Anyone Besides Me Make BP?

[SmeeAgain]

Years ago I got fed up with prices & especially shipping charges so I decided to try making my owb BP.
It turned out to be amazingly cheap & easy. Been doing it ever since. Now a day at the range is "almost" free.
I also make my own conical bullets & caps.
I found the Civil War style bullets to be far more accurate than balls.
Am I the only one? Seems like it.

 

[tinhorn]

You might be, although it's on my bucket list.

 

[SmeeAgain]

All of the ingredients for BP can easily be obtained locally. Lowes has most of it.
As for the conical bullet mold and cap making tool, that's online only but well worth it!

 

[SmeeAgain]

A note on making BP.
The recipe isn't that critical concerning the ratio of the three ingredients. You can be off quite a bit and still achieve favorable results.
So... by reducing the sulphur (which only helps with ignition) I found there was considerably less residue to clean afterwards.

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

I am playing with it as well along with a friend. So far he's the guru. For some reason my powder is a bit anemic, his has pretty decent oomph.

 

[mmb617]

OP, are you making corned powder? That's what I'm doing and I find very little difference between my home made and Goex in terms of power, speed and reliability of ignition or cleanliness in any of my flintlocks. As of my last supply purchase I figured my powder cost at $3.57 per pound. I also cast my own round balls at about a nickle each so my cost per shot is very reasonable.

Start up costs were kind of high but I invested in some good equipment which makes the process pretty easy.

 

[noelf2]

Nope. A lot of us make powder. I try to keep my measurements as accurate as possible for consistency. I have a few recipes, one of which has no sulfur at all. I find that round balls shoot more accurately in my pietta and uberti c&b guns.

 

[SmeeAgain]

OP, are you making corned powder? That's what I'm doing and I find very little difference between my home made and Goex in terms of power, speed and reliability of ignition or cleanliness in any of my flintlocks. As of my last supply purchase I figured my powder cost at $3.57 per pound. I also cast my own round balls at about a nickle each so my cost per shot is very reasonable.

Start up costs were kind of high but I invested in some good equipment which makes the process pretty easy.

"Corned powder?" I can't even guess what that is.
As for startup costs, all I remember buying was a couple pieces of proper sized (mesh) screen, and a "rock tumbler" from HFT to use as a ball mill. Everything else I either made or scrounged up.
I make "reasonable" sized batches at a time, usually 3-5 lbs then store it in plastic zip-lock bags. That way if I have a fire, it's just a smokey mess & nobody gets hurt. Even 5 lbs doesn't sound like much but it lasts a very long time, even with frequent trips to the range.
Another thing I do is mill all my ingredients in bulk... to a fine powder like flour, then store each ingredient separately.
Not only is that much safer as separate, each ingredient is basically inert but also if some inexperienced idiot were to somehow get their hands on it, they wouldn't know what to do with it.
It's the milling that is time consuming, the rest goes quick enough.

 

[SmeeAgain]

Nope. A lot of us make powder. I try to keep my measurements as accurate as possible for consistency. I have a few recipes, one of which has no sulfur at all. I find that round balls shoot more accurately in my pietta and uberti c&b guns.

I experimented quite a bit with various ratios. Mainly because the initial recipe I tried didn't specify measurements by weight or volume. As it turned out, it's so forgiving that it didn't change much.
Once I got it "dialed in" for most power & least mess, I've been very consistent with each batch.
I'm very interested in your recipe without sulphur! I suspect it burns exceptionally clean.
This is one of those rare times when I suggest that "you really should try this at home."

 

[SmeeAgain]

FYI... My favorite revolver is a copy of the 1858 Remington New Army in .44 cal.

 

[The old gunsmith]

Been rolling my own for 30 years. If you are going to make good powder, you need to ignore most of what you see online. Get a good ball mill, accurate scale, 12 ton press, corning die and a set of screens. Also, make your own charcoal in a retort that you can control the temperature. You need to get pure KNO3 and sulpher. Stump remover won't work as it has too many impurities. If you take your time and do it right, you can beat the performance of any commercial powder. Consistancy is the key. You want 1 batch to be identical to the next.

 

[hk940]

Been rolling my own for 30 years. If you are going to make good powder, you need to ignore most of what you see online. Get a good ball mill, accurate scale, 12 ton press, corning die and a set of screens. Also, make your own charcoal in a retort that you can control the temperature. You need to get pure KNO3 and sulpher. Stump remover won't work as it has too many impurities. If you take your time and do it right, you can beat the performance of any commercial powder. Consistancy is the key. You want 1 batch to be identical to the next.

When you say stump remover has too many impurities, do you mean it's not 100% KN03 or there are other things in it? It says 100% on the label.

 

[The old gunsmith]

When you say stump remover has too many impurities, do you mean it's not 100% KN03 or there are other things in it? It says 100% on the label.

It is not 100% KNO3. I don't know what the other stuff in it is; but, I use molten KNO3 in the shop to niter blue small gun parts. One time i ran out of the technical grade (99.8%) that I normally use and got the idea to use the stump remover. Anyway, instead of melting clear, this stuff got a brown foam on top of the pot. The whole mix looked like mud. It for sure is not pure KNO3. I tried several years ago to use it in black powder and I lost 200 fps from my normal load in a 45-70. It left some of the nastiest residue I've ever seen in the bore. Besides that, you can order KNO3 from amazon or wal-mart in 4-10 pound bags for about a 1/3 the cost of stump remover.

 

[noelf2]

I experimented quite a bit with various ratios. Mainly because the initial recipe I tried didn't specify measurements by weight or volume. As it turned out, it's so forgiving that it didn't change much.
Once I got it "dialed in" for most power & least mess, I've been very consistent with each batch.
I'm very interested in your recipe without sulphur! I suspect it burns exceptionally clean.
This is one of those rare times when I suggest that "you really should try this at home."

By weight, 4 parts KNO3 and one part charcoal. I only use it in shotgun shells. The charcoal you use will determine how much fouling you get.

"Corning" is compressing the powder into hard cakes, commonly called "pucks" because a lot of us use a circular compression die. Those pucks are broken to bean sized pieces when dried, then ground up and screened to the desired size. Corning gives you a more compact powder so you can get more bang with smaller quantities by volume. Good for cartridges and short barrel pistols and such. I don't corn for shotgun or rifle powder, but I do for cartridges and c&b revolver powder. Here's some stuff you can ignore if you want to:

1. Spectracide stump remover is plenty pure for black powder. It is already powdered so is convenient. It is best to get bulk KNO3 cheaper online, but it's for value, not purity, IMHO.
2. You do not need a 12 ton press. A cheap 6 ton press from harbor freight will make you some great corned powder.
3. Homemade powder will never be as consistent as commercial, no matter what you do. You can spend an eternity trying to get it perfect but you will get to a point of diminishing returns. I weigh my powder instead of measuring by volume. I get better consistency from batch to batch that way, if I keep a standard measure of the ingredients.
4. Making a 5 pound batch is way more than most of us home brewers make per batch. You must have a huge mill. I make about 1/2 pound per batch. If something goes awry, 5 pounds is a heck of a destructive force. I wouldn't go there, but, that's just me.

 

[Officers'Wife]

I am playing with it as well along with a friend. So far he's the guru. For some reason my powder is a bit anemic, his has pretty decent oomph.

I have found the longer green powder is tumbled the stronger it gets.

 

[The old gunsmith]

By weight, 4 parts KNO3 and one part charcoal. I only use it in shotgun shells. The charcoal you use will determine how much fouling you get.

"Corning" is compressing the powder into hard cakes, commonly called "pucks" because a lot of us use a circular compression die. Those pucks are broken to bean sized pieces when dried, then ground up and screened to the desired size. Corning gives you a more compact powder so you can get more bang with smaller quantities by volume. Good for cartridges and short barrel pistols and such. I don't corn for shotgun or rifle powder, but I do for cartridges and c&b revolver powder. Here's some stuff you can ignore if you want to:

1. Spectracide stump remover is plenty pure for black powder. It is already powdered so is convenient. It is best to get bulk KNO3 cheaper online, but it's for value, not purity, IMHO.
2. You do not need a 12 ton press. A cheap 6 ton press from harbor freight will make you some great corned powder.
3. Homemade powder will never be as consistent as commercial, no matter what you do. You can spend an eternity trying to get it perfect but you will get to a point of diminishing returns. I weigh my powder instead of measuring by volume. I get better consistency from batch to batch that way, if I keep a standard measure of the ingredients.
4. Making a 5 pound batch is way more than most of us home brewers make per batch. You must have a huge mill. I make about 1/2 pound per batch. If something goes awry, 5 pounds is a heck of a destructive force. I wouldn't go there, but, that's just me.

Well yes and no. If you are just making some BP to see if you can, you really don't have to get to involved; but, if you are looking to improve on the performance and consistency of commercial powder you really do need to pay close attention to what your doing. I started making powder years ago because I was getting upset with the lot to lot consistency of the commercial powders. I shoot roughly 50 pounds of BP per year at ranges up 600 yards. At those ranges I need the most consistent powder possible. By painstaking attention to detail, I'm getting single digit SD's and have no difference in velocity between the powder I made 10 years ago and what I made last week.
I made a electric powered retort with PID controller to hold char temp to within +/- 10. KNO3 used is technical grade with a guaranteed analysis of 99.8%. Sulfur is reagent grade. All weights are held to .01 gram. At corning, I use a load cell on the press to ensure constancy in the pressure applied and screen to tighter tolerances than commercial. The end result is the most accurate powder that I can make. Every once in a while I get a wild hair and try to go back to commercial powders; but, it doesn't take me long to remember why I started on my BP quest. Last fall, I shot 50 rounds of swiss 2f and 50 rounds of my 2f. Same rifle, same day, same load. Mine beat the swiss by 37 fps and had a SD of 6 while the Swiss had an SD of 13.

 

[hk940]

TOG, I understand why you make your own powder, About 10 years ago I bought 25 lbs. of cannon powder for $245.00. Last summer I bought a pound of FFG Goex and it was $49.00!

 

[SmeeAgain]

It is not 100% KNO3. I don't know what the other stuff in it is; but, I use molten KNO3 in the shop to niter blue small gun parts. One time i ran out of the technical grade (99.8%) that I normally use and got the idea to use the stump remover. Anyway, instead of melting clear, this stuff got a brown foam on top of the pot. The whole mix looked like mud. It for sure is not pure KNO3. I tried several years ago to use it in black powder and I lost 200 fps from my normal load in a 45-70. It left some of the nastiest residue I've ever seen in the bore. Besides that, you can order KNO3 from amazon or wal-mart in 4-10 pound bags for about a 1/3 the cost of stump remover.

Your experience with the stump remover is intetesting! I clearly remember years ago that Spectracide Brand stated it was something like 99.98% pure or some amazing number close to that.
So I grabbed a bottle just a few years old and all it says is... "contains potassium nitrate." Apparently it has changed!
Sure am glad I didn't have the nerve to call you a liar.
That and I won't be using those two bottles.

 

[hk940]

The bottle I got at lowe's last summer said 100% on it.

 

[SmeeAgain]

By weight, 4 parts KNO3 and one part charcoal. I only use it in shotgun shells. The charcoal you use will determine how much fouling you get.

"Corning" is compressing the powder into hard cakes, commonly called "pucks" because a lot of us use a circular compression die. Those pucks are broken to bean sized pieces when dried, then ground up and screened to the desired size. Corning gives you a more compact powder so you can get more bang with smaller quantities by volume. Good for cartridges and short barrel pistols and such. I don't corn for shotgun or rifle powder, but I do for cartridges and c&b revolver powder. Here's some stuff you can ignore if you want to:

1. Spectracide stump remover is plenty pure for black powder. It is already powdered so is convenient. It is best to get bulk KNO3 cheaper online, but it's for value, not purity, IMHO.
2. You do not need a 12 ton press. A cheap 6 ton press from harbor freight will make you some great corned powder.
3. Homemade powder will never be as consistent as commercial, no matter what you do. You can spend an eternity trying to get it perfect but you will get to a point of diminishing returns. I weigh my powder instead of measuring by volume. I get better consistency from batch to batch that way, if I keep a standard measure of the ingredients.
4. Making a 5 pound batch is way more than most of us home brewers make per batch. You must have a huge mill. I make about 1/2 pound per batch. If something goes awry, 5 pounds is a heck of a destructive force. I wouldn't go there, but, that's just me.

I have a 20 ton press. I assume that will suffice.
When the weather warms up a bit I'll certainly try it your way. I don't do cold!
My 3-5 lbs batches are made from ingredients already milled. That takes forever and I generally do that in bulk, then leave each ingredient seperate.
As for the mixed bp, I store that in a shed a reasonable distance from the house in common plastic ziploc bags. If it somehow catches fire, nobody will get hurt.
I shoot quite a bit & 5lbs lasts at least a year or more. Storing more than that is just begging for trouble.
Anyway, I'm excited to try upgrading performance. Not that I had any complaints, just love learning new stuff... still after all these years.

 

[.38 Special]

Well yes and no. If you are just making some BP to see if you can, you really don't have to get to involved; but, if you are looking to improve on the performance and consistency of commercial powder you really do need to pay close attention to what your doing. I started making powder years ago because I was getting upset with the lot to lot consistency of the commercial powders. I shoot roughly 50 pounds of BP per year at ranges up 600 yards. At those ranges I need the most consistent powder possible. By painstaking attention to detail, I'm getting single digit SD's and have no difference in velocity between the powder I made 10 years ago and what I made last week.
I made a electric powered retort with PID controller to hold char temp to within +/- 10. KNO3 used is technical grade with a guaranteed analysis of 99.8%. Sulfur is reagent grade. All weights are held to .01 gram. At corning, I use a load cell on the press to ensure constancy in the pressure applied and screen to tighter tolerances than commercial. The end result is the most accurate powder that I can make. Every once in a while I get a wild hair and try to go back to commercial powders; but, it doesn't take me long to remember why I started on my BP quest. Last fall, I shot 50 rounds of swiss 2f and 50 rounds of my 2f. Same rifle, same day, same load. Mine beat the swiss by 37 fps and had a SD of 6 while the Swiss had an SD of 13.

I am interested in making high grade BP. Are you aware of any single source for that kind of information?

 

[SmeeAgain]

TOG, I understand why you make your own powder, About 10 years ago I bought 25 lbs. of cannon powder for $245.00. Last summer I bought a pound of FFG Goex and it was $49.00!

I have a 1" bore signal cannon! Haven't fired it since the mid 1960s but will never part with it. Massive smoke! Love it!

 

[noelf2]

Your experience with the stump remover is intetesting! I clearly remember years ago that Spectracide Brand stated it was something like 99.98% pure or some amazing number close to that.
So I grabbed a bottle just a few years old and all it says is... "contains potassium nitrate." Apparently it has changed!
Sure am glad I didn't have the nerve to call you a liar.
That and I won't be using those two bottles.

The safety data sheet for Spectracide stump remover online says it is 100% potassium nitrate. It has not changed, but they could be lying (I doubt it).

 

[SmeeAgain]

The safety data sheet for Spectracide stump remover online says it is 100% potassium nitrate. It has not changed.

Great! I sure hate to waste $12 lol.

 

[noelf2]

Great! I sure hate to waste $12 lol.

It always works good as stump remover anyway...