Goex Pinnacle Black Powder Substitute

I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to try this new powder that came out from Goex. I have to order some more powder soon and see it is offered for sale.

I ordered Pinnacle Powder in 2f. It looks similiar to black powder but a bit courser (looked like 1f). It smokes like black powder. My buddy and I shot it on a real windy day out of our GPR .54s and it was very accurate at 25 yards and in the black at 50 but strong wind gusts were opening the groups up. At $18.50/lb its reasonably priced. Very clean, like Black Mag. Good stuff (but I've gone back to real black powder because the "purist" in me has won out in the real -vs- substitute debate I struggled with for so long :haha.

Bob were you shooting this stuff out of flintlocks? Also from reading your post perhaps ordering it in fffg would be a better choice. I was thinking since I have to order some powder it might be fun to give the stuff a try.

It is good to hear that the stuff burns clean. And you say, load it as you would any other black powder, so that at least gives me an idea of a starting point...

thanks

At $18.50/lb its reasonably priced.

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BobJ...don't know if you're aware of case prices, but you can get a case of Goex Blackpowder delivered for $10/Lb...

I think it would be fun to just try a pound of it and see how it shoots. I do intend to get some Swiss again only this time get some in FFg and FFFg. Last time I got the 1.5 size and it really did not impress me all that much compared to Goex.

When I seen them selling pinnacle I thought getting a pound of it might be an interesting experiment.

Cayugad- You might want to try the 3f. The 2f was fine in the .54, however, initially I was taken back by the courseness. Goex technical dept. assured me that it was fine, and indeed, accuracy seemed good. My buddy and I both shot with wonder-lubed pillow ticking (think he used 90 grains, I used 100), and on our first attempts at 25 yards shot nearly identical targets! Two shots in one SLIGHTLY enlarged hole and third hole about 1" off. As previously stated it was very windy.

Goex technical dept. said Pinnacle was designed for inlines but would work fine in percussions and flintlocks. For priming just squeeze a little powder between finger and thumb to make it finer. My GPR is percussion, didn't try it in flintlock. Have fun! :thumbsup:

Roundball- That's pretty cheap! Do you know if they have a price for 5 or 10 lbs?

Roundball- That's pretty cheap! Do you know if they have a price for 5 or 10 lbs?

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"case price" only, from the Goex Master Distributors...and they'll mix granulations however you like...some $f, some 3F, some 2F, etc.

At first I thought it seemed like a lot of $$ to put out for powder, but if you are convinced you'll be shooting for a few years, it's the best economical approach, and it'll keep of course.

In fact, at the prices you're paying, it would be cheaper to buy a case and "not even use some of it" instead of paying those prices.

Even better would be if you know someone locally you could split the case with...

www.JJPyrotechnics.com
Moscow, PA

I purchase my powder from Powder Inc. . The ship right away, and you can buy in 10 pound lots which makes it easier on the pocket book and I can burn off that much in a year easy. You can also mix and match the powder if you like which is what I intend to do.

I appreciate the information on the Pinnacle. I think I will get a pound of the FFFg to try, and I want to do some of the Swiss FFFg & FFg powder this time. Last time I bought the 1.5 because I thought that was recommended. Well like I said it shot fine, but never saw the advantage of it over Goex.

It's intereting that the Pinnacle was made for inlines. Goex FFFg is one of the best shooting powders out of my inlines I have ever used and fowling is not all that bad to boot.

Maybe this is Goex's answer to the Black Mag3 craze that is going on right now....

thanks again everyone for the great information.... :thumbsup:

I went to their sight but couldn't find anything about how much they charge additional over the price of the powder to ship it to you, (ie) shipping and haz-mat fees. Are these included in the price? This is for Powder Inc.

If you begin an order and get to the point where you enter your zip-code it will calculate the shipping (and the haz charge). You can cancel the order at that point if you're just lookin.

That's where I get mine, but I have to check out the one in PA for my next case.

Thank you for the info. I will give that a try and se if it is cheaper than J&J Pyro.

Thanks Roundball :thumbsup: -
I'll check them out when supplies run low. Got enough Goex for now between a couple cans of 2f and and couple of 3f, the GPR seems to like 'em equally.

I got a case for $9.11 a pound to my door from.
McGee Industries 601-857-8997

I got a case for $9.11 a pound to my door from.
McGee Industries 601-857-8997

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FYI...Last year mine was $9.27 but Goex has recently jumped their prices almost a dollar a can

Well I took the Pinnacle out today for a test run. It was the FFFg grade. Good thing I went with the FFFg grade because it is pretty course otherwise. I could not even picture what the FFg would look like.

This powder I believe has some of the same properties that you will find with American Pioneer Powder as on the back of the container it tells you,

Developed jointly by Goex, Inc and American Pioneer Power, Inc.

Made in the U.S.A. by American Pioneer Powder, Inc

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The powder is jet black in color and has those little moisture packets inside the container so your first thought is... is this moisture sensative?

The powder works good in both the inlines and sidelocks. It does not like the 460 grain No Excuses Conicals but then I never played with the load all that much do to lack of number of the conicals. It sprayed the conicals all over the place. I was not impressed with that.

Sabots shot very well out of the inline. One thing inline shooter might find of interest is there was no crud ring and very little fowling. I was shooting my T/C Black Diamond XR. I shot six T/C Mag Express XTP's and never swabbed. I really think I could have shot more but swabbed to see how much fowling was in the barrel. It was a one patch deal for sure.


I also shot roundball with excellent results out of my Hawkins cap lock. I fired 15 roundball and never swabbed the barrel. It shot the roundball excellent. I was shooting 90 grains of Pinnacle FFFg and a moosemilk patched roundball.

Clean up is easy with this powder. Water takes it right out of the barrel. I cleaned the sidelock with a water bath and could not get a solvent patch to pull any more out of the barrel. I even ran three of them to see if I was missing some fowling somewhere.

It still belches out a good amount of smoke but does not make a stink that I noticed. I think this has a lot of its roots in Clean Shot powder. I guess I like the little fowling and no crud ring, and the cleaning is easy. I wish I had a chronograph to see what kind of speed I was getting out of it. I need to shoot more of it...

I did not think this stuff had a chance with a flintlock so I never tried. Once the snow melts I will really put this stuff through the ringer...

To give you an idea of how clean this powder shoots, I had shot over 20 rounds through the Black Diamond. During that time I had only swabbed three times. These are the five patches that came (in order I might add) out of the barrel prior to my breaking the rifle down and cleaning it.

The red liquid is Black Off Rusty Duck Solvent Cleaner...

I will say that after the rifle was broke down there was more fowling but the barrel was actually rather clean. I took a bore brush and ran solvent through it, then a few more patches and the barrel was clean.

Sounds like pretty much the same cleaning routine as with real BP. It costs more. It cleans the same. So where's the benfit?

Sounds like pretty much the same cleaning routine as with real BP. It costs more. It cleans the same. So where's the benfit?

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I agree. I just wanted to give the powder a try. I like to try different projectiles, powders, primers, rifles, etc..

I personally think it is a different form of Clean Shot or American Pioneer Powder. It is even made by American Pioneer Powder yet is advertized on the Goex sight..

I have plenty of powder so I will do some more playing with it....

The benifit for me is that I can shoot it indoors unlike real BP which I can not. Sounds like it can give BM3 a run for its money.