things will fire reliably if properly loaded even if loaded over a period of time.