[kjeff50cal]

Happy New Year and Greetings to all,
I have been reading the various posts in several forums (shooters.com RIP) and I am relatively new to BP. I have a CVA Moutain Stalker .50 and a Plains Pistol (also .50cal) and have been deer hunting with both (Did not see a thing but I will keep trying :lol: ) . The thing I would like to know is how do you fire one and make it go BOOM Like it has a bullet loaded instead of POP!!! I loaded my Plains Pistol with 25 grs. BP~ Pyrodex, Oxbow Patch and Newspaper wadding to bring in the new year (I am in the country and did not have any Fireworks) and I got what I thought was a hangfire. The CCI Mag cap went off so I held it down range for a minute (it felt like an hour) and put my ramrod down the barrel to reseat the charge. Nothing was there!!! . What I thought was the cap going off was the cap and main charge! How does the Civil War Reinactors do it???

KJeff50cal

 

[Shorty]

Reenactors put nothing in their muskets besides powder, not even a ramrod! They pour in powder and thump the butt on the ground and then hold the muzzle well elevated. They don't want anything at all flying down range towards the "enemy".
At home, for noise making, I use a cotton ball stuffed over powder. It will blow into lint and fall a few feet out front.

 

[Robert]

You need to use Black Powder, not Pyrodex......

Pyrodex burns if it isnt tightly compressed. Black powder is a 'true explosive', and goes boom with very little containment. I use my 50 for holidays and just pack it with newspaper. The kids love it. We had a blast last night, a lot of BOOM, without bullets coming down on somebodys roof. Happy New Year

 

[jhm]

BP blanks

when I lived in mich I had a neighbor who had one of those civil way canon about i.5 in bores and on the 4th of july we would pull it out of his gurage andf light it up he used old nylons that his wife had around the house he would measure the amount of charge into them tie it off cut the ball out and down the barrel it went. we had a ball until we set his garage roof on fire nothing major but we wernt permited by his wife to do it anymore. Just be careful. JIM

 

[kjeff50cal]

Thank You for all the information. jhm the cannon incident reminds me of a time when I was a kid and some buddies I and decided we could make BP . Fortunately it was a small amount which indeed went WHUMPH!!! and the amount of smoke generated truly scared the [email protected] :shock: out of us to the point we never tried that formula again. Be Safe!