Well time gets us all and time is catching up to my parents, especially my dad. He handed me down a few guns a couple years ago with the offer of more. I traded him some guns Polytech m1a for a Springer, older savage FCP for a newer with accutrigger, Rock Island tactical for a loaded springer, Ruger 6mm for a Savage 99 243 and he handed me a black hawk 45 LC, his 357 trooper, and his dad's old colt 38sw. He offered me his 45-70 marlin which I may still take.

Well I went over to see the folks this weekend. Got my mom a birthday cake and checked up on pop, started his third round of chemo......fuck cancer...keeping our fingers crossed. But his days of shooting are over. I came back with probably 8 pounds of powder, 223 and 308 bullets, primers.

And this....50 cal CVA my dad built from a kit around 1980. He has 1000's of rounds through this thing. We sat at the table and went over it, he cleaned it good when he shot it last so there was no rust. His powder and caps were over 20 years old. No idea if the powder is good and the caps were bad, had to hit them about 6 times to get the to pop. Will need to make a trip out to Outdoor World for some Pydodex and new caps. Got to do some scouting for this year, might wait until muzzy season and take this with me, it'll be its first hunting trip.

Pop always used black powder as Pyrodex was new when I was a kid. I'll probably switch to pyrodex since it's noncorrosive from what I understand?

Caplocks are my favorite.

As long as the old powder hasn't gotten wet it should be fine.

It's the fouling left behind after combustion that's hygroscopic (absorbs moisture from the air). Rust will start if you leave it without cleaning. Clean it like you should after shooting (and lube the bore) and it'll be fine.

And Pyrodex fouling will lead to rust as well if you don't clean it.

Pyrodex is definitely not non-corrosive. It doesn't build up fouling like BP does, though.


Cpt. Redleg

Pyrodex can foul and that fouling attracts moisture which leads to rusting.  I'd stay with Holy Black.

two previous posts give conflicting info....

We used Pyrodex at the NRA Adventure Camp.  The smokepoles got dirty.   It does foul, but not as bad as Holy Black.  At the end of the day, you still have to flush and scrub out the barrel.

Pyrodex is most certainly corrosive.

Your caps likely would not have gone bang at all if they were bad. It could be that the nipple has been peened over from dry firing, and the caps don't fit right on it. Or maybe the caps never fit right and you need a different size.

Prayers for your pop.

Best of luck to you dad.

Prayers for your old man; Cancer sucks; most of my deceased relatives have died from cancer or complications from it.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Black powder doesn't go bad. Even if wet, you can dry it out and use it.
Old timer friend of mine gave me 1/2 full can of Goex BP looked to be from the 1970's. It shot just fine.

Sorry about your pops.

Nice rifle, looks like it is a Hawken design?  

I recently got into BP shooting and so far it is a lot of fun!  I am sure you are going to have a great time at the range with it.

Not sure which design, rifled for 50 cal ball.

That's the "mountain Rifle"   the twist rate should say on the rollmarks on the barrel. if it's 1/66, you're stuck with patched round ball, if it's 1/48 you can use ball and conicals but getting the best accuracy out of either will take load developement.

If you want to dress up that plains rifle, remove the steel nosecap, carve the stock a little (like a crescent on the sides - think half circle with arch toward the front) and pour a pewter nose.