Cost of using a black powder gun.

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Whatever the cost, it's still cheaper than going out with a centerfire. There was a time when I could pick up a PMC box of twenty rounds of .308 for $5. Should have bought that instead of stocks.

Anyhow, it's a lot of fun and is for twenty shots from a muzzle loader, it can take quite a bit of time and be just as rewarding.
 
black powder is very cheap. you can order it from powderinc. just get a case and pay the haz mat charge.or split a case with a buddy. dont pay the 30 bucks or whatever a lb for stupid substitutes.

get some pure lead and cast your balls for almost free.visit your local tire shop, the stick on weights are usually pure lead.some will sell your buckets of them and some wont.talk to plumbers, they run into lead a lot.

caps are getting expensive. i purchased severl hundred years ago. flintlock guys will laugh at that.

some of my bp rifles take 209 primers, have plenty of them.
 
easy to clean takes 10 minutes

Yo u guys make cleaning your bp revolvers sound hard.as soon as you get home take the cylinder off run everything under very hot water my tap water is plenty hot enough blow everything dry with a hair dryer spray everything down with ballastol swap the barrel and cylinders with a big Q Tip I get mine from ebay it's What gynecologist uses for who who check ups fits in the barrel of the forty fives very nicely spray some Remington oil or equivalent in the trigger and all the mechanicals inside to displace the water reassemble your gun apply light coating of Remington oil to the outside done 10 minutesI only completely tear my guns down once every 3 months or so and clean them and check everything inside I haven't had a problem in five years I also make my own lube pills which helps keep my gun very clean I can also shoot over a hundred times at the range with no problems whatsoever
 
cost

Cost...Fortunately, I have been able to scrounge pure lead over the years and have a stock on hand that is more than sufficient for my current use.
So....casting my own LRBs - no cost other than time.
I buy caps in bulk and flints the same way....Caps are maybe five cents and flints...I'l go with the cost mentioned earlier at .03.
I shoot 20 grains of BP in my pistols...about 4.5 cents per shot
So lets say 13 cents a shot. I do not count patch material as there are yards and yards of it from purchases years ago (would not even know how to go about that)
Rifle - more powder - 90 grains BP = 21 cents a shot + 3 cents for the flint = 24 cents a shot
Flintlock fowler 16 gauge - 70 grains BP = 16 cents per shot. I make my own shot so no cost there + wads are 4 cents per load + 3 cents for the flint = 23 cents a shot

You can make your own black powder from charcoal and a few other ingredients, cast your own lead from free sources or scrap yards, and can even make percussion caps with a Tap o' Cap tool, some soda cans, and toy cap gun cas from the dollar store.
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Are Tap o cap tools even available any more?
Making BP - you have to add in the cost of a ball mill....and maybe the corning mill. If you use the CIA alcohol method, then you won't need the mill. It is a bit riskier.

About casting and wheel weights
the stick on weights are usually pure lead.
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Not that I have ever read about - Wheel weight alloy was lead, tin, antimony.
Nowadays, wheel weights often contain zinc which renders them useless for casting.
Pete
 
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I shoot mostly flinter and that's about as cheap as it gets. I buy only real black powder, flints are still reasonable, I cast my own ball ammo and cut my own patches. Lead has cost me from around $1 lb to free, mostly free, and though I use Hoppes BP lube; spit patch is just as good and is free.
 
I was at an auction a few years ago and must have been been the only bp shooter there. There were two lots of misc bp supplies. I took the opening bid of $15 on the first lot and no one bid against me. The second lot I let the opening bid drop to $5 and had no competition there either. For $20 I got three one pound pyrodex (unopened). hundreds of round balls in 36, 44 and 50 cal balls. Musket and percussion caps. patches, ball starters, camo bag, nipple wrench. Pydrodex pellets and hornady quick load saboted projectiles.

That was the best auction ever. I also got a custom knife for $5, which I later sold for $165 (to help fund tools that will consume the above mentioned supplies).
 
Driftwood Johnson said:
Howdy

I can tell you it is much more expensive to load cartridges with Black Powder than it is to load the same cartridges with Smokeless.

Shuetzen FFg costs $16/pound from Maine Powder house.

(/QUOTE]


Schuetzen and Graf's is exactly the same bp, only difference is in the price.
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Gotta say time don't count as cash when your hav'n fun. But, I make my own BP for $2.4/lb. After the mold and heat source are owned and you can still get free lead. Patches and flint. It's not much more than time. I find that I enjoy the sport more the more I am a part of the sport. In many ways my little flint'r pistol at penny's a shot is much more satisfying than my .50 BMG at $10 a shot.
 
About casting and wheel weights

Quote:
the stick on weights are usually pure lead.

Not that I have ever read about - Wheel weight alloy was lead, tin, antimony.
Nowadays, wheel weights often contain zinc which renders them useless for casting
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Hes talking about stick on, youre talking about clip on. They are different. Stick on weights are pure lead or close to it.

Somebody mentioned the cost of centerfire. I havent compared the costs recently, but I dont consider the cost of factory ammo in comparison, I havent bought or shot much of it in years other than cheap surplus. Reloading centerfire ammo is going to cost less in general if using lead bullets, and if you cast your own, it will be even cheaper. Primers are generally cheaper than caps, the powder is way cheaper, and way less is used per charge, as Driftwood pointed out. What takes 38-40 grs in a 45 Colt for black takes 8 1/2 grs Unique.
 
I dont consider the cost of factory ammo in comparison
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Feel free. I still think it's the most relevant comparison if somebody asks some vague question about how much it costs to shoot black powder, with the addition that in both cases you can lower costs dramatically by doing some work (reloading, casting, making your own wads, and making your own powder which you can only do on the BP side of things). Plus the low round counts make the whole discussion somewhat moot.
 
I still think it's the most relevant comparison if somebody asks some vague question about how much it costs to shoot black powder, with the addition that in both cases you can lower costs dramatically by doing some work (reloading, casting, making your own wads, and making your own powder which you can only do on the BP side of things).
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Fair point, though black powder will work in many cartridges, even 45 auto. 38 spl/357, 44 spl or mag, 45 Colt, 38-55, 44 mag or 45 Colt rifles, 45-70, etc all are easily usable with black. I'm sure many "modern" rounds would shoot/function with black. Its been succesfully done with 45 autos.

This assumes one is the do it yourself type.
 
Whatever the cost, it's still cheaper than going out with a centerfire.
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Lets examine my inliner shooting friend...

Pyrodex pellets, 50 grain, $32.00 for 100 and he uses two = $ .64

Primers $4.99 per 100 = $ .05

Sabot bullets $22.00 per pack of 15 = $1.47

grand total of.... $2.16 per shot in his case. :eek:

I will stick to my traditional flintlock or caplock, thankyou. ;)

LD
 
Malamute said:
Fair point, though black powder will work in many cartridges, even 45 auto. 38 spl/357, 44 spl or mag, 45 Colt, 38-55, 44 mag or 45 Colt rifles, 45-70, etc all are easily usable with black. I'm sure many "modern" rounds would shoot/function with black. Its been succesfully done with 45 autos.

This assumes one is the do it yourself type.
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Oh yeah, I can just see how BP through an auto loader would work. The man in question would have fun much and end up with the statement... - Honey, would you clean this for me? -

Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Arms designed for BP have different cleaning characteristics than smokeless arms. You need to throw in the cost of cleaning patches and Q-tips along with caps, powder and ball, they are part of it too.
 
4v50 Gary said:
Whatever the cost, it's still cheaper than going out with a centerfire. There was a time when I could pick up a PMC box of twenty rounds of .308 for $5. Should have bought that instead of stocks.

Anyhow, it's a lot of fun and is for twenty shots from a muzzle loader, it can take quite a bit of time and be just as rewarding.
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Ain't that the truth..............


Knew a dealer in Maine that had a large freezer chest full of primers. This was during the first "shortage" in the early 80's. He also had bags of lead shot, shortage of that started around the same era. Some people just have a knack for things.

Me.... I just been paying retail most my life.
 
Oh yeah, I can just see how BP through an auto loader would work. The man in question would have fun much and end up with the statement... - Honey, would you clean this for me? -

Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Arms designed for BP have different cleaning characteristics than smokeless arms. You need to throw in the cost of cleaning patches and Q-tips along with caps, powder and ball, they are part of it too.
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How do you think it would work?

I didnt mention it because I thought it was a great idea, but in response to the idea that you could make powder for "black powder" guns, but were out of luck for any other type of gun. There seem to be quite a few people that have loaded black powder 45 auto loads, just for the novelty, and some cowboy action shooters using 45 auto black powder loads for the wild Bunch shoots. I dont recall where I read it, but they seem to work OK for about 50 rds, I dont know about longer than that. This could be a field ripe for experimentation.

I havent found black powder guns to be very difficult to clean. It wouldnt seem a 45 auto would be much harder to clean than an 86 Winchester. I did de-gunk a badly black powder fouled Super Blackhawk in a river once. Just a wet patch through the bore and chambers a few passes, sloshing the cylinder in the water a bit, and wiping off the worst fouling got it back to functioning smoothly enough to keep shooting. I didnt know anything about powder compression or properly lubed bullets at the time.

If faced with the choice of only having black powder for some reason and choosing between a 45 auto or a percussion pistol as a self defense gun, there wouldnt be any hesitation. One certainly isnt only restricted to what is commonly thought of as black powder guns if only black powder was at hand, or someone wanted to make powder and try it out. :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84J7VQ02CQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzQ4uKvE7c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DGgMXl8Fzs

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-702830.html
 
I shoot 1861 Navies and a 44-40 '73 Winchester in CAS competition. Here is my cost breakdown for them.

My BP 44-40s cost:

Grafs fffg BP $16.00/lb. @ 32 grains per round

Primers = $35.00 per 1000.

Bullets = $127.00 per 1000 (200 gr. .428 RNFP)

Grand total = $ .237 per round.

.36 1861 Navies:

Grafs fffg BP = $16.00/lb. @ 22 grains per round

Caps= $47 per 1000.

Lubed Wads = $36.00 per 1000.

Lead balls= $104.50 per 1000.

Grand total= $ .243 per shot.

BTW, I shoot BP .45 Auto rounds in Wild Bunch matches. Freaks out the competitors, and is not any harder to clean than using Unique. I've put 200 BP rounds through a .45 auto with no hiccups
 
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Freezer chest full of primers? Is he supplying Federal/Remington/Winchester/Hornady?

That's as bad as a flint buy I started on TraditionalMuzzleLoadingHide many years ago. We bought hundreds of flints and the quantity astonished the Englishman who was knapping them. He asked why and I suggested we tell him, "In case the British come back."
 
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