what pan powder do you use?

If for match locks I used any powder ground to a snuff like state the better to ignite since a glowing coal or fungus touch is red hot rather than the desired scintillating white hot globules of moulten metal that is the result of collision by the descending flint .

It is ill suited for any but range use since it escapes or imbibes moisture & 3 ff will be better if your hunting . (If for an expected long carry in damp surrounds its best to push a quill into the vent and only prime if you expect a shot . at least you know it should go though if left it could be just black soup and then your battleing to dry, pick re prime and hope to get it to go . I think the' wire pick or feather holders ' where not to clean the vent but to seal it against wet. or in my case drilled holes for quills were intended for such plug like quills .
Obviously you might loose some snap shot while you fresh prime but at least the gun will (Hopefully ) go . I've been so soaked Ide not a dry stich on me and spying a goat I had to wipe best I could, couple pan flashes but then let me try again. While all the while the ferol goat stood bemused by my firework display. Until I slew him with a ball ..Had I not been so wanting the meat I would have . Bowed my respects for his patience and let him go .Would have been the decent thing to do . But needs must and they are a pest in NZ .
One last thing on pre primeing the barrel I had an old flint gun had the narrow early style patent breech so I would prime its narrow anti chamber with fine powder then load the main charge & the wads & shot ect .A wood pigeon (UK) landed above me I aimed & let go . The pre load just enough to expel the shot from the muzzle but scarce further . I had forgotten the main charge hadn't I. Oh well Feculant matter accours . Regards Rudyard

I've always used 4F in the pan with my .50cal flint as that was how I was taught. I have on damp days not primed, but hung my primer around my neck and quickly primed as game arrived. On other occasions I primed and checked it each hour, clearing the pan and priming again as needed.

Well with my 1st mail order of BP 5 or 6 years ago I got a pound of FFFFg, it's still got a good 1/2 LB or so left, so I have always had FFFFg for my Flintlock and always used it to prime

I've been using 4F. I have tried my main charge of 2F. It works fine with maybe a very, very slight hesitation, but not really enough to be a problem.

Old Timer 48 said:

I've been using 4F. I have tried my main charge of 2F. It works fine with maybe a very, very slight hesitation, but not really enough to be a problem.

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Try this :

This whole subject of priming hinges of the idea that different powder is requisite for priming . I have made a lot of priming flasks & horns over the years .and I don't have any axe to grind about separately priming .But it was pointed out to me that while best cased English Flint guns often had every sort of accessory included . That non ever had a place for a priming flask . It was the Late owner of a great number of such cased guns that pointed this out , Plus a period engraving showing a shooter priming from his main flask . What ever we today think about of priming from or using a flask to load from directly . This was the done thing.

It might be that such opulent cased set gun owners carried a primer a matter of course & that it was'nt considered nessesary by the makers to add one .But this is true no doubt of powder flasks , turn screws, cleaning joint rods, and all such appurtenses most shooting gentleman would have anyway .. All the smaller flasks we call priming he considered for pistols . .Taking this ' up market ' view to the frontier homespun view. How many original hunting pouches contained short starters and loading block and priming horns ? .I gather these where not so common as they today are . .Priming from a big horn must have ben awkward but I suppose they got the knack of it . I am not saying the preoccupation with prime powder grain size is in any way wrong .I' am I suppose just being the Devils advocate and relating what the evidence suggests , The Ubiquetus priming horn/ flask wasn't as universal as we today regard it to be . I expect I may get a raft of F M E retorts but cant help that .
Regards Rudyard

I generally use 4F, if I have it, and the relative humidity is low. Otherwise, I just use whatever I have in the horn. The trick to priming from the horn is to hold your index finger over the hole, so you can trickle powder into the pan. Some folks trickle the powder down the frizzen and let it fall from there into the pan; they claim that a dusting of fines over the frizzen face enhances the spark. I always have a dry rag along so I can wipe out the pan on moist days; the fouling literally sucks moisture out of the air, which could affect your next load.

BP fouling literally does suck moisture out of the air. I usually end up wiping the pan prior to the next reload. Never had prime in an unfired gun cause trouble even in pouring rain.

hanshi said:

BP fouling literally does suck moisture out of the air. I usually end up wiping the pan prior to the next reload. Never had prime in an unfired gun cause trouble even in pouring rain.

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Absolutely. As a historical writer I've never read of frontiersmen constantly dumping the powder from their pans except under extreme circumstances. Powder was to be preserved at all costs from wanton waste.

I use NO. 3 in my Barrel and No.4 in the pan of my Flintlock rifles that I have owned. I find No.3 from Goex to be a excellent powder and quick to re-act also.

I use 4f only because I have a manure load of it. Bought 3 pounds of the stuff when I first started shooting flintlock’s. Didn’t know any better at the time?

I’ll continue using the 4f until it’s gone. Just one pound of the stuff last’s for ever and I have three!

Oh well, Waist not, want not!

Respectfully, Cowboy

3 or 4 in the pan. Never saw much of a difference in my limited exposure.

use 3 fff in mine

I use 4 fg in the pan. The main reason is to reduce the size of the flaming ejecta particles, so if they happen to land on me they would have less potential to cause me some damage.
One pound of 4fg has lasted me many years.
I dispense it into the pan with a dedicated purpose specific brass pan charger tool. Also a small modern plastic squeeze bottle with a flip up spigot.

After reading all the comments, I have one QUESTION? What did they use in the old days, when all you had was flint locks. I can not see the military carrying 2 grades of powder, or even the pioneers out in the frontier.

In the old days, when all you had was one horn or one carry container for powder, you used the powder that you carried to prime the firearm.

In the case of the military, the paper cartridge was torn open and powder was poured into the pan, then the rest of the powder in the cartridge was poured down the barrel and the paper and ball was loaded. Safety isn't much of a concern when someone is shooting at you in a line of battle. (Needless to say that now when I load a cartridge with ball, I have a small powder flask that I use to prime the pan with the same grade of powder in the cartridge.)

I can not see the military carrying 2 grades of powder

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In fact generally the primer was taken from the powder of the cartridge, but this works good only with guns like the Brown Bess, 1777, An IX or other of the kind, they were designed for that: big locks, big flint, big springs and larges frizzen.

I had few years ago a "fusil de Tulle" and with this one I never use primer powder but the flint and the freezen were one inch large and the main spring not for a kid, take note that the freezen was very hard, so the sparks were good for the ancient powders with big granulation. For the rest the powder of the time were not only made of regulars and big grains but with fine powder mixed in the shooting powder..

I use 4F,Null-B, and I even have 2lbs. of 7F. I use a little brass spring type primer(carried in the inside bag pocket) and carry a small horn of regular powder in my bag. No point in having the big horn rattling around scaring off the game. They all work, but Larry Pletcher's timing tests showed that Null-B is fastest. However, they are all faster than human perception.

Military reinactors are not shooting today. Loading in a stylized form to get the look without the reality.
People shooting a military gun for real often load an unprimed gun, an unmilitary practice. So they have to have something to prime with extra.
You can get venison making accuracy from a military cartridge to the fifty yard range, although lots of folks shoot a tighter load.
A priming horn or flask is out of place in most eighteenth or nineteenth century practice. However military guns while they might be used as a hunter were not made for that.
Now I have a rifle that I shoot the last of my pyrodex in and have a two ounce flask in my bag that I drop a kicker charge in and prime with that.