I next tried it in my 20 ga. Pedersoli "trade gun" flintlock. I used a charge of 4f real deal black in the pan. Had bad luck getting the Black MZ to go off in the flintlock. It may have something to do with the fact that I'm just now breaking in to shooting flintlock guns or else it is harder to light off.
A flintlock can not produce the higher heat required to light off substitutes for black powder. You will only get satisfactory ignition in flintlocks using real black powder. The substitute powders require higher heat, the main reason for the "magnum" hotter caps we now have, the musket cap conversion nipples, and the guns made to use shotgun primers.
In the year 1834 Nathaniel Wyeth wrote in his journal about converting 3 flintlock rifles to percussion because the powder they had access to was in poor condition and the flintlocks would not ignite it. The percussion cap produces a much hotter flame than a flintlock can.
The one time I was forced to try substitute powder was a failure in the flintlocks and not much better in the cap locks. The only good use we have found for it is in our cannons with a burning fuse. And we never run out of it because someone is always giving us their partially used containers after they tried it in their rifles with dismal results.
If one is forced to use artificial black powder I would recommend a rifle that can use a musket cap or better yet a 209 shotgun primer.
