Blackpowder in metallic cartridges

[porpoise]

I came across some bp and loaded cast bullets in my 303. It made a pathetic woof sound when fired. I only had a few rounds and it fouled my barrel big time. There was no civil war smoke plume the slight breeze made any smoke disapear. The worst part it didnt even have a nice firecrackersmell like from my youth it smelled like #####. I had to wash my gun case after i brought it home.

 

[antiqueguy]

for sure up the powder to 3f. 4f might be a little much it is quite fine. 2f is more for flintlocks. 3 is is better for caplocks and 4 is for the flash pan on flintlocks. stay completely away from 1f that is cannon powder. the finer the grind of powder the faster it will burn, 2 f is fairly slow burning. 3f will likely make it cycle faster and give better velocities.

1f is used in bigger bore guns and its most common use in BPCR is in the .577-450 and .577 snider(among other big rifle cartridges)

 

[antiqueguy]

I came across some bp and loaded cast bullets in my 303. It made a pathetic woof sound when fired. I only had a few rounds and it fouled my barrel big time. There was no civil war smoke plume the slight breeze made any smoke disapear. The worst part it didnt even have a nice firecrackersmell like from my youth it smelled like #####. I had to wash my gun case after i brought it home.

the powder will burn quick in a small bore with a small amount so no big cloud of smoke and firecrackers use something called flash powder its different then BP

 

[Aries-]

1f is used in bigger bore guns and its most common use in BPCR is in the .577-450 and .577 snider(among other big rifle cartridges)

i dunno if guys running 577 or even 69cal would be using 1f. my dad runs a 3 band enfield .577 and he uses 2f. guy at hunt camp running a 69cal round ball flintlock uses 2f as well. i have only ever heard of people using 1f in cannons and mortars.

 

[antiqueguy]

i dunno if guys running 577 or even 69cal would be using 1f. my dad runs a 3 band enfield .577 and he uses 2f. guy at hunt camp running a 69cal round ball flintlock uses 2f as well. i have only ever heard of people using 1f in cannons and mortars.

nope cannon grade is even more coarse but that's for large bored cannons. taken from goex Fg (or 1Fg): Muskets, Shotgun, Large caliber Rifle, Cartridge and Cannon

the BPCR crowd uses 1f in cartridges quite a bit

 

[gunlaker]

You'd be surprised at how well Goex Fg works in nearly any cartridge rifle if you spend enough time developing a load for it. I use it mostly in bigger cases like my .45-110's, but have had excellent results in a .45-70 ( although I seat the bullets way out and use a load of 74gr ). I've even had good results in .38-55, although the velocity is a bit on the low side unless breech seating with a case full of powder.

Chris.

 

[thing]

i dunno if guys running 577 or even 69cal would be using 1f. my dad runs a 3 band enfield .577 and he uses 2f. guy at hunt camp running a 69cal round ball flintlock uses 2f as well. i have only ever heard of people using 1f in cannons and mortars.

I use 1F in my shotguns, they seem to like it better then 2F

 

[Andy]

Just in case anyone is interested; I successfully fired off 5 black powder rounds through my SKS today.
I took some brass cased surplus, pulled the bullet, dumped the powder and packed the case full of Goex 2F and stuffed the bullet back on.
All the rounds cycled the action; weakly, but nevertheless, they cycled. The bolt even locked back after the final round.
Fouling was not terrible, the bore was still fairly clean; I fired a regular smokeless round afterwards and the bore wasn't significantly cleaner.

If you were on the 50yd range at silverdale this morning, you might have witnessed it; one of the RO's on the 50yd range definitely took an interest.
I'll report back after cleaning and let you guys know if cleaning was any more intensive than usual.

While there's not too many practical applications for running BP in an SKS, it's certainly satisfied my curiosity.

Now I'm curious as to how many rounds can be fired before it stops working.

An original thinker - good job!

We need video.......

 

[baulih]

I'm a bit confused from reading this thread, does BP need to be compressed or just packed into the case? I find its a bit hard to judge how compressed a specific round is when seating the bullet with a press specially after eyeballing the powder quantity.... Does anyone have a specific method to reload BP rounds?

 

[Silverback]

For 45-70 BP rounds I drop the 70 grain charge down a drop tube into the case, then compress the powder with a powder compression die, seat a vegetable fiber wad on top of the powder then seat the bullet onto the wad and crimp. It's easier to judge compression in a straight walled case like the 45-70. Loose black powder or an air space above it is a bad thing to have. IIRC my 45-70 powder is compressed 0.200".

 

[baulih]

For 45-70 BP rounds I drop the 70 grain charge down a drop tube into the case, then compress the powder with a powder compression die, seat a vegetable fiber wad on top of the powder then seat the bullet onto the wad and crimp. It's easier to judge compression in a straight walled case like the 45-70. Loose black powder or an air space above it is a bad thing to have. IIRC my 45-70 powder is compressed 0.200".

Thank you for the info! this will help.