A blackpowder explosion...

R

redbone

Inactive
Don't know what happen to the first post. What it was supposed to say was:

A blackpowder explosion...

...is what I'm trying to avoid. I have some old fg and fffg that is 15 years old and has been stored in the garage (hot and cold thru the seasons). Is it safe for my flintlock, or should I destroy it??

Thanks.

RBH
 
Metal cans -condensation might have caused a problem. Plastic likely not. Old days...they used to put wet powder on a wood plank and dry it. But we've got sporting goods stores. If it's not discolored or clumped might be Ok, I've fired cartridges from the 1880s..that were BP and a bit virdegrised...and these worked.
 
Pour a bit in your palm. If it looks grainy, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Unlike modern nitrocelluose propellants, black powder doesn't really deterioate over age and it's not unheard of firing a gun (that is in good condition) that has been loaded for over 100 years. This was something Remington recommended to a fellow who brought in an original Remington flintlock. It was loaded ages ago and when he inherited it, he found it loaded. In a loaded condition, he brought it to the factory and the customer services folks examined it. They found the gun to be in good condition and so they told him, shoot it! (this story was related to me at Illion when I attended the Factory Armorer's School).
 
"Remington flintlock..."

Remington made flintlocks?

I thought he only made caplocks and later rifles for metallic cartridges.
 
Blackpowder makes really good fertilizer for the plants. If you do not want to shoot it, just pour it on your flower garden.

Personally I would just shoot it. I have used up an old can of Dupont blackpowder in my .54 caliber CVA Hawkins rifle with patched roundball and it worked fine.
 
Mike: admittingly there is some debate as to whether Eliphalet Remington actually produced flintlocks for others or whether he was just a barrel maker who took up gunmaking. Even if a flintlock was found, it would be a composite of the efforts of many. The lock may be from England, the thimbles recycled from an older gun, the patchbox from scratch, the sideplate from a cast off musket. Barrel makers sometimes signed their barrels, but may have left only a stamping.

There are those who claim that Remington fabricated its history of gunmaking to stretch its lineage farther back. Who really knows?
 
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