Smokey Smokeless powder!

[Tumtatty]

I fired some cast boolits at an indoor range the other day.

4.6gr Green Dot for my 124gr cast boolits.

There was a pretty large amount of smoke that issued from my barrel with each shot.

After a few clips I was sure that I was annoying the other customers as well as getting a bad taste in my mouth and throat.

Is this normal?

Is it the Green Dog?


Is there a way to shoot indoors and not piss everyone off :)


Thanks!

[454PB]

Are you sure it wasn't the lube causing the smoke?

[Yance]

Many powders are smokey, seems the Alliant flake types are the worst. I've shot a lot of Unique and combined with Alox/beeswax lubes it's about half as bad as Holy Black.<G>

You might try Bullseye or 231 and tumble lubes bullets for less smoke. Our local indoor range requires jacketed or plated bullets for their Monday night IPSC and IDPA matches.

[44man]

I bet you are using alox! :)

[xtimberman]

My favorite old-school bullet lube is/was Javelina brand Alox formula. It's really smoky as is the Lee liquid Alox and any of the others. JMO, too, but I believe the smoke is mostly lube created.

GreenDot is one of my favorite gunpowders for target shotgun and pistol loads. I've never thought of it as being smoky at all. It has recently been improved in its "New" configuration by Alliant and is really clean-burning.

This brings up the reason why I don't care for most indoor ranges. All those fumes swirling around can't be good for you if you breathe them. Even if there's no smoke, there has got to be heavy metal dust in the air. If the exhaust fans can't move the smoke away fast enough to avoid eye and nose irritation up and down the firing line, how can they be removing the metal dust either? Sometimes indoor ranges are the only places to shoot, so I'll go there occasionally anyway on off hours - just to support a nice, friendly range owner. Most of them around here won't let you shoot your own handloads - requiring factory ammo only - and some won't let you collect your own brass if it hits the ground - citing bogus safety issues. IMO, that is strictly a brass grab, and in that case, I'll only shoot a revolver, or never go back.

xtm

[bpost1958]

Green Dot, Blue Dot and Unique are a but smoky for sure. The higher the pressure the less the smoke from what I have seen. If you shoot alox-beeswax and a mid range load the powder smoke is less than half of the smoke you see. I tested cast boolits and jacketed boolits in my revolvers. There is a noticable reduction in smoke with jacketed boolits.

I like the smell of burning powder and the smoke from lead boolit lubes too.
Life is good, keep shootin!