Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders which powder and why?

Hello i'm about out of powder i changed to pyrodex RS from the ffg +fffg. i shoot 2 rifles 58 cal 1 54 cal and some pistols 36 and 44 cal. What powder do you guys recomend and why?????? thnx for any help

Curious as to why you switched from black to Pyro-crap?
I've used several pounds of pyrofake over the years and always find myself going back to black.
Pyro absolutely does not ignite as fast as black when it's really cold out as when hunting in the late muzzle loader season.
Black is chaper. I pay about 8.75 a pound for Elephant when I buy it by the case. Swiss is the rocket fuel of propellants but pricy at about 15.50 a pound, but then Pyro is more and 777 more still.
Black is THE traditional muzzle gun fuel.
New Elephant is better than it ever was and cleans up as easy as pyro.
I love the smell of black powder smoke in the morning.
To each his own.

I switched from Pyrodex to blackpowder last year. For me it was simply a matter of economics, black is cheaper. I use 3fg in everything except my 54 and 58 calibers and use 2fg in them.

well when i switched the local gunshop told me i would like the pyrodex better but i like to have confidence when i pull up to shoot that the charge will go off the 54 new englander once in awhile has to put a couple of caps thru it my 58 cal huntsman i've never had this problem with and is my rifle of choice.as to why the question i haven't bought powder in a long time and plan to start shooting alot more nothing beats the taste of the powder in the air after you shoot.I see questions about the swiss,goex,and the pyrodex just was wondering what people thaught was better and why thnx for your replies so far

tbear-I think you'd be much better off shooting real BP, I really like the Swiss
for my Flinters and smallbores, cartridge shooting,and Elephant for .50, .54,.62 & shotguns
Pyrodex is harder to ignite, more corrosive, not completely water soluable
like BP, quite expensive and has shelf life issues once opened.
fredj

Pyrodex smells different than BP. I like the smell of BP.

Currently using Pyrodex in one rifle and BP in other. I would like to use BP in both rifles, but the Encore groups better with Pyrodex. I will be working with Swiss and Elephant in the future. We will see.

ddunn- I had some excellent accuracy with my .54 with Pyrodex RS, but
stopped shooting it when I found that once the container had been opened on a humid day that the stuff would start yielding really wierd velocity variations and my carefully worked up loads went south, I eventually found out it was the Perchlorate they add to suppress the flash point so it could be sold as a flammable solid, the Perchlorate is highly corrosive and only partially water soluable, so I used military surplus corrosive primer solvent
and used lots of JB Probst bore cleaning paste, I did like being able to shoot all afternoon without wiping the bore. GOEX FFg at the time was a poor excuse for BP as it yielded abundant hard concrete like fouling, when they came out with Cartridge however I really liked the stuff as the fouling was softer, somewhat reduced and slightly moist, once they moved to Minden LA
the Cartridge suddenly went south and I could'nt get any consistent accuracy
so I switched to Elephant which was slower but had softer fouling and eventually they got their act together and got it to a rifle rate of burn with
very reduced fouling which works great in my .54, and .45 Whitworth
I found I could actually shoot dirty like they did in the days of yore. Then
I got hold of some Swiss and found it incredible in my .45 flinter, .40 underhammer and cartridge rifles. Now I'm pretty much dialed in for all my shooting needs, but I am looking forward to trying the improved Wano (German BP) thats
going to be available in Jan or Feb. of 2003 they're naming it Schuetzen and it's reputed to be essentially the rifle grade equivalent of Swiss as it's char is Buckthorn Alder (same as the Swiss) which should be excellent, I think it'll
be a new golden age of BP shooting like the 1880's-1920's when excellent BP
was available, I think if GOEX had actually been making a quality BP while they had a virtual monopoly there wouldn't have ever been a Pyrodex.
I've heard GOEX's latest batches are supposed to be pretty good again.
I think the pellet propellant thing is a total scam as there is no way anyone is going to get anywhere near the best accuracy in any front stuffer working up
loads in 50 gr. increments other than in the extremely remote odds a particular barrel is going to resonate just right at 100 or 150 gr. Regards fredj