[Chad C. Mulligan]

Absurd. Black powder is it’s own oxidizer. It would explode in a vacuum.

[mabarker1]

Okay, hence My question.

Thanks.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Here’s the DoD news release on the Estes Energetics takeover.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3123353/defense-department-invests-to-re-establish-domestic-production-of-critical-prop/

Retail gun shops don’t carry real black powder because of local fire codes. You can, however order it on the Internet.

And there are several foreign firms that make Holy Black and sell it here. I frankly prefer Swiss (brand) to Goex.

Black powder is used in artillery shell fuses as a initiator charge that in turn causes the main explosive to detonate. It was also used in the big naval guns to start the main propellant charge burning. Substitutes don’t work as well, and also deteriorate with age. Black powder never deteriorates unless you get it wet.

Checking the internet, I find that Estes was expecting to start shipping powder at the end of 2022. This did not happen, and the new ship date was first quarter 2023. No new news about that that I can find.

[Texas Fossil]

My father-in-law worked at Silas Mason & Hanger’s Pantex plant for 40 years. He was a Mason & Hanger employee, not a Pantex employee. He was a division manager for 7 years of the 40. He died in December 2009. (I took him for his last visit to the plant for a meeting in October 2009.)

They did not own the plant but had the government contract and they had a facility in Minden. He never talked shop, but told me about how hard it was to find good workers for the Minden operation.