Asked for black powder... offered smokeless

[goldpelican]

At a Bass Pro in SWFL yesterday. Asked for black powder at the gun counter as they keep it out back being an explosive. Young guy says - "it's behind you - I'll show you". That caught me off guard, as it's not kept out in the aisles. Took me straight to the smokeless powder section. I said, no, I'm after black powder, this is smokeless! "It's all black powder, we have the cases here too so you can load your own". Eventually he cottoned on to I was after powder for a muzzle loader, and took me to the Pyrodex an aisle over. Had to explain again I wanted black powder, not smokeless, not a modern BP substitute, but the original stuff sold in a tin like Geox, which they keep out the back because it's classified as an explosive. Went back to the counter.

New guy comes out. "Yeah, we used to carry it but stopped a few months ago, none of the staff could pass the course for selling it".

No kidding.

 

[JeffG]

You can't count on counter people, often you are educating them. I just buy my blackpowder on line, pay the hazmat and have it shipped to the house; 5lbs at a time.
Graf and Sons still sell it by the 1lb can.
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/search?keywords=black+powder&category=3501

 

[99whip]

Sadly, somebody that didn't know better might've taken their advice and loaded that up and shot it. I live in SWFL and that particular store quit selling real BP about 6 months ago. I think BPS in general has quit selling it.

 

[Oohrah!]

I just ordered 5lb from Graf. GOEX is no longer in a tin.

BTW, do they make funnels for the GOEX bottles? The Pyrodex ones are too big.

 

[44 Dave]

I saved my metal cans and pull the label off the plastic and transfer it and the powder because I have spouts for the metal cans.

 

[Panzerschwein]

I made a huge powder run to the brick and moratar Graf's store a couple months back. I'm set for a long, long time. I would recommend Powder Inc. or to order from Graf's online. Bite the bullet and order a large order and you won't have to worry about it for a while, and you will be rewarded with the true and authentic feel and performance of real black powder.

PS: It is very upsetting to see that someone at Bass Pro directed you to smokeless powder when you were asking for black powder! With "BLACK POWDER ONLY" stamped on nearly every repro out there, I can just imagine some neophyte taking home a can of Blue Dot and loading 120 grains of it into their Hawken repro!!

I would have emailed or spoken with management. That is a very serious safety violation.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Concur with Cooldill. Loading smokeless powder into a BP firearm is the fastest way to wreck it I know of...and a very good way to get seriously injured or killed.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I see the basis for a lawsuit in all this and I hate frivolous lawsuits.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

Been a few years since they put it in metal cans.

 

[goldpelican]

Yeah I might follow up with an email to the store. Someone behind a gun counter should know the common sense basics like the difference between black powder and smokeless powder - it's not like I was asking a technical reloading question.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

If you haven't been paying attention the intellectual level of the general population has been plummeting for some time. I own a small business and the level of under 30 somethings applying for a job has run off of a cliff. For the past 20 years I figured that I needed to hire 10 people to find one good one but that ratio has gone through the roof since about 2004.

 

[goldpelican]

I liked the other guy's response about how none of the staff could pass the explosives course or whatever the qualification was needed to handle it.

 

[Oohrah!]

I saved my metal cans and pull the label off the plastic and transfer it and the powder because I have spouts for the metal cans.

I put my GOEX in old Pyrodex bottles, becasue I have spouts for those.

 

[Curator]

The SW Florida Bass Pro Shop is run by folks who could care less! The staff could not pass the test to be able to sell the real thing because they have no training and even less interest. Take your business to the online sources like Graffs and Powder Inc. both of which will sell you 5 pounds and deliver to your home for less than Bass Pro Shop or Cabellas could ever offer.

 

[4v50 Gary]

What sort of course does a staffer have to pass to sell Holy Black?

 

[JeffG]

What sort of course does a staffer have to pass to sell Holy Black?

Make me wonder.... I know the blasting license was easy enough.

 

[goldpelican]

What sort of course does a staffer have to pass to sell Holy Black?

I have no idea. Maybe it's internal training - but as a black powder dealer Bass Pro would need to have a Federal Explosives License. Maybe there's a staff requirement as well for background checks etc that are more stringent than those for an FFL - had a quick Google but couldn't find anything.

Will look into Grafs etc when the Pyrodex runs out!

Something I did discover in the course of poking around was that you cannot transport home made black powder off your property where it was made without getting an FEL. I know a few members dabble in that - sounds like you can't fill the horn up and drive to a range with it.

 

[JeffG]

Something I did discover in the course of poking around was that you cannot transport home made black powder off your property where it was made without getting an FEL. I know a few members dabble in that - sounds like you can't fill the horn up and drive to a range with it.

Another regulation that makes no sense.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Something I did discover in the course of poking around was that you cannot transport home made black powder off your property where it was made without getting an FEL. I know a few members dabble in that - sounds like you can't fill the horn up and drive to a range with it.

I'd like to see a reference to the regulation.
I'd also like to see how they'd prove it if you simply put the stuff in an old GOEX can or when it's in your horn. Somebody will probably say they'd test the stuff and compare it to the real GOEX (would they really spend the money?), but first, somebody would need to a) recognize it isn't GOEX and b) then test all the other brands to ensure you simply didn't put Swiss or Graff's into the old GOEX can (hey it's not a controlled medicine in the wrong bottle folks) and then c) somehow prove that you made it instead of a person sharing with you what you "thought was commercial BP" with you last time at the range, or out hunting, or at a target event, rondyvous, rifle frolic, etc. etc. etc.

That regulation sounds like one of those that they don't use unless they catch a person using BP as part of a WMD investigation, and somebody makes many pounds of the stuff and provides it to the actual terrorists to try and thwart being spotted and intercepted by LEO's..., so when they figure out the BP wasn't bought but made, the "fringe guy" gets locked up too.

LD

 

[test drive]

Reminds me of once when we raffled off a BP revolver at the armory. The next day the winner which was a young guy in the unit came in with his supplies for it. When I looked at the powder it was smokeless. When I told him "I said black powder " he looked in the bottle and said "it is black". We had a long talk.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

I remember reading a story about a blown up BP revolver. When questioned as to whether it had been loaded with Black Powder, the shooter said it had. Black powder with little red flecks in it.

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

i had to take a blasting license test back in 1979 it was not an easy test was about 3hr long.
But then I was going to be actually blasting
for counter help difference between black and smokeless and never mix, how it must be stored, and how much a person is allowed to buy at one time and in the course of 6 months if I remember right

 

[Clayguy]

If you haven't been paying attention the intellectual level of the general population has been plummeting for some time. I own a small business and the level of under 30 somethings applying for a job has run off of a cliff. For the past 20 years I figured that I needed to hire 10 people to find one good one but that ratio has gone through the roof since about 2004.

As a former small business owner, I would concur with your statement. The average millennial appears to have no common sense, wants $15 an hour even though they are qualified at nothing, can only work if offered 2 weeks paid vacation every year and can't start work before 0900. What, you won't pay for my medical insurance? Not all, certainly, but I seem to have run into the majority.