American Pioneer Powder
Black powder substitute
It is no secret that I like shooting genuine black powder, and I’m lucky enough to be able to get it and to store it. I know that isn’t the case for many of you. Black powder is an explosive, and there are a lot of areas where local ordinances either ban its sale outright, or impose such onerous storage requirements that stores don’t want the hassle and expense associated with carrying it. Luckily there are substitute powders available. American Pioneer Powder is a black powder substitute that is popular with the cowboy action shooting crowd.
American Pioneer Powder, which is usually just called by its initials; APP, is an ascorbic acid based propellant. When you use APP, essentially you are shooting vitamin “C”. So, if fellow cowboy action shooters complain about the smoke you can tell them it will keep them from catching a cold. Ascorbic acid’s ability to push a bullet down the barrel was first discovered by Skip Kurtz in the late 1970s. Skip was a professional musician and an amateur inventor. He made his discovery by accident, but he knew he had discovered a product that he could bring to the marketplace.
In 1986 Golden Powder made its debut. It met with mixed success. All black powder substitutes have issues, and Golden Powder clearly displayed both the promise and the downside of ascorbic acid based propellants. Genuine black powder is remarkably stable, only its fouling is hydroscopic. Unfortunately, ascorbic acid based powders are hydroscopic in their unburned form. And the original Golden powder was hydroscopic to the point of being deliquescent, which means it would liquefy in the presence of humid air. With Golden powder, and several of its successors, if you didn’t store it in airtight containers, and limit its exposure to humidity, you ended up with your powder coalesced into one solid, damp cake in the powder container.
Clean Shot Technologies, the predecessor company to American Pioneer Powder was the first manufacturer of ascorbic acid powder to get the deliquescence issue under control. I’ve had a jar of Clean Shot for about seven years and it is still useable. Clean Shot was sued out of existence due to a patent infringement case, but it resurrected itself as APP. The APP powders were originally indistinguishable from Clean Shot powder, but over time APP has changed a bit. In addition to being hydroscopic, there is one other other major issue with ascorbic acid powder. The fouling is wildly corrosive to brass. So, if you use it in cartridges, you must get the fired cases into a bath of soapy water quickly after firing.
After hearing the downside of ascorbic acid powders you are probably wondering if there is a v case to be made for using APP. There is, and I can sum it up in two words; “it works.” It moves bullets down range, and it produces copious clouds of white smoke.
In areas where real black powder hasn’t been available for decades, you can get APP with no trouble. Any gun shop that sells smokeless powder can stock APP. It is not classified as an explosive. It’s a flammable solid, just like smokeless powder. And APP has another benefit. It is very low fouling, and the fouling is not corrosive to steel. So it doesn’t require immediate clean up the way black powder does. However, you can’t just shoot it and forget it they way you can with smokeless powders. The hydroscopic properties of APP fouling means it will hold moisture against the metal of your gun, which is a recipe for a rusted firearm.
I recently picked up a container of APP in 3Fg granulation to test. I was surprised at how different it looks from the old Clean Shot powder. Clean Shot was a light gray color, and it had a fairly uniform grain size. In comparison APP looks like someone went out into the desert outside of Las Vegas and scooped the jar full of desert soil. The powder has a faint yellowish tinge and the grains are not uniform. APP is quite a bit lighter in weight than real black powder, so it should be substituted for B-P on an equal volume basis, not on an equal weight basis.
I decided to test APP in three guns, an 1860 Army, an EAA Big Bore Bounty Hunter and in an 1873 sporting rifle. The 1860 would allow me to see how it performed as loose powder loaded in a cap and ball revolver. The Bounty Hunter and the 1873 would let me see how APP loaded cartridges perform from both the shortest and the longest barrels that most of you are likely to be using at cowboy action matches.
The 1860 Army I used for the test was manufactured by Uberti and imported by Taylor’s & Company of Winchester, Virginia. I’ve owned this particular revolver for eight or nine years and, even with its crude sights, it has been a tack driver since day one. I loaded the 1860 with the volume equivalent of 30 grains of APP topped with a .454 Hornaday swaged round ball. Each chamber mouth was sealed with a dollop of my homemade black powder lube and the cones were capped with Remington #10 percussion caps. That load only produced an average velocity of 744 feet per second. I was surprised because that same 30-grain load of 3Fg Goex black powder produces 901 fps out of the same revolver.
Accuracy with APP was nothing to write home about, but it is more than sufficient for cowboy action shooting. My five-round groups ran between four and five inches in diameter, and I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t happy with them. I was shooting off hand from the 15 yard line, and I expect to do better than that. I was ready to chalk it up to increasing age and declining abilities. But, out of curiosity, I loaded the 1860 with Goex and fired a final five rounds into a two-inch circle. I decided it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t the gun…so it must be the powder.
Accuracy was about the same with the EAA Big Bore Bounty Hunter chambered in .45 Colt. I loaded the Colt cases using a Lee Precision 2.2cc dipper. This gives the equivalent of a 33-grain load if 3Fg black powder. I used Federal large pistol primers and hand cast .454, 255-grain round nosed-flat point bullets. The Bounty Hunter has a four and a half inch long barrel and the APP powered loads were clocked at 760 fps by my F1 Chrony. That’s a little faster than the 729 fps for 2Fg Goex out of the same revolver.
As I said APP’s accuracy in the Bounty Hunter was on a par with its performance in the 1860 Army. Shooting from the 15 yard line, I put 50 rounds of APP powered ammo through the Bounty Hunter and shot groups that ranged from three inches to six inches in diameter. Generally I was placing the bulk of my shots in a four and a half inch cluster. After shooting the Bounty hunter with APP, I fired a cylinder full of Black Hills factory ammo into a one and a half inch group. I followed that up by shooting a cylinder full of my black powder hand loads into a two-inch group.
My conclusion from this limited test is that APP isn’t as accurate in a handgun as either smokeless powder or genuine black powder. However, the cowboy game isn’t based on tack driving accuracy. APP performed well enough to get you through the typical cowboy action shooting match without taking a miss.
When I switched to shooting Taylor’s & Company’s 1873 sporting rifle I was surprised to see APP turned in excellent groups that were fully the equal of smokeless powder or Goex. I shot the 1873 off hand from the twenty-five yard line. The 2.2cc load of 3Fg APP turned in average velocities of 1,081 fps through the 24-inch barrel on the ’73. Velocities with 2Fg Goex black powder were marginally faster at 1,118 fps. The sporting rifle fired the APP rounds into a one-inch group. I shouldn’t have been surprised because I take it as a matter of course that a rifle will shoot into an inch at 25 yards, but, after the revolvers’ performance, I’d prepared myself for poor groups from APP. Maybe it takes the longer barrel for APP to burn consistently. I don’t know, but I liked the results.
American Pioneer Powder isn’t perfect, but it is a godsend to cowboy shooters who want to play the game in the black powder classifications, but who don’t have access to real black powder. With APP you can smoke your posse out to your heart’s content.
Specifications:
EAA Big Bore Bounty Hunter
Caliber .45 Colt
Barrel: 4.5 inches
OA length: 10 inches
Weight: 39 oz
Capacity: Six rounds
Action: Single action revolver
Finish: Color case hardened/blued
Taylor’s & Co. 1873 Sporting Rifle
Caliber: .45 Colt
Barrel: 24 ¼ inches
OA Length: 43 ¼ inches
Weight: 8 pounds eight ounces
Capacity: 14 round magazine
Sights: Drift adjustable brass bead front and step adjustable semi-buckhorn rear
Action: Lever action
Stocks: Two-piece walnut
Grips: One piece walnut (factory), One piece poly-ivory (after market)
Points of Contact:
American Pioneer Powder, Inc
20423 State Road 7 #F6-268
Boca Raton. FL 33498
888-756-7693
www.americanpioneerpowder.com
European American Armory
P.O. Box 560746
Rockledge, FL 32956-0746
321-639-4842
Taylor’s & Company, Inc.
304 Lenoir Drive
Winchester, VA 22603
800-655-5814