My father says this.
Every man has his own little sack of poop to carry around.
That does not mean family but it could mean the stresses being the head of it, a good mate, a good dad, a good employee, a good son and managing our wants, wants of the family vs needs. Each man has has to manage his little sack in his own way.
Terms like elitist, purists BP snobs.....those who play dress up have been used in this thread. There has been a little, " working class hero" vs wealthy BP elitist thing going on.
All I'll say about my personal life is, I have had my fair share of uncertainty, of difficulties. Some very scary. Stress .... the weight of the world. On the other hand when it's all boiled down I have been blessed as well.
Black Powder stuff is just a small part of my world. I advocate the use of black powder over pyrodex and recommend it to all my friends. Personally I think it's worth it to get it.
Here's why.
Potassium Perchlorate. Pyrodex is 30 percent PP.
Perchorates were used since the early 1800s in percussion cap formulas. Later they were used in center fire primers.
If you notice most old percussion rifles, they will show lock plate surfaces rusted away, heavy corrosion on the breech many even having the wood eaten away at the lock panel. This is due to the corrosive nature of those primers. Some of these rifles have decent bores from good up keep but they still show damage around the lock where concentrations of Perchorates were greater.
Original flintlocks do not show this damage around the lock. Ones that have damage there, were at one time percussion and converted back.
In summary the damage associated with 19th Century black powder corrosion was primarily caused by the primers. The caps.
When perchlorates break down from combustion, they turn to table salt.
Pyrodex marketing......
In the late 70s through the 80s Pyrodex was marketed directly and indirectly as a improved modern substitute of blackpowder. Some writers went so far as to say excessive cleaning was unnecessary as it fouled like smokeless. "Does not corrode like Blackpowder" was even on the can. Now this is a play on words. That is very true. It is much much worse.
There is a lot of irony here.
1st The corrosion associated with black power was really due to the primers...caps.
2nd The "modern improvent" uses as a main ingredient the very substances that promoted corrosion in original BP arms.
So Pyrodex is in reality the bad Ju-Ju of corrosion that people think blackpowder is.
My father's Renegade....
My father bought a TC Renegade back in 1979. Before the Great Recession of 2008+ the late 70s early 80s were tough economic times. That Renegade was kind of special. In 3rd grade I even drew a "Pilgrim" using a Renegade and wrote a story for the class with the Pilgrim shooting a turkey for the Thanksgiving poster. :idunno:
Anyway, my father started with BP and switched to Pyrodex. He cleaned his gun like he always had, besides this stuff does not corrode like BP, right? As a hunter you may know about the fouling shot or fluffing the barrel. The rifle would stay loaded for a hunt with a slightly fouled bore. Afterwards it was cleaned.
For a time my father did not hunt and the Renegade was put away for a few seasons. By that time I was in to BP pretty heavily and he had me try to clean up that rifle. It was put away clean but the bore went south in the gun cabinet. He did not clean it good enough.
It was used for a few more years, now it has a Green Mountain Barrel.
My father is not alone, just take a look at all the TC re-bore and re-barrel threads.
The use of Pyrodex.....
Pyrodex shooters need to know what they are up against. Like I said the fouling is pretty much table salt. To have longevity in a barrel, in my opinion it needs to be cleaned after every session immediately. No fluff shots, no hunting with fouled bores for a day or days, the cleaning session should include a pump out with soap and water. This means unpinning a longrifle every time. After the cleaning session the rifle should be checked a day later and periodically after that.
On my flint longrifle, I brush the bore and use patches moistened with soap and water until the patches run clean then I oil. If I used Pyrodex I would unpin the barrel and pump it out.
If you use Pyrodex you have to clean it like a fanatic. This means rechecking regularly.
