I've had black powder in my blood since age 10 when I started making homemade muzzleloaders and my own powder not only for them but also for amateur rocketry. I bought pound after pound of saltpeter at a store in town where it was sold for curing meat. 75 cents a pound back in the day. Nowadays I'll load black powder in 3 to 4X fired Federal paper cases with a regular 6 point folded crimp, and discard the cases afterwards. Load is 2-1/2 drams 2F du Pont. I still have few cans of the old stuff. Any primer will do and I load on an old Texan single stage press. I remove the cases between the 2nd and 3rd station, dump the powder with a dipper, then replace on station 3 and load one .135" nitro card and two 3/8" Alcan Bluestreak wads. Texan has a metal wad guide (unlike modern MEC's) and the press shows about 60 pounds pressure. Shot load is 1-ounce. I always have a few loaded BP shells with me when on a sporting course and will shoot them at targets where the scorer can see the clay beyond the smoke cloud. That's with a Fox, Parker, Ithaca or a Perazzi. Anything but a gas gun. The loud reports usually bring onlookers who often caution that I'm loading way too heavy, gun will blow up, etc. I also use them once in a while for small game hunting, rabbits ahead of the beagles - a blast from the past and the smoke and brimstone smell always reminds me of sadly missed friends and the much different times when we were kids.
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