Muzzle Loader Construction Question

[curator]

The amount of un-burned powder thrown out of the muzzle can be "moderated" by compression, bullet weight, and increased friction. Over-loads of black powder add to the projectile weight too and result in more powder burned in the barrel. Some un-burned powder can end up compressed behind the projectile creating a "filler-effect" of sorts, reducing or eliminating gas blow-by and improving accuracy. Obviously grain size makes a difference in how much powder is burned in a certain length barrel as well.

[waksupi]

Let me say now that I am so incredibly sorry for being a technical pain in the a$$, but black powder being a low explosive does not detonate, it deflagrates, as do all other firearm propellants. The difference being that low explosives burn at a rate of less than the speed of sound (yes I know rifles propel bullets in excess of the speed of sound, but to my knowledge this is the result of the pressure created as the powder burns, and it has little to do with the rate it burns.) Detonation is the result of something burning at above the speed of sound, most high explosives used in blasting operate somewhere between 14'000 and 28'000fps, much, much faster than black powder. The theory I have is that while the powder is burning from the back it is simultaneously being pushed forward, thus limiting the amount of powder that can be used until some starts to get shot out of the muzzle. My ides is that if the charge is ignited from the front the the powder has nowhere to go, and the result would be a more efficient burn of the powder.

As I recall it, the difference is the method of containment. I thought I remembered that deflagration is what is involved with something like a firecracker, where explosive force is expelled in all directions, rather than a directed blast like a detonation.

[M-Tecs]

Off track but I'm glad I don't have to feed this one. Only 450 pounds of blackpower per shot. http://oldbritishguns.com/armstrong-100-ton-gun

[huntingsgr8]

.

No chronograph required - just a 2nd white bed sheet on the ground in front of the rifle, ahead of the 1st white sheet mentioned earlier.

.

Hmmmm......duh

[huntingsgr8]

As I recall it, the difference is the method of containment. I thought I remembered that deflagration is what is involved with something like a firecracker, where explosive force is expelled in all directions, rather than a directed blast like a detonation.

Well, as defined by Wikipedia: Deflagration (Lat: de + flagrare, "to burn down") is a term describing subsonic combustion propagating through heat transfer; hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. Most "fire" found in daily life, from flames toexplosions, is deflagration.

Detonation as defined by Wikipedia:Detonation (from Latin detonare, meaning "to expend thunder") is a type of combustioninvolving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives ashock front propagating directly in front of it

[Multigunner]

There have been front of charge ignition muzzle loading guns, though the purpose of the design was for multiple shots from a single barrel. Each bullet had a flash hole or tunnel to transmit the igniting flash from the charge in front of it to the powder charge behind it. It worked like a roman candle only faster and with considerable power.

At times bundles of these pre-charged barrels were mounted on a swivel in a ship's fighting top to clear the enemy deck. The modern day Metal Storm works on similar lines only using electronic ignition.

[KCSO]

Yer floggi' a dead horse here... see Ed Yards tests from the 70's and read Buckskin Report from the late 60's early 70's and then go back to Greeners' The Gun from the late 1800's and then...

This is an old topic and the bottom line is that shape of combustion chamber for a give load is more a factor than where you light it. Then consider that if you ignite at the front of the charge you are stuck with one charge of powder, you can't drop back to a 1/2 charge for close range ect. This is why even a Nock breech is rear lit.