Black Powder ONLY??

If they desire to do it great. Diversity is why America became great. BP was the only game in town for hundreds of years smokeless about a hundred. I was heading that wasy myself until eyesight has become an issue (all sights and target fuzzy). Scoped bp guns don't do any thing for me. Nothing like a cloud of white smoke.

I don't shoot anything smokeless except for .22s. But a lot of the time I load those with blackpowder, so they aren't always smokeless.

~Levi

I have cut back on the number of powders on my reloading bench but I do not see me going 100% black powder. It will not work for a couple of the cartridges I load like the 405 WCF, and the 22 WCF. Also, as much fun as it is in the 38 Special, 2.8 grains of Bulseye is a hard load to equal let alone beat. I will say I am at about 85%.

And looking at it froma different stance, all of my loads are duplicates of black powder ballistics.

Howdy

I only shoot Black Powder through all my Cowboy Action guns. Revolvers, rifles and shotguns. 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 44-40, 44 Russian, 45-70 and 12 Gauge. Colts, Rugers, Ubertis, Winchesters, Marlins, Stevens.

However I wouldn't dream of shooting Black Powder through most of my modern guns. Black Powder requires more dedication than Smokeless. You really have to clean them every time you shoot them. You actually don't have to run home and clean them the same day, but you do have to clean them every time. In addition, it is more expensive to shoot Black Powder. Usta be that BP was significantly cheaper than Smokeless, but since the charge is so much bigger, you burned up a lot more powder and it wound up costing more. But these days, BP costs almost as much as Smokeless. I just paid $16/pound for the last few pounds of Schuetzen I bought. When you consider I will only put about 7.5 grains of Unique in 45 Colt or 44-40, but I but about 35 grains of FFg in the same two cartridges, the powder cost quickly skyrockets.

As if that were not bad enough, you can't use conventional bullets lubed with conventional hard bullet lube with Black Powder (real Black Powder, not the substitutes). You either have to make some allowance to get some soft lube into the cartridge, or lube your bullets with a BP compatible bullet lube. I cast my own bullets for all my BP cartridges, and size them and lube them with SPG.

All in all, it makes for a lot more work to be shooting Black Powder. It's great fun, but it requires more dedication than shooting Smokeless. I am very happy to shoot Smokeless in my modern guns and just give them a quick wipe down and put them away in the safe at the end of the day.

P.S. Did I mention that all my BP brass gets soaked in a jug of water with a few drops of dish soap. If you don't soak the brass it WILL corrode with 24 hours. With Smokeless I just wait until I have enough of a particular caliber, then dump them in the tumbler. No need to rush right home and do it.

Why limit yourself to only one dish at a buffet?

Rogue Coder said:

The army buddies of mine are all "tactical lovers".

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I've never been a fan of "Plastic" guns, they have their place, it just isn't in MY hand. I would guess that few folks on this forum actually restrict themselves to just Black Powder but I'd make a guess that the majority of the shooting probably isn't smokeless either.

If you'd like to have some fun with your Tac buddies go shoot with them one of these days but I'd be inclined to yank their chains a little by maybe using a SAA and a lever gun. And of course they would need to be loaded with the appropriate powder if you know what I mean. You might just convince somebody that the world does not revolve around the Glock and the custom AR.

It takes skill to hit something with what we like to shoot, the optics aren't attached to the rail but your shoulders.

I prefer the blackpowder guns, but I'm not limited to them.

I don't think my Browning BAR in .243 would run very long on an FFFg diet.
It's a great fun gun, will put a bullet up a rodent's rectum at 300 yards, and has supplied me with venison several times. Even though it doesn't have the soul of a BP gun, it's still one of my favorite guns.

I like 'em all...........flint to full auto! I shoot that flint gun more than the M/16 tho.

I particularily have a love affair with my lightweight BAR in '06........it ALWAYS works, it ALWAYS results in instant deer/hog chops. Then too, that old .54 Ithaca Hawken rolls 'em as well.

A BAR????

Now that's a piece of history that I would stand in line to shoot!!

Well shoot, I didn't know airguns counted in this thread. I shoot about 300-400 rounds a week through my air rifle and that isn't smokeless of black. It's air powered!

It is indeed all very fun to shoot. Although I mostly shoot blackpowder and my rimfires. I use smokeless .22s, .357 Magnum with smokeless powder in the cartridges and Bullseye in my Super Companion but that's about it as far as all my plinking goes. I want to load me up some BP .357 just for kicks, I might get a Lee loader. I don't know if jacketed bullets would be a wise choice for loading with BP so getting a mold would probably be a better choice.

Levi

I like all kinds of firearms, no limit for myself.

BAR????

Now that's a piece of history that I would stand in line to shoot!!

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The BAR sporting rifle today is not your grandpappy's BAR.

Too bad, I'd pay good money just to stand behind one during live fire. I'd pay stupid money to be the one holding the gun!!!

Foto Joe said:

Too bad, I'd pay good money just to stand behind one during live fire. I'd pay stupid money to be the one holding the gun!!!

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Well you're in luck, 'cause they cost stupid money

I will never got totally to BP. I've been hunting with a CVA inline laely and I have a couple of Hawkens. My revolvers are for fun, not serious carry. I carry a pocket sized 9x19 that carries 11 rounds of 115 grain +P firepower. It rides in my pocket whenever I have pants on. I back it up with a .22LR NAA mini revolver. Carry weapons have advanced in the last century and a half.

I load .257 Roberts, .308 Winchester, and 7mm Remington Magnum for medium to big game hunting. Those cannot effectively use BP. They're modern smokeless calibers, ore at least more modern than my Hawkens. I don't even load my Ruger Blackhawks with BP. BP is for my BP cap and ball guns and front stuffing rifles, that's it.

I particularily have a love affair with my lightweight BAR in '06........it ALWAYS works, it ALWAYS results in instant deer/hog chops. Then too, that old .54 Ithaca Hawken rolls 'em as well.

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Friend of mine has a BAR in .300 Win Mag and his is a bit heavy for my tastes, but it's a fantastic shooter. He has entirely too much glass on it IMHO, 4x16. But, with some old crappy factory ammo he bought, I put 5 rounds into an inch and a half at 100 yards. That's pretty danged impressive. If I were to get one, it'd be a short action for .308 or 7-08 or something, though they chamber the thing in .325WSM. While I'm not in to the short mags and that round is less than popular, the ballistics are pretty impressive. Wouldn't be impressive at all with BP. Hell, probably wouldn't even function.

Heck, even the big ol .50BMG does pretty good with the black.



I wish I knew who to credit that picture with, I found it somewhere, put it in my photobucket and would like to know who it actually belongs to. It would be nice to give credit where credit is due.

I'm kind of tempted to get an H&R Handi-rifle in .45-70 just to shoot BP loads with. I'd like some big cartridges that make my friends go "holy ****, that's a cannon!"

On the other hand .22 Long Rifle loaded with blackpowder actually has a bit of an advantage. It is mighty quiet, if I were shooting at game from a longer range with my .22 LR handloads the shot would be less likely to spook the game.

Pardon my dreadful camera but here's my BP .22 LR video for those who haven't seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wRDXp36Qkw&list=UUQyanVLLSkwkvmZgcO3jrww&index=1&feature=plcp

Levi

Although 30-30 actually wasn't a Black Powder cartridge when it came out, that doesn't mean you can't load 'em with the good stuff.

Since I haven't been able to procure the proper caliber in a lever gun I've been loading 44 Special with 26gr of 3f for quite some time to feed to my Marlin. The only problem is that the Marlin has the "Micro Groove Rifling" which loads up pretty quick with fouling. The first half dozen rounds will impress the masses but after that about the only safe place to stand is directly behind the gun 'cause you really don't have a clue where they're gonna go. It's an easy fix though, just swab the barrel a couple of times with a Ballistol/Water soaked patch and you're back in action.

Just for grins about a year ago I rapid fired the thing with a full magazine from the hip just to see how much smoke I could make. The wind was dead calm when I did it and I had myself and two others choking by the time the magazine was empty. To top it off I haven't got a clue if I hit the target either 'cause nobody could see the thing.

I like them all. Not an AR or Glock fan, though.
I have more airguns than I care to admit. Most of them are adult airguns. I hunt small game with them.
I even have a Korean .45 caliber precharged pneumatic that flings .454 RB at .750 fps from the factory.
It does even better after a power tune.