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Is it uncool to use Pyrodex?

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Estes is still family owned.
FWIW A google search revealed that the hometown business sold out to Damon in 1971. Damon bought Estes and marketed their products through Estes. The Estes family bought it back at some point. The propellent used in the locally made rockets is no longer legal to use because of the damage it does to the ozone. That law doesn't apply to Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, I guess. BP rocket propellent is still legal. Let's hope there's a resurgence of interest in model rockets.

Where is the military getting BP from these days?
 
A pound of Pyrodex, an unauthentic brass framed .44 Navy, and a used $150 CVA rifle helped me get into this hobby that we love so much. It worked for me and I never experienced any rusting or horrific problems. I wouldn't look down on anyone for using it for whatever reason. Now that I'm a member of a ML club I've upgraded to some nicer rifles and can buy real black from my club cheaper than I could buy Pyrodex off the shelf so I don't use it anymore. That being said, I wouldn't hesitate to use it again if I had no choice and it meant I could keep shooting.
 
shooting BP, SUBS in them doesn't ruin the bores, not cleaning them after shooting is the bad guy, how many times does it have to be emphasized, CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN. just about every post says to do it, not leave it till whenever!!!
as I thought, just divert from answering the questions. No experience to speak of with Pyrodex in older guns, etc.
 
The question is not whether black powder is corrosive. Any idiot knows it is. Pyrodex is more corrosive. Black powder fouling is easier to neutralize. What some negligent owner did with his gun with black powder has no relevance to the scientific fact that Pyrodex is worse. A guy who lets a barrel rust with black powder will certainly have a worse problem with Pyrodex. A sufficient cleaning of black powder to stop corrosion may not be enough to stop Pyrodex. I frequently traveled several hours to weekend matches. A good wipe and swabbing the bore with moose milk was enough to hold the guns for the trip home and to clean the next day. Not so with Pyrodex. A gun would rust over night. I found out the hard way. I did discover that the WW2 US Army bore cleaner neutralized the fouling from Pyrodex, but since I frequently went to matches in PA where real black powder is far more available, I stuck with black powder after that. Given the other substitute powders available, there is no reason for Pyrodex to even continue to exist.
Again that’s a shooter problem not a product problem.
I do recall when P came out and ‘you don’t have to clean it’ was told to me.
Well that wasn’t true and all was already shooting flintlock by that time.
I made a Leman style full stock in percussion and a convertible SMG so my wife could shoot it too. And she didn’t care for it in flint.
That’s when I put away a store of P
Don’t have them guns any more but the p remains
Well long story not as long I treated the p just like black and couldn’t find a difference. And I live in the humid south where rust is the primary decoration on metal
 
It would seem that the shooters who rant and rail against Pyrodex or look down their noses at shooters who do use it should be very grateful.By some people using Pyrodex it seems it would free up "their product" and make black powder that much more available to them. If everyone used only Black Powder it would really cut into the supply and there really would be that much more of a shortage. There would be that much less black powder on the market, In other words the shortage would be alot shorter. Like when my wife says she don't like strawberry ice cream, there's more for me!
 
It would seem that the shooters who rant and rail against Pyrodex or look down their noses at shooters who do use it should be very grateful.By some people using Pyrodex it seems it would free up "their product" and make black powder that much more available to them. If everyone used only Black Powder it would really cut into the supply and there really would be that much more of a shortage. There would be that much less black powder on the market, In other words the shortage would be alot shorter. Like when my wife says she don't like strawberry ice cream, there's more for me!
It's not likely I'll ever run out of black powder, so shortages aren't a problem for me. Same with percussion caps and flints. Stock up and you'll never have to worry about the availability on the market.
 
It's not likely I'll ever run out of black powder, so shortages aren't a problem for me. Same with percussion caps and flints. Stock up and you'll never have to worry about the availability on the market.
Oh I agree, but I still contend there is a difference between hoardering and stocking up.I can't tell you just where to "draw the line" between the two,but it is there. Like toilet paper, I got 5 packages of mega rolls in the back bedroom but I don't feel I'm hoarding just stocked up.
 
Oh I agree, but I still contend there is a difference between hoardering and stocking up.I can't tell you just where to "draw the line" between the two,but it is there. Like toilet paper, I got 5 packages of mega rolls in the back bedroom but I don't feel I'm hoarding just stocked up.
Did you ever read the story of the whaling ship Essex?
The ship was sunk by a sperm whale. And the men faced a long starving boat ride to safety.
It was the inspiration for Moby Dick.
The men who did survive became food hoarders afterwards.
I really started stocking up on powder about 2000, so didn’t suffer the shortage.
I bet no one who has will ever again.
 
Reenactment powder is pretty much designed for blanks only. There is none of the rigorous QC on higher grades of powder to ensure consistency. It's still real black powder, but think of it as the cheapest, lowest quality they can make and still call it "black powder". For live fire, absolutely not the best. Can you live fire with it? Yes, but don't expect to even be in the area code for accuracy and consistency, both of which reenactors don't care much about. They want cheap to make boom smoke.

Skirmish powder? Sounds like a marketing ploy. We skirmishers in the N-SSA care about accuracy and quality so many of us use nothing but Swiss or Old E or a similar grade of quality target shooting powder. Some use Scheutzen or regular Goex, but that's often only for smoothbores. Once someone gets bitten by the live fire competition bug with Civil War arms, they're not going to be wanting to handicap themselves on the range by going cheap on the powder. Like we used to say when building race cars- "speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"
Used reenactment powder off the bench .50 cal 60grns, hit steel at 100 yards. I use it because it was the only thing available when the mad rush at Graf,s started. It will be burned up.
 
Used reenactment powder off the bench .50 cal 60grns, hit steel at 100 yards. I use it because it was the only thing available when the mad rush at Graf,s started. It will be burned up.
So it goes bang and puts a bullet out the barrel. How big was the group and was it consistent? Hitting a gong doesn't count.
 
So it goes bang and puts a bullet out the barrel. How big was the group and was it consistent? Hitting a gong doesn't count.
Hitting a gong doesn’t count to whom?
This century ive primarily hunted deer with a smoothbore. I count any thing under 4” good at fifty yards, and my groups are smaller.
Sam Falada went elephant hunting with a .58 and a 600 grain plus conical on top of 180 grains of three f.
The elephant hunting guide said it ‘should be bloody adaquate.”
Falada got 4” groups at a hundred yards. Not a ribbon winner at the nationals, but consistent
Should your best load come at 1700 fps and you shoot your best groups with a patch/ball combo that gives you that, will your gun tell a volume of three f from an equal volume of p pistol. And if your gun did tell can you tweak the charge.
After all GOex isn’t as ‘hot’ as Swiss but is hotter then reinactor powder, and folks have learned to adjust.
I am hard pressed to think you won’t fit your needs with chosen powder
 
Hitting a gong doesn’t count to whom?
This century ive primarily hunted deer with a smoothbore. I count any thing under 4” good at fifty yards, and my groups are smaller.
Sam Falada went elephant hunting with a .58 and a 600 grain plus conical on top of 180 grains of three f.
The elephant hunting guide said it ‘should be bloody adaquate.”
Falada got 4” groups at a hundred yards. Not a ribbon winner at the nationals, but consistent
Should your best load come at 1700 fps and you shoot your best groups with a patch/ball combo that gives you that, will your gun tell a volume of three f from an equal volume of p pistol. And if your gun did tell can you tweak the charge.
After all GOex isn’t as ‘hot’ as Swiss but is hotter then reinactor powder, and folks have learned to adjust.
I am hard pressed to think you won’t fit your needs with chosen powder
If you are satisfied with mediocrity, go forth and have a ball. Bless your heart.
 
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