For some time now there has been eager talk within the Club of a product that is set to revolutionise black powder shooting, this product is the Compressed Black Powder Capsule.

At this point, no doubt, the less informed amongst us may be wondering what the heck this stuff is and why all the fuss? Well, to keep it short, two company’s i.e. Vectan and Hodgdon (of Pyrodex fame) have each managed, where others have failed, to compress black powder into a solid capsule of a predetermined measure. Now this in itself does not sound very exciting but to anyone who has attempted to obtain a consistent load from a powder flask it is a Godsend!

A consistent load = improve performance, that’s the theory anyway!

Now we know what these capsules are, where can we purchase them?

Well, to put it in a nut-shell, we can’t!

So, Why?

The response I received from Edgar Brothers, of whom Hodgdon’s had assured me were their UK outlet, was:

‘..we decided not to import the Pyrodex Pellets due to the classification they fell into being a solid propellant which if memory serves was classed as rocket fuel. For the sales we estimated there would be the costs involved made them not viable to import. All explosives have to be tested and put on a list of explosives after all the data and information on its production and characteristics are tested. Powder can not be just imported and sold’.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this does beg the question ,are we breaking the law if we allow our powder to become damp and it subsequently forms into a hard lump? I had not realised, when I first took up black powder shooting that I was entering the realms of rocket science.. did you?