making black powder, and primers?

[gezzer]

The simple way for survival is put up 5000 caps NOW. Or buy a flintlock.

God lined the streams with rocks for flintlocks so they will be pure and make righteous kills.

Them cap shooters will never catch on same as those guns that take the brass suppositories.

 

[mec]

"I have read a topic on the make of matches. Matches are no more than phosphorus and potassium chlorate. ..."

the tribes of Darah Adam Kiel used to knock the dents out of spent primers and refill with matchhead powder to make their primers. The used uncoated chopped up movie film for nitro powder. don/t know what they did for black powder but they were modern sorts making Enfields and even stens on foot powered lathes. Now, of course, they use AK 47s

Jim Taylor the writer has made match head primers and even worked up some usable loads with match powder for porpellent. Probably pretty errosive to your gun though.

 

[BoomBoom2]

Thanks for the info

I new nothing of smokeless powder, never messed around with the stuff much. Always had bought my ammunition. Only time messing with the stuff was to make home made solid skyrocket fuel ignition primers for which I never got to work. Which taught me alot about blackpowder due to studying its resources. Made rocket candy once, and like to burned down the house. Wife was Pissed, House was very smokey afterwards. Never did finish the project of making homemade skyrockets. Reason I moved from the county to the city where laws are more strict and neighbors safety to consider.

 

[eab]

If your really worried about being self sufficient, get 2 or 3 mausers or mosins and a couple thousand rounds. If all you are doing is hunting with the gun aready sighted in. Should last you a life time. Much easier more reliable, will keep working for ever and ammo is dirt cheap.

However thats not really the point of being in the black powder section of the forum now is it. Also not nearly as fun as making your own powder either.

 

[BoomBoom2]

Mauser, I will check it out.

Thanks EAB I will take the Mauser into consideration. But for Cartridge hunting purposes I have quit a few assualt rifles handy. For example a Remington .243 near by, 30 06. My Hunting Gun of choice though is the 20 gauge New England Shotgun. But I've been checking Benelli Auto Loading Shotguns out.
The reason for common Knowledge of b.p. adn muzzleloading is the availabilty of resources needed to exucute cleaning and firing. Also the quanities of load and weight comparison when having to hike on foot long distances in dangerous areas. Like being stranded miles in the woods during hunting season and battery failure on atv's or communtication devices.

Use what is available to you and make it work.

 

[photogman2000]

tap-a-cap

If your still looking for the tap-a-cap Dixie does not carry it anymore. Mid South shooters supply does listed as Forsters tap-a-cap

 

[Wild Bunch]

I used to make Black Powder as a kid living on a ranch in Eastern Washington. Had plenty of Saltpeter and Sulfur and charcoal was easy to find. I never tried it in a firearm but it made good firecrackers and warheads for model rockets.

I still have all my fingers, so either I'm really lucky, or making Black Powder isn't all that dangerous. I can certainly think of other stuff I did as a kid that was way more dangerous.

 

[oldpuppymax]

Real black powder has just ONE recipe, although the measures of Salt Peter, Charcoal and Sulfur have varied over the centuries. Smokeless has a ton of combinations, some containing Nitro and some not for instance. Personally, I wouldn't even think about making either. When Hussein comes after me, I doubt I'll get through my 10,000 rounds of ammo, never mind a dozen pounds of black powder. The key is to get just ONE of the jack-boots. In a war of attrition, actual Americans will win.

 

[ThomasT]

In one of the back issues of Backwoodsman Magazine there is an article called Making Grandmas blackpowder. It was a very interesting read. I recommend you get it.

It was made by leeching out the potassium from the dirt in the chicken run and drying it. Then suger that was refined from maple syrup was added. Last was iron oxide (red rust) was scraped from and rusty metal. This was mixed and dried and then screened. No sulfur or charcoal was used. The powder was a red color and not black.

You can buy 99.5% pure potassium nitrate off ebay. It is far cheaper than buying stump remover. There is another thread here that has a link to a fellow that tells how to make charcoal. Use willow or ash wood and burn it in a closed container like making char cloth.

The best way to do this is to buy all you can now. The factory made stuff is hard to beat. I have a tap-o-cap and I have never got it to work. Not even with a revolver and direct fire into the cylinder.

I have worried about the "what if" thing for years. Like what if I couldn't get anymore could I make my own. I just decided to stock up on what I needed.

I quit worring about having shooting supplies. I learned my lesson in the mid 90s when clinton woke everyone up.

You can buy BP from powder inc for 13.60 per pound if you buy in 25lb lots. And that is with the shipping included. You can't make it for that.

 

[gerry303ca]

We made our own powder when I was a teenager. There was a pulp mill nearby with a huge pile of sulphur, BBQ charcoal could be ground up, and potassium nitrate could be bought from a drug store. We generally made pipe bombs and took them to a breakwater with lots of huge quarried rocks that still had drill holes in them. We would drop the pipe bomb into a hole with lighted fuse and run like hell. we broke up some very large rocks. We also made the fuses but I don't remember now what we used.

 

[Palehorseman]

Not recommending the making of the holy black, but, this is a good source of information.

http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/homemade_bp.html

 

[Pulp]

I have been making my own blackpowder for a couple of years now, from information I gleaned mostly from here. I ordered KNO3 and S from Phil's Country Store, and make my charcoal from willow. I do not make more than 8ounces at a time.

Yes, I'm aware that Goex, Elephant and Hodgdon's have all had tragic explosions. But they are making considerably more than 8 ounce batches.

Bottom line: if you can follow the safety precautions of re-loading smokeless ammunition, if you can follow the safety precautions of loading a muzzleloader or cap and ball revolver, and you are willing to follow those same safety precautions, then you can safely make your own BP.

I don't claim my BP is better than factory. It does indeed produce higher velocities than Goex and Elephant, but it is also dirtier. I only use it in my cap and ball revolvers. I tried it in my '92 .44-40 and got whupped up on badly by fouling. Although now I could use it in my '92 as I'm using Big Lube bullets.

Here's the link to the very long thread that got me started:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=347898

 

[jimrbto]

Pulp
try milling your charcoal a lot longer, sometimes the cause of too much soot fouling is due to charcoal being a little too coarse.

 

[JCT]

Make sure the willow is debarked as well if you don't already know.....+1 for Phils store, nice guy and great prices. His KNO3 and Sulfur are lab quality.
I haven't bought BP for 3 or 4 years now.