The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"
Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!
Made black in the late sixties, learned why powder mills have their buildings widely separated and decided to not be doing that noooo more.
The firecracker powder is a black powder with the addition of powdered aluminum. The aluminum makes the report much sharper so you get a louder crack and it gives a bright white flash to the explosion. The aluminum is what makes is shiny silver. Its definitely not something you want to use for propellent.
Powdered aluminum is added to some explosives like TNT and ammonium nitrate based explosives to increase brisance which makes the material shatter the casing or whatever is intended to be broken up more readily than without the aluminum.
You can find all this info with more detail on the net if you look.
Frank
Bruce Drake -
Using a percussion revolver, it appeared to me that the 50/50 blend of KClO3/Sugar was significantly more powerful than black powder.
I would suggest starting with KClO3/Sugar weighing HALF (or less) of your normal black powder load, and do not attempt to exceed normal black powder velocities.... proceed at your own risk.
"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."
- Thomas Jefferson
If you want to rust up a gun in a hurry shoot that stuff, worse than pyrodex!
KClO3 + phosphorous + a little sulphur was used in some toy caps and what was in the old railroad "torpedos" they used to communicate with the locomotive, they'd bend a couple lead straps attached to the casing of the stuff onto the track. Stuff is indeed sensitive (you don't want to even TRY to spoon mix it, that'd get you a KABOOM; if I had to make some I'd wet each component separately and then mix those solutions, THAT is safer, though I wouldn't stay near the stuff frankly.) I sure wouldn't use that anywhere near a BP gun, you'd set it off earlier than you wanted, probably. Nasty stuff.
Here's an old thread which touched on the "KClO3 and Sugar" idea - I included range reports in posts #86 and #88 of that thread -
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...nd-ideas/page5
"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto."
- Thomas Jefferson
potassium chlorate is an aggressive oxidizer. mixed 40/60 with powdered aluminum it is lit with cannon fuse and an explosive.
I can't Imogene that putting SUGAR in / down your barrel would do it any good?!!
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |