ZeusThunderbolt Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Well I did not get a chance to baseball test my BP before I shot my shells on the 4th. I used 0.9 oz lift for all of them and they were all way to high. I am on 2 weeks vacation at the beach and my Dad has a 300 acre farm a few miles from our beach house. We shot my shells on the 4th there and as i said they were all to high. So I went back to the farm to do some baseball testing yesterday. The first shot was with 0.5 oz and was 14.2 seconds total flight time. We heard the ball hit in the woods but could not find it. Next time we will move way out in the field. Anyway I spent all day trying to buy some baseballs. Two Walmarts, roses, and a dozen other stores, no baseballs. I can't believe no place on the eastern shore of VA has any baseballs. Anyway I guess my BP is pretty hot. It's just SL potassium nitrate, sulfur, and custom charcoal willow. 5 hours in a HF rock tumbler (modified drive roller for 85rpm) with hardened lead balls. Then granulated using the dextrin liqueur method thru 10 mesh. The hunt for baseballs will resume tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bcorso85 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I use willow too. It's great. For a three inch i can get away with 8 grams and the shell is nice and high up. Ive used 30 grams on a three inch 350gram cannister that had around ten seconds of flight time before it broke. My spoolette was a little off too! its an expensive product when bought commercially, but worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeusThunderbolt Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) customcharcoal.com has willow for $38 for 8 lb. Thats less than 75 cents per pound of BP. Thats what I am using and its working great for me. Edited July 12, 2012 by ZeusThunderbolt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiwanluthiers Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Considering that charcoal only make up about 15% of the bp, it doesn't actually take very much charcoal which makes ordering actually not too expensive. 1lb of charcoal will make you 7 or 8 lbs of blackpowder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) yeah but when you can make 8 lbs at a time in 2 hours it makes a diffrents when you start making TT or willow stars you go through charcoal like crazy IMO of coursebob Edited July 12, 2012 by bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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