smokeless black powder subs

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alexander45

alexander45

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Just wondering if there's a smokeless bp sub out there for use at indoor ranges or if any one has ever tryed to market one, I think it would be great for those of us who can't make it out of the city regularly to get in some practice with our favorite cap and ball.
 
I know it's not exactly what you're asking, but a lot of folks get conversion cylinders for their C&B revolvers to fire actual smokeless cartridges out of them. That is one solution for revolvers at least.
 
I think Blackhorn 209 is the closest thing out there.

I've never used it, but since it is engineered to be measured by volume just like Real Black Powder I don't see how it could burn efficiently enough to actually not produce smoke.
 
It needs a hotter ignition source. A percussion cap won't work. I'm not sure if a rifle/pistol primer will work or if it needs to be a 209 primer, though you might be able to use a small booster charge.
 
Years ago, a friend demonstrated that black powder smoke cleared faster than the usual nitro haze + smoldering bullet lube smoke from smokeless loads with cast bullets.
I doubt the typical rent a lane range operator would believe that, though.
 
Like Malachi said, all the folks I know who shoot cap n ball on a regular basis & want to practice, get a conversion cylinder for it & practice with smokeless loads.
Including me.
It's easy, you can shoot lots of rounds at a practice session, and no cleaning BP fouling when your done.

In addition, when I go to a 3-day match, I can shoot all the side matches with my cap guns with the conversion cylinders in them.
I can shoot black or smokeless.
Easy-Peasy
--Dawg
 
Indoor ranges have some amazing amounts of unburned smokeless that pepper the floor ahead of the shooting line quite thickly. The local indoor range did not allow black powder or substitutes not for the smoke but for the risk of persistent burning powder embers falling to the floor and possibly igniting the smokeless that was strewn thickly all over the floor.

Also the thicker black or sub smoke would plug up their scrubber filters all that much faster. The rate that happens at is fast enough already on the rather expensive filters.
 
alexander45 said:
True but for the current price of a conversion cylinder I could just get another gun or dang near 15 pounds of powder
Click to expand...

But if you reload 45 Colt the price of primers will be half that of percussion caps, and since you will be loading smokeless that will cost a lot less too. Heck, you will save enough to pay for the cylinder before you know it.
 
Blackhorn 209 is a smokeless powder that has been "engineered" to be legal for hunting in most states. IMO it produces less than half the smoke that real BP does. It's a lot cleaner too but it needs a centerfire primer to ignite it.
 
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