Highway Robbery

Dirk72

Dirk72

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Dear gawd. Cabela’s wants $60.00 for a bottle of FFFg!

Shopping around, I think I can get it for $39.00 a pound… I stocked up at the turn of the century when I was paying just over $20.00 - for a metal can!

Do you guys have a preferred vendor for large-ish orders? Say 10~15 lbs? I have always been a black powder snob and have never shot the (hook, spit) substitutes… but I may have to reconsider that. How are you chaps getting by in today’s black powder economic climate?

Are there any guys making it here? I don’t want to do that but…sheesh. It’s getting crazy out there…
 
I buy for our club from a commercial blasting company. Orders have to be 25 lbs or more and picked up.
Last time I bought powder, (pre COVID) it was $29 lb plus taxes.
It helps if a member is a blaster and has the means to legally transport.
If anyone here makes black powder, you can bet that they won’t be acknowledging it online.
 
Try buying Blackhorn209. Good luck finding it for less than $80.00 up here and at that, it's in 10oz jugs not 1 pounders like everything else. Cabelas in the states usually has it for $36.00 for the same thing.
 
You might be #####ing about the prices, but they are still substantially less than half of what we pay here in UK. A kilo jug of Swiss cost $124.00 here. Face-to-face sales only, too.
 
Well that's just it, Tac. 20 years ago I was buying powder in 8 lb. gulps, primers by the thousand/carton, and stocking up when prices had stabilized just after Gulf War 1. Back then I was paying around 30 bucks a pound for powder and the same for a 1000/carton - and I thought THAT was robbery. It's just the way things are and the prices are a reality - but to face them now? I almost fell over! It is what it is I suppose.

Is making black powder illegal in Canada? I know the gun geeks over at cast boolits are doing it and the keeners can even make their own caps - or so they claim. Others have tried it and quality is not always assured...

Thanks for all your help, fellas. Shoot straight and keep those score cards honest! :)
 
Periodically, the professionals making black powder, blow up a powder plant, and the employees on that shift. They have proper equipment and procedures, but bad stuff happens.
You might want to think about that.
Black powder clubs get a bulk order together, to save $ for members. You might look into black powder organizations near you.
 
saskbooknut said:
Periodically, the professionals making black powder, blow up a powder plant, and the employees on that shift. They have proper equipment and procedures, but bad stuff happens.
You might want to think about that.
Black powder clubs get a bulk order together, to save $ for members. You might look into black powder organizations near you.
Click to expand...

Years ago I actually started studying it and seriously considering it. The guys over at cast boolits were all over it too, and although they had no kabooms, they were flat out paranoid about safety so that if it DID happen… it would happen in a safe place where nobody got hurt. I believe they said milling the powder was the critical step where you wanted to be super careful. The quality of the product was all over the place too. It’s a messy, PITA to do and I would rather just buy it… but if it s going for 60 bucks a pound… I will do what I gotta do I suppose.

I actually heard a story about a black powder paper cartridge factory during the American civil war: the guys showing up on shift were continuously getting caught smoking their pipes and cigars against the safety rules, and the plant manager finally had it. He fired the entire shift and replaced them with women because it was unladylike to smoke in those days. That very day, later in the shift, the plant exploded and killed them all. The plant manager was fired immediately and I think he even went to jail.
 
The worst part of making "authentic" BP is going around to scrape everything out of every $hitter in the neighborhood to collect the nitrites. Apparently pacifist and cowards were given this job to do for the Confederacy war effort.
 
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