Cleaning Question

[jase47]

I have an Italian Hawken .50 Cal that I hastily stored with a full load of powder(80gr American Pioneer) in it for 6 months. I did remove the mini-ball prior to storage. Is it safe to fire once I get it cleaned up again? I was wondering if the charge could have degraded the integrity of the barrel.???

 

[Blizzard of '93]

doubt the powder would do any harm if the rifle was kept in the dry. BP does absorb some moisture however and you may some rust down in the chamber.
clean and dry it good and load with a low powder charge say 30-40 grs and fire it is what I would do.
Welcome to the Forum! :hatsoff:

 

[Little Wattsy]

doubt the powder would do any harm if the rifle was kept in the dry. BP does absorb some moisture however and you may some rust down in the chamber.
clean and dry it good and load with a low powder charge say 30-40 grs and fire it is what I would do.
Welcome to the Forum! :hatsoff:

Yep :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Headhunter]

Your rifle will be fine. Thousands of people every year go to the range and fire the load that had been loaded since last deer season.

Just clean it good and have fun with it.

HH

 

[renovato]

The charge won't cause any major problems. If you get some light rusting, you can clean it out with some fine steel wool wrapped on a brush. Just keep it wet with oil and run it in and out for a few passes. Most likely you won't even need to do that, but I'd definately give it a good cleaning just to make sure that there's no rust.

 

[tjohnson56]

The first post said it was American Pioneer, this is not Black Powder is it? I always grouped it with the subs like Pyrodex, am I wrong?

 

[jase47]

Correct...it was American Pioneer "J.Shockey's Gold" powder. I'm assuming this stuff is less corrosive than actual Black Powder, correct? And thank you all for the help thus far. I'm a Marine Combat Vet(3 Iraqi tours) and am used to being spoon fed modern weapons. This traditional stuff has always been in my blood but I am ill equiped in the experience category regarding the ways of the Rendevous!

 

[Zonie]

Welcome to the Forum Jase Glad to have you here.

apache 130, Yes you are correct. American Pioneer is not black powder. It is a synthetic powder and the few tests I've seen that were made with it indicate that it is a poor substitute.
The Standard Deviation in velocity was very high when compared with Goex and Swiss real black powders. As I recall, its velocity/grain of powder load wasn't very good either.

I have read that it is less corrosive than real black powder and some of the ad's talk like you don't have to clean your gun after using it.
I doubt that believing the ad's is a good idea and I feel that cleaning a gun after it has been shot is very important to maintain its condition.