Goex vs Swiss ?

[wolf]

when i do my part, 3 shots 50yds offhand, 54cal. goex ol eynsford,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Rifleman1776]

"In the later 70's Meteor powder, MFG'r in Scotland (marked on the cans) was one of few powders commonly available to us at that time, on a spotty basis."

During that time period I had an ml shop and bought bulk bp made in Scotland. As to brand, it was unmarked.

[Mad Monk]

"In the later 70's Meteor powder, MFG'r in Scotland (marked on the cans) was one of few powders commonly available to us at that time, on a spotty basis."

During that time period I had an ml shop and bought bulk bp made in Scotland. As to brand, it was unmarked.

The only BP plant in Scotland at that time period as the old C&H powder plant being run by ICI.  Around 1970 they had ceased using glossy buckthorn alder wood from southern France for their in house charcoal making operation.  Then they tried some commercial charcoal out of Norway which proved to be a disaster.  If you look at the 1974 Lyman Black Powder Handbook you see that powder being tested against GOEX out of the Moosic, PA plant. Compared to GOEX ( GOI at that time) it was said stuff.  Then at the same time they were shutting down the old C&H plant.  ICI was closing all of their black powder plants.  One in Canada (CIL) and another in Australia.  The Meteor name shows up after the plant in Scotland ceased production.  After ICI closed the plant in Scotland they bought BP from WANO and packaged it under other names.

The period in time from 1970 to 1974 was something of a nightmare in the black powder industry with the number of black powder plants then being shut down.  Du Pont put the only US BP plant up for sale.  Purchased by Gearhart-Owens Industries (GOI) in 1972.  The first plant manager under GOI was the former plant had at the CIL plant in Canada which was shut down. Then you had ICI exiting the bp business closing down all of their bp plants.   If you look at some of the cans of powder you see some of the powder was made in Scotland and some in then West Germany.  Then the French military removed black powder from the military must have list and the French plant had to change charcoal which really hurt their business. 

It took nearly 20 years for the BP mfg. business to stabilize as we see it today.

[Daryl]

Now that you mention ICI, Bill - I remember those cans as well. Red with a white oval in the middle with ICI inside the oval, I think in black (might have been red letters).
Seems to me, it was an odd shaped can, with a white plastic cap/spout. For a while, we shot what we could find and it was a menagerie of different brands. I also recall
using C&H with the same loads Lyman used in their Zouave, but in my Hawken. With the powder of the day, that rifle would not shoot well with less than 140gr. 2F GOEX
 and a .022" denim patch with a .575", 285gr. round ball. IIRC, I got similar accuracy when using C&H with 165gr. or might have been 170gr. I don't remember the charge
just that it was considerably more than the GOEX or G/O.
My Zouave (also had at that time) needed 120gr. to give good accuracy - same ball and patch, although the rifling was a lot shallower. It gave a solid 2" for 5 shots at 100
yards off the bags.

[Mad Monk]

Daryl,

Regarding the GOEX cans.  The NMLRA put a push on GOEX to supply we shooters with black powder.  Gearhart-Owens Industries at first did not want to sell any black powder to the civilian shooters.  Then behind the scenes Gearhart and Owens went their separate way.  One of them wanted nothing to do with black powder other than for their oil well business.  The du Pont sale included a munitions plant in Texas with a horrid safety record.  And it was involved in several law suits for munitions failures that injured military people besides plant workers. With the break up of Gearhart-Owens one went off to form Pengo Industries. This company serviced oil wells out West. Pengo kept the BP business.  THE GOI (Gearhart-Owens Industries) cans were then changed to GOEX.  By about 1984 Pengo was forced into bankruptcy.  Then the parent company started to suck all the profits out of the Moosic BP production.  All standard safety procedures were then ignored.  This lead up to a series of major explosions at Moosic.   So you will see GOEX cans from about 1974 marked with the GOI and then a few years later we see the cans as GOEX. 

[Daryl]

Thanks Bill, for the clarification. It is all quite confusing, to us chillin'.