Black powder blanks

[SWANEEDB]

Am thinking of using a mixture of 2 parts black to 1 part pyrodex, does that sound OK, need the 'bang and smoke' for relay starting. Any and all help is good. Thanks

The reason I ask is we have extra pyrodex and would like to use it up, will be shot from a 38spl, cases are star crimped with no wadding what so ever.

[Col4570]

I would use one or the other but not mixed,better to be safe than sorry.

[17nut]

Why would you mix?

It aint gonna be louder.
It aint gonna be smokier.
It aint gonne be cleaner.
And only BP will give you that foul stinky fart smell :-)

What are you gonna shoot from?
Remember that wads (may) travel a long way and carry serious energy at short ranges.

Many moons ago i was at a middle age reenactment and a cannon was shot at a castle wall.
Cannon used BP and a roll as a wad. Long story short a guy in a castle window got hit in the chest at 55yds min. and he was out stone cold.

If you shoot a cannon then make a "wad"/shot from a paper cartridge containing roughly double the weight of the BP from wheat flour.
That flour will disperse and light up big time thus adding to the muzzle flame.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Mungo Park the explorer amazed some Africans by shooting a candle through a wooden board, in the days when they were soft tallow.

Races have been started successfully with both black and smokeless powder for a long time. I think black is better, and has less need of wads unless you use special blank powders, hard for the amateur to find - and the danger of some intellectual loading it behind a bullet or shot means that is unlikely to change. The only valid reasons to use smokeless are to get by if you can't get black, and to get by with less cleaning. If you are considering the mixture, you've got black.

I don't believe race competitors are able to look at the gun, and anybody whose job it is to catch a false start can look and listen enough not to need the flash or smoke.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Many moons ago i was at a middle age reenactment and a cannon was shot at a castle wall.




Yes, I suppose some of us are at an age where middle age seems worth re-enacting...

If it is a starting pistol which doesn't have a bore you are wary of harming, a much smaller amount of aluminium or magnesium powder in the charge should have the same effect. The bore is an oxygen-starved environment, so I don't believe it would start burning till it reaches atmospheric oxygen.

[Geezer in NH]

For safety I would get a real blank gun. If a 22 is not loud enough get one of the 9mm blank guns they use in the theater. Bores on all of them are blocked so nothing can go forward.

Using a real firearm with blanks gets people killed by wads and screw-ups of live rounds. Be careful not worth the inevitable lawsuits and possible criminal charges.

[smkummer]

Mixing your mixture will work fine. You don't really need to worry about wads causing harm if shot in the air. If you star crimp, you only need the slightest wad to keep the power from coming out if the little crimp hole.

[SWANEEDB]

Mixing your mixture will work fine. You don't really need to worry about wads causing harm if shot in the air. If you star crimp, you only need the slightest wad to keep the power from coming out if the little crimp hole.

Thanks for the up date, is what we thought we could do. Our star crimp is very tight to the end, does not allow any leakage. So therefor no need to use any wadding.

[reloader4410]

Back when my cowboy club was putting on shows, we used Styrofoam for over powder wadding, also drilled the primer pocket larger, to stop misfires. Happy Trails

[brad925]

Not sure what kinda projectile wad is being used here or what your using the blanks for or for that matter what kinda of BP your using.....Fg, FFg, FFFg, FFFFg. If your busting balloons at 20 feet Fg filled to the top of a 45LC covered by a thin paper wad and held in place with fingernail polish is all thats needed. Thats whats used in fast draw competion.