I may be asking the dumbest question ever! But I need to know.

[Nick B]

I am sooooo new to black powder so it’s a new adventure. A buddy of mine and I were talking and his question is this... he has a lot of F powder. He has trouble putting it into his horn. He wanted me to find out from you guys here ( because as I read through the information here, you guys are up on your knowledge of this topic), if there a away to make F finer?

[msellers]

Well, have read of guys using a mortar and pestle to grind it down. Not sure I am brave anough to do that, especially not indoors. Set off some old black powder as a kid when i hit it with a hammer on the sidewalk. For what it's worth, F is typically only used in cannons and very large bore guns from my understanding.
Mike

[Nick B]

Thanks Mike for the input. I appreciate that. Again I just had to ask.

[WadePatton]

Two things I'd do for sure. First, I'd try to secure appropriate powder and trade off the cannon powder to a cannon shooter. Second I'd consult Mad Monk (Bill K) before attempting to process any gunpowder in any way, ever.  The stuff can be rather hazardous in some situations and Bill is an expert on the subject.

But the safe, sure money is on finding the right powder and using it. 

[Daryl]

Pls, do NOT attempt to reduce the size of the translation by ANY means.
Secondly, what calibre gun do you have?
 Third - if shooting pistols of any calibre or rifles up to .45 cal, 3F is the powder to use.  In rifles over
45 cal., I use 2F as 2F in these has always shot cleaner for me in 50's and above. It has also given me better accuracy in various .50's, quite a number of .58's and my 14 bore rifle.

As Wade suggested - sell or trade the 1F for the appropriate powder for your gun.

Many shooters use 3F in all their guns  regardless of calibre,.
If you or he insists on using the 1F (which many use in BP ctg. Guns) then simply increase the hole size in the horn and cut a new plug for it.
In order to achieve similar ballistics to 2 and 3F powders  the charge of 1F will likely have to be increased approximately 25gr weight over normal 2 and 3F charges.

[Bob Roller]

That's NOT a dumb question.The ONLY DUMB questions are the unasked ones.
I doubt if anyone on this forum will put you down or ridicule you for asking any
question pertaining to this avocation.
Bob Roller

[Shovelbuck]

From personal experience............NO!  Don't know what caused it to go off but in my young foolish days, I had about 600 grains in a glass ashtray and was mashing it up with a spoon to make priming powder. Yep! it went off. I feel lucky that all I lost was my beard.

[HelmutKutz]

"F" grind powder will work fine in most guns. I purchase it for my 19 and 16 bore fowlers but found through unintentional experiment it fouls less than "FFF" and "FF" in the 54c and 58c rifles. Fouling is no different from in the 40c bullet rifle but there was a considerable improvement in accuracy especially beyond 400m. Leave powder as is, buy larger horn.
HK

[bob in the woods]

I tried "F" grade powder [ GOEX ]  in my 10 bore just to see how it would do. The gun has a 46 in barrel, and so I figured it would OK.  The object was to test for accuracy with a round ball,  to see if the courser powder would tighten up shot patterns, and finally, to give less felt recoil .  My max charge with the round ball is 140 gr FFg and when switching to Fg I kept the charge the same. It did give decent accuracy, and felt recoil was less, but velocity was less too, so no real gain in the end.  However , even when bumping up the charge to 160 gr Fg, it still didn't feel as sharp as the Fog   I used up that can , and haven't felt the need to get any more , since I use mainly FFg.  Plus, I've worked up all my loads based on FFg, so why mess with something different .  Look at it this way.....now he needs a cannon, or mortar, swivel gun etc 

[Hungry Horse]

Most powder that’s been around a while has reduced at least some of it granulation in the can. The old timers simply built a set of screens that reflected the different powder granulation. Buy pouring the powder through the stacked screens the different granulation are separated.
 I have used 1F powder in my shotguns, and tradeguns with good success. The slower burning powder pushes the shot column out the barrel more gently, and rarely drives the cushion wad through the pattern. Round ball shot from a smoothbore also shows some benefit from the gentler push. The recoil is lighter in these light gun, with big bores, when 1F is used. Good luck.

 Hungry Horse

[Dave Patterson]

... A buddy... I were talking... he has a lot of F powder. He has trouble putting it into his horn...  [is] there a away to make F finer?

Seems to me it'd be a lot simpler, and whole heckuva lot safer, for you buddy to adjust the pour hole in his horn, rather than trying to adjust the powder to fit the pour hole.

[snapper]

Tell him to  get a cannon or get a ML shotgun.  That is the best way to use it.

Fleener

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

In 1970, I bought my first muzzleloading rifle - a flintlock T/C "Hawken" in .50 calibre.  The only powder available was Meteor Fg Cannon grade.  I used up three pounds of this powder in that rifle, using it for the main charge and in the pan, without a hickup.  But I didn't know any better either.  I lost track of the number of coastal blacktailed deer that fell to that rifle using that powder.  I currently have about 16 pounds of GOEX Fg I intend to run through my BPCR's.

[Daryl]

1F GOEX works just fine in my bullet gun.

[Mike from OK]

... A buddy... I were talking... he has a lot of F powder. He has trouble putting it into his horn...  [is] there a away to make F finer?

Seems to me it'd be a lot simpler, and whole heckuva lot safer, for you buddy to adjust the pour hole in his horn, rather than trying to adjust the powder to fit the pour hole.

x2

Even better... A good excuse to buy a different horn.

Mike

[smylee grouch]

I had access to several pounds of 1f once, I went to a pawn shop/thrift store and found a wire mesh coalander (sp) and sifted the whole works a little at a time and got two small priming flasks of fine powder . Not much powder for the amount of work involved.

[Nick B]

Wow! Thanks to all of you for your response. I knew I came to the right place to ask this.
After some discussion (didn’t take much) he found someone to trade off the powder. He didn’t want to alter his horn, and the idea of the volatility just didn’t seem to be the right way to go ant try to do something he may regret. Again!! Thank you all. ALR is a great place and a great group of people! Happy New Year to all of you. And keep your powder dry.

[Standing Bear]

Put a fill plug in the base of the horn.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Search.aspx?search=Horn%20plug