My homemade black powder

[Vettepilot]

One more thing. If I ever decide to load up some BP 45-70 cartridges, or buy a conversion cylinder for 45 Colt for my 1858 Remington, then maybe I'll go to pucked powder. I have the die, a good press, grain mills, etc. But for the front stuffers I shoot now, I'm with Greyhawk. Screened powder works great, and I have very, very little "fines".

Just my .02 cents...

Vettepilot

[Vettepilot]

Sorry for multiple posts, but I just remembered something I wanted to share about presses. If your press is groaning and/or bending with the amount of forces you want to use, try just using some 5/16" or 3/8" threaded rods to tie the top and bottom of your press together just outside the jack.

Drill through the top beam on either side of the jack. Drill corresponding holes in the press surfaces of the bottom beams. Run the 4 threaded rods through those holes, with nuts adjusted tight, to connect the 3 beams together vertically.

This will add tremendous strength to your press. You will NEVER pull the four 5/16" threaded rods apart. Each one has a tensile strength of at least 60,000 psi. (We only use four to keep everything square.)

Worth a try if your press is "tweaking" on you...

Vettepilot

[greyhawk]

got a question (asking for a friend)

chimney soot is highly flammable - yes (have seen a chimney fire or two)

we are kind of agreed that overcooking charcoal is a bad idea cuz we lose the volatiles?

what do you guess would happen if we incorporated some chimney soot/creosote into our charcoal?

thus boosting the amount of volatiles / fuel available ....................

how dumb of an idea is this (or not) ?

we have plenty soot - something the commercial people dont have access to .....................

[DoubleBuck]

greyhawk
That has been discussed on this thread a couple of times, but I don't, off the top of my head, remember if anyone has actually done it or not; or if they did, what the results were. Creosote may be creosote and it would work. And, it might be that different wood may put more 'lively' creosote out than others, too. I just don't know. Sounds like a test for you, to share the results with us. haha I'm fixing to clean my stove pipe out, to make ready for winter soon. I could probably donate a few cups of creosote....

[printedboolits]

Cooked up the last of my TP yesterday. If I didn't say before, been using Cottonelle Ultra Comfort ("MEGA" sized rolls that actually look slightly smaller than regular ones. ).

This is 8 rolls. Two rolls worth will make a bit over a pound of powder.



Here's my brass media. About 2.5 inches worth in this 8" tall tumbler. The bulk is 1/2", though I do have some 5/8, 9/16, and 3/8. Some are metric equivalents.

I think if the pucks are too dry when being compressed, they very well will leave more fines when grinding. I feel the same when letting the pucks completely dry out before grinding, so I grind them right away after pressing.

I mist a few squirts of water on the surface of my meal and then mix it in well. Mist it some more and mix. Repeat until I can grab a handful of the meal and squeeze it into a fairly firm clump that will not fall apart without effort. Also, waiting for a few hours before pressing will allow the moisture to work itself evenly through the meal.

When pressing, I like to see a slightly damp spot under the die after the pressure is released and I pick up the die. No moisture actually getting squeezed out. Just a damp spot shows me that there is sufficient moisture in the pucks.

The powder loses moisture while one is grinding and screening if done under air conditioning or in the hot sun. After screening and polishing, it is simple to finish drying the granulated powder out by spreading out on large flat cookie pans. We had sunshine today with a temperature up to 92 f., so I laid yesterday's finished powder out in the sun for a few hours to dry.

With no sunshine, I dry the powder out inside my air conditioned hobby room, which is normally under 40% humidity. I just leave it spread out in the cookie pans for a couple of days under the air conditioning.

I am not sure what BP would be like if dried lower than around that point. I do not think I have ever had any drier than about 35-40% humidity. It might scare me if I did.

Think I'll try just a bit more water. Gonna get a big bowel and a whisk, so I can mist more surface area. I live in a desert - so 35% humidity is pretty humid for us. It's generally lower. It did actually rain last night which is rare. Might have to press some stuff this evening.

VERY NICE results PrintedBoolits. Incredible for a first run. You are a dedicated researcher and have excellent preparation. It shows in your posts, and results. Congrats!

Vettepilot

Thanks!

One more thing. If I ever decide to load up some BP 45-70 cartridges, or buy a conversion cylinder for 45 Colt for my 1858 Remington, then maybe I'll go to pucked powder. I have the die, a good press, grain mills, etc. But for the front stuffers I shoot now, I'm with Greyhawk. Screened powder works great, and I have very, very little "fines".

Just my .02 cents...

Vettepilot

Yeah, I've got too many black powder cartridges to load for (38 Rimfire, 38 S&W, .32 Rimfire, 45-100, 45 colt etc..), otherwise screened would be an option. Would be a big pain in the but to use less dense powder for those.




On the subject of creosote, how much ash and other junk is in that stuff? Is cresote composed mainly of the gummy and stucky stuff you wouldn't want in your firearm? Would be interesting to test out.

Could probably do an ash test on it. Weigh a pile of cresote before and after burning it and see what's left.

[BPJake]

I was also wondering if all creosote is the same and if and even should it be added. I'm thinking no cause if it was that easy to get creosote charcoal everyone would use it.

This is my other test bed and actual preferred mode of shooting, because everyone knows real guns don't have nipples. It's a .50 Lyman GPH (I actually have a caplock one too so nobody take offense lol)

Edit: Not sure why this pic is sideways, it wasn't originally

lyman gph (Large).jpg

[BPJake]

Making some lube for the Lee R.E.A.L. bullets I generally shoot from the GPH. It's just toilet rings melted with lard, it's about the right consistency and doesn't go rancid.

lee lube (Large).jpglee real 50 (Large).jpg

[printedboolits]

Making some lube for the Lee R.E.A.L. bullets I generally shoot from the GPH. It's just toilet rings melted with lard, it's about the right consistency and doesn't go rancid.

Haha. That would pair very well with toilet paper powder. Is there something special about toilet rings or are they just cheap wax? Never seen that used before.


Was going to borrow my brother's 50 cal rifle, but we couldn't find any round balls for it. Decided to use my Thompson Center Renegade in .54 cal. It was in pieces, as I was trying to figure out what it would take to get a new barrel. This one has a rough spot at the bottom from when I bought it. Not terrible, but not ideal.



I snuck out earlier this morning to do a few tests with the last of my powder. And it's actually kinda nuts. Brown Cottonelle completely destroys Swiss, even in a rifle. I'm quite surprised. Apparently how you make your charcoal has a massive effect on the outcome.

Shot the Swiss first. Should have taken more powder. The first fouling shot was pretty low compared to the rest. Also one shot didn't register. I think because I decided to shoot at a rock that was out of the arc that the chrono can detect. Dumb Mistake.



After shooting the Swiss, I ran a bunch of patches through the gun. It's not as good as a full clean, but hard to accomplish that at the range.

So, the Chrono also missed a shot with the Cottonelle powder. It has two detection ranges for rifles that you set before shooting. 600-1800, and 1800-5000. I had it set at 600-1800, and it didn't detect my third shot. So I switched to the other range for my last shot. Only had enough powder left for 4 sadly.



Yes, it's actually real lol.


I've seen charts showing 1600ish for 80 grains of 3Fg goex out of a .54. So the 1700 average for Swiss seems to be in the ballpark.

1900 for the brown powder is pretty crazy though. I really need to do some more testing. Pucked and ground 300 grams worth of powder yesterday until the rain forced me to stop. (My press is outside). I glazed the powder for 6 hours, and it's currently drying.

Will do another comparison with more shots in the next couple of days if I can spare the time.

[BPJake]

printedboolits your spreads are very nice, very consistent. That Renegade is basically the same as the GPH in form factor, a Hawken kind-of. I want to get a GPR barrel for the flintlock, I wasn't really cognizant of the implications of the 1-32 twist of the GPH when I bought. Other than being able to shoot these conicals one is you can't push a round ball too fast before they start shredding patches.

Edit: This is kind of maddening. No matter how the pic of these rifles is oriented when I upload it shows them sideways on the page.

boomsticks (Large).jpg

[printedboolits]

printedboolits your spreads are very nice, very consistent. That Renegade is basically the same as the GPH in form factor, a Hawken kind-of. I want to get a GPR barrel for the flintlock, I wasn't really cognizant of the implications of the 1-32 twist of the GPH when I bought. Other than being able to shoot these conicals one is you can't push a round ball too fast before they start shredding patches.

Edit: This is kind of maddening. No matter how the pic of these rifles is oriented when I upload it shows them sideways on the page.

boomsticks (Large).jpg

Yeah, very similar. Would be nice to have a flintlock version. Not sure if they made one or not. Think this gun has a 1:48 twist barrel. Should do ok with bullets or balls, but not great at either. I'm got a .54 R.E.A.L. mold, need to cast up some bullets with it.

[BPJake]

Yeah, very similar. Would be nice to have a flintlock version. Not sure if they made one or not. Think this gun has a 1:48 twist barrel. Should do ok with bullets or balls, but not great at either. I'm got a .54 R.E.A.L. mold, need to cast up some bullets with it.

The REAL bullets are nice and they load easy and kind of self clean to a point. I'm fine shooting them out of the caplock, it doesn't seem right in the flinter tho.

I have a CVA Kentucky that I built when I was 13, and I actually have a Kibler Wooodsrunner in .45 in the box in my basement, I've spent the summer learning about traditional finishes, I'll build it this fall. I've always had a thing for the sparks.

Edit: And yes the toilet rings are just cheap wax. They used to be beeswax, not so sure it's that anymore but it still works for cheap.

20250314_163030 (Large).jpgkibler woodsrunner.jpg