My homemade black powder

[Fly]

Boz it sounds like that batch is alot slower.Lay some in a line & lite it & see if it's as fast as the other batch.

If you do everything the same & powder is dry, it should not change.When I first started
making this stuff I made good & bad batches.When I finally got fast powder, I don't change
a thing unless I,m trying differant charcoal for testing.

By the way in my Gibb's I'm shooting 5" high at 100 yards with the rear sight all the way down
& 90 grains of my home made powder.

With Goex It's hitting about 2" high.I need to drop back to 80 grains with the Goex.I don't
have any Swiss on hand for now.I need to get this bad boy out to the 200yd range & see
what it will do.

Fly

Fly

[Boz330]

By the way in my Gibb's I'm shooting 5" high at 100 yards with the rear sight all the way down
& 90 grains of my home made powder.

With Goex It's hitting about 2" high.I need to drop back to 80 grains with the Goex.I don't
have any Swiss on hand for now.I need to get this bad boy out to the 200yd range & see
what it will do.

Fly

It really won't print at a 100yds, 200 is about as close as you can get. Some of the aftermarket sights are even worse. Both of my friends have the Distant Thunder rear sights and they had to modify the front sights to get on at 300yds. Of course these are long range guns.

Bob

[Boz330]

Got the ceramic coffee grinder in yesterday and ground up my pressed cake with it. It isn't the panacea I was hoping for but it does make the grains more consistent than beating them with a ball bat. You have to break the cakes up fairly small to get them down to the grinding mechanism and sift the bigger pieces and run them through several times. It still seems faster to me than the other method but you still end up with a lot of fines.
Some of my cakes were as hard as a woodpeckers lips and tough to grind. Of course they have been drying for a week, even the dead blow hammer was having trouble with them. I'm wondering if maybe running them before the cakes are completely dry might not work better and then dry on newspaper in the sun.
One thing I did do was chuck the glass jar that catches the powder, reminded me of a hand grenade way too much. A small soft plastic peanut butter jar screws right in and would just pop if something were to go wrong. The grinding section of this thing is all ceramic so no ceramic on metal contact and the hopper is plastic.

Bob

[Fly]

Hummmmmmmmmmmm (hand grenade) why do you think I only suggested that & waited
till YOU tryed it out,Mummmmmmmmmmmmmm, ha, ha!Yea boz I have broke those cakes
up before they were completely dry.

You don't want to do it too early thow or you will have mill dust.What brand grinder did
you buy?.

Fly

[Longwood]

That was funny Fly!
I was thinking a motor with a really long belt to drive the grinder.

[Boz330]

I got the one you put up from Amazon. It is not heavy duty enough for a motor so you can scrap that idea.
The last thought I had was to score the cakes after pressing, sort of like a chocolate bar, so they would break up more uniformly to go in the hopper.

Bob

[Fly]

The only thing about a motorised burr grinder is heat.When I first started reading up on
those things something caught my eye in one of the ads.

It talked about hand grinding not producing the heat the electric ones did.Being we are
not grinding Java I thought the hand grinder would be safer.

Fly

[Longwood]

The only thing about a motorised burr grinder is heat.When I first started reading up on
those things something caught my eye in one of the ads.

It talked about hand grinding not producing the heat the electric ones did.Being we are
not grinding Java I thought the hand grinder would be safer.

Fly

I would not want to have my hands, face or any other part of my body close to the grinder if it flashed.
I have bought several gearmotors off of ebay that could work.

[Boz330]

I got out yesterday to Chrono my first corned powder in my 40-65 and my Hawken that Waksupi finished for me. I tried both 3F and 2F in the 40-65 and 2F only in the Hawken. As a control my normal load in the 40-65 averages 1275 with 65gr 2F Swiss. The target was at 100yd.

The velocities for 54gr of 3F were as follows; 1136, 1234, 1162, 1233, 1143, 1254, 1205, 1252, 1223, 1224, & 1243. The group size was 7.25" X 7.75"W. With an extreme spread of 118fps this makes sense.

The velocities for 50gr of 2F were; 1200, 1197, 1203, 1158, 1188, 1199, 1156, 1184, 1181, 1178, 1188, & 1155. The group was 6.25 X 7.25 with a core group of 10 rounds inside of 4.5" X 4.5". Not sure where the 2 flyers came from but the extreme spread was 48fps, less than half of the 3F.

This is really looking like a good deer load for this fall.

Unfortunately my light was failing fast when I got to the Hawken. It is 58 cal throwing a 300gr RB. I started with 110gr of 2FG by volume and that was a little more fun than I could stand from a sub 8lb rifle with pointy butt stock. I dropped back to 100gr by volume. Here are the velocities; first shot at 110gr 1404, and at 100gr, 1387, 1355, 1305, & 1320. The group wasn't really worth measuring but I will get some more work with it shortly. For grins and giggles I ran the same volume of some of my powder made with a sifting screen and got 1084, & 1140 so the compressed pucks and corned powder makes a difference.
For actual weight of powder in the 40-65 the corned powder seems to deliver more power than my competition load of Swiss. It isn't as accurate at this point but I haven't really tinkered with it yet either. When I start getting better groups I'm going to give it a try at the 300yd line of our local match on the pigs. On a good day I usually clean that distance.


Bob

[sureroof]

Boz
Those are some very impressive numbers.

I've been lurking here from the beginning. Atom 73 that was a very good write up and your pictures answered any questions I may have had.

Found this fourm from a link on a gun shop webb site and it has never ceased to amaze me. The amount of information and the willingness to help.

Charlie Sometimes haven't seen you on here in a while. Just wanted You to know I am praying for you Man!

Thank You All.

Pete

[easy ed]

Found a cheap price for Potassium Nitrate.

http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php...ium+nitrate%22

[Fly]

I have bought from them, but I don't like the prilled nitrate.Try Hobby chemical, it's cheap
& powdered.
Fly

[Charlie Sometimes]

Charlie Sometimes haven't seen you on here in a while. Just wanted You to know I am praying for you Man!

Pete

Not to get off topic too far, but thanks for the prayers- I really need them. Been hard to deal with, had no idea she felt that way- she cut me DEEP. I will check in from time to time, and get back to this someday, but I have pretty much stopped the presses on EVERYTHING other than dealing with the divorce issues. I'm most concerned about my kids welfare- I'm trying to get primary custody of them. Wish me all the best and keep praying for us.

THANKS SO MUCH, GUYS!

[JOptionPane]

Here is a link to some good info on making BP. I ball mill using 50 & 45 cal mixed lead boolits you get better mesh when milling this way less space between grinding media. The key is long milling time and good charcoal willow is the best even just the .5 inch size made in to charcoal works fine i just picked up some from a guys yard that had a willow tree i ask first if i could pick it up! All the charcoal i ever bought was not very good the stuff. The charcoal i made was way better but willow is the king and SPF 2x4 works OK "the heaver the better" if you cant get anything else pine cones work good also. Sulfur i use rubber makers sulfur i have the best luck with that. The kno3 i got from Helena a fertilizer place here but if you use that kind check the purity of it the stuff i got was like 98% or higher pure and works well. I also use the red gum method of granulating.

BP INFO
LINK DELETED! VIRUS DETECTED!

Don't over cook your charcoal!
LINK DELETED! VIRUS DETECTED!

Red Gum granulating
http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/...m-BP-short.asp

And if you get serious about things
http://www.brianredmond.net/dwilliam.../bptester.html

[Depreacher]

WHOOOWEEE, what an interesting thread. Sorry I came in so late. I'm tempted to try it. Had no idea so many were making their own. I've got the Foxfire no. 5 book that has the Wallace Gusler gunmaking article, and a good article on getting potassium nitrate from feces in a slurry vat. Also an excellent article on Hacker Martin. BTW, south of here in Doyline, Louisana there is a Goex black powder mill. About every other year the Shreveport, LA, TV stations report about them putting a building or two in low orbit, and leaving a huge cloud of smoke. The article by Atom73 looks far safer to me. $2 a pound?? I'm for that.

[Fly]

Well yes I make my own,but NEVER plan on making KNO3 from feces in a slurry vat(wink).

Fly

[mold maker]

KNO3 cost less than the S&H, why would anybody stir in POO to make it???? OK I understand the "Just because I can" attitude, but really.

[Depreacher]

Right on, guys. I just said that the no. 5 Foxfire had a good article on it, not that I had any intention of trying it. Believe I'll try the pottery supplier first, if the quality is up to par. Atom73's pictures aree worth a thousand words. Great thread. Mack

[kullas]

I use a grain grinder to grind my charcoal and it does a great job and i can do a good bit in a short time. i take my kno3 and boil it in a small amount of water untill it is all dissolved i then add my charcoal and sulfur and then add some rubbing alcohol to help the charcoal mix in the water then boil untill the bubbles start to bust i then remove from heat and cool in a tub of water untill it becomes a thick paste or cool enough to handle and then granulate through a wire screen. doing it this way you keep all the kno3 and it soaks in the charcoal. after im done i let it dry over night and is as good as i have ever bought. i will never buy anymore. thanks for a great thread

[Fly]

Well maybe I may try that aproach in the future.Atom seems to like making it that way &
maybe I will try the CIA way of making BP in the future.I make mind as powder has
been made for years.

But I'm never to old to learn new things.But as you I I love making my own.

Fly