"About Black Powder"

[joeb33050]

Looking for comments and or corrections.
joe b.


8.4.1 ABOUT BLACK POWDER
Black powder comes in "F"s, where FG or "one F" is the coarsest = biggest grains, progressing through FFG, FFFG to FFFFG or "four F" = very fine small grains.
In very general terms, F is used for the largest bore rifles and big smooth-bore guns; FF is used for big bore rifles and pistols, FFF is used for small caliber rifles and pistols, and FFFF is used for priming charges in flintlock guns.. .
Black powder is said to explode rather than burn like smokeless powders, so some suggest that shooters should limit the amount of black powder kept on hand and/or store black powder in an outbuilding rather than in the house. I have kept as much as four one pound cans of black powder in the cellar without any problem, but it takes only one surprise to make a convert. Or a corpse.
There are several substitutes for black powder on the market now, such as Pyrodex and Triple 7; both Hodgden products. I have used Pyrodex and it seems to work just like black powder. Opinions differ about these black powder substitutes; some shooters claim that they aren't as accurate as black powder, others claim wonderful accuracy with the substitutes.
Black powder, and to a lesser degree the substitutes, is very corrosive in gun barrels. The residue or fouling is said to be "hygroscopic", a highfalutin word meaning that the fouling absorbs water out of the air. This water/fouling mixture is what is so corrosive, causing rust.. Cleaning should involve a lot of very hot water and patches and then thorough oiling. This isn't a problem, just takes a little time.
In the black powder world the word "cartridge" has three meanings.
First is the cartridge made for muzzle loading military or hunting rifles and for the revolvers. This is a paper device meant to hold the powder and ball and speed up reloading. In the case of the military rifles it was ripped open with the teeth, the powder was dumped down the bore, the paper followed, and the bullet was rammed home on top of the powder and paper. The revolver cartridges were placed in the chamber and rammed home.
Second is the cartridge made for breech loading rifles such as the early Sharps, that is put into the chamber whole. These are made of linen or paper, sometimes with combustible paper. The plan for the Sharps linen cartridge was for the block to shear off the rear of the cartridge as it was closed; exposing the powder to the primer.
Third is the brass cased cartridge as we know it today, as used in the later Sharps, Maynard and Remington rolling block rifles for example.

[versifier]

"Fg" (please note lowercase "g") is fine cannon powder for 1-3". There are coarser grades for bigger bores.
Pyrodex is more corrosive than bp.

[August]

Yep, many of the subs are more corrosive than the real deal.

[Willbird]

And actually muzzle loading military RIFLES the whole wad of paper was not rammed home on top of the minie bullet, it was rammed home in smoothbores, but there is no room for it between the minie bullet and the bore of a muzzle loading RIFLE.

Black powder is an explosive, is regulated as such, smokeless is a flammible solid.There are also regulations on storage and transport, I would link to those

I would keep the analogs in a seperate article, and include some basic info on the early "bulk" powders that were the first BP replacements in recent history.

Also on the brass ctg, some were made from thin sheet brass in many layers, like rolled up tinfoil, and some were indeed fixed ammo like we have today, and others used an external ignition source, the latter type is NOT fixed ammunition :-)...the former is.

Bill

[Maven]

One correction and one possible addition: Hodgden (sic) is spelled "Hodgdon." Second, DuPont at one time offerred BP in Life Saving & Whaling granulations. The former was large enough so that a screen with square mesh would retain granules of 0.065" (but pass those of 0.131") while the latter would retain granules of 0.156" (but pass those of 0.441"). Fg, by contrast retains granules of 0.0582", but allows those of 0.0689" to pass through.*


*In "Handloading" by Wm. C. Davis, Jr. NRA Publication, 1981. See pp.23-26

[Jetwrench]

Maven,
In your post above, this line puzzels me.


0.156" (but pass those of 0.441"). Fg, by contrast retains granules of 0.0582",


0.441? Now THAT IS one large granule!!!!!!! I could use it just like Pyrodex pellets in my 45 inline :kidding: I would bet you ment 0.144:coffee: Great info by the way.JETWRENCH

[Maven]

Jetwrench & JoeB, Jetwrench is right, the NRA in the work mentioned above, made a printing error re DuPont Whaling powder (p. 25): They printed .441" as a pass and .156" as a hold/retained. The correct figure should be 0.144" (pass) & 0.156" (hold), which is pretty chunky stuff.

Thanks for catching the error!

[joeb33050]

I've made the changes suggested that I was comfortable with. I'm looking for help on all of these BP articles. Here's where I am now:


8.4.1 ABOUT BLACK POWDER
Black powder comes in "F"s, where Fg or "one F" is the coarsest = biggest grains, progressing through FFg, FFFg to FFFFg or "four F" = very fine small grains.
In very general terms, F is used for the largest bore rifles and big smooth-bore guns; FFg is used for big bore rifles and pistols, FFFg is used for small caliber rifles and pistols, and FFFFg is used for priming charges in flintlock guns.. .
Black powder is said to explode rather than burn like smokeless powders, so some suggest that shooters should limit the amount of black powder kept on hand and/or store black powder in an outbuilding rather than in the house. I have kept as much as four one pound cans of black powder in the cellar without any problem, but it takes only one surprise to make a convert. Or a corpse.
There are several substitutes for black powder on the market now, such as Pyrodex and Triple 7; both Hodgdon products. I have used Pyrodex and it seems to work just like black powder. Opinions differ about these black powder substitutes; some shooters claim that they aren't as accurate as black powder, others claim wonderful accuracy with the substitutes.
Some say that Pyrodex, and maybe other black powder substitutes, is more corrosive than black powder. One shooter says that Pyrodex exhibits the characteristic that after cleaning and oiling the gun, some remaining fouling rusts the barrel.
Black powder, and to some degree the substitutes, is very corrosive in gun barrels. The residue or fouling is said to be "hygroscopic", a highfalutin word meaning that the fouling absorbs water out of the air. This water/fouling mixture is what is so corrosive, causing rust.. Cleaning should involve a lot of very hot water and patches and then thorough oiling. This isn't a problem, just takes a little time.
In the black powder world the word "cartridge" has three meanings.
First is the cartridge made for muzzle loading military or hunting rifles and for the revolvers. This is a paper device meant to hold the powder and ball and speed up reloading. In the case of the military rifles it was ripped open with the teeth, the powder was dumped down the bore, the paper followed, and the bullet was rammed home on top of the powder and paper. The revolver cartridges were placed in the chamber and rammed home.
Second is the cartridge made for breech loading rifles such as the early Sharps, that is put into the chamber whole. These are made of linen or paper, sometimes with combustible paper. The plan for the Sharps linen cartridge was for the block to shear off the rear of the cartridge as it was closed; exposing the powder to the percussion cap or other primer..
Third is the brass cased cartridge as we know it today, as used in the later Sharps, Maynard and Remington rolling block rifles for example.