I've had good luck with alliant Black MZ.I shoot subs and black powder and i have good luck with both.

To paraphrase a very wise man- There is no substitute for smokeless powder.

Potassium Carbonate ?- - -  You gotta be kidding me.   I can see mixing a little KNO3, but a carbonate??  Why not a little NaCl?

George

Let me say this about that. I've only used black and Pyrodex . Pyrodex is  pure corrosive crap

In.a couple of my .50 caplocks pyrodex shot as well or maybe better than the various  "real" black I was using.
Heck the guns we shoot are most often  replicas typically made with modern machinery ,our components of modern manufacture and materials  as well.so why is the powder being "replica" the deal breaker to "purists"?

A couple of friends of mine, long time BPCR shooters (one of them was the one that inveigled me into the hobby), have switched to Blackhorn 209.  They say it is as accurate as black powder without the cleaning chore.

They say the only drawback is the (considerable) expense.

The only thing “real” black powder has over the substitutes is about 700 years’ worth of lead time in development.  And during most of that time, the R&D people thought the chemistry was controlled by demons.  R&D goes faster and surer now.  It’s inevitable that substitutes will catch up to black powder in accuracy and ease of use, if people keep buying them.

I don’t understand the visceral loathing some people seem to have for black powder substitutes.  Lest we forget, there have been some pretty indifferent “real” black powders on the market.  Fine for re-enactments, cap&ball pistols and fireworks, but no more capable of National Match-winning rifle accuracy than any of the substitutes available now.

For that matter, there are compounds which could meet or exceed smokeless powder’s advantages, without the chemical instability and need for stabilizers.  All it takes is time and money.

I like the old stuff and the old ways myself.  But to each his own.

Substitutes do not work in a real rifle. The flash in the pan will not ignited them 

BP wrote on Jul 1^st, 2018 at 1:40pm:


A friend of mine is using alliant black MZ in his Flintlock with good luck. I believe he adds a bit of fff down the barrel before he loads the substitute. I tried it and one of mine and it did not work  I have no clue why it works for him. It probably has something to do with the way his Flintlock is "breeched" as opposed to mine .I use nothing but black powder in my flints. I can't see any advantages of the added step of a priming charge prior to the substitute powders.