Home Made Gun Powder?

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by Lively Boy

well the cannon was kinda boring ...had to find something to stuff in the barrel to get it to make noise... potato...a big puff of smoke not much noise found the potato about 40 ft away that was with 60 gr by volume of hm bp. fun but the wife makes me buy my own spuds. the 36 cal 1851 does real well with the home made bp. low energy compairs to the 2f pyrodex I got for the wifes 54 cal cabelas hawkins kit rifle(wich is fun to shoot) I only shoot for fun but making your own bp only adds to the fun. happy shooting! Lively Boy

Now, you can experiment with what you have and refine it to make it better.

Since you know that the batch you made now is a lower power, you can increase your load behind the ball for more power.

When I first started out making hmgp, Mine was not the best. I would make a batch of it and test burn. AFter the test burn, I would try it out in a hawkins.. The powder was weak, but I found out that if I put about 50 percent more powder in the barrel, it came up to snuff. A little weak, but up to snuff. Enough to take down a deer at 50 yards.

Another thing you may want to try out, is using a heavier projectile. I usually shoot a 250 grain projectile. When I went to a 350 or 390 grain projectile, the power of my powder increased tremendously. The reason behind this is, you projectile is much heavier, more static friction, and pressure builds up behind the projectile much higher, causing a better burn.

A 50cal ball weighs about 179 grains. IT takes a hotter powder to move that ball, and the downrange energy drops off extremely fast. IT just lacks the weight for long range. But a heavy projectile has tremendous energy downhill, and bleeds off its energy much slower than a ball.

I have some powder that I have to put 150 grains compared to 80 grains of pyrodex. The powder is old, but I will eventually use it all up.

Now, if you make your own projectiles you have it made.

1. Homemade gp.
2. Homemade projectiles.
3. Range tested with both.

Go hunt a deer!

And for those who have lots of talent. . .many have homemade rifles.

Dwayne

[Machinist]

The original gunners used serpentine, the mixture of fine powders. The problem was that the powders separated during transport by wagon so they had to mix it on site. It burned rather dirty because their mixture was not as good or as refined, and left heavy fowling in the guns. Corned powder fixed that but blew up the early guns for the reasons mentioned. Better understanding of grain size and use of cast guns solved the problem in time.

If you want to be real authentic the original solvent for corned powder was priest's urine. I think I would stay with distilled water or alcohol, myself.

This was an excellent thread with the best information and explanations I have seen. Thank you very much.

[Dwayne]

One other form of GP I have not experimented with in the guns, is Sugar/Potassium mixure.

Sugar (regular flowered sugar) and Potassium Nitrate is a powerful mixture. It CAN be used as GP.

Sugar and KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) is usually used in Rockets for fuel.

When people make "Sugar Rockets", they are usually making a blend of about 1 part Sugar, to 2 parts KN03. They then take this mixture and "pack" it into a tube of some kind VERY tight. They drill a hole up the center and stick regular GP in that drill hole and ignite the GP with a wick.

The GP burns quite rapidly and ignites the center core of the hard packed rocket. This allows the core of the rocket to burn from the center out, with more efficiency.

The object of a rocket, is to burn fast enough not to explode, yet force "air" out of the orifice to produce lift. When I make Sugar rockets, some of mine burn so fast, that the rocket will lift off the pad and explode 12 to 20 feet high in the air. This is not necessarily a mixture problem, but more of a containment problem. It is usually one of my rocket ends that gives away.


Now, armed with this sugar power, the question becomes, "How well will it work with a projectile?

Things to keep in mind:


1. Sugar and KN03 burns differently in free air than under pressure.
2. How hard will Sugar be to clean out of the barrel?
3. What is the explosive power of the combination?
4. How easy is it to ignite?

With those questions answered above, who knows? it could make a wonderful GP.

Even if you preload 10 grains of regular GP(for ignition purposes) first and 70 grains of Sugar/kn03 atop that.

Dwayne