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Pyrodex and the Baptist Category


J-BAR #18287

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About two weeks ago there was a thread about how hygroscopic that nasty old Pyrodex is, and how shotgun shells loaded with Pyrodex might fail to fire because the powder soaks up humidity from the atmosphere. I said I would run a test and report back.

 

I put one of my 12 gauge Pyrodex shells in a glass of water for a week. Completely submerged. For 3 days it was crimp up and for 4 days it was crimp down. This was a shell that I pulled out of a box that was loaded a couple of months ago. I did not make it up special...just one of my regular loads: 4 cc Pyrodex, red wad, 1 1/8 oz #7 1/2 shot. 8 point crimp directly over the shot, no overshot card. Winchester primer. The hull was a Remington black plastic field load hull with a steel base. At the end of the week there was rust at the junction of the plastic hull and the steel base. There was rust all around the primer.

 

I took it to the range today, and it went "BOOM". Nothing unusual, just a nice normal boom like I normally get.

 

Now I am sure it is possible to load a shell so loose that water might eventually seep in. Maybe if one uses paper hulls and loose wads and such. But my normal loads survived a one week baptism, so I'm not going to stop using Pyrodex, in shotshells or in any other gun.

 

Birdgun Quail, I thought you would find it reassuring that if someone wants to shoot your Baptist Category, and you have to qualify them on the spot, you don't have to worry about baptizing them with their ammunition on, even if it's Pyrodex.

 

:lol:

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Thanx for posting the results of your experiment J-Bar.

 

I can sleep better now knowing the 164 shells I loaded up with that pound of Pyrodex will actually work instead of just fizzling like a sparkler, even in the humidity of Guns of August.

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Interesting experiment. At the 2009 Reckoning at Black's Creek in Boise, ID we had rain for two days straight while we were shooting, and all of my Pyrodex shotshells made the appropriate noise, smoke, etc. Not quite a week of soaking, but a substantial amount of water nonetheless. So I guess I'll keep loading Pyrodex in my shotshells, seeing as how I've got about 7 or 8 pounds of it :D

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Another problem with shooting Pyrodex, or even real black powder in the Baptist Category is that all good Baptists carry a Schofield, (even though Scofield was a Congregationalist) and from what I hear tell, the reproduction ones on the market will gum up really bad when not using smokless.

 

Or so I have come to understand.

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