Question about powder

I have a Pedersoli frontier flintlock 50 cal. the touchhole is 1/16th inch. I was using 4f black powder to prime with but was using 2f and tried 3f
"fake" powder like pyrodex but a different brand. The gun had a slight delay when fired my question is will the gun be quicker to ignite if i use Goex powder for the main charge and what would be the best powder size 2f or 3f.

Yes, real black powder will work much more reliably and faster than any of the substitutes. Either 2F or 3F will be fines, as long as you do some testing to get a load your gun likes.

That is what i figured but this is my first flinter and i am still learning the ropes I have a percusion gun that i shot the same powder out of with no problems thanks for the input

Absolutly positivly 100% difference. Get yourself some old fashioned black powder an watch her go :thumbsup:

I'm surprised your getting ignition as good as you say you are.

My experience is Pyrodex in the pan kinda goes whoooooosh when the sparks hit it.

The whooooosh is not very violant so the flames from it seem to have difficulty in getting thru the flash hole.

The main powder charge is much harder to ignite so when I mistakenly used Pyrodex it would only actually fire maybe 1 in three attempts.

Real black powder in the pan goes POOF! with a violent flash that easily goes thru the touch hole and the real black powder main charge will fire almost instantly.

Surprised you got it to fire with a "sub" - the ignition temperature or black powder is much lower than that of the substitutes, which is why they don't work as well as "real black."

I am given to understand that that's one of the reasons why "real black" is classified by the gov't as an 'explosive' and the subs are classed as 'propellants,' which (leaving out the political tirade) is why it's easier to ship, store and sell subs than it is with black powder.

this is just one of the inconveniences with which flint shooters must cope. unless you have easy access to a source of black powder, you've got to suck down a HazMat fee and shipping in order to get the stuff, so you have to buy in bulk in order to get a halfway decent price.

OK- insert political tirade here: the nanny state is alive and well.

fear not- however! the extra effort you spend on getting 'real' black will be well worth it when you see the improvement in lock time.

just one guy's free opinion, and no doubt well worth the price.

make good smoke!

Getting it to work and acceptable are two different views.
Yes, Pyrodex works in flintlocks but acceptably? Even in a Firestorm, which will digest just about anything, acceptable is still a matter of opinion.
If you absolutely have to stretch your BP for a reason, use GOEX as a small, 5 ”“ 10 gr “starter” load. And use 4f GOEX for your pan prime. :thumbsup:

BTW,
You may want to open that touch hole up to around .070”. :grin:

BTW 2,
Welcome to the forum! :thumbsup:

First, Black Powder is easy to come by. Powder Inc will sell it in as little as 5# lots. Their price includes shipping and hazmat fee's. I would start out with 3F in a 50 but sure wouldn't be afraid to experiment. Just an aside: I just replaced a barrel that had Pyrodex shot in it and cleaned religously after every shooting. The barrel was badly pitted and would foul real bad and not shoot accurately at all. Stay away from Pyro like the plague!!!!! It leaves a residue in the barrel that infiltrates the pores of the steel and you cant clean it out!!!!Then it starts corroding your barrel and preety soon your needing a barrel.Please use my experience and save yourself a lot of time and money. FRJ

Thanks to everybody for the input I will be getting some real powder. The gun didn't shoot bad considering the lag in ignition it was shooting low but had good left to right placement
I could tell the gun didn't like the pyrodex because of the lack of kick. All and all I like this gun but plan to upgrade in the future to a custom.

Thanks to everybody for the input I will be getting some real powder. The gun didn't shoot bad considering the lag in ignition it was shooting low but had good left to right placement
I could tell the gun didn't like the pyrodex because of the lack of kick. All and all I like this gun but plan to upgrade in the future to a custom.

 Stay away from Pyro like the plague!!!!!

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Do you realize how many 1000's of people shoot Pyrodex and have no issues? You certainly could have had a need for a new barrel but Pyrodex was not the cause!
I personally have a dozen, more in the past, that have had nothing but Pyrodex shot in them and none need a “new” barrel.

 Stay away from Pyro like the plague!!!!!

Click to expand...

Do you realize how many 1000's of people shoot Pyrodex and have no issues? You certainly could have had a need for a new barrel but Pyrodex was not the cause!
I personally have a dozen, more in the past, that have had nothing but Pyrodex shot in them and none need a “new” barrel.

Izzy Mac
Be sure to post your results with the good stuff.
I think others may benefit from your expereince.

My .50 caliber, flintlock Long Rifle likes a charge of 47 grains of Swiss FFFg (real) black powder in the barrel together with some FFFFg in the pan.

You've been very fortunate that you even got the man-made black powder to fire in your flinter.

Even with these 76 year old eyes, I've got a target hangnin' on the wall with all 5 shots hitting in the lower half of the 10 ring with 4 shots in a "clump" and the 5th shot in the top of 10-ring.

At 25 yards with the same powder load and a 3-shot group, there's 2 overlapping shots at 9 o'clock in the X-ring and the 3rd shot at 5 o'clock in the X-ring.

Naturally, this is shootin' off the bench... and I can't do this every time, but the targets speak for themselves.

I am confident you'll find that REAL black powder will work just fine in your flintlock rifle.


Make GOOD smoke... :hatsoff:


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I see you live 10 miles north of Dayton Ohio I live about 15 miles south of there were do you get you're powder? Is it locally bought or do you order it?

Zonie said:

My experience is Pyrodex in the pan kinda goes whoooooosh when the sparks hit it.

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My experience with my India flint pistol (which puts out decent quantities of hot sparks and has no trouble whatsoever with real Black) is that Pyro will only ignite in the pan maybe one out of 5 or 6 tries. When it does, it goes very much as you described. Kind of a long slow whooooosh. Not very impressive. :shake:

My experiance the best combination would be 4F black powder for the pan and 2F for the load. I shoot a 60 cal flint with 120 grains of 2f and a pillow ticking patched .590 round ball. In my 50 cal I shoot 100 grains 2f and a .490 round ball with the same ticking patch. I both hunt and targed shoot with the same loads and they drive the ball like a tack hammer. I think black powder gives the best results. Experminting with loads and ball sizes and patching material helps too.

My experiance the best combination would be 4F black powder for the pan and 2F for the load. I shoot a 60 cal flint with 120 grains of 2f and a pillow ticking patched .590 round ball. In my 50 cal I shoot 100 grains 2f and a .490 round ball with the same ticking patch. I both hunt and targed shoot with the same loads and they drive the ball like a tack hammer. I think black powder gives the best results. Experminting with loads and ball sizes and patching material helps too.

In this ml game there are things that are sometimes unexplainable or contrary to what is common experience for others.
My fowler was giving me ignition fits when I first got. Several issues were addressed including enlarging and outside coning the touchhole. Still lousy ignition. I mean totaly unreliable despite a good spark.
I had been using Swiss 1 1/2Fg. For whatever reason I switched to Goex 3Fg and now get fast and reliable ignition.
Swiss is good powder, the coarse grade shouldn't make a difference. Actually, to the eye it seems finer than Goex 2Fg but should be coarser.
Why this difference? I dunno. :idunno: Go figger. Lesson is, try different things (within bounds of safety) until you find what works for you.

finally got some 2f Goex black powder the difference was night and day ignition was instant when I pulled the trigger didn't really do any sighting in. Had 1 or 2 misfires but I wiped the flint,frizzen and reprimed and then had instant ignition.