Evil Rapids Joe rattled my cage on the email the other day - it seems he just discovered the stubfarts over at Everything Blackpowder. My first encounter with them a year ago was less than perfect- I critiqued something they were doing and the response was heated. Basically it was, "We already thought of that, Dumbass, and we proved our current position on that in this video we did here..." and they poasted a link to their video on the subject. I wasn't trying to be a dink, but I apologized anyways. I looked at them, dressed like goofs and stubfart retards and assumed they were exactly that. They aren't - they are actually experts in the field and their methods are 100% legit. There are no assumptions, there are no shortcuts, everything must be tested in the crucible of the real world. The only flaw in their methodology is that they should be benching their guns for serious load development... but they are mainly concerned with the chronograph and I get that. These guys make their own black powder from scratch and they've produced powder that will kick Goex to the curb and beat Swiss and the other fake black powder substitutes like (hork, spit) - Pyrodex. Once I established myself as a fellow enthusiast and not a hater they treated me well and answered my questions.
I know I was turned off black powder and muzzle loaders for years because of the eccentric buckskinners and costumed geezers but when I started dabbling in it - my heart was just lost. I even warmed up to the Buckskinners of Edmonton House and developed an interest in the local lore of the first fur trappers and explorers that came through Alberta. My BPCR retirement rifles are Italian copies of the Remington Rolling Block (45-70) and my pride and joy is an Italian repro of the Winchester 1876 rifle chambered in the obscure and obsolete .45-75 bottleneck round. I am probably one of a half dozen guys in Canada that loads it and shoots it on a regular basis. The interesting thing about it is that the last guys to use that round in social work were the red coats of the NWMP - who eventually became the RCMP. Ammo is occasionally available at $120.00 for a box of 20... but I can probably load it for 10 or 12 dollars a box as long as my brass and my lead supplies hold out. I'm told I can make brass from the .50 Alaskan, the obsolete .348 Winchester and maybe one or two others... but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I cast my own bullets for it and would dearly love to make my own powder too.
Preppers should be all over this. Most gunnies make the same mistake I did for years - Black powder firearms are toys, the powder itself is harmless soot, and the enthusiasts are eccentric cranks. People forget that their ancestors went west with nothing more on their backs than they could carry - and a good front stuffer to face whatever come what may. What these guns did for our ancestors - they could do for us. Were it not for faggots and scum like Justin Turdo... I'd probably have abandoned unmanly smokeless propellants and jacketed ammunition 30 years ago. And I will say this about that too - if you ever want to learn how to shoot off your hind feet... there is no better way to go. Nothing beats black powder for fun and grins. Onto the blog roll they go!
Do YOU shoot black powder?
No?
You seriously need to do something about that!
Interesting black powder guns are not considered firearms and you don't need a FAC to buy or build them.... Yet.
ReplyDeleteExile1981
I was pretty big into shooting blackpowder 30+ years ago. Not big like doing it right, or developing loads, or dressing up. Big like shooting a shit-ton of pyrodex all day long and looking like I was in black face afterwards, covered in soot, grease, blisters, and a big shit-eating smile.
ReplyDeleteStill got a replica Hawkins 50 cal plains rifle and several cap-n-ball Colt replicas. Got a Remington copy that's converted to fire 45 LC cartridges (not 100% historically correct but come on, it's way fucking cool). Got several other 45 LC revolvers that I could reload with blackpowder if I got the hankering.
I'm not quite into making my own powder or casting my own lead, but I do reload and if I could make primers I'd be all over it. And aside from the slow reload, I'd wager that no one in their right mind wants to get hit by a 44 caliber ball fired from some "toy".
I understand some fellas undertook a home made primer project on… and yeah… it’s a bear. A lot of chemicals, filtration, stages… last I looked, they had some modest success with home made corrosive primers.
DeleteTo me that is the week point or Achilles heel for the reloader/prepper. That’s why, hundreds of years ago… I laid in massive stocks and rode out the ammo shortages in style. I bought my powder by the 8lb. kegs too.
Match and flint.
DeleteI'm too old and lazy, but I do have enough black powder, pyro, bullets and ball (in .54 and .50) to take deer forever. I have enough supplies for my replica 44 Colt Dragoon to be a spaghetti western hero.
ReplyDeleteNow...how to get off my fat ass, THAT is the mystery!
I've shot black powder. When I was just a little hellion, about seven or eight years old, a close friend of the family, Robert, took me out shooting. He was a historian, taught history in school, and had a nice collection of black powder rifles - both reproductions and actual antiques. Some of those antique Kentucky long rifles are works of art. He also had a naval boarding pistol - we'd see it and think 'pirate's pistol' - which we shot a few times.
ReplyDeleteAs I remember it, Robert brought it over to the house and loaded it up. We ended up putting a stick in the barrel and shooting it into the air, and everyone at the evening cocktail party got a big kick out of watching that stick sail up one hundred feet or more. It was great fun!
I don't know if Robert manufactured his own powder or not. He might have; he'd be just the sort to do it. But there was something about loading up a cap and ball and shooting it that satisfies in a way that no modern firearm does. Flint locks are just a little better, once you get the hang of loading it.