Thread: Making Black Powder

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

I used an old lapidary tumbler with lead balls and milled overnight. I added1% water by weight of charcoal. Probably for no good reason as it comes out dry. I then wet the sieved powder with meths to make a stiff paste then pass it through a stainless and plastic mouli with a fine plate and allowed it to dry.
The grains were quite fine and fluffy and only about 75 percent of the weight of commercial goex volume for volume. You could crush it down somewhat when loading cartridge but I never bothered.
Haven't made any for years now but still have the readies and may just start again as my last kg if holy smoke cost $120.

My last kg of holy smoke cost $169...
My main BP rifle is a 45-70 so corning the powder might be necessary. A front stuffer you can just add 20% more or so to account for the weight/volume issue.