Where is the black powder?
- Thread starter Grayrock
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HisSoldier
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At gun store 6 days ago in Yuma, $24.99, was told they had to take BP can to front, we could not carry it. It sounded like a homeland security deal. Weird. I will happily make my own from now on.
230RN
2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
Denver Area:
I just bought some FFFFG and 2mm fuse for my 1/4" bore cannon from The Blunderbuss just before they moved to their new location at 73rd and Washington:
800 E 73rd Ave Unit 13, Denver CO 80229
720-207-2843
http://theblunderbuss.com/index.html
I haven't been to their new store yet.
Never had a problem finding the black powder I wanted.
I am not affiliated with them in any way.
This is interesting, from their website: "We have obtained our Federal Firearms License and are now a full service shooting supplier." So apparently, they are now dealing with smokeless products as well.
Yeah, yeah, I know.... 1/4" bore? I'm a wimp, what can I say? (But I do have a 1/2" bore carronade I built myself.)
Terry, 230RN
I just bought some FFFFG and 2mm fuse for my 1/4" bore cannon from The Blunderbuss just before they moved to their new location at 73rd and Washington:
800 E 73rd Ave Unit 13, Denver CO 80229
720-207-2843
http://theblunderbuss.com/index.html
I haven't been to their new store yet.
Never had a problem finding the black powder I wanted.
I am not affiliated with them in any way.
This is interesting, from their website: "We have obtained our Federal Firearms License and are now a full service shooting supplier." So apparently, they are now dealing with smokeless products as well.
Yeah, yeah, I know.... 1/4" bore? I'm a wimp, what can I say? (But I do have a 1/2" bore carronade I built myself.)
Terry, 230RN
Last edited:
Pete D.
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Never had a need for anything else? Then you aren't shooting a flintlock.
Snob appeal? No, I need a powder that works.
I shoot real BP because my guns are flintlocks. The substitutes in question do not work.... either at all or at all well. As already posted, if I need a BP kicker to light the 777 or the Pyrodex or whatever, then I might as well just use the BP.
Powder Inc. is the way to go.
pete
Snob appeal? No, I need a powder that works.
I shoot real BP because my guns are flintlocks. The substitutes in question do not work.... either at all or at all well. As already posted, if I need a BP kicker to light the 777 or the Pyrodex or whatever, then I might as well just use the BP.
Powder Inc. is the way to go.
pete
I've run into the same problem with the Powder Inc. web site the one time I tried to use it to order on-line. I simply called them on the phone. I try to avoid ordering online and just keep my eyes open when we're on the road but sometimes I've got to mail-order.
Most folks (including myself) who've used subs, when given the opportunity to try real Black Powder do so and stay with it. Am I a snob? I don't think so by on the other hand I didn't think I was arrogant or eccentric. Turns out I was wrong about those too.:banghead:
Most folks (including myself) who've used subs, when given the opportunity to try real Black Powder do so and stay with it. Am I a snob? I don't think so by on the other hand I didn't think I was arrogant or eccentric. Turns out I was wrong about those too.:banghead:
Well as I see it that new fangled smoke less powder will pass cause it's new and all. You just waint and see boys they will see the error of their evil and wicked ways wants all the newness wears off. Besides with out all that smoke a mans got no where to hide when the bullets start a flinging.
HisSoldier said:
Which one? Spragues? Been after Richard and his counter guys to get me some REAL black for almost two years - "Oh no, we're not set up to store it". Bastiges!
Richard's Dad (was an armorer for YCSO) would have figured out a way....
OP
OP
Grayrock
Member
Do you have a reference? How hard is it to do?
230RN
2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
^
Starting from urine or bird guana, pretty hard (and stinky), what with the boiling-down and crystallization process to purify the nitrates ("niter"). Starting from store-boughten saltpeter (potassium or sodium nitrate, potassium preferred), sulphur and charcoal, not too bad.
But remember that the old powder mills were built with very stout framing, with the siding and roofing just tacked on so when something went flooie, they could clear out the bodies, tack the roofing and walls back on and get going again. So be careful! (They used bronze and brass tools around the mills to prevent sparks.)
Here's a great book on it... very detailed:
Hatcher's Notebook (which is now on-line somewhere) has some starting information on it so you can get to know what it's about in a rudimentary way on page 300 and following.)
Other sources for details abound:
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl.t...topnav&fpid=27&q=how+to+make+black+powder&ql=
Do not confuse Black Powder with Flash Powder.
The other kids and I in our neighborhood in the late forties and fifties were "into" it and we almost had formal contests as to who could make the best stuff, but this was before any of us knew about the incorporation process (grinding the ingredients with a small amount of water), so ours just sort of went fzz! real fast, but not with the fwump! of commercial black powder. We still made our cannons go bang, however.
We got our saltpeter from the local butcher shop... no legal problems whatsoever back then. Sulphur was from "Flowers of Sulphur" from the drugstore, and charcoal was obtained from cooking charcoal or Requa's charcoal tablets for flatulence. (Do not use charcoal briquets, which had not even been invented back then, and are impregnated with oils for lighting and as a binder.)
In about the '60s I learned about the incorporation process and made small amounts of it just to try it out. This stuff made the fwump! with a satisfying mushroom cloud, but it was nowhere as good as commercial powder, so I was satisfied with the process, had "proved up" on the idea, and abandoned making any more.
I lived in the city in an apartment at that time, and the great gouts of smoke generated by these experimental batches which I tested indoors were getting a little <ahem> obvious, even though I was only setting off half a teaspoon or so at a time.
Terry, 230RN
Starting from urine or bird guana, pretty hard (and stinky), what with the boiling-down and crystallization process to purify the nitrates ("niter"). Starting from store-boughten saltpeter (potassium or sodium nitrate, potassium preferred), sulphur and charcoal, not too bad.
But remember that the old powder mills were built with very stout framing, with the siding and roofing just tacked on so when something went flooie, they could clear out the bodies, tack the roofing and walls back on and get going again. So be careful! (They used bronze and brass tools around the mills to prevent sparks.)
Here's a great book on it... very detailed:
Hatcher's Notebook (which is now on-line somewhere) has some starting information on it so you can get to know what it's about in a rudimentary way on page 300 and following.)
Other sources for details abound:
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl.t...topnav&fpid=27&q=how+to+make+black+powder&ql=
Do not confuse Black Powder with Flash Powder.
The other kids and I in our neighborhood in the late forties and fifties were "into" it and we almost had formal contests as to who could make the best stuff, but this was before any of us knew about the incorporation process (grinding the ingredients with a small amount of water), so ours just sort of went fzz! real fast, but not with the fwump! of commercial black powder. We still made our cannons go bang, however.
We got our saltpeter from the local butcher shop... no legal problems whatsoever back then. Sulphur was from "Flowers of Sulphur" from the drugstore, and charcoal was obtained from cooking charcoal or Requa's charcoal tablets for flatulence. (Do not use charcoal briquets, which had not even been invented back then, and are impregnated with oils for lighting and as a binder.)
In about the '60s I learned about the incorporation process and made small amounts of it just to try it out. This stuff made the fwump! with a satisfying mushroom cloud, but it was nowhere as good as commercial powder, so I was satisfied with the process, had "proved up" on the idea, and abandoned making any more.
I lived in the city in an apartment at that time, and the great gouts of smoke generated by these experimental batches which I tested indoors were getting a little <ahem> obvious, even though I was only setting off half a teaspoon or so at a time.
Terry, 230RN
Last edited:
arcticap
Member
Grayrock said:
There's also a thread about how to make it in the Black Powder Essentials sticky at the top of the BP forum page:
Making blackpowder.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=347898
robhof
Member
An elderly retired school teacher, our neighbor in the 50's gave my brother and I a chemistry set, the chemicals were in wooden bottles and the manual had how to make B/p, but only enough chemicals to make about a tbsp, but we packed it into our 25cal cannon and it went bang. Wish I still had that set, saw one go at auction for $1100.
230RN
2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
mukluk
Member
MCgunner
Member
Well, the NRA don't tell ME what to shoot. No one has that power over me.
J/K Realize you're probably talkin' about some competition I don't partake of.
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I bet you don't let speed limit signs tell you how fast you can drive either.
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