black powder substitute in hawkins and handguns

R

REDCELL

New member
i shot a hawkins style/plains rifle bp rifle 2 days ago. my friend had bought a type of powder -- i thought it was smokeless- it seemed to work great. it was cleaner than i ever imagined a bp rifle would be. Is this ok to use all the time. we were using 30-35g of (pyrodex i think.) im new to bp but not to modern style firearms.
 
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Prodex isnt smokless powder but an exellent black powder substitute. Yes, you can shoot it all the time in that rifle. Never shoot smokless powder in a black powder firearm. It sounds like your intrested so you might want to visit dixiegunworks.com
 
WARENING> WARNING TIM ROBINSON.

NEVER USE SMOKELESS POWDER IN A BLACK POWDER FIREARM ! ! !

The metals used in the steel are not strong enough to maintain the pressures of modern powder and ou will eventually blow your gun up.
 
Maybe it was 777 made by Hodgdon, the outfit that makes Pyrodex.
Since you were loading with 30-35 grains of powder, I wonder if the rifle was a .45 caliber?
They do make it in fffg.
 
how many times....

do you mean "without cleaning the bore?" With Triple 7, you could almost shoot indefinately as it doesn't leave much fouling at all.

Black powder usually leaves enough fouling that you have to swab the bore after 5 shots or so - but an OX-YOKE wonder wad under the ball can keep it clean enough to keep shooting far longer.
 
No smoke?

I don't understand the comment about no smoke. All the bp substitutes smoke, although perhaps not as much as real bp. The only way you were getting no smoke is if the powder were modern smokeless, and in that case you are very lucky.

I shoot 777 the majority of the time, Pyrodex P only occasionally (fffg in pistols, ffg in rifles and shotguns). Both create a considerable amount of smoke, enough that I can shut down the range for a few minutes if I empty my Dragoon quickly enough.

No smoke? Something ain't right here. fffg or ffg or whatever, if it was bp or a bp substitute, well, there should be a considerable amount of smoke.
 
The first time I fired my BP 45 I was expecting to be standing in a "Rasta" cloud of smoke, and when I first started collecting BP I might have said something similar in reference to Pyrodex
 
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