Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Black powder rifles and pistols, reloading black powder, and other information. The smoky stuff.

Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by teedo » 01 Nov 2014, 8:17 pm

I might have some bad info here, so checking.

I thought black powder has less recoil than similar smokeless centrefire rounds.

I read a few comments talking about why black powder has more recoil, not less.

Is there types of black powder both ways?

Has to be comparable size cartridges of course, not talking about comparing smokeless .22LR to a 50cal BP rifle.
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Chronos » 01 Nov 2014, 8:24 pm

There's a couple of BP shooters here so in sure they'll chip in

I've shot a mates .57cal muzzle loader, 550gr miniball I think. Kick? Not really, more a push. But a 500gr+ Push, not a 55gr push

Got a vid somewhere of my mrs shooting it, less kick than a 12g

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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Noisydad » 02 Nov 2014, 8:19 am

BP comes in different sizes of granules starting with 1F (quite course and mostly used in cannon) and going up to 4F which is very fine and mostly used for priming "rock bashers" (flintlocks). Most front stuffers, cartridge rifles, and pistols use 3F. BP generates way lower pressures than modern smokeless powder but it burns differently - it's legally classed as an explosive rather than a propellant.

BP shooters would regard the felt recoil as a big heavy push rather than a hard kick but having said that you can still get knocked around a fair bit by some of the big bore cartridge rifles for instance the .45-70; .45-90; .50-90; .50-110 etc. and of course muzzle loaders that are loaded up as you don't have the constraint of a cartridge case to limit your loads.

I think there would be very few people that could tell the difference in recoil between brands of powder.

Son of Noisy's clay target shotgun loads are 55 gns of 3F and we use the same measure (by volume) for both powder and shot and it's recoil is very mild.

Felt recoil has more to do with the weight of the bullet being launched in other words - inertia. My Sharps .40-65 uses a 415gn bullet with 57gns of 3F powder (slightly compressed to fit it in the cartridge case) and it's recoil is a fair bit more than my .54 cal muzzle loader using a 225gn round ball (also with 57gns of 3F for target shooting) even though the Sharps weighs a pretty hefty 7 kilos.
Last edited by Noisydad on 05 Nov 2014, 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Noisydad » 02 Nov 2014, 5:21 pm

There's still a few of Wile. E Coyote's ideas that I haven't tried yet.
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Lorgar » 05 Nov 2014, 8:30 pm

Noisydad wrote:Felt recoil has more to do with the weight of the bullet being launched in other words - inertia. My Sharps .40-65 uses a 415gn bullet with 57gns of 3F powder (slightly compressed to fit it in the cartridge case) and it's recoil is a fair bit more than my .54 cal muzzle loader using a 225gn round ball (also with 57gns of 3F for target shooting) even though the Sharps weighs a pretty hefty 7 kilos.


I'm a complete novice when it comes to black power, but I've shot Noisy's rifles he mentioned here and they are soft as.

Less than my .243.
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by teedo » 05 Nov 2014, 8:31 pm

Thanks for the replies all, and the link Noisy.

Watching...
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Westy » 05 Nov 2014, 8:36 pm

That's so cool Noisy thanks for sharing that mate,i know 0% abnout these bad boys!!!Intrest up now though.Can you please tell me are they licensed under Cat A or B ????
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Norton » 05 Nov 2014, 9:02 pm

Cat B here in QLD Westy.

Category B weapons

(1) Each of the following is a category B weapon if it has not been rendered permanently inoperable--

a) a muzzle-loading firearm;
b) a single shot centre fire rifle;
c) a double barrel centre fire rifle;
d) a repeating centre fire rifle;
e) a break action shotgun and rifle combination.
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Noisydad » 05 Nov 2014, 9:04 pm

Yes they a Cat.B I think. I have an A/B license.
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Re: Black powder more recoil that smokeless

Post by Westy » 06 Nov 2014, 7:57 am

Thanx Guys will be having a look only at the moment
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