Shooting and Maintaining Your Muzzleloader: How to Make Your Muzzleloader Most Effective and Keep it Working

By Wm. Hovey Smith

Written from a hunter's point of view, Shooting and Maintainaing Your Muzzloader is filled with detailed information on muzzleloader disassembly, maintainence, loads and tips on how to keep the gun working under almost any conditions. Included in its 17 chapters are sections on matchlock, flintlock, traditional muzzleloaders as well as modern in-line rifles, pistols and shotguns. Not only is this a technical work, many practical hints are provided based on nearly 50-years of hunting experiences with these guns. Unusual in typical coverage of these guns, the cleaning and limited use of original antique guns is considered along with his candid thoughts on the replica and original guns that work best for hunting. Hunting loads are provided for guns as varied as Japanese-style matchlocks, in-lines and modern percussion revolvers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780985596576

Wm. Hovey Smith

Now returned to Central Georgia, Wm. Hovey Smith is a Geologist/outdoorsman who has written 13 books and is the Producer/Host of Hoveys Outdoor Adventures on WebTalkRadio.net. He is a Corresponding Editor for Gun Digest where he writes about muzzleloading guns and hunting in the U.S., Europe and Africa.

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hunting.

Chapter 1.

Some of Hodgdon’s black powder substitute powders. The company now also owns GOEX and also makes powders under the Winchester and IMR brands.

Choosing between today’s muzzleloading powders

Propellants used in black-powder guns have come and gone in the American market over the past 50 years. When I was a boy the only black powder was made by DuPont. This remained true through the 1980s, but an explosion in the powder mill caused DuPont to withdraw from this business, and a separate company, GOEX, was formed to manufacture the powder.

GOEX ultimately relocated from the East Coast to Louisiana and built a new powder mill. During this 1980s transition period, Elephant Powder was imported from Brazil, Schuetzen black powder came into the country from Switzerland and Hodgdon speeded production of Pyrodex, the first really successful black-powder substitute which had been in development since 1975.

Later products from Hodgdon included Pyrodex Pellets and TripleSeven in 2004, which was followed a few years later by a new powder, IMR WhiteHot pellets. Pelletization allowed pre-measured amounts of these powders to be dropped down the barrel eliminating the need for powder measures while seemingly increasing loading efficiency.

Pelletized powders became popular even though those who used speed loaders could load premeasured charges of loose powder or the new pellets with equal speed.

Hunters who took their muzzleloaders out only a few times a year during special deer seasons/hunts felt more confident using pellets because this eliminated one source of potential loading error and the need to remember to set their powder measures to throw a particular charge.

In the 2000-teens GOEX was purchased by Hodgdon and some new varients of black powder were made which have thus far included a less expensive powder for reenactors, aptly named Reenactor; a powder for black-powder cartridge reloading, GOEX Black Powder Cartridge; and a newly introduced high-performance black powder called Olde Eynsford.

Not only have America’s shooters had five granulations of black powder available from five different makers over the past half-century, there are also three varieties of Pyrodex, several sizes of Pyrodex pellets and different configurations of Pioneer Powders, Jim Shockey’s Gold and TripleSeven that are being sold in 2013.

Most powders will work in nearly all muzzleloading guns, but some are restricted to particular functions and calibers. In addition, storage and shipment regulations are different for black powder and the substitutes which results in black powder being available from fewer sources than the substitute propellants.

Black Powder

Sulphur, charcoal and an oxidizing nitrate or chlorate compound that are ground, mixed, wetted, dried, reground and sized are the ingredients in black powder. When confined and ignited, this mechanical combination of components combines explosively yielding a large volume of propellant gasses and solid byproducts, including corrosive chlorate and/or nitrate compounds and a small amount of water.

These solid and gaseous byproducts yield the smoke and characteristic rotten-egg smell of black powder. Fortunately, these corrosive byproducts are water soluble and clean up with soap and water or a variety of water-based black-powder solvents.

GOEX and Swiss Schuetzen powders are the two most common black powders seen today. Grades that have uses in firearms include Cannon and increasingly fine granulations ranging from F to FFFFg grades. F, usually referred to as one F, is used in the largest of rifle calibers and for 12-bore and larger shotguns. FFg is most suitable for .44 to .58 caliber rifles while FFFg is restricted to smaller-bore rifles and pistols. The finest powder, FFFFg, is used for priming flintlocks and in .22 and .17-caliber pistols.

In terms of efficiency, Swiss Schuetzen yields more energy than GOEX which is a little more efficient than Elephant Brand, which was imported from Brazil, but is not frequently seen today. Generally, it takes about 105 grains of Elephant powder to reach the same velocities achieved with 100 grains of GOEX FFg.

More recently Western Powders has imported KIK black powder from Slovenia to help fill out their product line which also includes Blackhorn 209. KIK is available in the usual American granulations. I have not had enough experience with this powder to see how it ranks compared to other black powders.

For those interested in reloading black-powder cartridges, GOEX also makes a cartridge-grade black powder that is easier to meter than the typical angular grains of black powder.

The imported Schuetzen black powders are very costly, although do give impressive results on game and on the target range. In 2013 GOEX (now owned by Hodgdon) announced the introduction of Olde Eynsford, which was stated to be the American equivalent of the Swiss powders.

Wano is a German powder that I have used in South Africa. Although it may be that their export-grade powder is less powerful than what they sell in Europe, I found that I had to load about 10 percent more Wano than GOEX FFg to achieve the same levels of performance.

Compared with smokeless powder, black powder is a forgiving propellant. A grain more-or-less will not make a significant difference on game or target, and black powder is not as pressure sensitive as some of the substitutes.

Cautions with all of the powders are: avoid sparks, do not smoke or allow anyone to smoke while black powder is in use, do not attempt to grind powder as it can detonate under pressure and, on the range, swab bores between shots.

If you want to keep all your fingers and both eyes, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE YOUR OWN POWDER.

With the exception of the Savage Muzzleloading ML 10 I and and ML 10 II rifles, do not use any amount of smokeless powder in any muzzleloading gun. Other muzzleloading guns and ignition systems are not designed for the higher pressures generated by smokeless powders.

Although made for about four years, the Savage ML rifle is no longer offered and no major manufacturers have followed Savage’s lead in this area of the marketplace with its high litigation potential.

Black powder substitutes

Black powder substitutes evolved because of the need to have a propellant suitable for muzzleloading guns that could move more easily from manufacturer to customer without having to go through the same shipping and storage regulations required of commercial explosives. Only a few dealers in each state may stock black powder, but every sporting goods store in the country can carry the black powder substitutes.

What these powders have in common is that they all produce smoke, they are more difficult to ignite than black powder, most may be substituted volume for volume for black powder and nearly all are corrosive to barrel steels.

One in-use problem common to many pellets is that they may develop a tough crud ring immediately forward of the pellets which can prevent the next charge from fully seating down the bore. Even when rapidly reloading, mark your ramrods to make sure that the bullet is seated all the way down or you will ring your barrel and/or miss your follow-up shot.

While black powder may be stable for centuries, at least some of the black-powder substitutes can degrade over time. Before each season be sure to check your guns and see if they still shoot to the same point of aim. If they do not, adjust the powder charge or buy fresh powder.

Pyrodex

Hodgdon helped support the early development of Pyrodex, the first modern black-powder substitute, and has continuously upgraded this product. The new powder was designed to simulate black powder as closely as possible while being free of the onerous shipping and storage requirements of black powder.

Pyrodex RS translates to Pyrodex Rifle-Shotgun, and this powder may be volumetrically substituted for FFg black powder. This powder is a little harder to ignite than black powder, and CCI Magnum no. 11 caps help insure ignition in damp weather.

This powder is also a little more sensitive to pressure variation during reloading. Historically, Pyrodex RS was not seen as having the accuracy potential of black powder, and a more carefully sized Pyrodex Select was developed to overcome this deficiency.

Most shooters now agree that Hodgdon has