Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Old Goex Clear Shot

I got a pound of this in a box of blackpowder goodies I acquired.




What's the story on it, seeing as its no longer made and a google-fu left his dramatic prose from Randy Wakeman:



which sounds rough, but I think he's hawking someone else's stuff these days, so I'm not suprised.

That powder has to be a minimum of 12 years-old and being a powder substitute, I would suggest sparsely feeding your lawn with it.

Seeing that it's Fructose based, I think you should run a couple spoonfuls in your morning coffee...

Being a frugal sort, if it's sealed I'd try it out and if it works, use it for practice or plinking. I wouldn't hang my hat on it for hunting though.

If it's open, toss it. For all you know, somebody could have used the can to store Bullseye or some other stuff guaranteed to ruin your day.

A prudent guy would toss it even if it is sealed.

Make up some "fishing sticks"

B'lieve that might be classed as a wmd by fish and game.

My late uncle was stationed in the Aleutians during the war and they used grenades for their fishing,

Not much sense of humor for that sort of stuff any more.

Call them Lithuanian fly rods up here in the coal belt.

If it is the stuff I remember(looks kinda like oatmeal) if you try fishing sticks it will drink the pond dry. That stuff sucked up humidity like salt, Not good in the swampy environment we tried using it in.......
If it is open and you live in relatively high humidity it probably wont burn well.

Got stumps? Or, gopher holes?

I just pulled a can of this out for a up comming hunt. I've used it for two hunts over the last 15 years. The last one five years ago, thats how often the muzzle loader tags are being drawn. Was going to give it a test run this week. Maybe I'll just start from scratch.

I'd bring a new can of something fresh to the range, in the event that doesn't work. If you're pinched for time, all the more reason to have an alternative.

RWE and Farming
You can easily get fooled into believing that old powder does work. It may fire-off five in a row without a hitch. Then the next five may be hang/misfires. Or, it may produce good accuracy in dry weather and once moisture or high humidity rolls in, easy absorption occurs and your powder turns to mud.

Last year I fed my lawn some 12 year-old 777 powder. Spread it out real fine across my entire small backyard, a day prior to a predicted rainfall that occurred.

Nobody likes throwing hard-earned money away. But I cannot deal with suspect powders and suspect sidehammer rifles, which I sold five sidehammers last winter, all because I lost faith they would always perform/ignite at a high level, here in the very humid Great Lakes region where I live.

My ML world revolves around inlines now. My last remaining sidehammer (brassy long rifle Shenandoah), hangs on my wall. So get rid of your old powder and never look back. Keep your powder dry........ keep it current and fresh too.

Old powder may still work. But I guarantee newer/newish powder works better. You could hang-on to that Clear Shot powder for another 25 years. It may be worth $50-$100 to a ML historic museum someday......lol

That's good enough for me,I'm in for new and a known commodity. The tags are to hard to come by to risk the chance at a big buck for the price of a pound of powder.

Thanks

never label something as bad until you try it.

That was my favorite powder for one of my in-lines. I wish it were still available.
As for old powder - I've never had a problem. I have had to dry black powder a time or two but it always functioned and chronographed just fine. I would suggest that you examine it carefully then try it at the range.

Probably just a rumor, but I've heard that great care must be
taken when sprinkling 777 on lawns. Make no circle designs when
doing so, for they can turn into crud rings, and later picked up
by a mower resulting in broken blades.

When Clear Shot was being made, no one around my area was
selling it, so I ordered 5# of it, sold a pound, and kept the
rest. Still have a couple pounds. One problem reported was
that condensation occurred in sidelocks sometime between after
a shot was taken and reloading. I was using an Encore and never
had that problem. Took several deer using it. Although not as
"potent" as 777, I didn't have to bust through a crud ring
after every shot, and it was just as accurate. I have since
gone strictly smokeless, or there wouldn't be 2# of it left.

If it were me, I would at least examine the stuff before
tossing it. The granules should look more like a smokeless
powder than BP subs. And if they are not sticking together,
I would try a few shots to see how it's burning. If nothing
else, it should be good for plinking.

After reading this thread I went through my stash of partial containers of powder. Along with Goex black, Goex Pinacle, American Pioneer, Pyrodex loose and pellets, Black Mag 3 (my favoite) & Triple 7, I came across some Clean Shot pellets. I have no idea how old it is, but it's my understanding it was the predecessor to American Pioneer. I was heading out to test BH209 in my Remington 700ML I just converted with a Hunter bolt kit, so I threw in the Clean Shot,some Win T7 primers and my Ruger 77/50 to see how/if they'd fire. They did. I fired six rounds of two pellets under a 348 grain Powerbelt and all fired instantly with authority. I wasn't shooting for groups, just leaning over my truck bed cover, but they all landed "minute of deer heart" at 80 yards. The surprising part is when I cleaned the rifles when done. I fired the same amount of rounds of BH209 through the Remington, no swabbing between shots on either rifle. These are the first few patches through the barrels, BH209 cleaned with Hoppes 9 are the 4 on the left, Clean Shot cleaned with Knight water based cleaner the 3 on the right. There are many more BH209 patches not shown because I'm still not getting clean patches after about a dozen! I ran a patch of Kroil down it and will let it sit for awhile and don't doubt I'll get more crud when I get back at it. I kinda like those Clean Shot pellets, wonder why they went tits up?

Thanks, man.

I may try this in my 32 underhammer - which fouls like hell.

So bad that a 2nd maxi ball or patched slug won't fit unless its cleaned - which takes some effort.

At either 30 or 50 gr per shot - it should last a while.

I agree, wonder why they quit production?

Clear Shot had been produced for only around a year before the
plant caught fire and there was a fatality. Rather than
"gamble" any more on their new powder, Goex dropped Clear Shot.