Bad black powder?

[griz]

The March issue of Rifle magazine has an article, Fuels for Frontloaders, about the available black powder and the substitutes. They tried:
Goex
Elephant
Wano
Swiss
Clearshot
Pyrodex
Pyrodex Pellets
They said all were viable, then said they tried another brand but it proved unsatisfactory.
I only shoot muzzleloaders for hunting and occasional range work so don’t go through much of the stuff and don’t know any other brands. Does anybody out there know which brand is the bad one?

 

[Keiller TN]

My neighbor is an experienced muzzle loader. He won't use Pyrodex because of corrosion, it will cause.

 

[jpm63]

I'll choose this topic for my first post as it is about my primary interest (ML shooting) and I have a bit of knowledge.

None of the powders listed are corrosive as manufactured. All of them create very corrosive salts when fired except Clearshot. These salts are all water soluble and this is why we clean with prodigious amounts of water.

This topic is often discussed on the ML boards and the consensus is to stick with GOEX, or Swiss. Elephant can be OK, but get's batch dependent. WANO is the least liked of the group, but still OK just shoots dirty.

The BP substitutes like Pyrodex and Clear Shot etc. work fine, but have higher ignition temperatures than real BP. This will NOT work in flintlocks and can be troublesome in some cap lock rifles. Stay away from Pyrodex Pellets as accuracy suffers.

I stick with GOEX as it is cheaper and more reliable than Pyrodex. Clear Shot and Clean Shot are supposed to shoot cleaner than other options, but the cost is really high. I wipe frequently for accuracy anyway.

Hope this helps,

Jim