Manure And Urine For Gunpowder – IOTW Report

Manure And Urine For Gunpowder

Listverse: In 1862, a South Carolina College professor published a manual for the manufacture of gunpowder. He detailed several different methods, but all of them had a very important ingredient—saltpeter. Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) can be found in nature, usually scraped out of caves, but the Civil War demand for gunpowder far outstripped the amount of readily available saltpeter, so people had to manufacture it. more

12 Comments on Manure And Urine For Gunpowder

  1. “…when some unlucky sap had the task of stirring the pile of manure, compost, and urine to make sure the soaking was complete.”

    …ask the guys detailed to burn barrels of shit in Afghanistan whether the luck of the soldier has changed in this regard or not…

    ht tps://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/03/10/burn-pits-iraq-vets-military-waste-toxic/

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  2. This is black powder they are talking about and the manufacturer of black powder is extremely dangerous. It is not a progressive burning propellant like modern smokeless powder, it is an explosive. It’s also unsuitable for use in many types of firearms and even then it’s difficult to get off very many accurate shots before cleaning is necessary. The exception being muzzle loaded, breach seated cartridge rifles.

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  3. The 38 Special started off as a black powder round. I have a recipe to make black powder for it. I also have a recipe to repime a spent primer. And I have the tools and material to cast my own 155 grain semi-wadcutters. I can shoot about 48 bullets of my concocted ammo before I have to pull out the Hoppes #9 and a couple of brushes where it takes about 15 minutes to get it to where I can fire another 48 rounds or I can hit it with brake cleaner and some gun oil to have it ready to shoot in less than 2 minutes.

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