My homemade black powder

[Boz330]

I made my first batch 2 weeks ago Atom. I'm going to test it in both my .58 and 12 ga this weekend.

I already determined it burns. The smell of burned arm hair is so nice in the early morning.

Peter,
What sort of results did you get?

Bob

[bearcove]

I made a list of sources and info.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=131827

[peter nap]

Peter,
What sort of results did you get?

Bob

I don't have a chronograph Bob, so technical results aren't possible.

The cons are:
It sounded a little more dead than Swiss.

It is a LOT dirtier than Swiss

The POI at 100 yards which is stretching my hunting limit, was 4 inches lower than Swiss. (In my .58) Ten grains more moved that up to two inches average.

On the plus side:

It ignited just as well as Swiss and is plenty accurate. I'd be comfortable hunting with it.

The Shotgun seemed to love it. I didn't pattern it, I took it to the Skeet range and proceeded to shoot singles for a half hour.

Neither good or bad:

Ignition time seemed about the same as Swiss but recoil seemed sluggish. It was just a more pleasant push.

The season starts on Saturday so I think I'll stick with my tried and true loads, but shooting the homemade stuff gives me the same strutting feeling I have when I use one of the rifles I built or a hawk or knife I forged.

[Fly]

Well Peter I can only say this.The process I use matches swiss as far as power.
Yep it is dirtyer.I have no controll over that, (charcoal).

I have said this many times.It is like cooking.It the little things that make
the differance to how good it turns out.I made alot of poor powder before
I made really good fast powder.

But it can be done & no it is not rocket science.
Fly

[brushhippie]

There you are Fly, made a batch last week fear my mix was inaccurate.....try try again.

[Fly]

Hey great to have you here buddy.The guys here love the homemade black
powder reads.Just look how many veiws they have had.I plan on doing a
new one here also with pic's.

There are some great folks here making there own now.We like to share
ideas.
Fly

[Boz330]

Hey great to have you here buddy.The guys here love the homemade black
powder reads.Just look how many veiws they have had.I plan on doing a
new one here also with pic's.

There are some great folks here making there own now.We like to share
ideas.
Fly

The final results of my quest. I am happy for sure. Not with a ML but homemade powder, homemade boolit from a mold modified by me for hunting. Exit hole was a good inch and a quarter, and he went about a 100 or so yards.

Bob

[Fly]

Boz that is soooooooooooo cool.Hell knowing you it will be bow & arrow making next.

Fly

[Boz330]

Boz that is soooooooooooo cool.Hell knowing you it will be bow & arrow making next.

Fly

No I'm not that patient.
Shot the remainder of my hunting loads in a match yesterday. We shoot 20 rounds for score at a pig sillywet hanging from chains at 300yd. A good score for me is 18 to 20. A so-so score is 15 to 17. I hit 12 with 2 more very close. The other 6 were pretty good windage wise but velocity variation had them low. This is sort of what I figured from my testing at 100yd. Most of the misses would have been in the kill zone of something the size of a Whitetail. I would never attempt a shot that long though with BP, unless I was starving to death though.

Bob

[Yellowstoneboolitmaker]

Greetings shootists and boolit makers.
I just have to throw this in: Always make your charcoal from hard wood not pine.

That is probably well known, but the best improvement I've made over the years is that in one of the last steps, put your powder in a rock tumbler and add a handfull of 50 calibre lead balls and let it go for a few hours. This has the effect of pressing the chemicals into the charcoal and bringing the weight per measure up where it should be.
For safety, only make a pound or less each time. Heat it very slowly to carefully drive out the last of the moisture.
Then when it's dried- screen it through differant sized screens to get your 4F,3F, 2F and 1F's.
I know this all sounds kinda back-woodsy, but I live in Montana where no one has electricity, internet access or Starbucks Coffee. I hope I don't sound too stupid- this is my first post.

[Underclocked]

I've read most all of this thread and have decided that a 25lb order from Maine Powder House just doesn't seem so bad after all.

[zxcvbob]

Greetings shootists and boolit makers.
I just have to throw this in: Always make your charcoal from hard wood not pine.

That is probably well known, but the best improvement I've made over the years is that in one of the last steps, put your powder in a rock tumbler and add a handfull of 50 calibre lead balls and let it go for a few hours. This has the effect of pressing the chemicals into the charcoal and bringing the weight per measure up where it should be.
For safety, only make a pound or less each time. Heat it very slowly to carefully drive out the last of the moisture.
Then when it's dried- screen it through differant sized screens to get your 4F,3F, 2F and 1F's.
I know this all sounds kinda back-woodsy, but I live in Montana where no one has electricity, internet access or Starbucks Coffee. I hope I don't sound too stupid- this is my first post.

Heat? What moisture? And the different screens are for if you squeeze the green powder in to a hockey puck with a hydraulic press and then break it apart ("corning")

When I made BP, I milled it dry in a rubber-drum rock tumbler with some .46 lead balls for about 24 hours. Then added a tiny bit of 70% rubbing alcohol to make a stiff dough, and I pressed it thru a metal sieve. When that was dry, I had my BP. But it didn't work very well until a month later when it was *really* dry.

I would use 1/2" steel ball bearings in the tumbler instead of lead balls if I had a safe place to tumble it where it wouldn't hurt anything if it blew-up.

[Fly]

Hardwood is the worst charcoal there is.Sorry but we only use hard wood in firework
black powder to make spark effects.Willow, Siver maple, Cotton wood are just some
of the better woods.

Oh we have been over this in this same thread toooooooooo many times.

Fly

[waksupi]

Hardwood is the worst charcoal there is.Sorry but we only use hard wood in firework
black powder to make spark effects.Willow, Siver maple, Cotton wood are just some
of the better woods.

Oh we have been over this in this same thread toooooooooo many times.

Fly

I think some proper definition of terms may be in order.

Willow, silver maple, cotton wood, are hardwoods. These are all deciduous trees, as are any that loose their leaves in the winter.

Fir, spruce, ponderosa, pine trees in general that do not shed in the winter are soft woods, and are coniferous trees. The Western larch is an anomaly, being a pine type tree that does shed it's needles yearly. I would still classify it as a soft wood.

[Boz330]

I think some proper definition of terms may be in order.

Willow, silver maple, cotton wood, are hardwoods. These are all deciduous trees, as are any that loose their leaves in the winter.

Fir, spruce, ponderosa, pine trees in general that do not shed in the winter are soft woods, and are coniferous trees. The Western larch is an anomaly, being a pine type tree that does shed it's needles yearly. I would still classify it as a soft wood.

Good point Ric. When I think of hardwood it is oak, walnut, cherry, locust etc. While they are good heating/BBQ wood they suck for powder. But some folks have had good results from the pine woods. Haven't tried it myself.

Underclocked, it is more about doing it yourself than the cost, although it is only about half the price of cheap powder and 25% of really good powder.
My powder isn't going to replace store bought for matches, but gives a sense of satisfaction for hunting. To your point though it is somewhat labor intensive to get really good powder.

Bob

[Underclocked]

and I know myself too well as I would surely figure out some way to injure myself in the process.

The parts of all this that I don't understand (and I do understand the desire to "make it yourself") are where people are having to order components to make the powder. If you have to order those components, rather than having a reliable local source, it seems to me there is no real advantage in knowing the how of it. If IT hits the fan, those remote sources aren't likely to do a feller a whole lot of good.

A stash of good powder will last a very long time.

[Boz330]

I made my own charcoal, Spectracide stump remover is 99% pure potassium nitrate. And sulfur is pretty easy to come by at drug stores or garden centers. PN can be obtained from several sources. Just look on youtube.
BTW the deer in my Avatar was shot with stump remover.
Not trying to talk you into it just answering your questions. Everyone has something different that floats their boat. I always have plenty of powder and primers around both smokeless and black. Got caught flat footed once, ain't going to happen again.

Bob

[Fly]

I think some proper definition of terms may be in order.

Willow, silver maple, cotton wood, are hardwoods. These are all deciduous trees, as are any that loose their leaves in the winter.

Fir, spruce, ponderosa, pine trees in general that do not shed in the winter are soft woods, and are coniferous trees. The Western larch is an anomaly, being a pine type tree that does shed it's needles yearly. I would still classify it as a soft wood.

Well I suppose you are right, but as Bob said people think of hard wood
as Oak, Hickory.When you buy a bag of Cow boy hard wood charcoal it's
Oak & Hickery.

So to make the statment Hardwood would lead most to think of Oak or Hickery.

Fly

[Fly]

and I know myself too well as I would surely figure out some way to injure myself in the process.

The parts of all this that I don't understand (and I do understand the desire to "make it yourself") are where people are having to order components to make the powder. If you have to order those components, rather than having a reliable local source, it seems to me there is no real advantage in knowing the how of it. If IT hits the fan, those remote sources aren't likely to do a feller a whole lot of good.

A stash of good powder will last a very long time.

Well I make a much more than any black powder shooter.Black Powder
is the back bone of fireworks.But to answer your question on cost I make
mine for about a $1.25 a LB.

I have listed sources in this thread.Being I make my own coal, there no
coat there.Surfur is around $3.50 a LB.Kno 3 I pay about a $1 a Lb in
50 Lb bags.But 1 Lb bags can easly be bought for $3 a Lb & $2 on sale.

You do the math Fly

[superscifi12]

I would use 1/2" steel ball bearings in the tumbler instead of lead balls if I had a safe place to tumble it where it wouldn't hurt anything if it blew-up.

Steel ball barrings are bad juju. They spark, sparks with fine bp means BOOM. Use lead/wheel weights/brass bar pieces. Not sure about zinc. Stainless 304 is suppose to be non sparking but....ANSI does not rate it as such good enough reason not to use it for me.

Zirconia M Grinding Media is good but more expensive than brass.