black / dark smoke

[Peddler Parsons]

If shooting black powder it make a white / light color smoke
but what powder makes a dark color smoke ?
watched a black powder shooter this weekend and his loads
were different than anybody else as far a the smoke goes, so what would cause this
and could shoot faster.

[fourfingersofdeath]

Some of the cowboys here use the oxide used to colour concrete mixed in to get coloured smoke!

[Dick Dastardly]

Speed has nothing to do with smoke.  Visibility does.  If white smoke obscures targets more than dark smoke, the advantage goes to the dark smoke.  When shooting toward the sun and having a dark background, white smoke really hides the targets.

FWIW, I don't have a clue what makes smoke dark.  Only know that Genuine Powder produces white smoke.  Never found any that didn't.

DD-MDA

[Abilene]

Don't know that I've seen really dark smoke, but have seen some pards making kinda grayish smoke sometimes.  I think they were shooting Pyrodex, but am not positive.

[Pettifogger]

I have seen some brands of real BP that produce a dark, dirty looking brown smoke.  All the subs produce white smoke.

[PJ Hardtack]

Formulating a BP to make dark coloured smoke for an alleged edge has to be the ultimate gamer's device. That ranks right up there with half capacity BP cases and lightweight bullets vs the traditional load and bullet weights.

Part of the charm of shooting BP is the 'fog of war' which plays no favourites. I used to shoot Unique exclusively in IPSC revolver-only matches and I recall several scenarios that required the shooter to shoot under and around residual smoke, your own and that from previous shooters.
There are other smokey powders as well, as we find out on our indoor range. We recently went to some expensive air filters to deal with the problem that cannot handle BP smoke.

[Pettifogger]

Formulating a BP to make dark coloured smoke for an alleged edge has to be the ultimate gamer's device. That ranks right up there with half capacity BP cases and lightweight bullets vs the traditional load and bullet weights.

Part of the charm of shooting BP is the 'fog of war' which plays no favourites. I used to shoot Unique exclusively in IPSC revolver-only matches and I recall several scenarios that required the shooter to shoot under and around residual smoke, your own and that from previous shooters.
There are other smokey powders as well, as we find out on our indoor range. We recently went to some expensive air filters to deal with the problem that cannot handle BP smoke.

+1.  That's why SASS had to put a smoke test in place.  It is fairly subjective.  However, at least they have tried to make sure that some shooters aren't shooting Unique and calling it BP.

[hellgate]

I've witnessed what Pettifogger has: BP producing a brownish smoke. I've also talked to shooters whose rifle produced brown smoke and the revolvers made white smoke with the exact same powder. My suspicion is the different barrel lengths, bullet weight, pressures, etc. create slightly different composition of residue, water vapor, etc. and imparts the different color. Any bright colors (reds, blues, yellow, green) are usually done with shotguns by adding the dye to the shot charge or sandwiching it between wads. You'd need to add various chemicals from a fireworks supply to create different colored smoke and that would certainly alter the load and pressures. No telling what it would do to your lungs.

[Ranch 13]

Several hundred pounds of blackpowder from a variety of different guns from long to short I've yet to see anything but a blu/gray/whitish smoke.
Some lubes and smokeless powder combo's will make a darkish colored smoke.
The subs always seem to produce about 3 times the smoke as real black , but usually whitish smoke.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I've noticed films of the old battlewagons (those 14"-16" gun behemoths) and they produced a LOT of dark smoke.  I don't know how much BP is used to fire the big guns on those battleships but there IS a pretty good amount of BP that propels their shells downrange.

I've mentioned before that our tank rounds (105mm rifled & 120mm smoothbore) use in excess of 1.5 lbs. of BP (made by Goex, I believe) but all I've ever seen from them is a dirty white or light gray smoke.

Hmmm ...

[Ranch 13]

My wife at the  Quigley match, 72 grs KIK 2f from her Winchester bpcr. Not much for black smoke here.

[August]

I don't know why the smoke from real black powder looks blue to me, but it does.

APP always looks white to me.  And, Pyrodex looks brown.

In other words, you can pretty well guess what a guy is shooting by the color of the smoke, add a whiff test to that information and you'll be right (almost) every time.  Black powder smells like gunpowder, APP smells like automobile exhaust, and Pyrodex just plain stinks.

[PJ Hardtack]

Odour is influenced by bullet lube. I've had someone say he thought I was shooting Pyrodex when I was shooting Goex FFg with bullets lubed with SPG.

[fourfingersofdeath]

Is there something other than that cute plait that I am supposed to be looking at in that pic?

[Grapeshot]

I've noticed films of the old battlewagons (those 14"-16" gun behemoths) and they produced a LOT of dark smoke.  I don't know how much BP is used to fire the big guns on those battleships but there IS a pretty good amount of BP that propels their shells downrange.

I've mentioned before that our tank rounds (105mm rifled & 120mm smoothbore) use in excess of 1.5 lbs. of BP (made by Goex, I believe) but all I've ever seen from them is a dirty white or light gray smoke.

Hmmm ...

The Black Powder is used as a priming charge to get the Nito Cellulose based propellant burning.  Yes, there is something impressive about seeing the big battleships fire their main armament, especially at night.