Elephant Powder

I "inherited" about 4lbs of Elephant Black Powder in 2F. Date code on bottom of 1lb cans is most 22/00 to 004/01 timeline. Am shooting it in a TC Hawken 50 percussion. Anyway, in the shooting of some of the bp recently I had quite afew misfires. I.E. , snapped cap but no explosion of bp in breech. Had to clean out the nipple and drum on the occasions. I did some research, i.e. , googling, on this powder and lots of diff comments. At one point in this powders history it was a good powder and at some point comments mentioned the quality deteriorated. So when cleaning out the drum and nipple there was some fouling chunks and almost a wall of thin powder where hole goes into the breech. So the question is, is there a solution to this issue of "fouling". Would switching to a Spitfire nipple help? Or maybe just drilling hole larger in nipple? Shooting CCI #11 primers. Any past experiences or resolves or thoughts would be appreciated. Hate to just stop using this powder as it is a few lbs. Thanks.

Elephant was very dirty when it was fresh. I cant imagine using it after it has sat for a while. Ive used it in BPCR way back when but when I came to the end of it I never bought anymore. If you have any other brand of powder you might try using 10 or 15 grains of it pouring it in first. Then use the Elephant on top.

I use it in a .75 caliber cannon.

wm

Elephant is quite dirty. You could switch to musket caps.

I found Elephant to be foul & weak and never gave reliable results it might suit some guns but I cant recomend it any .
Rudyard

mtsage said:

I "inherited" about 4lbs of Elephant Black Powder in 2F. Date code on bottom of 1lb cans is most 22/00 to 004/01 timeline. Am shooting it in a TC Hawken 50 percussion. Anyway, in the shooting of some of the bp recently I had quite afew misfires. I.E. , snapped cap but no explosion of bp in breech. Had to clean out the nipple and drum on the occasions. I did some research, i.e. , googling, on this powder and lots of diff comments. At one point in this powders history it was a good powder and at some point comments mentioned the quality deteriorated. So when cleaning out the drum and nipple there was some fouling chunks and almost a wall of thin powder where hole goes into the breech. So the question is, is there a solution to this issue of "fouling". Would switching to a Spitfire nipple help? Or maybe just drilling hole larger in nipple? Shooting CCI #11 primers. Any past experiences or resolves or thoughts would be appreciated. Hate to just stop using this powder as it is a few lbs. Thanks.

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A big factor to me is you didn't have to pay for it. Elephant BP is not my kind of powder, nor the brand that is the best for you.......(IMO) Just get a good brand and forget the Elephant. Nipples are designed with the proper size holes to do what caps are designed to do. Personally I would not enlarge any nipple holes.
Larry

With price of powder and lack of availability, I would be inclined to use it. Those date codes are from the later, improved Elephant BP, so should be the black, shiny grains as opposed to the earlier dull grey stuff. 10-15gr of a better brand of fffg under the Elephant will give better results. That is exactly what I do with Diamondback ffg, which was made in Brazil on what had been Elephant's machinery after the plant was relocated.

Rudyard said:

I found Elephant to be foul & weak and never gave reliable results it might suit some guns but I cant recomend it any .
Rudyard

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Thanks for the info. on Elephant. I'll not buy it if I see it.

I have several cans, bought cheap. I mix 1/4 cup with 3/4 cup GOex and it works well

It hasn’t been made for years has it.?

I tried 10 pounds years ago, shot a pound or so at small matches my scores went to manure. Needed 10 grains to equal Hight with GOEX but never grouped well. I gave 3 pounds to one club and 5 pounds to FT TY MLA for the Saturday Nite auction. Never bought any more.

Thanks for the feedback. I do know that I will not use it again in this condition. Just not worth the hassle. 4th of July is soon so it might find some use .

After Goex blew up in PA and while it was relocating to LA (Swiss was not yet being imported), sadly Elephant was the best and really only powder we had for a few years around 2000.
Still use it for shotgunning.

I would not change anything on the rifle just to suite the powder ,Elephant Powder in my book always was of poor quality. Glade they don’t make it anymore, good for canons though.

tenngun said:

I have several cans, bought cheap. I mix 1/4 cup with 3/4 cup GOex and it works well

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Beat me to it. Mix Elephant with another 2Fg powder, up to 50/50.
Diamondback was the same stuff, but with a different label. It was coming out of South America and apparently pretty bad charcoal.

LD

It is still being made?! Dear God. When our club started ordering powder, Elephant was it and at that time I think it was around $8 a can. Like others, we found it to be dirty and I grew to disliking it. After a while, I spoke up at one of our meetings and specifically asked to order some GOEX which was a few dollars higher. ($10 - $12) A few others agreed and GOEX became our powder of choice. To this day, some of us laugh about using Elephant powder and to this day most of us have not seen another can of it. Most of us rate it as one of the least liked powder.

TexiKan said:

It is still being made?! Dear God. When our club started ordering powder, Elephant was it and at that time I think it was around $8 a can. Like others, we found it to be dirty and I grew to disliking it. After a while, I spoke up at one of our meetings and specifically asked to order some GOEX which was a few dollars higher. ($10 - $12) A few others agreed and GOEX became our powder of choice. To this day, some of us laugh about using Elephant powder and to this day most of us have not seen another can of it. Most of us rate it as one of the least liked powder.

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Try Swiss and you won't shoot Goex.

isn't it made from DRIED ELEPHANT POOP?

toot said:

isn't it made from DRIED ELEPHANT POOP?

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No. It would be better if it were.