Skirmish Black Powder

[thelionspaw]

I was given 2 cans of this powder by a friend who uses it in his full sized bronze muzzle loading 2 pdr..  I loaded 2.5 oz. and no real flash out the muzzle but just look at the vent and breech of my breechblock 2 pdr.. My wife even remarked that "Goex doesn't do that. The powder may be too fine".  The can only has "Skirmish Black Powder" written on it and he magic markered it with"1F". It doesn't have the recoil of Goex as far as I can see; or the report.

Richard "The Fizzled"

[Rickk]

This is 3.6 ounces of 1F "Skirmish Powder" (as sold by "Powder, Inc) leaving my 2.25 inch bore in a hurry.



When I shoot blanks, it is loud enough that without hearing protection I prefer to use a 7 inch fuse and wander about 30-40 feet back. There is a mountain range a couple of 2 miles away in the direction that I shoot and the echo makes it round trip.

I do put 2 baking soda saturated corrogated cardboard disks on the top of the powder charge inside the foil bag. It seems to make quite a bit of difference it the report. The baking soda is a fire retardent.

No powder can in the picture for scale but the barrel on the gun is 40 inches long. 

[Cat Whisperer]

Another calendar picture candidate!

Did that cook the tomatoes still on the vines?

[thelionspaw]

Thank you for the details. Very (very!) impressive.  

I max with 2.5 oz and these shots were 2.0 oz. Your load is almost twice what I use and the cardboard/baking soda logic eludes me.  

Since my block chamber is 1.75" wide with a 1.58" wall, tapered to .78" and I have to load for it and not the 2.5" bore.  I wrap my charge in 4 ply heavy duty foil with a fat crimp on top. Excluding the breechblock, the tube is 32" and the block adds 10".  

Night firing with Goex this way usually exhibited a 24+" flame.  I live in an L shaped hollow (holler ) and even though I still have the wrap-around echo, It doesn't rumble or carry as far.

Hey!  I'm an "old-guy" and it might be my hearing going but I still have eyes and what I see, isn't the same as Goex. ( ).

As Edward G Robinson said in the 1930 movie Little Caesar: "Could this be the end of Rico?"

Richard a.k.a. Rico

[Rickk]

The reduced chamber I have no experience with, so I can't comment there.

As far as the cardboard, my guess is that it pushes against the air on it's way out (like a parachute) and provides a slight but uniform resistantance against the burning powder.  It weighs almost nothing so it can't be the weight.

I think it keeps some of the the powder from leaving the barrel too soon. It makes quite a bit of difference. Without it, the Boom factor is somewhat erratic. Some boom louder than others, and none as loud as with the cardboard. With the cardboard things are much more repeatable.

And, the baking soda is to prevent the cardboard from cooking the tomatos ;-)

Actually, that was my very first shot with this gun. After I fired that shot, I moved the gun into a safer direction. By safer, I mean in a direction where my wife would not kill me for taking out the entire garden with muzzle blast.

CW, if it wasn't for all the crapola in the background I would definitely enter it in the contest. I am going to have to try that picture again with a clearer background. I am thinking that picture with the muzzle blast peaking might have been a 1 in a million shot. Can you imagine that it was the first time that I fired it? I do have a way better camera now that might increase the odds of getting a muzzle flash without such luck. If the rain ever ends here I may try it again some time this week.

Rick

[HuecoDoc]

I think pointing the cannon at the garden probably helps keep the pests out, especially if you do it every hour.  Provides healthy CO2 and keeps dust from settling on the leaves.

He sells that powder at a competitive price, but I didn't know what to think of the lack of a standardized grading system.