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Black Powder, observations and field work

3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Gil Martin 
#1 ·
When ever we begin to discuss muzzleloaders, a natural off branch of them is the powders we use. Of course all have a favorite powder for one reason or another. But something I notice in almost all discussions when we talk powders is how hard it is to clean the rifle and to swab the rifle. Depending of course on the powder we shoot. As most all shooters will tell you, Pyrodex RS and black powder are the worst powders to shoot, cleaning wise.

Today I was shooting a traditional style rifle. As normal I was shooting Goex black powder. Black powder always brings to mind for many, large volumes of smoke, and worst of all the mess of cleaning it after the range or hunt. Well today I would like to differ with some of those embedded opinions many have of black powder.

I was shooting up to 90 grains of it. I was swabbing on the range. I swabbed the dreaded black powder every three shots.



My swab solution today was Rusty Duck Black Off. Rusty Duck is an excellent solution and really pulls fouling from the barrel of a rifle when it is used as a swab or when cleaning a rifle after your done for the day. But for having fired three rounds of the filthy, dirty, messy black powder... that swab is not all that bad. Also I will note that there was not really a large degree of fouling in the barrel when I swabbed.

So what caused this? Could it be the temperature outside? It was in the 90's and it was hot. Maybe on a colder day this would draw more fouling. Could it have been the fact I was shooting roundball? Maybe, but I have shot a lot of projectiles when using black powder and results are not always that different. So why not large amount of fouling? I noticed the patches on the ground had a large amount of fouling. Were the patches taking the fouling with them for the most part and leaving only a slight amount in the barrel? Something to ponder.



After I was done shooting for the day, I soaked a patch with Rusty Duck and swabbed the rifle barrel before bring it in to the house. The patch was dirty, much like the one in the other picture.

I then came in and made a water bath. I used a white clean patch and worked that up and down in the barrel with the water bath. But you might note, for the first patch to come out of a barrel in the water bath, there is not a lot of fouling on it. Again, could it have been cleaned by the swabbing of the Rusty Duck?



I then pulled the nipple and not trusting the first patch of the water bath, ran a second one. The rust color you see is not the patch but the brass jag under it. The patch was basically clean. So... OK. why is this rifle cleaning up so easy? After all I was shooting black powder. I decided to break out the expensive solvent.

I then took a new patch, drenched it in Birchwood Casey #77 and swabbed the bore of the rifle. Birchwood Casey cleaner always pulls fouling if there is any.



Again, basically a clean patch. The black streak on my thumb is from when I took the nipple off the barrel. Even that cleaned up real easy.

A couple of dry patches and then I swabbed the barrel with a good quality gun oil. So this is how hard it is to clean a rifle that was shooting black powder?

All I am getting at is, before you judge a powder as too dirty, really test it. Black Powder is a great powder. It ignites easier then any other powder out there. Is normally more cost effective to the shooter. Has all the power you need. Nothing wants to take a hit from 80 grains of Goex 2f and a patched roundball out of this rifle.

So how clean is your powder that you shoot really? Does it clean up with basically three patches?
 
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#2 ·
looks like my cleaning results exactly. I've repeatedly found that shooting a snug fitting ball/patch combo using a liquid patch lube makes cleanup super quick!

Your moose milk patch lube is not only stopping patch burn-through or holding the ball tightly against the powder charge but it's actually swabbing for you with each successive load. In my humid climate I've personally found swabbing between shots completely unnecessary with a good fitting ball/patch combo and my own "moose milk" mixture of Ballistol and water- even after 25 to 30 shots each load loads the same as the last.

My Lyman Deerstalker dotes on a .490" ball and 75gr of 3F Goex and is good for about 1,600fps. Your .530" ball and 80gr of 2F will be a bit slower, but will have considerably more whompability thanks to a larger, heavier ball- IMO.
 
#3 ·
Yep, blackpowder ain't that hard to clean. All of the substitutes brag of easy clean-up. They can't claim their new wonder powder is better than black in accuracy or ballistics so they brag up the ease of cleaning. When you have five different powders bragging of how easy they clean a person new to the game will get the impression black must be a real pain. As your test shows, that just ain't so. You have to clean after any of them and it is basically the same process with any of them. If it takes twice as many patches to clean after black than after Potion Number Nine, so what, maybe one minute longer?
On the range I never swab between shots. I'll be shooting a patched ball lubed with spit and every patch I ram is cleaning the fouling from the previous shot. Not 100% of course, but most of it, so my rifle is always "one shot dirty". Before heading home I will swab with a jag and a couple of flannel patches, again wet with spit, and when I give her a bath the water turns only slightly grey as I remove that last one percent of the fouling. If newcomers to the game realized how easy it really is to clean blackpowder they wouldn't be seduced by claims of even easier.
 
#6 ·
Do all the black powder brands really smoke a lot? I like to try blackpowder but want no smoke basically.
Smoke is part of the deal with real BP I'm afraid. If you've ever stood beside a guy shooting a Sharps 45/70 with real BP on a calm, humid morning it looks like a horizontal mushroom cloud with a deep thunderous bellow- very cool indeed! Ah, and the smell...Nectar for the nostrils!
 
#7 ·
Like Hardball said... black powder does smoke a lot. Although a lot of powders smoke. APP, JSG, even Pyrodex. All of them smoke and that is the beauty of the sport. I get a big kick out of seeing that cloud form around and down range after the shot.

I can remember one afternoon during muzzle-loading season I was sitting with a young man in a deer blind. He wanted to fill some tags, and I was willing to hunt with him to make it legal. The wind was blowing in our face and he was shooting my traditions carbine with 85 grains of Goex. A small does came in and he wanted to shoot. Since he had a doe tag I told him to go ahead. He pulled that trigger and the wind blew that smoke back in the blind. We had no idea whether he hit that deer. And it would have looked like we were running from a burning building when we bailed out of that blind. He did a perfect shot though we discovered.
 
#10 ·
Bp

Very nice to read through this thread. Even nicer that it's here.
Maybe this will break into the mindset that too many shooters have that "black powder is messy to shoot and too hard to clean up." It jest ain't so.
I do swab after every shot when at the range - no reason not to - I run a patch saturated with alcohol down and back (not rubbing alcohol). clean up at home is quick.
Pete
 
#11 ·
Great post Cayugad. I was out at the range last weekend using pyrodex and goex fff BP My groups were about the same. the noticable difference was the crisp ignition of the black powder. I feel much better about using Black powder for hunting. Just MHO:)
 
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