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One man making a little powder is pretty safe. He needs no building at all. Working to build up 1/2 pounds at a time is nothing like building up hundreds of pounds at one time.
In the late 80's for kicks and grins and to see what would happen, and when the cost of 1 pound of FFFg (3 F) powder was 4 bucks. I set off 1 pound in a cookie pan. All it did was go WOOF and made a big stinky puff of smoke. I used 10 feet of modern cannon fuse and ran several steps to hide behind a big tree. I wasted my breath running.
There are several methods which are safe in small quantities, both wet or dry.
The method I use is a roller mill powered by electricity, and I do it in a field 400 feet away. The mill is plugged into power at the far end of the extention cords i use to get 400 feet away.
So far nothing has blown up the mill. The mill is a little rock tumbler.
For the charcoal I use alder twigs, that comes from alder bushes by the local brook out back. Weeping willow twigs are as good. To char these twigs I fill a 1 gallon paint can with them, and drive on the can's crimping cover. The lid has a hole in it I made by driving a 8 penny nail thru it.
The char is done when the smoke stops coming out that nail hole, but you don't just open the can. You stick a nail back in the hole and wait untill the can is cold enough to hold in bare hands.
The rest I have to buy. I am not going to get into the rest on CD.
I do plenty of grinding each item by hand in a small mortar and pestil, of each of the 3 ingredent alone, make each a powder before mixing in the mill, and I start with just 2 ingredents in the mill.
Once the 3rd ingredent is added I work from 400 feet. If the plastic container goes WOOF I will be fine.
Not really which is why the militray and hunter gave up on them long ago. They are most a novelity with special seasons now days.For dangerous game they are always backedup by a modern rifle now days by anyone with any brains.There woulod be alot more frontierman who would have lived alot longer with a modren rapid fire rifle.
Same logic could be applied to hunting. Modern people gave up on it a long time ago, that’s why we have grocery stores. Starbucks, Wendy’s, Archer Daniels-Midland, etc. etc.
We are talking about a situation however unlikely, when you or most likely your offspring no longer have access to a functioning modern weapon, working ammunition, or the means to make, find or steal them. At that point a broken or empty AK-47 is only a poor club to bludgeon someone with.
The situation described calls for someone to be able to repair the stock of the weapon with local wood and hand tools, replace the ignition system from rocks at the local creek bed, and make their accelerant from local sources such as livestock urine, and minerals.
A flintlock is the only firearm that fits this bill. The point isn’t if its better than modern firearm, in 2013 its not. In 2050? Who knows.
Very carefully and with the knowledge that you have made provisions for your loved one. Dupont and other powder companies built their sheds and buildings with three very strong sides. The roof and the fourth side which faced away from the complex were very flimsy to allow explosions to go in a safe direction. Explosions did happen. In some there were deaths and injuries even outside the powder works.
Black powder sometimes blows up for no apparent reason. The record indicates that is far safer to make nitroglycerin.
I would only make it in the most dire situation. I say that as a man with some background in Chemistry. Would I make NG? If I have plenty of ice and pure chenicals I'd know it were a far more straightforward procedure. I'd make it long before I'd make black powder.
So not like Capt. Kirk making gunpowder on Star Trek to shoot the Gorn?
Case in point, If I remember correctly, this is where Shatner said the stunt went wrong and ruined his hearing.
sorry, with blackpowder rifles, you have to worry about keeping your powder dry. where as with modern cartridges, you can get them wet and they will still fire.
So many people will be dead, so soon after shtf, that there will be plenty of ammo for a generation or more. A flintlock is a bad joke, basically. I'd rather have a crossbow, post shtf, any day.
i know EVERYTHING about flinlocks, and what's more, I know tactical combat considerations, which you obviously do not. I also know that the bison herds are GONE, so are the elk herds in most of the US. it's not at ALL practical to make all that noise, consume that much powder, and WHERE are you going to mine the LEAD, dude? :-) Flintlocks aint worth a hoot in wet weather, and when that powder gets wet, extracting that ball is a MAJOR pita. i've had dozens of guys tell me that it's "not practical' to take my AR "out of commission" for the 20 seconds that it takes to swap out the .22 conversion unit for the 223 parts. But it's OK, right, to have your flintlock out of commission for the MANY minutes needed to extract a patched ball! I'm not having the corrosion problem, nor the smoke revealing my position, nor having it hide my target, and all that baloney.
It's not at all hard to stockpile plenty of .22lr ammo to last for decades, if it's sealed in GI ammo cans. There is such a thing as a sound suppressor for the .22 rifle, you know. :-) So it will be many, many years before it's necessary to make the choice between the xbow and the flintlock. There won't be any handy drugstore for you to BUY the sulphur and the saltpeter, if shtf. The Unibomber had to run all over the mountains to find it, and the sulfur, too. If shtf, such widepread travel, in daylight, searching, is highly likely to get you shot. Until shtf, there is no reason at ALL to settle for the horrible limitations of the flintlock. Just because a bunch of inbred hillbillies "thought" the flintlock was/is ok does not make it so.
i know EVERYTHING about flinlocks, and what's more, I know tactical combat considerations, which you obviously do not. I also know that the bison herds are GONE, so are the elk herds in most of the US. it's not at ALL practical to make all that noise, consume that much powder, and WHERE are you going to mine the LEAD, dude? :-) Flintlocks aint worth a hoot in wet weather, and when that powder gets wet, extracting that ball is a MAJOR pita. i've had dozens of guys tell me that it's "not practical' to take my AR "out of commission" for the 20 seconds that it takes to swap out the .22 conversion unit for the 223 parts. But it's OK, right, to have your flintlock out of commission for the MANY minutes needed to extract a patched ball! I'm not having the corrosion problem, nor the smoke revealing my position, nor having it hide my target, and all that baloney.
It's not at all hard to stockpile plenty of .22lr ammo to last for decades, if it's sealed in GI ammo cans. There is such a thing as a sound suppressor for the .22 rifle, you know. :-) So it will be many, many years before it's necessary to make the choice between the xbow and the flintlock. There won't be any handy drugstore for you to BUY the sulphur and the saltpeter, if shtf. The Unibomber had to run all over the mountains to find it, and the sulfur, too. If shtf, such widepread travel, in daylight, searching, is highly likely to get you shot. Until shtf, there is no reason at ALL to settle for the horrible limitations of the flintlock. Just because a bunch of inbred hillbillies "thought" the flintlock was/is ok does not make it so.
Do you own one and shoot it regularly?
If not, you don't know flintlocks. They require some specialized knowledge and experience but work VERY well otherwise when you know what your'e doing.
Also, Elk aren't exactly rare out here in the Rockies and 70 grains behind a .50 round ball isn't a whole hell of a lot of powder, nor is bad weather a problem if you know what you're doing.
Anyway, I never intended to argue that flintlocks were better than modern cartridge firearms; obviously they aren't or army Rangers would be carrying them in Afghanistan right now . As far as flintlock vs crossbow; a flintlock will have better range, knockdown power and is a far more simple (meaning reliable) and more easily repaired tool than a modern crossbow. There's a reason the redcoats marched into the colonies with Brown Besses instead of crossbows, you know; even modern ones have severe limitations and historic versions are even worse.
The benefit is that flintlocks CAN be built, maintained and shot perpetually without an industrial society to back them up.
Anyway, they are fun and rewarding to shoot as a hobby. I don't think the need will come to move back 200 year in technology during my lifetime.
Like I said you know nothing of flintlocks. I can load mine, and soak it in a lake over night and it will speak in the morning.
Mine will go off if held upside down. With ease i could take game with a flintlock and conserve brass loaded ammo. How do I know that you ask, because for the past 30 years I did it hunting with flintlocks.
It doesn't mean I don't have 22's or semi auto rifles bolt gun pump gun and the like. it just means if you spent 40 years with flintlocks and have lead, powder and ball these still have merit.
If you buy a cheap hunk of junk and never use it, and expect to in shtf well then your points are valid.
I live in NH and I ride motorcycles in NH and they say about here 'If you don't ride in the rain you just don't ride. Would you thing Fall has less rain?
I sure would like to see a .223 take a Bison or a Elk too. Was that supposed to be tactical?
I wonder how many fish hooks i could make from a Ar-15 Action Spring? But then i don't need to because I know how to make fish hooks from owl puke.
I've got several BP firearms, but by are toys.... As mak just said "if you have" they are potentially viable.
Same with my AK.
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