I have been mucking around with Black Powder rifles for over 20yrs now and will admit being a bit frustrated in the beginning with a Flintlock that would only go off when it felt like it. Experiance and getting to know the rifle makes a big differance, tuneing the flint and little things like tapping the side of the lock to make sure the powder is close to the flash hole or nipple are things learned. Every smokepole likes a slightly different load or patch combination.
To the cheap ass bit, I have found making my own cast balls , Powder , patches, even flints all part of the Muzzleloader experiance. The powder took a bit of experimentation to get it right but now thats sorted and at $1.80 a Kilo its well worth the hour in a well ventilated and non expensive shed. Still have all my fingers to. Flints , chips of Argelite will work but you don`t get many shots. Re sharpening a $2 flint from Track of the wolf or such will last for ages.  Percussion caps , I see Gunworks in Canteurbury has them for $40 a tin of 100. I just go to the dollar shop and buy plastic caps for capguns at $1 for 78 and they work every time , being soft plastic they hold onto the nipple just fine and seal it... the girl at he counter does look at you when you buy $30 worth.
Have never bothered working it out but shooting my Blackpowder rifles is probably about 2-4 cents a shot and very satisfing when you knock over a deer or goat with ammo you can say you hand rolled yourself.

capgun caps.......you are a man after my own cheap arsed heart.

The Recipe: Pretty simple really and there are some good vids on youtube for homemade black powder.

1, Stale uren,  yes!! piss in a bottle and leave it in the shed for a few weeks.
2, Charcole : made from Crack willow from the river banks. Use branches 4-6 inch thick so its still fairly young. Cut green then strip the bark and leave to dry, I will cut lengths of willow from the same tree. Cut to kindling thickness and cook in a old coffee tin or similar in the fireplace with the lid on and a nail hole in the top to let the gas out. You can light the gas and when it stops burning the charcole is done. Pulverise to a fine dust.
3 Salt peter / Potassium Nitrate : From a farm fertiliser distrubuter about $56 25kg
4, Sulpher : same supplier $12  2kg

750gm Potassium Nitrate
150gm Charcole
100gm  Sulpher

Salt peter in a pot and cover with Stale uren, Bring to boil and salt peter will disolve. Stir in slowly the other 2 ingrediants powdered and mixed together, stir for about 10 minutes. It wants to be a good poridge mix.
Take it off the heat and let it cool a while.It will solidify. Once its cool enough to handle by hand force it through a kitchen cive with course wire and leave it in a thin layer to dry in the sun.
Until it is dry it probably won`t burn well or at all but once its dry its good to go. Put it in a sealed container away from the kids.
As a precaution do not use steel utensils in the making of this powder.
As this powder is not compressed like the bought stuff you will use about twice as much as a thrown unit. IE: if you use 100gr thrown of 2f in a 50cal, you will probably throw 150 - 200gr by volume not weight of homemade powder.
Bought powder is compressed to about 40 ton and made into pucks that are then broken to get the F grain size. This homemade powder is just corned so is lighter and larger by volume to weight.
With my old eyes on a good day I can shoot 3-4 inch groups at 100mts with a open sighted flintlock and this powder. If you are having a slight delay between the flashpan and the main charge, drop about 3 grains of FFFF down the barrel first. For caplocks just the homebrew and a capgun cap will do the job.
Of coarse the above was just theoretic and above all be safe and use common sense, for christ sake dont smoke while your doing this.
There are no legal issues in making your own black powder in small amounts as long as it is only being used for a lawful purpose such as being used in a muzzleloader by a licenced firearm owner.

This is the most hilarious topic I've read in ages 
I can't believe you boil your piss!   
Next time I'm near the black powder range I'm gonna stay well upwind.
Has anyone told Alan that there's a bomb making class going on on his website? 

Yep Black powder is pretty nasty stuff. Potassium Nitrate is normally made from hay , horse shit and urien (human or animal). In the old days they used to go around the long drop toilets collecting human waste and fermenting it to make gun powder. Nothing much has changed so you have no idea whats in the tin of Black Powder you are useing .

Very entertaining post 'Tasbay' - and educational.
And to answer 'Jakkos', I recall reading many years ago that back in the day, the French preferred urine from a wine drinker for their powder manufacture - it was said to make a difference, but whether red or white - I never discovered.
I've heard of people using the cap gun caps, but have never tried it - and now - I believe I will.
As a word of caution - my first job from school was in a Laboratory and my interests led me the blackpowder route. I never lost any fingers, but I did blow an eyeball right out of my head which put me in shitty humour for a while.
I never did learn any lesson from that, because I still make it - but your wet recipe sounds a bit safer than my dry one - which is mixing small lots of measured ingredients in a plastic ball mill at low speed in my lathe. I switch it on and off at the end of a thirty foot extension lead. The 'shit your pants' part is the fear of static electricity when you unscrew the lid to dump it out - so I get my youngest to do that 
Another interesting thing with urine, apart from the fact that  mixed with water it was really good for soaking your John Bull's in for breaking - is, it will shrink the hell out of them if you leave it in them for too long.

Cheers Tasbay - I'm an old dog learning new tricks.
I initially just used the mill to grind the charcoal, then I got talking to a guy who made his own fireworks and he said he used his mill to finally mix/incorporate all the ingredients - so that's what I did. I was always nervous doing it, so I only mixed 4 ounces at a time - running it in the mill for half to three quarters of an hour.
Prior to that I mixed it dry in a bowl with a wooden spoon before adding in the water. It would still go bang, but my god - did it leave some shit in the barrel.
I knew about the urine, but I don't remember ever using it - only water.
I wished I'd known about that wet method earlier.
Incidentally - the Black Powder boys won't let you shoot homemade on their range, not where I am anyway - so I jumped the fence to the Deerstalkers who don't seem to look too deep into things.
Another charcoal worth looking at is Hazel - I've got a hedge just along from me and it seems to work about the same as willow.

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I will see how a bourbon drinker preforms