Re: Homemade BP for shooting

Yuv,

It sounds like your own BP is well made and if your 4 hour milling is
done with an efficient and properly charged ball mill, it will be as
fast if not faster than the GOEX or Elephant brands commercially
available. I shoot a .50 cal. Hawken replica and a .45 cal replica
"Pennsylvania" style pistol often with home "brewed" powders and have
good results on a one to one charge compared with GOEX. According to
the charts, Elephant brand is a bit slower.
You didn't say whether your pistol is a modern replica or an antique.
Do you have load charts for the calibre? Is it rifled and if so, do
you have the recommended ball and patch thickness? These questions are
not as important for a flintlock or percussion piece as they would for
cartridge arms made near the change to "nitro" powders. If you have
the recommended load for your pistol, I would start with that and
deduct 20% for your first shot. Others would suggest you "proof" the
pisto by loading double or even triple the normal load and firing the
gun (barricaded) via a string. If no damage is noted, (there should
not be as much of the excess BP would be consumed outside the muzzle of
a pistol, I would feel comfortable shooting "normal loads" with it.
Ask others as well. There are BP shooters on this newsgroup who will
have other suggestions. Happy shooting.

PS your charcoal if properly cooked, is as good or better than the
commercial stuff.

John

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