Is gun powder and black powder the same?

Answer 1

Answer

yes, a muzzle loader and black powder are just two different names for the same thing.

Black powder is a term that also includes a category of guns that fire black powder cartridges. So these guns were breech loaders and do not load from the muzzle. Also the early black powder revolvers were loaded by ramming the charge into the cylinders---not the muzzle. These could also be referred to as black powder pistols and not muzzle loaders.

I just call them "smoke poles" myself.

Also, the early Colt pistols fired black powder and a ball. These are called "black powder pistols" or "cap and ball pistols". If I was referring to shooting a Colt, I would say I shoot a black powder gun; I would not refer to it as a muzzle-loader.

Answer 2

Well, sort of. Blackpowder is the original mixture of sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter, though the manufacturing process has greatly improved.

Gun powder is a more generic term for the various mixtures that are used to create the propulsion force for a firearm, cannon or other projectile weapon. There are a large number of chemical compounds that are used today, one of them is black powder.