My homemade black powder

[MrWolf]

I saw a thing on vacuum sealing your primer stash/stock to protect them in storage, which I thought a pretty good idea. Doing BP that way might be a good idea as well.

Here's a pretty good deal on the special bags, which can be pricey:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CTE7OPI...v_ov_lig_dp_it

Vettepilot

I would be worried about powder escaping into the machine. I use my food saver and know it draws beyond the seal. Maybe if in a cloth bag then sealed?

[Vettepilot]

Well now.... I hadn't thought about that, and it's a very good point. Yeah, I would think a cloth bag would do the trick.

Vettepilot

[LAGS]

@ eddie 2002
I have a question.
Your Scoops ?
Were they measuring out By Actual Weight on your Screened Powder, or by Volume based on Factory Powder.
My Corned Powder comes out to about 90% by weight to Volume to factory powder.
My screened that I did, comes out to about 82 % by weight to Volume.
I hope that the next batch of powder that I do in the new shop will come up to closer to Weight to volume comparison, especially with the Corned powder.

[Eddie2002]

Lags, I set the scoops up to be used with commercial powder weights, mainly Geox. The weights I posted when shooting my home made were the volume of of the scoops not the actual weight of my powder which is about 70% of commercial. In other words the 100 grain loads of screened would of been equivalent to 70 grains of commercial BP.

Haven't been able to get my screened any denser than 70% of commercial powders. That's where pressing and corning has the advantage over just screening home made. I do a volume/weight check on each batch I make and label the bottle with the information. All my screened batches so far are in the 65%-70% commercial density range so I usually use the 70% as a conversion factor. 70% is also a easy conversion to run in my head while shooting.
Should of mentioned it in my first post, thanks for bringing it up.
Just finished cleaning the Hawken and noticed that there wasn't very much BP fouling in the barrel, don't know if it was the powder or using Bore Butter to wet the patches but cleanup was surprisingly easy for the number of shots I took.

[LAGS]

Thanks for updating us on this.
I think you can get your Screened powder up in density a little bit with practice.
I intend on shooting my .61 with loads by "weight" on the first try this week.
But that will be translated to Volume for future loadings for future shootings.

[Fly]

Heck Eddie there nothing wrong with shooting screened in a muzzle loader, I did it for along time & still do from time to time.
But when I started shooting cap & ball revolvers I pretty much had to corn my loads. Ether way if you weigh your loads it works out.

Fly

[Eddie2002]

Thanks Fly, it's kind of funny now that I've figured out to make a decent BP a friend just gave me about 8 unopened jugs of Pyrodex and another 7 or 8 cans of mixed black powder. Going to be busy shooting it all up.

[LAGS]

I was able to get out to the range today for an hour.
My Corned powder shot very well in the .61 Renegade that I fired for the first time today.
I went off and forgot to take any Screened powder with me to try out as a comparison.
I fired the Renegade at only 25 yards to see how it was printing.
I got two 4 shot groups with a maximum spread of 2.75" each
I was loading a .600 RB first with 65 gr by weight with a .015 patch.
The second group was with 75 gr by Weight with a .015 patch .
They shot about an 1.5" higher
I fired one more shot with 75 gr but used a .019 patch.
That ball hit another 2" higher than the previous group.
All shots were near the center of the target without any sight adjustment.
I will try to post a picture of the target.
I did run into another three shooters that belong to a local Muzzleloading club.
I am going to have to check out that club since I am getting back into Muzzloading.
They were all surprised that I was making my own powder and how much it costs to make.

[Eddie2002]

Well that sounds great, your new gun likes your corned powder. Did anybody ask if you were worried about blowing yourself up while making home grown? I've been asked that more than once while shooting home made. LOL

[LAGS]

No one asked how dangerous it was to make my own powder, but seemed impressed with the way it fired and it sounded just like their Goex.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time sighting this rifle in, because as soon as my shop is finished, I intend to Rebuild the rifle Completely.
I already fixed the cracked stock.
So now it is time to reshape the stock a little, refinish it, and refinish all the metal.
I will have my next batches of powder done by the time the rifle is finished for further testing.
But I will be shooting up the powder I have already made in my other rifles.

[Fly]

Club shooting is fun. You meet some good people & learn a lot from many of them, just like every thing else.
I wish we had one around were I live.

Fly

[LAGS]

I will look into the club that those guys belong to, as well as one I heard is out of the range where we were shooting.
Now that I am retired, I am having less contact with people in general, not to mention people with Similar interests or free time.
The range I was shooting at is only 4 miles from my house, and I intend to possibly hitting it at least two times a week during the week once I get caught up with all the changes that come with retirement.

[Eddie2002]

Been retired for about five years and it took a good year to adjust to it, good luck with your retirement. I'm only about 10 miles from the local county range and try to get over there three or four times a year. Should go more often but other hobbies get in the way as well as keeping up with lawn work on 2 1/2 acres. Been a hobby bee keeper for years and messing with them bugs takes a few hours each week. Need to do a complete inspection of my five hives today which will be fun in the heat. Probably have about ten gallons of honey on the hives I'll need to harvest next week which will tie up a day or two.
I checked around and found that the only BP shooting club in my area is a good 60 miles away which is a bit of a hike. I would join up if they were closer.

[Themoose]

Shot my homemade black for the first time yesterday. I was working up loads for 45-70 using 513 gr RN. Used some Goex Ctg I used 65, 66.5 and 68 gr. Shot each 5 shot group across chronograph and on paper @ 100yds. Best group was 66.5 gr @ 1140fps with ES 23 and STDev 9.63. I only used one load for testing my homemade from red cedar chips. I actually blended the first two batches I made and used what was on #30 screen. Powder was corned. I loaded 65.0 gr and compressed it significantly more. The results of 4 shot group was 2nd best accuracy with 1143 fps, ES of 24 and StDev 10.56. I was tickled to death. Thanks to Fly and all others who contributed in this thread. I hope to test my powder soon against Swiss 1 1/2 and new NOE 460 396WFN. I am guessing the spread will be bigger. The Goex has to be 20 yrs old! Thanks again(my powder wasn't as dense as Goex that is why t only tried 65 gr.

[Boz330]

Shot my homemade black for the first time yesterday. I was working up loads for 45-70 using 513 gr RN. Used some Goex Ctg I used 65, 66.5 and 68 gr. Shot each 5 shot group across chronograph and on paper @ 100yds. Best group was 66.5 gr @ 1140fps with ES 23 and STDev 9.63. I only used one load for testing my homemade from red cedar chips. I actually blended the first two batches I made and used what was on #30 screen. Powder was corned. I loaded 65.0 gr and compressed it significantly more. The results of 4 shot group was 2nd best accuracy with 1143 fps, ES of 24 and StDev 10.56. I was tickled to death. Thanks to Fly and all others who contributed in this thread. I hope to test my powder soon against Swiss 1 1/2 and new NOE 460 396WFN. I am guessing the spread will be bigger. The Goex has to be 20 yrs old! Thanks again(my powder wasn't as dense as Goex that is why t only tried 65 gr.

Don't be afraid to compress that HM. I fill the case to the top and then compress to suit the boolit, chamber combination. I have tried compressing and then adding more powder and compressing again but accuracy went south when I did that.

Bob

[LAGS]

I just got back from the range.
I was trying my HMBP in my 61 RB Renegade.
Shooting 70 gr at 25 yards printed a 5 shot group under 2 1/2"
80 grains shooting at 50 yards printed right at 2 1/2"
It got to dang hot to really try and shoot any more today, or I would have taken the target out to 100 yards.
Loads were measured by Volume this time.
So the loads were 65 gr by weight, and 75 grains by weight.
The rifle isn't doing too bad for having less than 100 rounds thru a fresh Re- Bored barrel.
After I shoot it some more, I will Polish out the barrel a little and see if that shrinks my groups.
The powder made with Soft Maple Charcoal burnt a little dirty, but I always swab the barrel between shots, so it didn't cause and issue.

[Hotfxr]

A buddy of mine who is new to muzzleloaders and super gung ho (while being woefully ignorant in the whole muzzleloading process) went ahead and ordered 20 pounds of 3fff house brand BP from Graf. That 20 pounds was a good deal for commercial powder costing him $353. That works out to just under $18 a pound. If it had been Goex it would have been just a touch over $20 a pound. I have tried to get him interested in making his own, but to no avail. He just doesn't have the patience. That's too bad since he is not a wealthy man and the total cost for my last 20 pounds of home made cost me about $2.25 a pound. That's factoring in electricity, amortizing my equipment, and buying my charcoal from Fly. If I had to buy commercial powder, using 4 ounces per shot in the cannon along with $1.20 each I paid for friction matches, I could spend $75 on a good day shooting the cannon.
I think my buddy needs his head examined!

[Eddie2002]

Hotfxr, just give him some time to get into the black powder mind set. Even using local big box supplies for a pound it only costs me $7.00. Help him shoot up what he has and talk up the fun of making your own.

[LAGS]

Your friend will jump on the band wagon when Hazmat fees go thru the roof, or they restrict sales on real BP.
Better to learn how NOW, then to wait till later on how to make your own.

[Fly]

Yep I try to be self efficient as possible with the government trying to take our gun rights from us. Got a question
for you guns. I have been buying my smokeless gun ammo mostly threw Wal-Mart. Now that's a thing of the past.
When buying smokeless ammo on line, is there a Hazat fee? How much is Hazmat fees?

Fly