Pellets ?

pulsarnc

I have an older .50 cal traditions black powder rifle. Nothing fancy ,bought 35 years ago for $100. Over the years I have bought multiple packs of pyrodex pellets ,50 grain. Can I use them in my rifle as is or mixed with some loose powder? I know 50 grains is small load but it ought to be fun to play with . What s everyone's opinion ?

jimdeere

I'm of the opinion that most people don't play.

navc130

The 50 gr. pellet should work fine. However, accuracy MAY suffer. Sometimes a bullet must achieve a certain velocity to be stabilized. If necessay, you can mash up a pellet to add powder, e.g, 60 or 70 grains. Good luck.

pulsarnc

That's what I was thinking . I have bought a couple of dozen packs of pellets off the markdown/ clearance rack at Walmart. Just now decided to try to n do something with them . Advice from a muzzleloader forum was a use a few grains of black as an initiative charge. We shall see

hillbille

is it percussion rifle, flintlock or 209? pellets might not light off with flint or percussion without black powder or some type of loose powder help. we used to let kids shoot muzzleloaders , round balls over 25 grains of loose powder at the wild turkey federation days. My fingers got sore loading so many times but the smiles on the kids faces, after the smoke cleared, dulled the pain till next day. we had 3 guys loading and probubly let the kids shoot at least 100 rounds a rifle before the end of the day……

Okie743

If you read the cautions about any black powder the safety manual indicates to NOT MIX DIFFERENT TYPE POWDERS.

AND

ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GLASSES WHEN SHOOTING BLACK POWDER GUNS.

Pyrodex Pellets are only recommended for 209 ignition.

Pyrodex pellets will absorb moisture and become erratic in velocity and one weak pellet might not push a bullet out the bore. (so keep a heads up for such)

If your rifle is not 209 ignition and not rated for at least 100g of black powder they most likely should not be PLAYED WITH, especially just trying to use only one OLD PELLET.

I witnessed a guy recently that had some OLD (15 years old) pyrodex 50g and 30g Hodgdons Pyrodex pellets that were not stable shot to shot. He thought his BP rifle barrel had gone bad. Accuracy was erratic. He was ready to buy another gun When I suggested he try my powder his accuracy returned.

We normally do not load over 80g of black powder in any BP rifles, even rifles rated for 200g. We have found from experience that we get more consistent accuracy in 45 and 50 calibers using not over 80g and velocity and accuracy/velocity is good out to 125 yards for hunting deer using scoped rifles.

Also notice that one end of the Pyrodex pellet is blacker than the other. The black end is the black powder end and suppose to be towards the 209 ignition source. (this is mentioned in the user sheet that comes with the pellets in the fine print)The black end is impregnated with black powder which has lower ignition temp) Hodgdons pellets.

I'm not telling you to do this but I have experimented with varying the black powder charge using both triple 7 2F loose powder and a 50g pyrodex pellet so as to get a 70 to 80g charge. I've used one 50g pellet and 20-30g of 2F triple 7 loose powder installing the loose powder first in sidelocks with good results using the 209 MAG SPARK adapter ignition source. If loading a 209 BP in-line rifle, I load the pellet first.

You can re-search that BLACK powder is hygroscopic, (will absorb moisture from the air)

I store my pellets inside their original container and place that inside a one gallon zip loc bag and couple of silca jel packs inside with all the air squeezed out of the bag and that is stored inside controlled temp. Temp's stay at around 70-80 degrees same temp as the house. I do the same thing with pyrodex triple 7 loose powder in it's on pound jug. When I was using side locks, #11 and musket caps my black powder became harder to ignite after about 3 years usually. I've never had any luck trying to store regular old Goex black powder for over 3 years.

I've also used a Pyrodex pellet in T/C side locks using the 209 mag spark adapter, but I loaded the loose powder in first. I also Deer hunt with a T/C Hawken with a Green Mountain fast twist barrel using the mag spark 209 adapter, 777 Winchester 209 primers and 70g of Pyrodex 2F triple 7 loose powder with good accuracy and consistent ignition. Some 209 primers cannot be used in the Mag spark adapter due to the way the upper surface of the 209 primer is concave and sets too low in the adapter.

I think maybe the 30g Pyrodex pellets are going away. (not being made available)

I would not suggest purposely crushing a pellet by hand to make loose powder. (might get a powder burn)

Stay safe.

pulsarnc

Been doing blackpowder for 40 plus years but I don't claim to be an expert by any means . Asked the question because I don't know the ins and outs of pellets ,only having used loose powder all these years. I think i will stick to loose powder. .