Anybody make your own black powder?

[fishingsetx]

Just curious if anyone here makes their own black powder. I shoot a pietta new model army .44 and think the big puff of smoke is half the fun of shooting a black powder pistol! I've tried a couple substitutes and it just isn't the same. I'm almost out of my 25+ year old pound of goex fffg and haven't had much luck finding any bp for a reasonable price on the net and haven't found any locally. I've got all the ingredients other than the charcoal and was curious if anyone else had made it. Also, if you have, what equipment do you use.

[otter5555]

i started making my own bp back in the late 70's. i tried the traditional recipe and got horrible results. just a mess and no power.

this was long before the internet so i tried several libraries. finally read a book written by a modern day mountain man that had the same problem. he recommended stale piss instead of water. i pissed in a jug a few times and let it set for 2 weeks. turned real dark.
mixed the traditional recipe using stale piss as the liquid and made fantastic bp.

been doing it that way ever since. all my bp firearms love it. i've killed deer, elk, coyotes, etc. with no problem at all using my homemade bp.

others most likely have a favorite recipe that works as well or better.

[fishingsetx]

Thanks for the info. Not sure where the stale piss comes in buy I'm guessing for the salt peter. Ive got that covered as well as the sulfur. From what I've read, willow charcoal is the way to go so I plan to give that a try. How do you process your powder? Ball mill? Mortar and pestle?

[zippidydoodah]

U can go to harrygilliam@skylighter.com and subscribe for a while. He sells fireworks chemicals o and screens, ball mills,etc.be has severals books available that show processes.

[GoodOlBoy]

If you go from the substitutes forum this was posted in and instead to the muzzleloading forum itself, there are at least two stickies and probably 30 posts about this very subject.

GoodOlBoy

[dromia]

Moved here from the Black Powder substitutes forum?.

Much discussion here about making black powder including a sticky.

As a new member fishingsetx it behoves you to familiarise yourself with the different forum and their content, the search function is your friend in this respect.

[randyrat]

YOUTUBE there are a number of videos showing and explaining how to make black powder and the supplies you need. I was surprised, they made it look easy. They did point out some of the dangers also.

[fishingsetx]

Moved here from the Black Powder substitutes forum?.

Much discussion here about making black powder including a sticky.

As a new member fishingsetx it behoves you to familiarise yourself with the different forum and their content, the search function is your friend in this respect.

Thanks,

Browsed through the forums for 15 mins looking for a black powder forum. Didn't know it was under muzzle loading even after glancing through the muzzle loading forum. Stickies don't show up on top on tapatalk like they do on the regular forum so I tend to miss them. Again, thanks for the info.


If you go from the substitutes forum this was posted in and instead to the muzzleloading forum itself, there are at least two stickies and probably 30 posts about this very subject.

GoodOlBoy

[dragon813gt]

Stickies don't show up on top on tapatalk like they do on the regular forum so I tend to miss them. Again, thanks for the info.

You need to turn stickies on for them to show up in Tapatalk.

[OverMax]

I have dabbled in the making of. Willow charcoal is correct. So long as you're charcoal is made from Black Willow not Weeping Willow. Most B/P enthusiasts Ball Roll their green meal as far as I know. They then dampen and press into (thin) cake form. Allowed time to fully dry. Once dried it's then ground with the use of a coffee grinder having a ceramic burr and again the ground powder is screened to size.
The sticky here under Muzzle Loading is a long read with allot of off topic conversations included. But once fully read you will be a informed B/P powder maker.
BTW: I've heard some use stale urine. Others use either denatured alcohol or perhaps rubbing alcohol. Me. I use distilled water for the green meal dampening purpose. {It's a powder makers preference call.} Good luck

[Major Danger]

I just made a batch for the 4th of July. I used home made ball-milled ailanthus (tree of heaven) charcoal, and got sulfur and salt peter on amazon. It works great.

My ball mill is harbor freight rock tumbler (also used for wet tumbling bass with ss pins) and 000 buck. I ball milled the ingredients and mixed with 99% isopropyl alcohol and pressed the wet cake through a wire mesh strainer to kernel the powder.

[Fly]

I must say pissing in your meal is extreme & don't be leave every thing you read. The thinking be hind that is the
kno-3 in the urine. First of all if you mixed you ingreediance right you have plenty kno-3. that would be 75% &
that little bit of urine won't do squat. It has more catamites in it then Kno-3.

Oh one more thing, forget Sky lighter unless you don't care about price. His price is twice the price of any other chemical supply be leave me on that. I have no axe to grind with him, but people just don't know where to buy chemicals & pay his price. Try Hobby Chemicals, there are many others also, just Google them. Fly[smilie=s:

[Boz330]

The stale urine thing came from Buck-skinner Magazine IIRC back in the 70s. Like Fly, I doubt it would add much to the power, although I'm sure it would severely offend the olfactory system. I've used alcohol, alcohol and water, and straight water for pressed cakes and can't tell the difference.
My CC of choice lately has been Tree of Heaven. It is plentiful behind my shop and on my farm and has produced about 50fps more velocity in my favorite hunting rifle. I have used Black Willow that I got from Fly with good results but the TOH is plentiful and free. I had good luck with Sand Bar Willow which was all I could find locally but I still had to hunt for it. What works best is probably most dependent on what you can find locally.

Bob