Guncotton was an early nitrocellulose propellant. It was made by reacting the cellulose in cotton with nitric acid in the presence of some catalyst. My question is would doing this with sawdust be a viable solution in a SHTF-type situation? I am of course not suggesting any ameture chemists attempt this.

IIRC wood chips/saw dust was used in one of the 1st smokeless powder formula.

Yes,you can do that

I worked for 23 years make R&D explosives, mostly solid rocket propellants. We did some work on double base propellants, we ended up abandoning the project and just buying the material. I would not do it again. Most of what we did was Ammonium Perchlorate composites.

Yes you could make nitrocellulose, but in a SHTF situation where are you going to get the chemicals, the cotton or sawdust is easy, the acids stabilizers, catalysts etc. would be hard to get even in good times.

The guncotton produced is like a fluff and needs to be pressed into a solid and stabilizers and burn rate catalysts mixed in- need a shear roll mill.

Making a consistent product and coming up a load that works without test equipment will likely result in blown guns or bullets lodged in barrels.

If you are going to stockpile something just stash more ammo.

Mark

The police, National Guard, Reserves and regulars all have armourys that can become supply sources.

Jim