Golden Powder: A Breakthrough In Muzzleloading Propellants
By Jim Woods

Note: The following article taken from 'Shooting Industry, June 1984'. It has been retyped verbatim from an old copy for your convenience.

Excerpt from the article: 'Golden Powder is non-corrosive, and in fact, lubricates to the extent that it inhibits corrosion.', The complete article can be read below.

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Attention gun shops, and in particular, muzzleloader dealers. Make some shelf space and some floor display space available for the coming of Golden Powder. And what is Golden Powder? Well, it's a brand new alternate propellant that can be used in place of black powder. It gets its name from it's color, sort of golden tan. Although it can be color coded to just about any hue the manufacturer chooses, but that's just the start of the differences between black powder and Golden Powder.

Before we dwell too much on the differences, perhaps we should look at the similarities of the two propellants, First, Golden Powder is formulated to replace black powder in both weight or volumetric measure. Black powder shooters won't have to be concerned about conversions that could cause performance or safety errors. Golden Powder, like black powder ignites readily from the sparks of a flintlock or standard percussion caps.

Golden Powder really stands out though, when the differences between it and black powder are compared. Golden Powder is consistent in performance. Actual laboratory shooting tests using measured charges and a chronograph show the velocities in a string of shots to be amazingly consistent, more like the repeat performance of modern smokeless cartridges rather than that expected of loose powder charges. Most important of all though, is the safety of Golden Powder.

Black powder can be accidentally ignited by a number of ways - compression and mechanical shock just to name the more common ones. Golden Powder can actually be formed into shapes under pressures up to 130,000 pounds without detonation, but more on that a bit later. As far as shock, in a demonstration for Shooting Industry, a quantity of Golden Powder placed on an anvil was struck with a powerful blow with a sledge hammer. The powder was flattened, but did not ignite. That same demonstration with black powder would have been an unsafe and irresponsible one, but in this case, the powder maker knew the character of his product and knew that he was not putting any bystander in danger.

When ignited in the chamber of a firearm, Golden Powder burns clean. There is some residue, but unlike the leftover of black powder which is baked on, the small bit of residue from Golden Powder wipes free easily. Burn some of it unconfined in a dish and rub your thumb over the charred spot left by the burnt powder, The wipe under your thumb not only cleans the surface completely, but the oily feel is no accident. Golden Powder is non-corrosive, and in fact, lubricates to the extent that it inhibits corrosion. The makers of Golden Powder once tested its non-corrosive properties by firing a carbine 50 rounds without cleaning the arm, then letting the un-cleaned gun set for five weeks. At the end of five weeks, the bore was clean and bright with no traces of the rust that would have been there if black powder, or even Pyrodex, had been used. If black powder had been used for that test, the gun would not have been able to fire those 50 rounds before cleaning. No doubt the bore would have been so fouled after a dozen or 15 shots that or couldn't even be reloaded.

The fact that just a damp patch is enough to clean out a bore after firing with Golden Powder gives hint to its makeup. The formula calls for 86 percent water! The balance of the formula is being maintained as a proprietary secret. Its inventor will say that the formula is a mono-propellant that is an organic/inorganic compound and in developing it, he tried everything from "kerosene to carrot juice."

The inventor, Earl "Skip" Kurtz, has been working on the compound for about ten years, and the formula has changed drastically over the years as be perfected the formula. Skip reports that his final formula makes use of components never before used in munitions field. Beyond these few vague hints, he won't give away any useful information about the structure of Golden Powder. He did say that the compound is so safe to handle that it could be made in the kitchen. That is, it could be if you had the recipe.

The Company's (Oro-Tech Industries) recipe for marketing their remarkable new discovery is first to make Golden Powder available to the muzzleloading shooter. The powder will come out in the traditional forms that can be related to by the primitive arms enthusiast - Fg, FFg, FFFg and FFFFg. They will also have a special flintlock grind that when poured down the muzzle will self prime the pan by dribbling through the flash hole. Golden Powder in one-pound containers will be distinctive and recognizable; the packages will be plastic powder horns. It's also expected that the powder will be packaged for the shooter-consumer in 5-pound kegs and 25-pound drums.

Oro-tech is currently engaged in safety demonstrations to various agencies to get Golden Powder classified as a "Flammable Solid." If they are successful at that, then the powder can be transported and stored in more ordinary methods than those required of black powder. Dealers will be able to store and stock in greater quantity than they can with black powder, and possibly will not be equipped to store it in a conventional powder magazine. That will free the dealer from a burdensome problem of stocking and storing enough powder to keep their customers happy, and the customers will appreciate the convenience of being able to buy powder whenever they need it, in quantities that they would like to have on hand for themselves. In the event that Oro-Tech is unable to get the Flammable Solid classification, they feel sure that Golden Powder will be determined to be no more hazardous to handle than a Class C propellant, and therefore ranked below the danger level of Pyrodex and black powder.

The second stage of marketing will be to offer formed charges of Golden Powder in various popular calibers and weights. Remember we mentioned that the powder can be compressed under 130,000 pounds of pressure without detonation? By using the technique of melting the compound, then injection-molding it into desired shapes, rods of the propellant can be formed then cut into accurate, repeatable charges. Such charges would be packaged in boxes of 50 rounds, just like metallic cartridges. The advantages to shooters are safety against overcharging and consistency of performance, not to mention the added convenience. Best of all, the shooter doesn't give up the romance and tradition of muzzleloading, not even the smoke. The next marketing stage will be to offer fully-formed, consumable cartridges, with emphasis on fodder for those old cartridge guns for which cased ammo is non-existent or at least difficult to come by. For instance Skip Kurtz has a fondness for the .44 Henry and Golden Powder cartridges for the fine old Henry rifle will be among the first ones produced. Other rounds will be introduced as well, for breech loading Sharps rifles and other historic arms. The consumable cartridge will utilize chemical primers that will ignite from the blow of a firing pin.

Yet another innovative idea devised by Kurtz is a set of nipples that contain floating firing pins for conversion of existing cap'n'ball revolvers. The nipples are replaced by the shooter, using a standard nipple wrench. The revolver can be loaded with cartridges, that Oro-Tech has plans of supplying sometime in the future, made up of molded, consumable, chemically primed Golden Powder charges with round or conical balls glued in place. The cartridges will still be loaded from the front of the cylinder, of course, and will still be seated with the ram lever to ensure that the cylinder turns freely, A pre-coated lube on the projectile will seal the chamber to prevent chain fires, so that the shooter will not have the extra step of greasing the chambers. The shooter will have the convenience of a cartridge conversion to his revolver, without any permanent alterations.

From there, Oro-Tech is looking ahead to the time when they can supply consumable, caseless cartridges for modern cartridge arms, but that's well into the future. For now, it's the primitive arms shooter that will benefit from this latest development in propellants and those benefits include safety above all, but consistency of performance and a brand new convenience as well.

Editor's note: Distributors and dealers who would like to know more about getting in on the Age of Golden Powder may contact Marketing Manager Walter Stewart by telephone at 702/382-9591 or by writing Oro-Tech Industries, 1701 W. Charleston Blvd. Suite 510. Dept. St. Las Vegas, Nevada 89/02.