Black Powder Substitutes for Dummies,

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Now the cases have been advanced, and a bullet needs to be put into the case at station 5. If you've been using a XL650 for several years, you'll probably try to insert it in station 4. You'll get over it.

Limits

If you shoot one of the smaller cartridges, .38 Special of one of the .32s, you should not have to do this. A .38 Special filled with APP FFg to the base of the bullet is a very mild shooting load that smokes realistically. Reducing the powder charge on a .38 Special or less is not appropriate except for people with handicaps. Reducing the powder charge on a strongly recoiling .45 to make shooting more comfortable and to make up a little for the superiority of small calibers is reasonable. It costs less than a new set of expensive guns in .38 or .32. Loading .38s with the standard Dillon setup and 15-17 gr. of powder is a snap, and you can make volume production loads easily. If you want them mild, use APP or Pinnacle FFg. If you want them hot, use 777 FFg. APP or Pinnacle FFFg will be a bit hotter than FFg but slightly easier to load.

A .38 Special with 5 grains of 777 and a lot of filler will smoke less, but eliminating smoke is certainly against the spirit of the Black Powder categories. If your rounds don't smoke, you shouldn't shoot them in BP categories. Current rules require that rounds smoke as much or more than a 1 cc./15 gr. black powder load. If you load 15 gr. volume of any of the substitutes they will smoke more than 1 cc./15 gr. Goex Cowboy.

MEC 9000G

So I bought a MEC 9000G progressive loader. I could easily load 100 or more rounds in an hour. I'm not a fan because of the @#$! primer feed. Primers have to drop down a tube, land upright in a hole, and be transported to the next station when the machine advances. The primer feed mechanism gets out of adjustment enough, depending on a cheap little chain for adjustment, that it's a problem. If no primer gets into the shell, powder does and fouls the whole thing. So you have to watch 3 things for every round, the wad, don't forget it, the hull, don't forget it, and the primer. With practice you'll get the hang of it, but you'll waste powder and hulls till you do. Having compressed air to blow the powder and occasionally shot out of the machine helps.

Wad in place, fresh hull in station one.

Empty the powder back into the original container when you're done for the night and clean up around the loader. I don't leave any hulls in the machine, either, to prevent moisture contamination of the powder in a half-finished round. Spilled powder and shot are vacuumed up.

Other than always emptying the powder when you're through for the night and re-sealing it in its original container, it's pretty much like loading smokeless powder, no special grease wads needed, and FFg meters well enough for a shotgun.

50-65 gr. FFg (volume, 42-55 gr. weight, see chart)

Red AA Winchester hulls

Red WAA12R Winchester wad (or Claybuster equivalent)

1-1/8 to 1-1/4 oz. shot, 7-1/2 to 9 to taste.

39 gr. FFg (volume, 34 gr. weight FFg)

Red AA Winchester hulls

Orange WT12 Winchester wads (or Claybuster equivalent)

1-1/8 oz. 7-1/2 to 9 shot.

1-1/4 oz. if desired.

Costs

Brass Clean up

BP and BP subs are hard on brass. Corrosion starts upon firing, and the way to stop it is to get the brass into something to prevent corrosion. BP and BP subs are basic, so a mildly acidic solution is suggested, such as vinegar and water. The Clean Shot people used to say 50/50. I've tried that but had just as good luck with 90% water/10% vinegar. I've also managed successfully with 90% water/10% Ballistol, 90% water 10% Commercial Windex with Vinegar. The Vinegar/water solution is the official answer from American Pioneer Powder.

1. Your brass now looks different from everyone else's. It's easier to keep foreign brass out of your collection. (A .44-40 round got through all the checks and balances and got loaded with a 200 gr. .452 bullet, but it wouldn't chamber and locked up the gun--at a major match of course. I've learned. Now I try to have new brass for major matches.)

2. There is less danger of corrosion and discoloring if the round doesn't get stuck in water quickly.

1. It cost more than plain brass.

2. It's not as readily available.

(Starline nickeled brass, available only from sources other than Starline unless you buy 3 drums at a time, is $15/1000 higher than unplated. Try http://www.blue-star-inc.com/)

3. It also won't last as long, being more brittle. It can split on the first firing, and the brass will peel off.

When I get home I rinse the brass thoroughly in clear water and shake it out on colander to dry. After it's thoroughly dry I tumble it clean just like smokeless. If you're in a hurry (and single) you can put the cookie tin in the oven to dry it out. Then tumble.

I have no evidence that discoloration hurts the brass.

If you're at home and have running water handy, try it. If not (like at a match) my guns are cleaned with a glass cleaner without ammonia and preferably with vinegar. I spray the guns down and run a bore snake through them with lubricant of choice sprayed on the last few inches of the bore snake. A cleaning brush and Windex/Vinegar does the frame. Then I wipe them down with lubricant of choice and put them away. Complete disassembly is rare, especially on the pistols. The Marlin needs it more often. I'll remove the bolt if I'm cleaning the Marlin at home and clean from the chamber end. The Winchester '73 replica has a brass carrier that is susceptible to black tarnishing. I will spray it with Windex/Vinegar and lubricant after shooting to minimize this. If it turns black, disassemble the carrier and use brass cleaning items such as Brasso. Zep All Purpose Cleaner, used full strength, will get off black discoloration. Keep it away from the blued parts of your gun. Cowboys and Indians Store make a lightweight carrier out of anodized aluminum that eliminates this problem.

The shotgun is the hardest to clean. Plastic wads will melt and coat the bores after hard usage.

To avoid this I spray lubricant down the barrel before putting the gun away to take home.

Ordinarily that will come off with either a good brush or a Bore Snake run through several times. (Once is usually enough 90% of the time.) I just spray Windex/Vinegar down the bore and run the Bore Snake until it's clean. As an alternative to the Bore Snake, take a half paper towel, saturate it with your cleaning solution, wad it up, and shove it through the barrel using a dowel. Usually once per barrel is enough.

After a hard session when I get home I will literally cork the barrels (turned down wine corks!) and fill them with Windex/water and let them soak while I clean the other guns. This has always resulted in a one-pass cleanup using a Bore Snake.

The rest of the gun is cleaned like the revolvers and rifle. When done I make sure every gun has a nice exterior coat of Break Free CLP before being put away. (I got rust using Ballistol/Water--on the outside, not caused by the powder).

I've used Ballistol, Break Free CLP, and Rem Oil. American Pioneer Powder, 777 and Pinnacle aren't as finicky as the wholly black. If your lubricant works, continue to use it. If you get fouling, it's either your bullet lube or your lubricant. Switch accordingly.

Talk to 2 different shooters, whether they use wholly black or substitutes, and you will get 2 different cleaning methods. Talk to 10 and you'll get 12. The variations in methods and cleaning supplies and lubricants is staggering. It all seems to work. I don't think the exact method is critical.

Now you, too, can annoy your posse with smoke and noise, fascinate onlookers, and make inane comments about how black powder is more righteous than smokeless. In other words, you can have a lot of fun.