posted December 18, 1999 03:09 PM         

IT WAS EXPENSIVE...

I made similar this way:

8 grains bullseye in 38 special primed case.
insert copper gas check, cup side to powder and press down gently against the powder.

make up a batch of auto bondo that uses the peroxide catylist, and fill the case above the gas check with that and let it harden.

Do not clean the case, but leave the powder residue from the last firing, so the bondo will not bond to the case sides very well.

This load flattens the primers showing it is getting up near the limit of what one ought load into ordinary 38 special cartridges.

When fired in a 5 shot SW snub nose revolver,
at 4 ft it would demolish a milk jug of water. entrance hole was big ragged and exit no exit but sides were shredded all round.

Didn't chrono it at that time, but extimate its cranking out at about 3000 fps. Weight of projectile is only about 30 grains, and it takes all that powder to force it to burn in the 2 inch bbl, before the bullet is gone.

In loading ammo you are playing a game of choosing powder speed, amount and bullet weight so the powder will reach a pressure that is just below the tolerable limit, and the weight of the bullet chosen gets going to expand the volume the powder has to pressurize fast as the powder can keep pressure high. With most powders this game can be optimized only for a foot or so of barrel, and then the powder lags and pressure falls and by the time the bullet exits it is not accellerating all that much.

To play this game always approach from the too little powder, too light a bullet, side of things, for it you go past the safety point you can reach a pressure where the remaining powder detonates and that will shatter the steel of the gun.

Be patient, and move up in small steps and watch those primers, when the begin to extrude up around the firing pin, you are nearing a dangerous pressure which could blow a primer and cause a high pressure rearward gas release. Oddly enough a detonation usually does not blow the primer, but shatters the gun.

Saw a fellow detonate a round in a 32 cal S&W
with 4 " bbl. The bullet exited the barrel and fell on the ground about 6 ft in front of the gun. It's rear was normal but the front had a large tit hanging on it, as if the rear of the bullet had been smacked so hard that a
wad of the front lead tried to leave the bullet in the forward direction and didn't quite break free so there was that partially formed drop, about 22 cal diameter and 3/8 inch long connected to the rear of the bullet by a graceful neck, about 1/8 inch diameter.

The cylinder blew out the round fired plus the chambers on both sides of it. The top piece above the revolving chambers was blown up into a large circle but the barrel was still pointed straight ahead, so the top was stretched without raising the barrel. The guy who shot it was not harmed. Not even the hand holding the gun.

Really weird stuff happens in a detonation.