Ball mill time matters as much as Charcoal
Ball mill for 72 Hours. Apparently the additional ball mill time makes as much of a difference as the carbon source.
It actually looks like if you ball mill for 72 hours and then make screened powder, you may actually get BETTER powder than if I ball mill for 8 hours and then use a puck press.
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1st rule of gun safety and stupidity
Last week, I was gifted a .50 caliber CVA Bobcat, that was a rust bucket in, and out. The lock and trigger were froze and there was solid rust around the inside of the bore. I finally got it apart and I soaked the barrel inside with vinegar and salt, for 14 hours; along with anything rusted up, in a bowl. I was going to pull the drum and breech plug.
Well, I'm 71 and have been around guns all my life, but I learned me a lesson. Before I started all this, I ran the ramrod into the barrel and it was hung up, or so I thought, before it got to the bottom. I pretty well blew it off as crud and figured to soak it, and remove the breech plug and it would all ram out with a stainless steel half inch brush I have. If anything was in it, the vinegar would render it useless.
Well, the next day, I took it to my son's shop; to use his vice and help. I broke the tang piece on the breech plug before I searched the internet and found the drum acts as a thread lock, on the breech plug. So, I unscrewed the drum, and my son, Rex said he could tig the tang back on the breech plug. He handed me a map gas torch and said it might be best to heat the plug, to make it turn loose.
I started heating all around a circle on the plug and where its threads were. My son had just stepped aside from in front of the barrel, across the shop, when stuff started bubbling out the hole where the drum had been, then it fizzed and popped, what sounded about as loud as a .22, to me. Rex said it sounded bigger than that where he was.
Well, I shined a bright light in the drum hole and looked down the barrel and could see light. Rex said he thought he heard something hit the floor over by his tool box and so did I. We got to looking close all around his fresh cleaned floor and there was a piece of plastic laying there. He handed it to me and it was a plastic sabot. We looked all over and couldn't find a ball or bullet, and I told him maybe someone had just put that down the barrel, without a bullet or ball. Anyway, so I went home to get my brush, while he tigged the breech plug tang back on.
When I got to the house and walked in, my phone was ringing, and it was him. He said he found the bullet and I needed to hurry up and come look at this.
When I got there, (he just lives about two hundred yards from me) I walked in, and he took me to the wall, behind his tool box and you could see a hole in it. It was where the bullet hit it, and it was standing nearly straight up and down, when it hit. That wall is like sheetrock, but fire retardant. But it went through that wall, missed a stud about five inches, went through three inches of insulation, through his bedroom sheetrock wall, and hit the crossbar on their metal frame bed; dented it and fell on the floor. It blew insulation and sheetrock on his bed. If it hadn't hit the bed frame, it would have went through his closet door. If the drum and nipple had been in it, and that black powder or triple 7, or whatever it was, had not been soaked with vinegar and salt for 14 hours, that could have been a real bad deal. REAL bad. Had Rex not stepped to one side, it could have killed him. It was a sabot 301 grain, plastic pointed, hollow point bullet with probably 120 grains of powder behind it.
When I got to his shop, he already had the tang welded and breech plug out, but the threads were seriously wounded. And, the drum is toast.
I bet this never is allowed to happen to me, again. I lost focus for two minutes and could have got someone killed. Thank God my grandson was not standing there watching me. The first rule of gun safety is make SURE the gun is not loaded. And, I didn't. I bet I've seen 10 guys post, or stories of black powder rifles that were loaded when they were parked and rusted shut. I learned my lesson.
This is a highly embarrassing story, and you can call me stupid. I will be the first person to agree. I tell it, to stress the point that muzzle loaders can be very dangerous, even if they are a total rust bucket. Maybe my story will make someone think, before they allow themselves to lose focus, on the unknown.
Have fun, everybody. Safely. BuckAttachment 327490