4 f powder, a substitued ?,please

[marsh1704]

Beside of my savage muzzle loader,i want to buy the tradition flintlock

pellet.

But it's very difficlut to find real black powder in my area,


can i use hodgdon triple f in the pan,instead of 4 f black powder ?


thanks

[swampmen]

I think yes. but think a little 3-7 would be better

[marsh1704]

yes you are wright !!!


TRIPLE SEVEN is what i meant

[whyohe]

IMO you are better of with standard 4F BP. T-7 is harder to ignight than reg. BP. If you dont get a really good spark it might not flash in the pan. 2) the size of the grain has to be fine enough to get into the touch hole. so you MAY be able to "grind " it down to work better. just my thought and opinion.

[smokepole50]

Small amounts of 2F or 3F in a ceramic Mortor and Petstal. Be very careful and don't press to hard and don't grind it into dust either. FRICTION is NOT you friend here!!! Just crush it a little, dump it out in a container and crush a little more. I would only do about a tablespoon at a time and move several feet away from the rest of the powder when you are doing it incase what you are crushing decides to ignigte. You might want to wear a leather glove as well........... ;D

Read up on making BP, they use ball mills to mix and make the stuff. You might want to use a defining screen as well to seperate out the dust from the now smaller grains. Dust might not be a good thing in your pan as it might ignite to fast, not what your looking for.

Smokepole50

[dichayer]

The powder in the barrel is ignited by the heat from the flash not from burning through the powder in the touch hole. One of the reasons that you pick out the touch hole after loading is to CLEAR the touch hole so the heat from the flash in the pan will ignite the load. Picking the the touch hole will also help remove any of the fouling that has been pushed into the touch hole when you load or run a cleaning patch down the bore.
A few years ago the people in the NMLRA Gun Makers Hall in Friendship, IN conducted some tests of different priming powder. The simple results were that you did not gain any time ( first spark to powder charge ignition time) using 5FA or 4F over 3F or 2F in the pan.
Also think about this! If you are moving your rifle around a lot the super fine powders will tend to move into your touch hole and filter down past the lock because most rifles do not have a perfect fit between lock and barrel. This can cause other problems with your lock parts rusting etc. Also remember that 4F or any of the other super fine powders will absorbs moisture faster that larger grains.
The only powder I use for priming is 3F. I have people on the line comment that I have one of the fastest flintlocks they have seen.

Be safe and enjoy your shooting
D. Chayer

[Douglas]

I don't know if you could use Triple-7 for priming or not. I do know you can use either 3-F or even 2-F if you don't have 4-F priming powder. In fact I use 3-F in wet weather because it takes it longer to become wet because of damp conditions.

If you have a touch hole clogged with powder then it becomes a "fuse" which makes the lock time much longer. You want the priming pan only about 1/3 to 1/2 full of powder, and a clear touch hole. It is the sparks from the burning priming charge which sets off the main charge in the barrel. A flintlock which is loaded right will fire almost as fast as a caplock. ;D