Learn How to Make Gunpowder the Old Fashioned Way

gun powder and bullets

Just about any discussion of SHTF or survival situations focuses on relatively short-term, isolated, survival incidents, where after an initial shock, it becomes hours, or at worst days, before everything gets back to normal.

What, though, if we are talking about a longer-term natural or man-made disaster that renders life as we know it obsolete?

That possibility is why some survival experts are saying that everyone needs to know how to make basic items, from scratch, including, in this case, gunpowder.

Most of us have stocked away an emergency source of food, including meat, but once that is used up, we would be on our own in a catastrophic, long-term, survival situation.

That would include securing game for meat, but eventually, if the situation were dire enough, even our stock of ammunition would run low.

To learn why knowing how to make gunpowder could be a critical skill, check out the next page.

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66 Comments

  1. David Elderton said:

    It’s far, far easier to stock extra ammo or powder than to stock black powder ingredients.

  2. Michael J. Geisler said:

    Buy a bow and get proficient at that. It quiet so it won’t draw attention and take a hell of a lot less time to make new arrows than to make powder.

  3. David Elderton said:

    Ever harvest a deer with your home made arrow? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Either learn how to make arrows capable of taking down a deer or man, or stock up now.

  4. Eugene Kelley said:

    Though I have never attempted to hunt large game with primitive arrows (because I wouldn’t risk the legal issues (I’m not 100% certain, but I assume its illegal and would be very hard to achieve a shaft and broadhead with approved grain specs) and the reduced chances of killing the animal in a humane fashion) but when I was a young lad I enjoyed making old school long bows and made homemade fletched arrows in which I could kill rabbits and stuff on our ranch. My old man showed me how to do it.

  5. Austin Harper said:

    If you know what your doing it can be used in modern firearms, you just have to understand it and how to use it properly.

  6. George Zofchak said:

    bud ….you go right ahead and you use that black powder in modern firearm……..I understand it……black powder explodes……modern powder burns ………..send me a post or a link showing black powder used in a modern firearm…..id like to see that

  7. Ethan Norman said:

    Gonna throw a little logic at you here. At what point is this going to be needed? Either A. There will be plenty of battlefield salvage laying around for you. B. Plenty of other people that will make a trade market for munitions, you will not survive with ZERO interaction with other people. C. Make a bow and learn how to use it if for some reason you have no ammunition. And lastly D. Actual$#%&!@*hit fan scenario how long do you think you will have to be alone in order to even have to do this? Let the feathers ruffle in 3….2….1….

  8. William Skicki said:

    Let me get this right…charcoal (wood), sulfer (or rust),$#%&!@*and piss. How the hell did anyone think this up?

  9. Ethan Norman said:

    Lol well if you find yourself on another planet when not drug induced this could be helpful 🙂

  10. Doug Williams said:

    Uhh duh, first I’d like to point out that uh duh! Just shut up! Take it for what it is as a basic tutorial! I’m sure in your minds that zombie apocalypse you fantasize where you’re the hero works very differently.

  11. Buddy Rector said:

    Unless you have a flintlock, where you getting primers/percussion caps?

  12. Brandon Brennan said:

    did not read article as i already have the recipes… but doubt that info will ever come in handy… but if scenario is more than a couple weeks,,, maybe it has already lasted three months….. my estimation is between 3 and 6 months, people are going to start to want and need things they did not store enuff of, and trade of a fasion will recommence… if YOU are a manufacturer of any need item, you will very soon find your services needed… dont think a truly urban area for this, but suburbia, and rural, yeah…. now… IF the nature of the scenario lasted into decades… then having the resources and knowledge to make explosives might start coming in handy like say a meteor storm that wiped out a large percentage of mankind….. low odds i do agree

  13. John Connor said:

    Ethan has a valid point, but still, I want to know this – and hope I never need it.

  14. George Anton said:

    The first primers were hand made in a shop with a few simple forms and punches. Fulminated mercury can be found in old high school chemistry books.
    Learning to make primers would be a valuable “Grid down” skill.

  15. George Anton said:

    Not hard at all. When we were about ten or twelve, back in the 60s, us kids mixed up a bunch of black powder. I’m talking pounds.

  16. John Lebeau said:

    Ok my turn um did you guys forget that lil law Obama signed to action his 1st term making the gunpowder companies put a expiration on gunpowder they manufactur meaning they fixed so u can’t stockpile blackpowder it’s useless after awhile

  17. Buddy Rector said:

    With everyone hunting protein sources, how long will the animals last? Better to learn trapping skills to catch the smaller critters. I see ammo needed more for protection. Think of the tens of millions of city folks invading the countryside. Trap for resources and save the ammo for protection.

  18. Larry McCullen said:

    There will almost certainly be a worldwide collapse of civilization as we know it.
    Once that happens all modern supplies will last only for a time and then mankind will be set back thousands of years.
    Look at the collapse of the Roman Empire , how their technology disappeared or the Egyptians. Even today we have no clue how they were able to achieve some of the things they did because the technology disappeared.
    If you look at problems that led up to the collapse of the Roman Empire , we are experiencing those same issues now.
    We have massive debt , our resources and military are stretched thin. There is a huge gap between lifestyles of the working class and the rich. Our infrastructure , such as bridges and power grids , are outdated and we lack the money and ability to update them. It is becoming more and more difficult to deal with even the simplest of problems.
    All of the warning signs are there but people wear blinders and are unable to face these realities. Fukushima is another example. Had something like this , that effects all of our food supply , happened in the 50’s , the world would have kicked in together to fix the problem. Now the world is unable , so instead we turn a blind eye and pretend it’s under control.
    Prepare prepare prepare !

  19. Benjamin Corso said:

    The black powder sold is not a P.nitrate sulfur charcoal mix. This is a BP formula mainly used in fireworks, and is the same as old fashioned cannon powder. It doesnt expire,nor get volitale with age.

  20. Jonathan Lavender Jr said:

    1 teaspoon carbon, 1 1/2 teaspoon sulfur, 7 1/2 teaspoon potssium nitrate, crush together in a stone mortar and pestel, the result is black powder.

  21. Spencer C. Pascoe said:

    Even better learn to make a long bow and arrrows the materials are more easily obtainable

  22. John William Cheek said:

    make sure you do it outside and with nothing that can make a spark. cross your fingers and pray as well

  23. Ron Barlow said:

    Uhhh yeah post this out there and see how many dumbfucks aka liberals blow them selves up

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