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pyrodex in a caplock?????

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dukewellington

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I just brought a caplock hawken rifle. as they had no smoothbore kentucky rifles. Stupuid UK laws regarding rifled barrels!!! :cursing:

The guy at the store said not to use pyrodex as it could blow the barrel. It also says on the Gun, blackpowder only. From what I have heard, Pyrodex is not that differnt from BP, in terms of velocity and stuff. Would it be safe to use pyrodex in my Gun or not?
I need some real gun experts here so I don't go and ruin my new caplock.

It's a pedersoli hawken by the way. An older version. Maybe 15-20 years old. I don't really know to be honest. It's seconhand and looks maybe 10 years, give or take.

I'll post some pictures later.

Thanks :thumbsup:
 
Pyrodex s perfectly safe in your rifle,many people use it. However, pyrodex requires a hotter ignition temperature than black powder. Your misfires may be more frequent with a #11 cap. Black powder does not require as hot of an ignition and will discharge much easier. Regular ignition can be achieved with pyrodex if you can get a primer nipple that recieves a rifle cartridge primer. These nipples are getting hard to find though. Good luck!

Hawken Hunter
 
:thumbsup: Its works. I just gave my last LBS of it to my friend. I like BP best.
 
Don't assume the clerk at the gun shop always know what they're talking about. My Pedersoli says "Black Powder Only" on the barrel too. Like others have said, Pyrodex is a replica black powder to be used in the place of the real thing. It should work fine in your percussion rifle. Perhaps the clerk was confusing pyrodex with smokeless powder? That most deffinitely will blow your barrel and it has taken lives.

Post those pics of your new rifle! I'd like to see what it is you just picked up. Congrats on your first BP purchase! Welcome to the club!
 
Pyro will do but the Real Deal BP is best.
Pyro ignites at a higher temp than BP.
I get tighter groups in my rifles w/BP.
it does fine in my revolvers tho.
good luck cousin. :hatsoff:
 
So are you sure I can use it :hmm: ? I'm trusting you guys. The store clerk did say people had brought guns back, because the barrel had exploded from using Pyrodex.

How to you post pictures on this forum anyway?
 
Pyrodex will work just fine. I have Itialian made "Hawkens" and they work without any problems when loaded with Pyrodex.
I bought a load of pyrodex on sale at $8.00 a pound so I have used quite a bit of it in my cap lock rifles.
 
So are you sure I can use it ? I'm trusting you guys. The store clerk did say people had brought guns back, because the barrel had exploded from using Pyrodex.

It is absolutely safe to use. It was developed specifically to use in ml guns.

One can blow an ml gun up with pyrodex or bp. All that is required is to dump a very heavy charge down the bore and fire it with a ball pushed only 6 or 7 inches into the barrel. :shocked2:
 
So it's 100 percent safe to use?

How do you post pictures anyway. without posting links to photobucket ect..
 
Don't worry about the pyrodex. I have been using it in my TC Renegads and a few others before that for the last 30 years or more. I will repeat, IT IS 100% safe to use Pyrodex in a black powder rifle. Any gun will blow up if you try hard enough to do it. Seat the bullet on top of the powder, and you will be fine.
To post a picture it needs look like this. Ron

 
dukewellington said:
So it's 100 percent safe to use?

How do you post pictures anyway. without posting links to photobucket ect..

Photobucket is the only way I know how to post pictures. Yes, yes, yes, pyrodex is safe and meant to be used in BP guns. Like someone else said, there are things you can do to blow up any gun, like not seating the ball on the charge.
 
pyrodex will work fine in most caplock muzzleloaders. as a general rule, you should start with a slightly (about 10 percent) lighter charge than recommended. (remember, too, that these charges are measured by weight and not volume). while Pyrodex takes a hotter flame to ignite, i've used it in cap&ball revolvers and never had a problem. i don't use it now because it's a bit more expensive (where i live) than real BP, and real BP works in every muzzleloader i own (i have several flintlocks, which don't do at all well with pyro or any other substitute powder), so i stick to BP and ran out of pyro years ago.

when it first came out, it was touted as much cleaner, but since you have to clean after shooting anyway, i never saw this as any great advantage. if i remember correctly, pyro cleans with warm (not hot) soapy water as does regular BP.

as regards the sales clerk, i suspect that you have already discerned that he lacks the subject matter expertise to properly dispense advice on the subject, and feels that he must remedy this manifest deficiency by giving out gossip, half truths, 'old wives' tales' and what amounts to what we call outright B.S. here in the USofA.

for more accurate information, i'd stay on this forum and if you have to deal with him in the future, buy what you need, and when he makes this or that claim, smile politely, nod knowingly, and srcatch the left side of your cheek with your right index finger. as he tries to figure out what that means, you can walk away without insulting the fellow (not that he doesn't deserve it, but this might not want to be a spitting contest you want to start).

good luck- you'll have a load of fun with your new gun!
 
Some folks love to spew foul info! Pyrodex, was clearly designed to be a substitute for real black powder.

It can be shipped with no problems.

It will work well in that gun you just bought!

Pyrodex will work pretty good in caplock ignition. Forget flinters and cannon tho!
 
I'm worried by what you mean about pyrodex working in "most caplocks". The clerk was a good guy. He just mean that he had seen it happen before, and I could not return it because I used pyrodex.

Anyway, how much powder should I use in a 45 cal? 45 grains? :hmm: :confused:
 
I have 5 caplocks and have used Pyrodex in all, but I also use musket caps for the hotter spark. As soon as all my pyrodex is gone I will be switching to Goex and #11 caps for price and performance. Good luck on your new gun, and as others here have stated do not always believe the clerk. TBONE
 
One more vote that says Pyrodex was developed specifically as a safe replacement for black powder.

This was done to get around some of the shipping and storage laws that make black powder more expensive to ship and store.

While the Lyman Black Powder Handbook shows that Pyrodex does develop slightly higher breech pressures, these higher pressures are well within the safe range for use in any muzzleloading rifle/shotgun that is sold today.

As was mentioned Pyrodex does require a hotter temperature than black powder to ignite and this will occasionally give a slight delay to the ignition when used with a standard #11 cap.
CCI developed the Magnum #11 cap to fix this problem and it does improve things a great deal.
RWS (Dynamite Nobel) #1075 caps have always been fairly "hot" caps and they work well with Pyrodex.

Another factor in getting fast ignition when using Pyrodex is the nipple. Many of the Italian and Spanish guns come with fairly crappy nipples.
If the previous owner of your rifle did't replace the nipple you would be wise to send away to Track of the Wolf, Dixie Gunworks or visit your local gun store and see if they have some aftermarket nipples such as the "Hot Shot" nipple.
These will usually make a notable difference.

As for shooting, Pyrodex does create fouling however it is much less than black powder. I've shot over 40 shots without needing to wipe the bore once to ease loading while even with Swiss Black Powder I've seldom gotten over 12 shots without experiencing difficult loading with tight fitting ball/patch combinations.

As many others have already said, you MUST fully seat the patched ball on the powder load.
If it is not fully seated even black powder will sometimes cause a barrel to blow up.
 
Pyrodex works fine in caplocks. They are what it was made for anyway. I never had as good of luck with it as I've had with real black powder, but if I couldn't get black powder, I'd switch back to it. It wasn't quite as accurate in my guns and the fouling is more corrosive, but it shoots well just the same. Oddly enough, I'm burning up my leftover Pyrodex in a handgonne. It works fine for that also.
 

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