Traditional Firearms > Caplock Long Guns
Something you should know about Pyrodex powder
rollingb:
Bill Knight (Mad Monk) is talking about Pyrodex over on another forum.
I thought I'd bring some of the stuff he has to say over here,.... many of you shooting Pyrodex may find it very interesting. :bl th up
--- Quote from: Mad Monk ---If you look at the patent for Pyrodex you see another chemical not found in the 777. That being dicyanamide (spelling?). This dicyanamide is an corrosion preventer for the powder before powder combustion. It keeps the charge from attacking and pit corroding the bore where the powder grains come in contact with the bore. Now during powder combustion that is broken down and it gives off pure cyanide or potassium cyanide.
I learned this the hard way when I flashed Pyrodex on a bunch of steel plates in my poorly ventilated basement. After a half dozen plates I felt like I was going to pass out. I knew from my experience at work that I had inhaled cyanide gas. At work I had been hospitalized several times after inhaling acrylonitrile fumes. You breath in the acrylonitrile and it breaks down to cyanide in your blood stream. DSo I dug out the Pyrodex patent and Lo und Behold there was the dicyanamide. Which explained why precombustion charges did not corrode the bore but post combustion reside did.
Now without a perchlorate in the 777 they could do away with the dicyanamide.
Now on the Internet message boards we had the Internet front man from Hodgdon monitoring any posts that might reflect badly on them or their product. One poster commented about toxic fumes given off by the burning of Pyrodex. Well. The Internet monitor really ripped into the guy. In part telling him that organonitriles do not give off toxic fumes. That proved to be the opening I was looking for. You see at work, in the PVC Pilot Plant we used this dicyanamide to passivate metal in glass lined reaction vessels with pieces of glass missing from the inside surfaces of these reaction vessels. This would help stop unwanted polymerized PVC from sticking to the walls of the reaction vessel. So I routinely heaved around 40 pound bags of this chemical. And on all edges/sides of the bags were big red warning labels to avoid heat, fire or flame as it evolves toxic fumes of cyanide when heated to it's decomposition temperature. So I posted that the man should get up from his desk and head out to the raw materials storage area and read the labels on the bags of this chemical. Boy did that end that thread in a hurry.
I laugh. These people that supply we ml shooters think we are all a bunch of dumb clods. Otherwise we would be shooting smokeless powders.
Bill K.
Here in the city we sometimes have problems of colonies of mice living under cement pads or short stairs in our back yards. A few ounces of Prodex in a sandwich bag and 6 inches of cannon fuse into the bag. Light the fuse, stuff the bag in the hole and sit a brick over the hole. The cyanide will take care of the entire mouse population in the in-ground colony.
Bill K.
--- End quote ---
Uncle Russ:
Thanks for sharing this, Bill Knight has long been recognized as the Subject Matter Expert when it comes to powder used in Muzzleloaders.
I think you should make this thread a "sticky" for all the readers that come behind us. :bl th up
Russ...
Winter Hawk:
Extremely interesting. I've never used anything but the Holy Black in my muzzle loaders, now I'm glad I didn't try the other stuff! I wonder if his anti-mouse tip would work for gophers? :laffing
~Kees~
rollingb:
--- Quote from: Winter Hawk on November 15, 2018, 03:08:10 PM ---Extremely interesting. I've never used anything but the Holy Black in my muzzle loaders, now I'm glad I didn't try the other stuff! I wonder if his anti-mouse tip would work for gophers? :laffing
~Kees~
--- End quote ---
It's funny you should ask that, as he was asked that same exact question. :lol sign
Cyanide doesn't discriminate. :hairy
rollingb:
--- Quote from: Uncle Russ on November 15, 2018, 01:19:59 PM ---Thanks for sharing this, Bill Knight has long been recognized as the Subject Matter Expert when it comes to powder used in Muzzleloaders.
I think you should make this thread a "sticky" for all the readers that come behind us. :bl th up
Russ...
--- End quote ---
Thanks Russ, I think that's a great idea. :hairy
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