Thread: Proper black powder

Im trying to find real black powder (goex, swiss, c&h etc) in the wairarapa / manawatu all thats available seems to be that 777 stuff.
Never used it and it says not for rifle cartridges in big cheery red letters, which is exactly what i need it for.
Has anyone used this stuff in snider or martini henry capacity cases, or know where bp might be available. My regular supplier says its bloody sparse at present.
Any advice appreciated including the inevitable rude comments

Plenty in the Waikato? Holy smokes ok, he also does Swiss I think.
Have to collect, but maybe coming down to Awapuni?
Freight charge would be a 38/50 cape?

My mate makes his own using willow from my place, goes bloody well.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Im trying to find real black powder (goex, swiss, c&h etc) in the wairarapa / manawatu all thats available seems to be that 777 stuff.
Never used it and it says not for rifle cartridges in big cheery red letters, which is exactly what i need it for.
Has anyone used this stuff in snider or martini henry capacity cases, or know where bp might be available. My regular supplier says its bloody sparse at present.
Any advice appreciated including the inevitable rude comments

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....ight=bretscher

Originally Posted by MSL

My mate makes his own using willow from my place, goes bloody well.

^This.
Beggar paying $90/lb for the stuff. Farm supply store, a 50# sack of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal (make or buy) probably run you less than a hundy. mill it all together 75:10:15.
In my mill 3 hours gets approx FF-FFF grade.

My last batch I used some "gourmet" braai charcoal, so now I have Gourmet Gunpowder.

Originally Posted by Maca49

Plenty in the Waikato? Holy smokes ok, he also does Swiss I think.
Have to collect, but maybe coming down to Awapuni?
Freight charge would be a 38/50 cape?

Ha ha might let you fire it though. I was thinking of taking a few to the big bore in naki might just take one now, as ive got enough for 20 rounds of 38/55
Ive heard of holy smoke, they do pyrotechnics as well dont they? Brother in law lives in te rapa so i might see if he can get a pound or 3.
Ive made it in the distant past, fine for a muzzle loader but the density was only 2/3 of commercial corned powder so cramming enough in a case was problematic.

Do you want FFG or FFG? I have a full container of both at home, I could post it to you???

That’s holysmoke!

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Ive made it in the distant past, fine for a muzzle loader but the density was only 2/3 of commercial corned powder so cramming enough in a case was problematic.

Interesting. I've never chronied or weighed mine for that matter. Goes bang, things move.
I would think a wet mill, caking and screening might increase density. Also vibro and/or drop tubes when loading.

Drop tube, brass from model shop and brass funnel for anti static, about 400 mm long works well. Better not to crush the powder into a solid block imho, but no air gap. I usually load, powder, beer card wad, beeswax cookie, beer card wad and then projectile with light crush.

Originally Posted by mimms

Interesting. I've never chronied or weighed mine for that matter. Goes bang, things move.
I would think a wet mill, caking and screening might increase density. Also vibro and/or drop tubes when loading.

Wet milling of gunpowder is very good at reducing chances of exploding mill - also ensures the two or three gunpowder components are intimately connected and so less milling is required to achieve a fast burn.

The density of gunpowder is better in commercial powders (heavy millstones, not achievable in diy setups) so they are a consideration if you're reloading cartridges as you can get more powder weight inside the limited case.

If muzzle loading powder density is no great advantage as you can just take up more space for the charge.

using totara instead of willow increases weight of finished product...it goes bang nicely too.

I have a couple of small gem tumblers, what would be good to use during a wet tumble as milling stones? Glass (ie marbles)? Stainless balls?

Originally Posted by mimms

^This.
Beggar paying $90/lb for the stuff. Farm supply store, a 50# sack of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal (make or buy) probably run you less than a hundy. mill it all together 75:10:15.
In my mill 3 hours gets approx FF-FFF grade.

My last batch I used some "gourmet" braai charcoal, so now I have Gourmet Gunpowder.

You guys wanna be careful what you say online. it is illegal to manufacture powder without the proper permission slip from the gestapo. I mean from the Gummint.

Originally Posted by Tommy

I have a couple of small gem tumblers, what would be good to use during a wet tumble as milling stones? Glass (ie marbles)? Stainless balls?

Most people out there use large lead balls as they do not increase risk of sparks. Long tumble times are not as necessary when you wet tumble.

The problem with steel balls is the tiny risk of sparks.

Glass is really bad worse idea - remember your physics teacher use of a dry glass rod and a dry animal skin (claimed it was a cat skin!) to create static electricity?

I'd consider grounding the tumbler unless it is properly wired up with a return/ground wire through the plug, even use a little brass brush touching the tumbling cylinder as it goes round. You can get those out of an old tumble drier.

But keeping the mixture wetted is the main thing in avoiding static electricity charges building up.

Originally Posted by 40mm

You guys wanna be careful what you say online. it is illegal to manufacture powder without the proper permission slip from the gestapo. I mean from the Gummint.

It is illegal to buy or store black powder (legal definition: mix of salpetre, sulfur and charcoal) without a FAL, and you may not have more than 1.5kg of it sitting about.

But is it really illegal to manufacture small amounts of black powder IF you have a FAL + lawful purpose? I don't think so, but someone PLEASE correct me...

Most legislation I could find rightly (and practically) focuses on possession and establishing that someone has a lawful purpose for her possession of black powder. It's of course hard to prove someone manufactured the BP she was found in possession of, so more practical to focus on the element of her possession-without-lawful-reason of black powder. Likewise as with other explosives, the pertinent question is lawful possession and purpose. There are sensible health and safety rules for handling, storage and transportation you must adhere to.