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Thread: homemade gunpowder questions and ideas

  1. #21
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Here's the meal powder

    Adding water

    Almost there

    I think I got it too wet

    Yep too wet it doesn't take much I think I added no more than 4 tablespoons of water.

    oh well placed it on some wax paper let it dry for a while and try again.

    Hopefully it isn't so wet that the potassium nitrate leeches out. I think I've got a good chance of starting all over again.
    Last edited by Desertbuck; 04-03-2015 at 02:01 AM.
    THE GUN
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    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  2. #22
    Boolit Buddy ofitg's Avatar
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    DB, it looks promising. After you get the "extrusion" process figured out, do you have a chrony to measure muzzle velocities?
    "Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."

    - Thomas Jefferson


  3. #23
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Ok its morning, and the meal powder is now dry enough for me to granulated. However I decided just to screen it. The food mill would waste too much and I felt would produce kernels bigger than I intended.
    The handling of this meal powder is a lot cleaner then traditional black powder. It almost feels like no bake cookies at this point.


    Hopefully it sets up hard as a rock after drying.
    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ofitg View Post
    DB, it looks promising. After you get the "extrusion" process figured out, do you have a chrony to measure muzzle velocities?

    No unfortunately I do not have a chronograph. I keep procrastinating on getting one. But if the powder performs in the same fashion as my screened black powder I will be happy. I am going to have to refine the extruding process just a little bit. My problem was I added too much water. If I only have held off 1/2 TSP of water this would have probably of work perfectly for my first try.
    And I just don't have enough material to work with at this time to try it again with my food mill. So first before I produce more I'm going to make sure the stuff works.
    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  5. #25
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    Maybe a small tea press would work,you'll kinda be pushing it out in place of extrusion.
    I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
    Paralyzed Veterans of America

    Looking for a Hensly &Gibbs #258 any thing from a two cavity to a 10cavityI found a new one from a member here

  6. #26
    Boolit Master freebullet's Avatar
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    Very interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing, I'm looking forward to the performance testing results.

    Have you thought about making this or black into pellets?
    If you think your a hammer everything looks like a nail.

  7. #27
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Well I think I'm going to let it dry till next Wednesday. I've done a couple of burn tests and it's not to my liking! But I think it's still wet.

    Ps
    sorry freebullet forgot to mention. Yes I've tried pellets my experiences they don't burn fast enough. My theory is not enough surface area. When I tried them in my 45 rifle with a round ball I always got a pop fizzzzz, then 15 yards in front of me the boolit hit the ground.
    I laughed more then I should have cuz all I could think of was farting sounds every time I pulled the trigger. Lol
    Last edited by Desertbuck; 04-04-2015 at 06:51 PM.
    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  8. #28
    Boolit Master

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    DIY white powder is the only smokey powder I've ever used. I cook it up as the TM manual says and then let it dry until it is ready to go thru a cheese grater. Then shake it thru a window screen and then a grease screen to remove the fines.

    The next time I make some I'm going to add a little red gum to see if I can increase the density. Also forum member Delmar has tried adding the rust, but says that it doesn't seem to work any better. If I had big interest in increasing the burn rate or increasing ignitability, I'd add 1% to 2% potassium dichromate.

    Using it in my .357 with 158 gr Lee bullet, the fps is around 680. It works much better in my Dutch Beaumont, coming in at 1450 fps(25 fps less than mil spec). FWIW the brass I use for the Beaumont has reduce volume due to how I form the brass.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by freebullet View Post
    Very interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing, I'm looking forward to the performance testing results.

    Have you thought about making this or black into pellets?
    I've tried to make white powder into pellets, but they have always ended in having the same density as the easy way. I think a gum, like red gum, is needed to make pellets.

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by freebullet View Post
    Very interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing, I'm looking forward to the performance testing results.

    Have you thought about making this or black into pellets?
    Same here this thread is now my home page
    I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
    Paralyzed Veterans of America

    Looking for a Hensly &Gibbs #258 any thing from a two cavity to a 10cavityI found a new one from a member here

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy ofitg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by perotter View Post
    DIY white powder is the only smokey powder I've ever used. I cook it up as the TM manual says and then let it dry until it is ready to go thru a cheese grater. Then shake it thru a window screen and then a grease screen to remove the fines.

    <snip>

    Using it in my .357 with 158 gr Lee bullet, the fps is around 680.
    I wonder how that would compare to common blackpowder (eg, a .357 case full of Goex 3F behind a 158-gr bullet)..................... ?
    "Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."

    - Thomas Jefferson


  12. #32
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by ofitg View Post
    I wonder how that would compare to common blackpowder (eg, a .357 case full of Goex 3F behind a 158-gr bullet)..................... ?
    I'd like to know also. I've never used blackpowder in a cartridge so I can't really say, but I'd guess that the blackpowder would do a little better. I base that on the white powder I made is less dense than blackpowder.

    IMO adding a gum(etc) would help increase the power, but I don't know if it would help enough to be worth while.

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by perotter View Post
    I've never used blackpowder in a cartridge
    Perotter you need to give it a try it's addicting. Especially with homemade. You end up stuffing it in cartridges that we're never designed for it to begin with and with a little bit of tinkering it works.
    If you are like me the cheaper shooting is and the more I do myself the happier I am. And it makes for extremely cheap shooting especially when you make your own primers on top of that which you were a big part of help in for me.


    I'm using pulled down brass here, its got Yugoslavian 50s era primer.


    sorry this is getting off track
    Last edited by Desertbuck; 04-05-2015 at 10:08 PM. Reason: I'm off track
    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  14. #34
    Boolit Buddy ofitg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by perotter View Post
    I'd like to know also. I've never used blackpowder in a cartridge so I can't really say, but I'd guess that the blackpowder would do a little better. I base that on the white powder I made is less dense than blackpowder.

    IMO adding a gum(etc) would help increase the power, but I don't know if it would help enough to be worth while.
    I found this in the Lyman Blackpowder Handbook & Loading Manual (2nd Edition, 2001) -

    .38 Special, 17.5 gr Goex FFFg, 158-gr bullet # 358665, overall length 1.445" -

    Muzzle velocity 642 fps with a 5-1/2" Ruger Vaquero.

    In theory, the .357 case could provide about 0.06" more length (a couple extra grains of powder?) before it started bumping up against the .357's OAL limit. It sounds to me like your white powder is pretty much equivalent to blackpowder.
    "Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."

    - Thomas Jefferson


  15. #35
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Sorry Perotter I just read your post again I just got off work last night when I posted what I did up above. All that registered was you never tried black powder in a cartridge. :/
    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  16. #36
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by ofitg View Post
    I found this in the Lyman Blackpowder Handbook & Loading Manual (2nd Edition, 2001) -

    .38 Special, 17.5 gr Goex FFFg, 158-gr bullet # 358665, overall length 1.445" -

    Muzzle velocity 642 fps with a 5-1/2" Ruger Vaquero.

    In theory, the .357 case could provide about 0.06" more length (a couple extra grains of powder?) before it started bumping up against the .357's OAL limit. It sounds to me like your white powder is pretty much equivalent to blackpowder.
    I think if one could get the same number of grains of WP as BP in a case it would be so close that it wouldn't really matter.

    One thing I should have mentioned before, is that the fps spread was wide in the .357. Also, that I used a .357 1894 Marlin. The fps spread in the Beaumont was in line with what one would expect.

    FWIW. Many of the details of testing this were on a computer that I throw away 3 months ago. I hadn't used that computer in 5 years and didn't realize until 2 days latter that there was things on it that were of value. So now all I have is the net results of these test.

  17. #37
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Desertbuck View Post
    Sorry Perotter I just read your post again I just got off work last night when I posted what I did up above. All that registered was you never tried black powder in a cartridge. :/
    No harm, no foul.

  18. #38
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Well its dry. The granules are pretty tough but if you use your fingernail and push firmly on a grain you can cut them in half. But they don't break they almost feel like a very dry cookie. No surprise there sugar after all. Haven't done a burn test yet I got a few things to do today. I had a few minutes so I screened out the fines. I ended up with a powder that mostly close to Fg

    Powder on the left is my homemade black powder in the center is of course the white powder and on the far right is commercial Goex Fg for comparison.


    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  19. #39
    Boolit Buddy Desertbuck's Avatar
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    Well shoot! That was anti climatic, it doesn't burn worth a darn! It doesn't even fully burn all the grains. I don't think the stuff I made wouldn't even make good rocket fuel.
    Might make a good smoke bomb but that's about it.
    Which prompted me to immediately go back and see why it worked for the guy with his 357 Magnum , his pistol was not a 357 but was a 44 magnum, my bad! And in another one of his videos he showed his recipe. He called it sugar-based but actually it did contain a fair amount of charcoal.

    So don't waste your time producing sugar / potassium nitrate gunpowder with this method. I'm going to say it doesn't work.
    I may play around with sugar / charcoal recipe but I might as well just make traditional black powder.
    THE GUN
    The gun has been praised.
    The gun has been denounced.
    The gun has played a critical role in History.
    The gun has been implemented for good.
    The gun has been abused for evil.
    With the gun comes a great moral responsibility!
    To better understand the gun is to better under stand History. And with the gun protect your future.
    D.B

  20. #40
    Boolit Buddy
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    Thanks for the report. Even if it's less than successful we can learn from it.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check