Black Powder Loading for Cowboy Action Shooting - A Primer

[mykeal]

In Post #778 on Rhe Official THR Walker Club thread Stephen Youngblood refers to an online publication entitled

Black Powder Loading for Cowboy Action Shooting - A Primer

, by Joel Shapiro. I read the document and found it to be a very interesting and worthwhile treatment of the subject. I did, however, take exception to two statements he made. Mr. Younglbood asked me to clarify me remarks. Since the subject is quite different from that of the Walker thread, I decided to start another, hence this post.

Here is a link to the document, in .pdf format: Black Powder Loading for Cowboy Action Shooting - A Primer

My response, after reading the document (post #779 in the Walker Club thread), was:

Interesting book, with much good information. I disagree with his hyperbole regarding the use of the 'wrong' granulation, and the homily about static electricity, but otherwise a fine publication with much to recommend it.

In discussing the familiar granulations of black powder, on page 10 Shapiro makes the following statement in bold type:

...using the wrong granulation for the application could result in destruction of the firearm or worse.

While I certainly agree that one should take care to use the correct granulation for the application, I don't believe 'destruction of the firearm or worse' is even remotely likely. I think a more reasonable statement might be 'damage to the firearm'; 'destruction...or worse' is, in my opinion, hyperbole.

The other statement was on the effect of static electricity on pages 16 & 24:

...MOVEMENT OF THE POWDER THROUGH THE PLASTIC MAY RESULT IN A STATIC ELECTRICITY DISCHARGE CAUSING UNANTICIPATED IGNITION OF THE POWDER.

This was again in bold type.

Unintentional ignition of black powder by a static electrical discharge has been well documented to be a myth, thus my use of the word homily. Black powder is ignited by heat; a static electrical discharge, by itself, does not contain nor does it transmit heat energy. It is prudent to eliminate possible sources of electrical discharge as the passage of the electrical current from a static discharge through a conductor (such as an impurity or metal contaminant in the powder) can heat the conductor enough to ignite the powder. However, pure black powder is graphite coated and does not conduct electricity; it therefore cannot be heated by the electrical current and ignited.

 

[scrat]

I agree with you. In fact there was a post on this forum if not a year or two ago. The post had pictures of static electricity arcs, representing static electricity. The static went right through the black powder not setting it off at all. Now electricity can set off black powder but it takes an intense amount of it concentrated. If this was not true then how does the CVA electronic ignition work.

 

[mykeal]

The electricity is not what ignites the powder. The electricity is passed through a resistive element which heats up, like the lighting element in an incandescent light bulb. The heat of the resistive element is what ignites the powder. I guess you could say that the resistor is where the electricity is 'concentrated', but it's not the electricity that does the igniting.

All that being said, one must still be a bit careful with black powder and static electricity; if the powder contains certain contaminants, such as a few fine metal shavings, those contaminants could serve as the resistive element if the powder were to be exposed to a static discharge and cause an ignition. That is the theory about what destroyed a black powder manufacturing plant in Arkansas back in the 70's. They think the janitor swept up some powder on the floor along with some metal shavings; the trash bin contained a discarded fur animal pelt that sparked against the can. At least, that was the story.

 

[Pulp]

The author is a Cowboy Action Shooter, goes by the alias of Doc Shapiro. I have his book, and another one he wrote called "Breaking the Shot". He has some excellent Cowboy Action shooters on his website:
http://www.jspublications.com

Anyway, concerning BP and static. I've seen the afore mentioned video where the static discharge did not ignite BP. I've also seen the episode of Mythbusters where they ignited BP with a spark plug. I always thought a spark plug was static, but could be wrong. Lightning is also a static discharge, but it tends to get a might warm. On the other hand, walking across a carpet in the winter will not charge you up to spark plug or lightning standards. Thank God!

 

[mykeal]

The spark in a spark plug heats the tip and the side electrode; they are resistive elements; the heat is what ignited the powder. Lightning strikes an anode and the passage of the current through the anode creates the heat. The lightning, and the spark in a spark plug are not by themselves hot; they just make other things hot by passing current through them.

 

[Smokin_Gun]

We, shootin' Club had a BP that fired cement filled Beer cans, smoothbore 400-600grs of cannon powder ifin I recallect. electronicaly fired with those big square dry cell batteries. The ignitor was a glowplow from R/C Airplanes. Up to
2000 yards was not a problem till one disapeared over the Mountain in the Angeles national Forest at our leased Range...LoL! We decided to put itaway after that.

We spoke of this before but i never told the whole story on it antics with it.

With the metal conducting and heat generated to ignite BP, metal catch pans or revolvers thenselves could be an ignitor under the right(bad) conditions I would think.

SG