I love having Saturday coffee with King Peter. We always find something to fight about and this time it was all about gun powder burn rates, pressure spikes and theory - and I think I got spanked. (Not that Pete would ever admit that he's wrong, may God rot his balls!)
Agree or disagree with the following statements:
A. You can never blow up a gun with an overly slow burning powder because any unburned powder will be pushed out the barrel and burn out there - and that would dispense with excess powder). For the record I am not sure I agree with that.
B. Take two cartridges with roughly the same dimensions but different bores (eg. 243 vs 308): You will need a faster burning powder for the 308 than for the 243 because as the 308 travels down the bore, the volume increases and you need a faster burning powder to fill that volume. For the record, I disagree with that. I would think you need a faster burning powder in the smaller bore rifle because you want the combustion cycle to end just as the bullet leaves the barrel - and the smaller volume of the smaller bore would call for a faster burn rate. Of course when we brought up the powder burn rate chart on the cell, the 243 does seem to favour slower powders. That sticks in my craw because typically - don't the big boomer magnums burn smaller powder?
I think Pete may be right but for the wrong reasons. He finished up his flubdubbery with the statement that optimal powder burn rate is a function of bore diameter. Are any of you boys up to speed on the physics of pressures vs. cartridge vs. powder selection?