My homemade black powder

[BPJake]

A whisk and a big pot to mix stuff in is a good idea. Much easier to ensure even mixing. I will steal that technique for the next batch I puck.

And good luck on getting the brown stuff. I just got back from shooting, and cocoa brown powder blows the pants off of Swiss. At least for velocity and fouling.



Weighed all charges on my digital powder scale. Was only able to do 6 shots of each as I didn't have enough good containers to hold pre weighed charges.



Here's what I'm shooting. A Pietta 1860 Army. 25 grains of 3Fg powder and a Hornady swaged .454 round ball.


Here's all 6 shots on the chronograph. That's danged fast. Unfortunately, I shot the wedge loose, and didn't notice. That last shot sounded wimpier than the others. Velocity kept dropping a bit. I imagine the wedge was getting looser and looser.


The barrel is actually pretty clean. There is a fine layer of dust, but no big chunks like I'm used to seeing.


The chambers on the cylinder look pretty good too.


Here's a mouth whetted patch. Was a little hard to start - but I don't have any baseline for that. When cleaning my revolvers, I've never started with a patch. It's always straight to the washroom sink first.



I cleaned the whole gun. A good wipe down of the barrel pin, and a bunch of patches on the barrel and chamber until they were fully clean.

Fired 6 with Swiss 3Fg. Same load, 25 grains, and a Hornady swaged .454 round ball. I actually paid attention the wedge this time, but it didn't seem to be moving. There was a lot more smoke, and a bit less recoil.



The barrel looks typical to me. The usual chunky bits left behind.


Cylinder looks pretty good. Maybe a bit more fouling than the Cottonelle.


The patch was just about impossible to start, thought I was gonna have to pull it out backwords. Was able to get it through by beating on it.



So, I was hoping for Swiss performance. I'm quite pleased with what I got. The wider velocity swings are a bit annoying, but that could be due to the wedge. I will have to go out and shoot up more of the powder I've got and see where I'm at.

So here's the summaries:

Brown Cottonelle Charcoal 3Fg (77-13-10) 72 Hour Mill Time 25 grains .454 Round Ball

1080.1
1048.2
1024.3
1030.2
1028.5
990.8

Average 1033.7
SD 26.9
Extreme Spread 89.2


Swiss 3Fg 25 grains .454 Round Ball

936
916
911.4
908.8
917.7
908.5

Average 916.4
SD 9.4
Extreme Spread 27.6

Not too shabby - though the Swiss was very consistent. The Cottonelle beats Swiss on average by 117.3 FPS even with that low shot. That's a pretty big improvement, and it's cleaner.

Excited to see what it's like with a longer barrel. I'd also like to see if the spread tightens up with a properly seated wedge.

this is a nice writeup, i'll read this closer in the am when eyes less blurry. that's some impressive powder bro.

I think I got some brown, but also some black and some still wood. I need a kiln, or reasonable facsimile.
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[greyhawk]

It's neither lazy nor smart, it's you making powder that works for you the way you want it. The fun for me making the powder is trying to duplicate the swiss, it all works fine.

I have chrono tested numerous times both front loaders and cartridge, screened vs corned - I get no appreciable difference in velocity with weighed charges using the same meal base. Might even lean a little in favour of screened but really nothing in it . Density is heaps different but it doesnt seem to affect the energy per grain.

Somewhere early on there was a comment along the lines of "well we can make powder good enough for muzzleloaders and general plinking but we not gonna be able to make it good enough for long range rifle comps" -- my reaction (yours too I bet) was hold my beer while I show ya. I bet there is more than a few fellers right here doin it now and a good few others just need a few tweaks to their process to join in. Swiss where I come from has been unobtainium for years so its a moot point, most blokes I know are shooting Wano and its an easy beat unless it has improved a lot in the last ten years. I finally obtained a pound of FF Swiss for comparisons so one day I will post some numbers.

[PianoManA440]

BPJake
Do you think murphys wood oil soap could be substituted for oleic acid?

And thats some nice shooting you guys. Wish i was that good. But i know the solution......
Shoot more!!!!!