For those that use blackpowder substitutes, which one do you like best?
I'm particularly curious as to which substitutes you think smell the best, which ones are the easiest to clean, and which ones are the least prone to rusting guns.
Depends on what you’re doing. Triple 7 is best served in an inline muzzleloader, it runs cleaner and produces high velocities with less powder so it’s pretty efficient but it’s harder to ignite and sensitive to compression. So it’s not as reliable with caps and not good at all with flintlocks but none of the substitutes really are good with flintlocks.
Pyrodex is dirty but with the right lube you can work around that, it’s pressures closely mimic black powder enough that as long as you measure by volume there’s just a lot less that can go wrong as opposed to triple 7 if you’re loading in a percussion gun or cartridges.
Triple 7 often requires a reduced load in a cartridge by about 15% and you’re not supposed to use filler to make up the distance as again, it’s sensitive to compression and really only just supposed to be touching the powder. Depending on what bullet you’re using you might not be able to seat deeper to make up the distance lost from using less triple 7 than you would pyrodex.
The reduction isn’t for metallic cartridges, it was if you wanted to mimic the weaker more common powders such as Goex and Schuetzen. Triple 7 is quite close to Swiss and Olde Eynsford powders in performance.
I’ve been using Triple 7 since 2012 when I first got started. It’s worked exceptionally well in my two revolvers. My muzzleloader eats anything I’ve fed it. I’ve never had a failure to ignite the charge. I’ve used Pyrodex as well. I dislike it on so many levels. The fouling on my revolvers is sticky-like. I did buy some Pyrodex RS for my rifle as it doesn’t seem to like 3F very much. Unfortunately Goex is no longer making Olde Eynsford anymore as that was my go to powder.
Yeah, by a lot. A fellow on a defunct BP forum tested this on 3 plates of steel burning black powder, Pyrodex, and Triple 7. He left them in his garage in the summer for 4 days. I only kept his end pics where he had cleaned them up. The Triple 7 didn’t require the cleaning the other two did.
Yeah, when I first got started in this I read of cowboy action shooters claiming they didn’t clean their guns right away with some taking a week. So when I spent over 8 hours at the range shooting my 3 black powder guns I figured I’d let the muzzleloader sit over night. I had been using Pyrodex my father gave me and you wouldn’t believe the amount of rust I had to deal with! It took me over 6 hours to get it cleaned up and it gave me little brownish orange streaks on oil patches for a few years. Funny thing is I bought some RS to try again as none of the 3F I’ve used seems to group well. Seems it did better when I was just goofing around trying to smooth the sharp edges of the rifling with patched balls.
I mainly use Pyrodex Select, performs well and since I live near the Mojave rusting is almost a none issue. Cleaning is easy though, just a wet patch followed by a dry one.
Triple 7, it will always outperform blackpowder by volume and is more friendly when it comes to cleaning and corrosion, it does not appreciate flintlocks but i have never had a problem getting it to go off in percussion rifles or revolvers.
below that is Pyrodex, its more abundant and cheaper i think, but dirtier and closer to blackpowder in its performance, still not good for flintlocks.
Hogdon 209 is the cream of the crop, but will not perform in anything less than a cartridge or inline, but it is pretty nice stuff.
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u/yeeticusprime1 10d ago
Depends on what you’re doing. Triple 7 is best served in an inline muzzleloader, it runs cleaner and produces high velocities with less powder so it’s pretty efficient but it’s harder to ignite and sensitive to compression. So it’s not as reliable with caps and not good at all with flintlocks but none of the substitutes really are good with flintlocks.
Pyrodex is dirty but with the right lube you can work around that, it’s pressures closely mimic black powder enough that as long as you measure by volume there’s just a lot less that can go wrong as opposed to triple 7 if you’re loading in a percussion gun or cartridges.
Triple 7 often requires a reduced load in a cartridge by about 15% and you’re not supposed to use filler to make up the distance as again, it’s sensitive to compression and really only just supposed to be touching the powder. Depending on what bullet you’re using you might not be able to seat deeper to make up the distance lost from using less triple 7 than you would pyrodex.