Damascus Made for Smokeless

[Autumn Daze]

Interesting...But I faithfully clean my guns after a day of shooting.

[jimcaron]

Originally Posted by Dave Suponski

Interesting...But I faithfully clean my guns after a day of shooting.

Oh no, I never said it wasn't good practice, because it is, but back then, It was absolutely mandatory.

[Tom Martin]

With regard to corrosive primers, I have been doing some internet research this morning, and based on what I have found, mercury fulminate primers were not corrosive. Mercury fulminate primers were discontinued due to short shelf life, which led to misfires and hang fires. Potassium chlorate which replaced the mercuric primers is highly corrosive, but more stable, which is why it was used by the military through WWII.
The true corrosiveness of chlorate primers was not realized until after the advent of smokeless powder. Black powder produces large quantities of unburned residue which absorbed much of the oxidizing residue of the primers, and removal of the black powder residue with water also removed most or all of the chlorate residue, depending on the thoroughness of the cleaning.
Smokeless powder did not leave the quantity of unburned residue of black powder, so a few passes with a brush left an apparently clean barrel, except that the chlorate residue imbedded in the pores of the metal could not be seen.Before the true cause of the corrosion was discovered, it was usually blamed on the smokeless powder. The military found that the corrosion could be avoided by thorough cleaning with soap and water. My early rifle training was at Ft. Jackson and FT. Bragg with the M1 rifle and WWII ammo. On days when we fired, GI trash cans with immersion heaters were set up in the company street and filled with boiling soapy water to clean the rifles.

[AmarilloMike]

My flinter friend and I have both let the black powder residue sit in barrels for a long period of time, in my case for over a year, as an experiement. After a few months it turns light grey. Neither he nor I had any rust or pitting of the bores. We both live in the same relatively dry climate but still an interesting outcome. We have an average of 21" of rain a year and are at 3700 feet of elevation.

I experimented on a cheap pre-war steel barrel Belgian gun, he on a reproduction flintlock.

Best,


Mike

[Double Trouble]

Back in the day, flintlock muskets were converted to percussion (by US arsenals) by plugging the tough hole & drilling/tapping the top-rear of the barrel for a nipple. Later on, people began to "re-convert" these guns back to flintlock. However, one thing that they had to do to make it convincing was to file away all of the horrible cratering (not pitting, but CRATERING) caused by persussion cap reside on the surface of the barrel (around the nipple). Such deep cratering is never seen on guns that are in original flint condition. Although Mike got way with a year without cleaning, in more humid climates, I'm sure some rust will result - but the gist of his point is still valid - no doubt in my mind.

[jimcaron]

Originally Posted by John Mazza

Back in the day, flintlock muskets were converted to percussion (by US arsenals) by plugging the tough hole & drilling/tapping the top-rear of the barrel for a nipple. Later on, people began to "re-convert" these guns back to flintlock. However, one thing that they had to do to make it convincing was to file away all of the horrible cratering (not pitting, but CRATERING) caused by persussion cap reside on the surface of the barrel (around the nipple). Such deep cratering is never seen on guns that are in original flint condition. Although Mike got way with a year without cleaning, in more humid climates, I'm sure some rust will result - but the gist of his point is still valid - no doubt in my mind.

I can believe it. Potassium is extremely aggressive and basic in nature.

[Double Trouble]

Damn - I meant to type "touch hole" - not tough hole ! (Freudian slip ????)

So again, my point was to agree that primers caused more problems than powders...

[J.B. Books]

This is a video showing what happens when you load a muzzle-loading rifle with DENSE nitro powder using a BULK powder measure. It also shows the effects of a barrel obstruction. I expect similiar results if you load any dense nitro powder using BP or bulk powder measure regardless of whether the gun has composite or fluid steel barrels.

120gr of HS-6 creates a pipe bomb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmsBF6CXs18

[jimcaron]

Holy cats! 120 garins of HS-6 would blow a cannon apart! But boy I'll tell you, a picture or a video is worth 1,000 words!

[10ga Hammer]

Wonder how many grains they loaded in this one? !!