Golden Powder muzzleloader's dream come true
By Ray Thatcher

The following article taken from 'American Firearms Industry, Jan. 1986'. It has been retyped verbatim from an old copy for your convenience.

Excerpt from the article: 'Walking to another bench he DUMPED THE POWDER INTO A BLENDER...', The complete article can be read below.

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A new gun powder which will be appearing on dealer shelves sometime during 1986 is Golden Powder. Shooters have been hearing rumors about this flammable solid for quite sometime, and for many this new shooting material is equated with unicorns and UFO's. Does it exist, and if so, when are we going to be able to lay our hands on it?

I can tell you from experience that Golden Powder does truly exist. That it is all of the good things you have heard about it, and in fact, it is probably better.

This past October I traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada where Oro-Tech Industries, Inc. maintains their office and experimental laboratory. Timm Kurtz, son and co-inventor of Golden Powder, graciously took time from his busy schedule to not only show me through their complex but allow me to handle, load and shoot some of the coffee colored Golden Powder.

Oro-Tech Industries, Inc., 3666 So. Highland Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, is located in what appears to be a series of connected stores and warehouses. Unobtrusive as they appear, inside those walls sits a product that is almost too good to believe.

After meeting various members of the staff, Kurtz showed me a vast array of antique weaponry the like of which is seen only in museums. From Henrys to Sharps to mint Springfields, even early English double rifles that were used in the African ivory trade. If you've read about an antique weapon in a dusty catalog, chances are Oro-Tech has one in their tightly secured vault. Why keep large numbers of antique shoulder and hand weapons other than for their historical and monetary value? Simple! They use all of them for testing and demonstrating Golden Powder.

The sizable laboratory room is a combination testing facility. Housed in one corner of the complex, it is used for storage of small amounts of Golden Powder, weights and measures, hydraulic equipment, sieves for attaining various granulations of powder, and one Osterizer blender.

Earlier on the day of my visit, one of the technicians had taken a quantity of Golden Powder Product in its original form, which to me resembled a dried pasture type cow patty, and broke it up with his hands (it's lightweight and brittle in patty form). Placing the pieces in a hydraulic press and applying 45,000 PSI, the end result was a series of dark brown cylinders about one inch in diameter and two inches high. These cylinders were stacked in a glass jar for later use.

Timm Kurtz asked me if I would like to shoot some Golden Powder. Ridiculous question! Does a duck like water? Sure, I wanted to shoot but wouldn't you know it, all of the product had been pressed into cylinders. The only powder in granulated form was small quantities which had been stored, some of it for over four years, and kept for small sample testing. Just my luck. Dispels the rumor of short shelf life that is currently making the rounds, doesn't it?

Taking one brown cylinder out of the glass storage jar, Kurtz placed it in a glass bowl and began breaking the powder into small chunks, then pounded it with a glass pestle. Not something you would normally do with an explosive, much less stay on the same block with someone foolish enough to do it. Handing me the bowl, he said that the powder was still too coarse for us to use in the two Sharps he had selected for me to shoot. Walking to another bench he DUMPED THE POWDER INTO A BLENDER. Now, I was getting a bit jumpy. "We'll just get it a little finer," he said, and turned the Osterizer on. Several seconds of blending produced a variety of granulation. Kurtz placed the brownish powder into a set of sieves and swirled them as you would a gold pan. A moment later he loosened the bottom pan and we moved to a computerized scale. Weighing out a small amount, we left it on the scale while he pushed a .54 caliber lead bullet into the chamber of a Sharps Carbine. Dumping the powder in behind the bullet and closing the action, Kurtz handed me the rifle and we entered the shooting area. A black target had been hung down-range. Putting on ear protectors, I settled myself on the chair, laid the rifle over the padded rest, capped the nipple, and touched off my first round. A hole appeared near the center of the paper target, and a whitish smoke hung in the room. It had a slightly acrid smell, but not so unpleasant that a person would have to leave the area. Opening the breech and looking down the barrel I saw a small amount of what appeared to be black soot disappear. Kurtz handed me a cleaning rod and fresh patch. It came out with a slight grayish de-coloration. After several more shots we dismantled the Sharps. I noted a whitish-gray substance on the face of the breechblock. Kurtz placed the block under a faucet and the substance rinsed off with no rubbing what-so-ever. Those of you who shoot the Sharps percussion rifles know how fouled they become after several shots, and what a job it is cleaning up afterwards.

Golden Powder will make shooting muzzleloaders and percussion rifles such as the Sharps as much or more fun than shooting smokeless. No fouling, little cleanup, and total safety when observing rules as you would when using any other powder. Later in the week, on my home rifle-range, I loaded five 45-70 casings with sixty grains of Kodiak Brown Express Powder. Using Winchester large rifle primers and 465 grains lead bullets which I cast from a single-cavity Lee bullet mold manufactured by Lee Precision Inc., Hartford, Wisconsin 53027, I fired all five rounds through a Navy Arms Rolling Block Target Rifle. I highly recommend this rifle which is manufactured by Navy Arms Company, 689 Bergen Blvd., Ridgefield, N.J. 07657. This is the same firearm which I used in the National Rifle Association Black Powder Cartridge Metallic Silhouette competition at Raton, New Mexico earlier this year, so I knew the rifle was capable of exceptional accuracy.

As was expected, all five bullets punched holes in the bulls-eye target, but what amazed me was the reduction of recoil over the black powder substitute I had been using. A clean patch through the bore gave me the characteristic whitish-gray ash. The inside of the 45-70 casings showed the same thing. It has always been standard procedure for me to clean my firearms immediately after a trip to the range. This time I refrained from cleaning and stood the rifle in the corner of my reloading room. As I write this it has been four weeks since I fired those five rounds. The Navy Arms bore is still bright and shiny after only the one dry patch through it as mentioned earlier. No solvent. No water. Nothing more. The five casings still show a small amount of whitish ash. No discoloration or corrosion what-do-ever.

To further my testing of Golden Powder, I attended our local muzzleloader shoot. Using Remington #11 percussion caps and Speer .445 Round Balls manufactured by CCI Speer, Lewiston, Idaho, I loaded my .45 caliber percussion Kentucky rifle with Golden Powder. Using a fine granulation which is similar to 4F black powder, I loaded from a handmade horn measure that holds 80 grains of 2F black. The cotton split-patch slid easily down the bore and the ramrod was lightly tapped several times to insure the bullet was fully seated. Six shots later the patched ball was still sliding easily down the bore to the Golden Powder. No Cleaning. No fouling. And, all shots on the paper at fifty yards. Try that with the traditional front-stuffer powders.

A fellow shooter was firing a .45 caliber rifle manufactured by Dixie Gun Works, Inc., Gunpowder Lane, Union City, Tenn. 38261. I asked him to try a load of Golden Powder. His rifle was fouled with black powder, so the patched ball was difficult to seat. His comment, after shooting, was that it had much quicker ignition, less recoil, and excellent accuracy. Using my same horn measure, he reloaded. THE BLACK POWDER FOULING HAD DISAPPEARED FROM HIS BORE. He said that it felt as if his bore had been lubricated. The patched bullet slid down that easily. Enough said about Golden Powder.

Dealers, contact Oro-Tech Industries, Inc., 3666 So. Highland Drive. Dept. AFI, Las Vegas, Nevada 89103. According to Timm Kurtz, Golden Powder should be on the market within the next three to six months. You very definitely want this product on your shelves at the earliest possible moment.