My homemade black powder

[Hotfxr]

What is the Bore on your cannon ?
My late cousin had a cannon , that he made a Hollow base projectiles for his cannon to make a lighter slug , and thus use less powder.
I don't know if he ever took my suggestion and cast his out of scrap Zinc Wheel Weights.
I make my powder in 8 oz batches also , and screen half and corn the other half for right now.
I just aquired 4 lbs of Willow charcoal , so I think I am set with all materials to finish out the year.

It was 1 3/4". Shot 1 pound patched lead round balls with fair accuracy. It was also perfect for patched golf balls. In theory, it could shoot golf balls over two miles. But unless you had that patch perfectly centered around the golf ball, it would spin off in any direction. Not unlike my golf swing.
Last year I installed a rifled liner we made from a rather expensive SS tube. Now the bore is 1 5/8" (1 in 48" twist) so I am casting the hollow bottom slugs. Using different spacers on my mold (I will post some pictures when I can remember how) I poured 4 slugs yesterday. They weighed in at 17 3/4, 15 1/2, 11, and 8 1/2 ounces. Will get some more poured soon and will try them out in a week or so when I can get back up to the ranch. The ranch is fun, love to make smoke and noise with the cannon, AR's and of course tannerite. But it is all mountain with nowhere to set up a target more than 75 yards.
Up about 100 miles north of us, way back in the hills alongside a reservoir (with cabins & campsites) is a remote dirt airstrip with a sanctioned gun range at one end of the runway. The runway is rarely used and then only by pot farmers who grow illegally in the national forest. It is one mile, clear and flat from one end to the other so it will make a perfect cannon range. Right now it and all roads leading up there are closed due to the current SIP rules. When it opens back up we are going to head up for a day and do some serious testing of powder loads and projectiles to find the optimum combination for distance & accuracy. Maybe even use the chronograph to see how fast those slugs really are. (last time we tried it was too close and blew the chrono down range)

[Hotfxr]

I switched from round mill balls to the copper & lead pieces because I kept getting a lump in the middle of my tumbler. Now after who knows how many batches, the powder is forming a lump in the middle of the tumbler again. Partly I'm sure, it has been more humid, but I haven't changed anything in my process and other than super humidity, I am flummoxed.
More media? Less media? Bigger tumbler?

On the plus side, sticking a fuse in the 8 oz lump, wrapping it with tape and lighting it off is too much fun.

[LAGS]

Sometimes when milling my powder , it cakes up at the base of the mill container.
I now , time my milling and about every hour go out and shake the container to keep it from building up like that.
We have no humidity here so I think it is more the Ball Mill not sitting level.
It is something I will check out before I Mill my next batch.
But it never did this at my other house where I know the Ball Mill was sitting perfectly level.

[Fly]

Lags mine does that from time to time. My ball mill is sitting in the same spot it has always set. You guys get rain every now & then.
To get rain it takes humidity. I would think when it happens to you out there you may have more humidity that day then you realize.
Same here I only get it caking now & then. KNO-3 is salt & it attracts moister. I bought a large amount way back & store it in a tote with
lid. It is no longer free flowing. I have to bust it up from time to time. Moister is the only thing I can see causing it. You guys get more
humidity at night when it is cooler & I would think that's when your kno-3 maybe is drawing moister. Just my thinking ?

Fly

[LAGS]

Yes we do get rain from time to time.
But Arizona is a Dry Heat.
It is also a Dry Rain.
Our Verga Rain doesn't even touch the ground.
But I will check the relationship and location of my Sprinkler system for my landscaping.
And see if that could be related to a rise in humidity when I am milling my powder.
The other house didn't have a sprinkler system or misters on the patio.

[Hotfxr]

Solved it by adding just a bit more media. In that vein, I figured out the easiest way (for me so far, IMHO) to make the 3/4" lead filled copper pellets. I took a 20" length of 1/2" copper pipe, set it in a drilled hole in a piece of 4X4 and filled it to the top. When it cooled, I made marks every 3/4" and cut the pipe with a cutter. Then took a power PVC cutter and used it to cut the pieces out. Took no more than 15 minutes to cut the copper and cut out the pellets.
Damn, I'm good.

[Fly]

Great advice! Amazing all the great ideas that people come up with.

Fly

[Fly]

Where has everyone gone? It has been a long while since any of you have posted.

Fly

[LAGS]

It is a little hard to be tumbling powder or going out and shooting up what I made , when it is 110 degrees every day.
I limit things like electric fans in my powder working shed.
But it should be cooling off soon.
But a I am still working on my hobby by making up primers and building a few rifles.
I think others are in similar situations because I see them on other threads.

[Whiterabbit]

Made a big batch. Shooting it. Life is good

[Eddie2002]

It's been too hot to and humid to do anything with black powder over the last couple months but I have cut a lot of Carolina Willow for the next batch of charcoal. Been working with my honey bees and building a smooth bore .50 caliber pistol out of a length of stainless steel bar stock and an old lock I have laying around. It's not going to be pretty but I hate to have odd parts laying around that can be built into a shooter.

[Fly]

It's been too hot to and humid to do anything with black powder over the last couple months but I have cut a lot of Carolina Willow for the next batch of charcoal. Been working with my honey bees and building a smooth bore .50 caliber pistol out of a length of stainless steel bar stock and an old lock I have laying around. It's not going to be pretty but I hate to have odd parts laying around that can be built into a shooter.

Eddie when you get that pistol finished, post a pic.

Fly

[Eddie2002]

Will do,
I need to take some pictures of the build as I put it together. I'm making it a cap lock and am converting one of the cheap Japanese kit Tower flintlock actions from the 60's over to a side lock. The build is a lot of fabrication

[TheOutlawKid]

Anyone able to get paulownia? I wanna get some or charcoal made from it. Id be willing to trade willow and red alder for it.

[Boz330]

Anyone able to get paulownia? I wanna get some or charcoal made from it. Id be willing to trade willow and red alder for it.

Try Tree of Heaven, it is fast growing like Paulonia and is close in burning speed according to the chart that is listed here somewhere. I've had good luck with it.

Bob

[TheOutlawKid]

I had someone send me some and it was great too...although i tried paulownia once and it was fantastic. So im wanting to get some and use it and red alder as my primary charcoals. I want to get the most out of my homemade powder. The red alder already beats swiss by very little so its great stuff too but paulownia would most likely be better or quite possibly the best.

[Ozark mike]

Wonder how quaking aspen would do got a buch of it here

[.30carbnut]

Anyone able to get paulownia? I wanna get some or charcoal made from it. Id be willing to trade willow and red alder for it.

PM me I have quite a bit of it.

[Eddie2002]

I'm down in Florida and have a lot of Brazilian Pepper growing around the property. It fits the description of a fast growing light wood, it grows faster than the local Carolina Willow which I've has success with. Just wondering if anybody has given it a try.

[Nobade]

For you folks in the southwest, I'm shooting up a big batch of Desert Willow, that performs quite well. Fast and fairly light fouling.