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Elephant Brand Black Powder (Read 8869 times)

slumlord44 Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 2850 Location: Lebanon, Illinois 62254 Joined: Dec 21^st, 2007	Elephant Brand Black Powder Mar 16^th, 2014 at 8:37pm	Print Post
	Picked up 3 pounds at gun show in Cape Giradeau Mo today. Was not familiar with it. Found some negative posts about it on a Muzzleloader forum. Supposed to foul a lot. What's your experience? I assume it is out of production.


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Bent_Ramrod Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 1578 Location: Southern Arizona Joined: Feb 8^th, 2006	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #1 - Mar 16^th, 2014 at 9:02pm	Print Post
	I think it was last made before the turn of the (this) century. I got hold of it every chance I could find a can or two or five. For me the fouling seemed less caky than Goex. It is much denser than Goex, even denser than Swiss; I could actually get 40 grains into a modern .44-40 shell. On the other hand, it was noticeably less energetic, giving lower velocities for a given charge weight than any of the other powders. I'd buy more if I had the chance, but would use it for fun shooting or hunting rather than target matches.


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firearmdoc Full Member Offline Posts: 198 Joined: May 19^th, 2013	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #2 - Mar 16^th, 2014 at 9:54pm	Print Post
	The can I have does great in a small cannon I made. 150 grains and a wad keeps me and kids grinning. Jesse


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slumlord44 Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 2850 Location: Lebanon, Illinois 62254 Joined: Dec 21^st, 2007	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #3 - Mar 16^th, 2014 at 11:23pm	Print Post
	I picked up the 3 one pound cans for $50 total. Figure I can't get hurt too bad for that. Already have a good supply in stock but since it keeps forever and no one locally stocks black powder, figured I should grab it.


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ClaMar Full Member Offline Posts: 141 Location: Texas Joined: Jul 23^rd, 2013	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #4 - Mar 17^th, 2014 at 10:19am	Print Post
	Because of the lower velocities, the BPCR bunch stopped using it. I had to use a 4 grain FFFFg kicker charge to get acceptable velocities with one lot. Too much trouble-I sold it to a cowboy shooter who primarily wanted smoke. I think you way overpaid-I'd not pay more than $5/lb. for it. Clarence


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slumlord44 Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 2850 Location: Lebanon, Illinois 62254 Joined: Dec 21^st, 2007	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #5 - Mar 17^th, 2014 at 10:47am	Print Post
	I shoot informaly for fun. I don't require perfect consicent velocity or precision accuracy. Should work ok for what I do. I see black powder getting harder to get and costs going up so having any kind of black powder stockpiled is not a bad idea.


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John Boy Ex Member	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #6 - Mar 17^th, 2014 at 12:01pm	Print Post
	Slumlord - if you want to know about Elephant powder, read this article prepared by Bill Knight ... (You need to *Login* or *Register* to view media files and links) Includes history, density and loads


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slumlord44 Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 2850 Location: Lebanon, Illinois 62254 Joined: Dec 21^st, 2007	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #7 - Mar 17^th, 2014 at 10:29pm	Print Post
	Interesting read. Need to see if mine has dates on them. May save it for when if I ever get the cannon I would like to have.


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bohemianway Oldtimer Offline Posts: 706 Location: Andover, MN Joined: Apr 16^th, 2004	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #8 - Mar 17^th, 2014 at 10:29pm	Print Post
	I'm confused my cans are lot 123 date code 019/93 and in my 32" pacific 40-82 it yields > 1600 fps with a light gray fouling. With only one can left it really doesn't matter but I liked it.


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Mike Gish Full Member Offline Posts: 183 Location: colorado Joined: Jul 6^th, 2006	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #9 - Mar 17^th, 2014 at 10:47pm	Print Post
	John boy, thanks for the article, good read, used Elephant for a number of years and experenced most of the problems they had including a case with about 4 of 5 cracked plastic can in it.


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John Boy Ex Member	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #10 - Mar 18^th, 2014 at 1:12am	Print Post
	If you noticed reading in the article. there are reasons why Elephant was not a highly performing sporting powder ... Quote: Prior to the year 2000 powder production The S/A Pernambuco Powder Factory did not remove the bark from the wood used to make their charcoal Quote: Originally the charring would be started by igniting the wood inside the tank through the air vents in the bottom of the tank. That process was changed in the year 2000 to "indirect" heating of the wood. And another reason ... Quote: The charring tanks have no thermometers or other indicators of internal temperatures during the wood charring process. The charring tank operators judging charring conditions by observing the color of the smoke issuing from tank's vent pipes, along with the volume of smoke produced For good sporting powder, the wood (NOT WITH BARK) has to be put in a closed retort and charred until the temperature reaches 320 C. The resulting charcoal should have sufficient creosote amounting 65%. They basically flashed off a good amount of the creosote by over heating the wood in a non enclosed retort Then it was too late having tried to sell poor quality powder. Diamondback is now being made at the S/A Pernambuco Powder Factory with refinements to their processes. It is sold by Powder Inc - now out of stock for $11.20/50 lbs. I used the FFg to load my CAS shot shells because of the low price - needing 83gr per hull (You need to *Login* or *Register* to view media files and links) Now I use Goex Skirmish for shot shells which is repackaged Goex blasting powder Here's a tip though about Skirmish - 92gr (compressed like a brick) in a 45-90 shoots good groups at long range distances
	« Last Edit: Mar 18^th, 2014 at 1:44am by »

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xtimberman Full Member Offline Posts: 172 Location: N. Texas Joined: Mar 26^th, 2010	Re: Elephant Brand Black Powder Reply #11 - Mar 18^th, 2014 at 6:02pm	Print Post
	Thanks for posting the interesting history of the Elephant brand. Funny how well we can make-do with the components at hand. When Elephant was the only brand of BP conveniently available to me, I considered it to be OK. I burned a lot of it in both muzzleloaders and cartridge rifles while it was being marketed.


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