NITRATE WADS

[Lead pot]

Hi all.
I been working on a cleaner burning black powder load,and just been wondering if any of you black shooters have tried or heard of doing it.
I would like to hear if you did.
I guess I'm like every one else that is a powder shooter thinks our powder some times falls short at times.
I tried wads over the flash hole,and just about everything else.
I been soaking news paper wads in Potassium Nitrate,as much as water will disolve,and putting it over the flash hole to get a little more oxygen to get a better burn.
I worked up several different combinations of bullet weight's, primers,powder,and compression's in the .40-65.I finally found a combination that looks promising,and woulden you know that particular 25 round load I did'nt record the compression I used,I think it was .200,not sure.
But it looked like a 6% duplex load for 25 rounds,with a 3" group at 200 yds with 1 for henry  at 2 oclock I called.
NOW I DONT RECOMMEND YOU TRYING THIS!!!!!!  I just would like to know if someone else has worked on this???and what they found.    Lp.

[Omaha Poke]

LEADPOT, those nitrate wads over the primer hole make a heck of alot more sense to me than some of these guys loading newsprint wads or whatever over the primer hole.  I have never quite understood why they want to do that anyway.  I don't think that having powder trickle into the primer hole is detrimental.  After all if the primer can ignite through the newsprint and then into the powder, what makes anyone think that the primer can not simply ignite the powder sitting just in front of the primer hole??  

The only thing that I can see the nitrate wad doing is slightly delaying the ignition of the powder, and then accelerating it, where the newsprint wad would only delay and not accererate the ignition of the powder.  


Please explain why you would want to do either.  I am curious about the reasoning behind this.  I am always open to new ideas.     Omaha

[Hot Foot II]

Gents,

The potassium nitrate treated wad (disc?) is an interesting concept… sort of a duplex load except not really one by strict definition since no modern “smokeless” powder is being used.

As to the purpose for an untreated overprimer “wad” (disc really) I think the intent is to alter the primer flash so that velocity extreme spreads are reduced.  An accuracy aid and not an anti-fouling effort.   From what I have heard of this it shows the most benefit in smaller capacity bp cartridges… those with considerably less capacity than a .45-70 like .38-55, 32-40 etc.  

Many shooters use large pistol vs. large rifle primers in .40-65 and report better extreme spread numbers.  I found this to be the case in my .40-65 and what I think was happening was that more robust large rifle primers were driving/compacting the powder column against the bullet base and moving the bullet before the fire really got going.  If someone doesn’t want to use large pistol primers due to for instance, the possibility of “cupping” the breech block face when the shorter dimensioned pistol primer is driven aft by pressure, then an overprimer wad may accomplish the same purpose (“softening” of the primer force) when using a large rifle primer….without the risk of wear to the breech block face.

I once tried un-treated overprimer discs of newsprint and some heavier parchment paper as well as some “rag” (cotton fiber) bond in .45-70 and saw a slight reduction of extreme spread over the chronograph but not enough to add yet another procedure to the loading process.  It wasn’t enough of a reduction to present much benefit… only one fps or so.  Might have been another story with a different powder/bullet alloy/primer though.  Don’t’ know… but it is something to experiment with in depth if one has the time.

And now, (off on a tangent) what I would REALLY like to find is a simple way to reduce powder column drag on the inside of the case especially in my .43 Spanish Rem (bottleneck) where I have been plagued with case stretching and eventual case failure (partial separation) that occurs about half way between the web and the shoulder.

A thought provoking thread.

Hoppy

[Lead pot]

Omaha-Hoppy.
Thank you for your input.I tried the pistol primer once and had a problem percing the primer so I never used it again.It just isn't worth a eye.old age is taking them as is.The news paper over the flash hole does some good,but I dont think enough to help.
The reason for nitrating the wad "or disk"was just simply getting the powder to burn a little cleaner by adding a little more oxygen to the burn.I did'nt want to add it to the powder direct,and I did'nt want to wet down the powder mix it in and make a kake and regrind it,the neighbors might not like the noise if I spark it ,HI-Hi.
I dont know if it will work again or not or if it was just a fluke that is why I put this post out to see if anyone has tried it before.I just loaded up some more to retest. A nother thing that will give you a large extream spread over the chronograph is how consistant you are with the blow tube,and you will see it on the paper when you are not consistant on the amount of blows you use.Aint this Blackpowder fun??

Hoppy
you will get a little more stretching with the bottleneck case with black,especially if you leave a little carbon in the case to give the powder a little junk to get a hold on.I have had 3 1/4 streight cases seperate
Lp.