Amen. That and doing what's right! :-)
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I use Tree of Heaven. It does very well. I find the powder pretty clean burning. I have settled on it and Willow for my charcoal. Nothing very scientific, just tried a few different woods. Red Alder, Willow and Tree of Heaven.
swamp
Has anyone tried to use bush honeysuckle for their charcoal?
@LAGS:
Recently watched a YouTube video of a guy that tried Cholla Cactus wood. It was quite fast. There's a lot of that near you in the low foothills of the Superstitions. Might be worth a test...
Vettepilot
@ Vettepilot
Yes there is a lot of Cholla cactus around where I hunt.
In fact , the Quail love to be around it.
And I often get all stuck by the thorn balls laying all over the ground
Thanks for the suggestion.
I just might have to try making some charcoal out of the Cholla next time I go hunting.
In fact.
They are doing some construction work on a park just up the street from me.
I will have to take a walk over there and see if any of the Cholla they dug out is still laying around.
I know there was lots of it on that site , because I built several softball fields on that park back in 2011.
It's often called "Jumping Cactus" because it sticks to you so easy, even when you didn't think you touched/brushed by it, that it actually seems like it "jumped" onto you!
Vettepilot
Yes.
It is a Jumping Cactus.
And several times I had a thorn ball stick to the recoil pad on my shotgun without me noticing.
When I took the shot , It buried the thorns into my shoulder.
Ow!! Brutal.
Vettepilot
You guys that cut your own felt wads, what thickness is best and where would you buy some. I’ve got plenty of grand pas old felt hats but they shore aint getting punched out.
I have some green felt like you line bottom of gun cabinet but kind of thin, thinking maybe needs to be bout 1/4” thick?
Try (Apple felt) I don't have a link.
Here's who I use. She sometimes has Lamb Tallow as well.
http://www.durofelt.com/products.html
Vettepilot
It's there now.
Vettepilot
I posted a while back about finding out that what I thought I was testing and using as Black Willow turned out to be Red Willow according to my app "Picture this". Well, Red Willow was clean burning and certainly fast. It was just slightly better than Sassafras in my testing, so I am not disappointed in it's abilities.
While waiting for an opportunity to go in search of what I think is Black Willow, about 40 miles away in a now flooded riverbed, I did process a batch of Willow that my app identified as Creek Willow or Coastal Plain Willow. Well, it tested to be low in ash at under 2%, but several burn tests on paper shows it to be very dirty burning and slow in burn speed to where it burned holes in the paper. I did one burn test with freshly milled green meal and another burn test with fines that I collected after compression, grinding, and screening. Both tests were disappointing.
I know the green meal was dry and the fines were also dry as I dried everything out in the hot sun prior to milling and the pucks after compression. Should not have been slow because of moisture, so it leads me to believe that common Creek Willow is not the best Willow for sure.
I can not test with my revolver right now because I dropped it off for my Gunsmith to repair the alignment pins. One of the pins in the frame broke off in the barrel. Might have to figure out why that happened. Cylinder alignment off? I have not been rapid firing, but only slow single action shooting, but maybe a few rounds have been fired without it being completely locked. Perhaps someone has some ideas.
Oh, the revolver is a Pietta replica of an 1851 Colt Navy .36 Cal. and shooting around 20 grains of my homemade Black.
Thanks I see it now. LOL