A reloading question dealing with black powder safety

[Mark_Mark]

Whenever I hear stories about how dangerous BP is, I always think about when I was 12 or 13, and my grandfather telling me the same thing, while he poured BP out of a tobacco pouch into a Colt case until it looked right, next to a campfire, with a marlboro hanging out of his mouth.

That sounds like a good time! just eye balled it, till it’s just right! Who needs dippers and scales!

and was this like in 1935 or something?

 

[Mark_Mark]

It’s hard to mess up BP. Just fill the case full and set the bullet on top of it. The biggest real risk is that your lead bullet isn’t lubed, is lubed incorrectly, is sized incorrectly or too hard, or the lube is just dried up after years, and you end up with leading in the barrel to clean out.

You couldn’t fit enough black in the case to cause an “unsafe” load.

I just bought a tub of black powder lube! going be very Cool!!!

 

[EricBu]

That sounds like a good time! just eye balled it, till it’s just right! Who needs dippers and scales!

and was this like in 1935 or something?

hahaha, I am not that old son. Nice backhand though!

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Whenever I hear stories about how dangerous BP is, I always think about when I was 12 or 13, and my grandfather telling me the same thing, while he poured BP out of a tobacco pouch into a Colt case until it looked right, next to a campfire, with a marlboro hanging out of his mouth.

And then there's this guy....

I try to stay just a wee touch paranoid about things that go boom. Just when we start to get complacent, that's when it all goes up in a cloud of black smoke.

 

[Mark_Mark]

And then there's this guy....
View attachment 1104248
I try to stay just a wee touch paranoid about things that go boom. Just when we start to get complacent, that's when it all goes up in a cloud of black smoke.

that was in Florida! All that black powder wasted! BP is hard to find locally

A wise man once told me: If you’re not paranoid, you might be the problem

 

[EricBu]

And then there's this guy....
View attachment 1104248
I try to stay just a wee touch paranoid about things that go boom. Just when we start to get complacent, that's when it all goes up in a cloud of black smoke.

Wow!
BP is such a funny beast, and the rules are insane. One reason it's so hard to get locally......you can't carry it in a gun store as an FFL. You have to get another license on top of that. A good friend of mine, who ran a local gun shop for years and years, and was a huge BP shooter, including a state long range silhouette championship under his belt, carried a huge select of BP tools, guns, equipment....everything to make your own stuff, including blank brass for sizing and fireforming different cartridges...the whole shebang.......but he didn't carry BP. I asked him why one day..."because 40 years ago, the day after my 18th birthday, I got convicted of marijuana posession in TX, and the ATF denied my explosives license because of it". True or not I can't say, but apparently the background check to get the appropriate license to sell black powder is substantially more in depth than the standard FFL checks, since this guy had a Type 07 FFL for the last 20 years or so. Of course, consumer purchase and storage of black powder is regulated by the state...so I can buy as much as I want as a consumer...but I'm a felon if I sell it without the correct license. Things like this make no sense to me. When I was in Europe, they sold BP in paper sacks just like they sold smokeless in the Czech gun shops I bought my reloading stuff at. In those days they had ashtrays everywhere, and almost everybody had a smoke hanging from their mouth all the time, including the workers in that gun shop. That always made me a tad nervous. Italy...can't pump your own gas, but the gas station employees smoked while they were filling tanks, and nobody seemed to care. That stuff stressed me out.