I'm intrested in buying a flintlock muzzleloader shotgun. What ther powders are there instead of black powder. I live in the UK and you need a permint to buy the stuff. I can buy peroxide on a shotgun permit, but not BP. I have heard there is a black powder subsitute of some sort, that make a big bang, and produces alot of smoke, but is more stable than BP.Cheers guys
True black powder is considered somewhat unstable. One of the gun shops here that has since went out of business had to get special permits to store the black powder and keep it in special metal containers etc. Anyways... pyrodex works just fine in a muzzle loader and is much more stable.
Considering the fact that good corned black gunpowder has fired after being loaded in a firearm or cartridge for over 100 years, I seriously doubt if the blackpowder substitutes are any more stable than blackpowder. For a flintlock firearm, none of the blackpowder substitutes are recommended. They all require more fire to ignite them than a flintlock will provide. If you convert your flinter to a percussion lock, you can use any of the blackpowder substitutes you can find. I'd rather have the blackstuff myself. Good Luck, Doc
Here is what's available for black powder substitutes in the U.S. I don't know if any of these are available in the UK, but at least you know what to ask for now. Black powder isn't unstable at all. It will burn very violently when ignited; more so than most smokeless powders do. Because of it's nature, it is more closely regulated here than regular smokeless powders and their substitutes. Most places wont carry it because of the extra paperwork involved in its sale. In my opinion, it is the best thing to use in a muzzle loading rifle, or black powder cartridge rifle, and I probably use about 10 pounds of it or more a year.
Pyrodex, Goex, or 777 are all black powder substitutes...I don't know about availability in the UK.
