Explosive power, 1 lb black powder
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Jim Watson
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I was a little concerned over getting such stuff on my search history, but it is already all over Wiki and other www, so here we go.
If you want to see the explosibility of black powder, it would not be an expensive project. Current price of BP is $26 a pound and cannon fuse is $20 a roll.
Probably not legal, a local guy's estranged wife squealed on him for making bombs. He said they were just large firecrackers, powder and fuse in PVC pipe. The feds were not amused. They were less amused when they found his Sten gun and that is what they prosecuted him on.
Nope. Astrolite G is AN + Hydrazine.
AN + Nitromethane was the star player at Oklahoma City. The Bureau of Mines said it was powerful but had physical properties and handling faults that ANFO does not. But it didn't keep T. McVeigh from shopping the drag racing suppliers.
There are all sorts of attempts to equate gasoline with conventional explosives, I have seen 4:1 gasoline:dynamite today. BUT gasoline would have to be atomized into a fuel-air explosive first.
There is a local legend of some Good Old Boys putting a blasting cap in a can of Bullseye (40% nitroglycerine) and getting it to go high order, blasting out a stump very well.
I am sure you could find simple energy values, kilocalories per kilogram or BTUs per pound on a search.
If you want to see the explosibility of black powder, it would not be an expensive project. Current price of BP is $26 a pound and cannon fuse is $20 a roll.
Probably not legal, a local guy's estranged wife squealed on him for making bombs. He said they were just large firecrackers, powder and fuse in PVC pipe. The feds were not amused. They were less amused when they found his Sten gun and that is what they prosecuted him on.
Nope. Astrolite G is AN + Hydrazine.
AN + Nitromethane was the star player at Oklahoma City. The Bureau of Mines said it was powerful but had physical properties and handling faults that ANFO does not. But it didn't keep T. McVeigh from shopping the drag racing suppliers.
There are all sorts of attempts to equate gasoline with conventional explosives, I have seen 4:1 gasoline:dynamite today. BUT gasoline would have to be atomized into a fuel-air explosive first.
There is a local legend of some Good Old Boys putting a blasting cap in a can of Bullseye (40% nitroglycerine) and getting it to go high order, blasting out a stump very well.
I am sure you could find simple energy values, kilocalories per kilogram or BTUs per pound on a search.
Okay, let me get straight to the point, I was going about it in a roundabout way hoping to get an answer.
After my childhood friend’s house burnt in September, it got me thinking. What would happen if I had a fire and a total loss?
I have about 10 containers of black powder , 5 or 6 are which are stored in a green military ammo box. These.are all full or nearly so. The other three or four are on or near my reloading bench, about 30” high. All not on the reloading bench are at floor level, including the ammunition box. Total weight might be 8 lbs. If there was a fire,. Since this happened to my childhood friend, what would happen? I live in a neighborhood, several houses nearby, house in centre of a 120 foot square lot.
While I’m at it, one of these 1 lb containers contains less than 1/4 lb of powder, and it’s 4 Fg for flintlock. Is there any black powder round I can safely load with 4 Fg just to use it up?
I have hundreds of .50-70 rounds of brass and plenty of bullets, too. As there are 7000 grains per pound, and about 70 grains per .50-70 round if I don’t stretch it with Cream of Wheat filler, I’m tempted to load 200 of these just to get my powder to about 5 lbs in total.
I’d prefer to just have a container each of 1 Fg, 2 Fg, and 3 Fg, then when I run out, purchase another container of it, but the powers that be make that difficult. When you need it, it’s out of stock, and then when in stock, the price is exponentially higher than the time of last purchase.
My guess is, in total, 10 to 20 pounds of black powder would last the rest of my life unless I really amp up usage when I retire completely in a few years.
After my childhood friend’s house burnt in September, it got me thinking. What would happen if I had a fire and a total loss?
I have about 10 containers of black powder , 5 or 6 are which are stored in a green military ammo box. These.are all full or nearly so. The other three or four are on or near my reloading bench, about 30” high. All not on the reloading bench are at floor level, including the ammunition box. Total weight might be 8 lbs. If there was a fire,. Since this happened to my childhood friend, what would happen? I live in a neighborhood, several houses nearby, house in centre of a 120 foot square lot.
While I’m at it, one of these 1 lb containers contains less than 1/4 lb of powder, and it’s 4 Fg for flintlock. Is there any black powder round I can safely load with 4 Fg just to use it up?
I have hundreds of .50-70 rounds of brass and plenty of bullets, too. As there are 7000 grains per pound, and about 70 grains per .50-70 round if I don’t stretch it with Cream of Wheat filler, I’m tempted to load 200 of these just to get my powder to about 5 lbs in total.
I’d prefer to just have a container each of 1 Fg, 2 Fg, and 3 Fg, then when I run out, purchase another container of it, but the powers that be make that difficult. When you need it, it’s out of stock, and then when in stock, the price is exponentially higher than the time of last purchase.
My guess is, in total, 10 to 20 pounds of black powder would last the rest of my life unless I really amp up usage when I retire completely in a few years.
Don't try this at home:
www.youtube.com
Redneck Log Splitter, Black Powder Method
This is how my neighbors in Southern Indiana split logs. They cut a hole in the tree, pour in a cup of black powder, insert a fuse, pack the hole with sand a...
www.youtube.com
Jim Watson
Member
One anecdote.
When my house burned out in The Incident of 2010, there was a can of powder and a bottle and half of whiskey in a kitchen cabinet directly opposite the point of impact of the truck agains my gas meter. The containers were scorched but the contents unburnt. The rest of my case of BP was in the pantry just off the kitchen. I don't recall just why I kept it there instead of in the shop with the smokeless. I was told that firefighters found it and threw it out the window. My friends picked it up while I was in hospital.
Ugly Sauce
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But...but....was the whiskey okay???????
Ugly Sauce
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Well lets just say that it IS very powerful. Field cannons, like those used in the civil war really don't use much of a charge. Way less than you would think.
Where I live, and South of where I live, there is a lot of "scab land", lots of volcanic rock that has been washed over by the Missoula floods. So when the rail lines were built early in the century, or late in the 1800's, black powder is what they used to blast through the out-croppings of basalt. Some of the old rail-lines have been turned into "hiking trails", and I have found many old cans, what's left of them, and lids, with labeling still on, of cans of "blasting powder", which was just a low grade black powder. Looking at those cuts through basalt, some twenty/thirty foot deep, I'd say it's pretty powerful stuff.
I think the way that was done was to drill holes in the rock, pack it with powder, (probably not all that much) stick a fuse in it and run like heck. Not sure when the switch to nitro was made, or dynamite. (which is nitro in sawdust I think) (?)
Where I live, and South of where I live, there is a lot of "scab land", lots of volcanic rock that has been washed over by the Missoula floods. So when the rail lines were built early in the century, or late in the 1800's, black powder is what they used to blast through the out-croppings of basalt. Some of the old rail-lines have been turned into "hiking trails", and I have found many old cans, what's left of them, and lids, with labeling still on, of cans of "blasting powder", which was just a low grade black powder. Looking at those cuts through basalt, some twenty/thirty foot deep, I'd say it's pretty powerful stuff.
I think the way that was done was to drill holes in the rock, pack it with powder, (probably not all that much) stick a fuse in it and run like heck. Not sure when the switch to nitro was made, or dynamite. (which is nitro in sawdust I think) (?)
Jim Watson
Member
Yes, no difference a friend and I could taste, even the opened bottle.
Jim Watson
Member
I am sure some of it was, but the usual blasting powder was made with sodium nitrate instead of potassium nitrate. "Chile saltpeter" was cheaper than real saltpeter and it is also somewhat more energetic. More subject to damp, though.
Dynamite was originally nitroglycerine absorbed in diatomaceous earth. Somebody might have cobbled up some in sawdust. It was patented in 1867 but I don't know how fast it penetrated the US market to be authentic in western movies.
epags
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Return on Assets???????
Ugly Sauce
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Dang...you know stuff. One lid or top of the can I have Just says: "Common Black Powder" on it. The other says: (or has) "CPW" "CRUS." and "SANTA". On both lids, that is impressed into the metal, any painted labeling is long-long gone.
CopperClad
Member
I can tell you first hand you do not want to store your BP in steel ammo cans.
I've been present for 3lbs of bp in a 30cal can being set off. Quite curtly I'll tell you never again. It was set off in a pond. Pond wasn't deep enough either.
Ugly Sauce
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Yes. 4fg is quite safe in anything. The old myth that 4fg is for "priming only" is a just that, a myth. It works very well in pistols, and in fact would be more accurately called a "pistol" powder rather than a "priming" powder. It would be fine in the .50-70. Reduce it to 60 grains with some filler if you really have any doubts. 4fg is not "unsafe". I use whatever is in the horn to prime my flintlocks, and buy 4fg specifically for all my pistols, cartridge or cap-N-ball. It will work just fine in any rifle or pistol, cartridge or muzzle loader. I know of someone who uses it in his shotguns. They do not blow up.
I had suspected that, but wasn’t 100% sure. You NEVER want to mix smokeless powders, but black powders are of the same composition and just different granular sizes, and so I was tempted to mix the small amount of 4 Fg powder with an equal amount of 2 Fg and use it for something like .32-40.
Okay, it seems like storing in a steel box is an insensible way, but then what sensible options do I have? I would love to store in a cool, shaded shed on the back 40, but some folks don’t have those options. I’m limited to a house on a third of an acre and a 2 bay attached garage. Yes, I’d like a farm with outbuildings and my own private range but this is unrealistic on the east coast where decent jobs are located. Plus, if I had such a place, so many others want the same thing and so limited supply and high demand means the price is prohibitively high.
CopperClad
Member
I keep my excess stored in a cooler in the cellar. Cool, dry, protected.
Only a pound or two at the bench at any time.
Only a pound or two at the bench at any time.
Ugly Sauce
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You could, but 4fg would be a super excellent choice for the .32-40. If you did that, I wouldn't actually mix the powder, but rather put the 4fg next to the primer, and the 2fg over that. As long as the load was compressed. Or...visa versa? !!! Well that might be weird science. Really I'd just use the 4fg.
Ugly Sauce
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A small "root cellar" Dug in the ground, brick or cement lined with a stout lid/trap door on top? Perhaps only 4X4' or 4X6', something like that. I bet you have that much space somewhere. About 4' deep. ? That would be quite fire proof. Done nicely it could be padlocked and secure. That might depend on how wet your soil is, or the water table. But even brick could be water proofed with a plastic liner. Making a form for cement would not be that difficult, nor would it take very much cement. Could mix it up in a wheel barrow. Some hard work, but hard work is good. Again, absolutely fire proof, just use the imagination to design it, and choose the appropriate materials for the top and door. Kind of sounds like a fun project, aye?
J-Bar
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ROA: Ruger Old Army.
hawg
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A six pound field gun took 1 1/4 pounds of powder. A 12 pound Napoleon took 2 1/2 pounds. A 30 pound Parrott rifle took 3 1/4 pounds.
Ugly Sauce
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Well, the 30 pounder had a pretty good appetite!!
woodnbow
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I’m using a wooden footlocker. It can be secured but if it should burn it will not contain the expanding gasses well enough to cause an explosion. I’m almost certain I read something on the ATF site about storage and it’s how I’ve done it ever since.
woodnbow
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This probably how you should have asked the question. What is the safest way to store blackpowder?
