Wouldn't ordering some of those chemicals put you on Nepolitano's domestic bad guys list?
I am in the group of "Who Cares". If that is the case then guys buying 20lbs of gunpowder over the net are on the same list. Most of the chemicals used are used for pyrotechnics and there are a lot of hobbies out there that do that. Besides I am not doing anything wrong with it, just shooting guns.
I got to shoot some of mine today up against the Goex 3F, and instead of typing it again I'll just post what I did over at TFL.
"Got to take my first batch out and shoot it. I guess I lost my virginity in both respects, shooting a black powder revolver and using my own homemade powder. I met a buddy of mine whom is a bit more experienced than I in black powder so I had good help.
Some initial thoughts, shooting the 51 Colt and the 58 Remy for the first time was great, and much easier than I thought. I could not hit the broad side of a barn if I tried, which concerns me no matter what I was shooting with.
I first ran a couple of cylinders of Goex 3f black powder through them at the recommended 22 and 35 grain measurements respectively. Man there is a difference in bang there.
I then loaded some of my own powder to those same measurements. They went bang but were anemic as everything I read on the net said they would be, do to the different densities. I increased the amounts as I went up, sometimes just loading one cylinder. The .44 was taking 50 grains of the homemade and was getting close to the 35 of the Goex, and I was out of cylinder. I ran out of space in the cylinder in the .36 before it got close to a full load.
I did note that my grains were much larger then Goex 3f, so my thoughts are this. I am going to grind this stuff down finer. That and it probably hindered that I corned it yesterday and I am sure there was still some moisture in the powder. The nice part of the full cylinders is it fit the wad and ball right at the top which was nice, felt like a good compression of the powder.
All in all I walked away from the session feeling pretty good about my home brew. I think with a little tweaking it will be a competitive propellant. My buddy was just impressed that it worked and I was punching holes in the target downrange. I think maybe he even got a bit excited about it. The Homemade made considerable more smoke as well, it was kind of cool to see big smoke rings come out of the end of the barrel as it went off.
This black powder revolver thing is cool.............."
