777 Black Powder Substitute

I will certainly try that formula the next time I pull my muzzle loader out. Thanks for the tip.

I use loose powder and sometimes pellets on top of 30g of loose powder as a primer for the pellets getting a better ignition. Perhaps my methods preclude that ring since I have never even seen it at all. Plus, that formula I mentioned earlier works BETTER than any product on the market.

Are you using pellets or loose powder? I was using the pellets. The ring I encountered appeared to be mostly sulfur burnt to a hard crust. Made it almost impossible to get a third or sometime even a second shot off without scrubbing the barrel. I have read numerous complaints regarding this ring. Again it may be limited to the pellets. Pellets are all I good get at the time.

As far as black powder goes I have never had a corrosion issue. I used soap and boiling water for clean up. It was quite the ordeal to boil the barrel and clean all of the parts. But, I have never had lingering corrosion issues.

I have never witnessed any such stubborn ring with 777, or I guess the concoction I mentioned removes it with no problem whatever. Black powder is so corrosive that even after you clean the gun you need to do it periodically all year long. The rifle I started with was a Thompson Hawkin that eventually succumbed to my not knowing the above and using Pyrodex after black powder and only a single cleaning after use. All of my subsequent rifles are still in perfect condition and are spotless inside and out - using 777 and the cleaning method I learned from my Confederate re-enactor friends.

When I first began messing around with muzzle loaders I wondered how in the heck could the frontier's men function if they had to clean their rifles every few shots. It was when I discovered the effects of petroleum products on black powder and substitutes. Eliminating the petroleum products I had cleaned my muzzle loader with took me a long time. Eventually, however, it worked and I have shot as many as 60 rounds at a time with black powder with no cleaning. I use black powder, no substitutes.

The story behind going to black powder is this. In 1982 I was given a kit to assemble a Thompson/Center Hawkins muzzle loader. This kit was extremely basic. I had to draw file the flats of the barrel. The stock was inlet somewhat for the barrel, etc. Some things, such as the check piece was nothing more than a groove in the stock to indicate its location. When I eventually completed the thing 7 years later, it was and is a beautiful rifle. However, this gun would shoot terribly. I was using Pyrodex at the time. It was not uncommon for a three shot group at 50 yards to be measured in feet as opposed to inches. I called Thompson/Center and explained the situation to their muzzleloader expert. He said first of all that I was one of the few people that had ever completed the kit (they quit selling them). He also said that they would gladly correct any problems with the gun, but to try black powder instead of a substitute. He said that the guns were engineered to shoot black powder and Thompson Maxi-Balls. Most would shoot most anything, but occasionally one would be picky. I thought he was giving me the run-a-round, but bought a can of black powder, anyway. Figured I did not have much to loose. My first five shots with black powder and maxi-balls appeared from the 50 yard bench to be terrible. The first shot hit the target. The next four shots showed no additional holes. Upon examining the target, however, I found that the single hole had four very small partial moon cuts. The only other thing I found this gun would shoot well was round balls with the appropriate size of patch, again using black powder. I seldom shoot any kind of muzzle loader now, but I do keep a supply of black powder on hand. I had just as soon clean up black powder as anything else. As for 777, it tends to leave a stubborn ring near the chamber that is difficult to remove and can impede fast reloading. Again, I stick to black powder.