reloading starter blanks?

[JKH]

Hey Guys,

I have a friend that officiates at track meets, his starter pistol uses .32 S&W black powder blanks, these little buggers cot him nealry .75 cents apiece!

So, he brought a bunch of fired cases to me to see if I can reload them, they are boxer primed and have a heavy roll crimp that kept a heavy paper/fiberboard was in place over the charge.

I am thinking perhaps 5 grains of FFG maybe and a parafin wax plug/wad? Or?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

[smkummer]

You can easily reload with blackpowder or 700X. 700X was used by the militray in 50 cal. blanks. If you are able to flare one of the cases, it can be used as a wadcutting tool to cut a over the powder wad from any heavy card paper you can find. Then it is a simple matter to push this wad over the original case that is still "crimped" with its powder charge in place.

I have reloaded 38 special blanks with a full case of 700X with a card wad. The advantage I have is that I don't have to worry about the gun rusting if I don't clean it right away. You could try that with the 32 and see if its loud enough ( blackpowder is just so right with blanks though) . Good luck and with the money you save, go out to lunch.

[DLCTEX]

I loaded some blanks for a cowboy skit our church put on for kids. I had to drill out the flash holes a little larger to keep the primers from backing out. I cut Styrofoam wads from take out trays with an empty case(drilled the primer hole out large and used a dowel to push them out) and used Pyrodex and seated the wad with a 223 case base first. Seal the mouth with wax wad from wax poured in a dish 1/4" deep and cut with the loaded case. I used bee's wax, but paraffin softened a little with Vaseline would be cheaper if you do a lot of them.

[Multigunner]

If its the H&R or similar blank gun, best be sure the over the charge wad is frangible, otherwise you might end up with the exploding charge blocked in the chamber, if not on the first shot perhaps on a later shot.

I once made some wax impregnated tissue paper round balls to fire blank loads in my .36 Navy repro.
I fired one at a old style steel trash can and it caved in the side like it had be struck with a ball bat.
Blanks can be deadly.
Two young actors that I know of have been killed due to mishandling of blanks. John Eric Hexum shattered his skull when he put what he thought was a revolver loaded with a dummy or empty cartridge to his head, Brandon Lee was killed when the bullet of an ejected dummy round from a previous scene stuck in the chamber of a revolver that was then loaded with blanks.

I've read of several fatal injuries from blanks, one fellow was hit in the stomach by a blank wad and died of peritonitus weeks later.

I'd stick with store bought blanks, less chance of a huge lawsuit if someone did get injured.

[JKH]

Hey Guys,

My friend says that lots of smoke is a necessity so that the kids can also "see" the start shot.

I was pondering wads last night and know that frangible is priority to a point, the Winchester blanks he uses have a very tough fiber/cardboard wad, it is either well glued in or the roll crimp captures it as a high percentage of he empties stillhave chunks securely attached (difficult at best to pull off), when the shot is fired it just blows through.

I am not sure what brand his pistol is but there is a sharp "cone" in front of the chamber that will break up and deflect any wads, it is immediately in front of the chamber and the chambers are no deeper than the mouth of the case. I am thinking of just cutting wads from talet backs that are the diameter of the case (less crimp as suggested above), I hould be able to force these in and have enough spring back to go under the rim/crimp with modest help, after that I might try sealing them in with clear nail polish.

These take a standard small pistol primer and nothing should need to be modifyed as they are already blanks. The information I need most is what grade black powder and how much?
My frien brought some FFg Clean Shot powder but I dont think it will produe the smoke, I have some FFFg black powder for pistols, will 4 or 5 grains f that do?

Jeff

[smkummer]

Any blackpowder will work. You can probably fill to the top and compress the toliet card paper wad with a rod the is slightly smaller than the crimp end. The sharp point coming from the rear of the barrel was made to break apart the wad. The H&R blank gun would not chamber live rounds because of the very short cylinder as the bullet would protrude and be stopped by the point. Your fired cases will retain the crimp. By using the cases that were factory loaded for blanks, then the primer pocket is correct. It may not have had to be drilled out as the blackpowder may have made enough pressure to drive the case back and not allow the primer to back out.
If you want the cases to last, soak the fired cases in soapy water after use to clean the blackpowder residue, then of course dry before reloading. I have reloaded 32 S&W blanks but use 700X so I don't have to clean the gun and cases later. But in your case if needing both bang and smoke, black powder is the best. SometimesI have tried pryodex in my 1898 10 gauge cannon and although I have smoke, it does not have the deep bang of blackpowder.

Good luck and this is a easy job. Common sense means never pointing any firearm at someone but the H&R blank gun was as safe of a blank gun ever made. Movie guns are sometimes functioning real guns (to look real) that fire blanks. As such they are to treated with more caution.

[JKH]

thanks SM!

I thought about the posibility of BP damaging the brass, or is it only in the presence of mercuric priming that the brass can be damaged?

I'll stuff a few cass full of triple F or maybe some double F my son has (seems a lot easier to get than triple in my area), or both and then have him test fire, hopefully they will duplicate the factory loads.

My friend did give me one blank that was a misfire (very light hammer stike), I will carefully dissasemble it and see how fine the powder is and what the charge weighs.

Jeff

[JKH]

He Guys,

I pulled down the "dud" blank last night, the powder is very fine, almost like smokeless ball powder, some of it was clumped hard and it appears some may have burned as if it was damp and fizzled.

I weighted the contents at 7.6 grains on my PACT scale, I then filled the case to where it appeared I could still fit in a cardboard wad and that charge weighed 4.7 grains of FFFg black powder.

Is it possible the blanks have a duplex smokeless/BP load?

Do any of you have experience with Clean SHot BP substitute? If so, what is the report like and how much smoke? My friend brought some of thatto try but it is FFg equivalent and fairly course compred to FFFg which is courser than whatwas in the blank. I am finding (or rather NOT finding) that BP is hard to get in my part of NY oweing to the fact that it is an explosive and our fare state requires different licenseing/storage, etc. of BP than for smokless propellants, go figure!
So it may require a trip to PA for BP if the substitute wont work

Jeff

[Cactus Farmer]

I've done 38 and 32 blanks. Used FFFFg and took some old fiber shotgun wads(quite thick) and cut them to @ 1/8 inch thick,then cut the wads out with a gasket cutter to +- the right diameter. Tight is good for me. A little Elmers on a toothpick to seal the edges and your good to go. Loud and smokey! Throw the empties in soapy water as soon as they are shot. Sure helps with the cleanup.

[Elkdude41]

I am in a similar situation and appreciate all the valuable info here. I have a couple of other questions. Do the blank casings need to be resized? What is the most efficient means of extracting the spent primer? Thanks!

[kootne]

All you really need is some 3f real black powder and a powder compression die (similar to a seating stem but flat on the bottom). Measure the powder by volume and compress it HARD. It won't fall out, you will have to dig it out with a screwdriver if you want it out with out shooting. Don't need no wad , don't need no crimp, just a case, primer, and powder. I have made many for the 45/70 and 357, they all fired with lots of smoke and noise. I would suggest at least a half a case full of powder after compressing. BE CAREFUL,DON'T EVER POINT AT ANYBODY!!! The gun will be dirty and should be cleand with water based solution and oiled when done. I do agree with the feller that said home made blanks might be an issue at a school function.
kootne

[wills]

Why not just get a cap and ball revolver, use the normal charge and cream of wheat as filler.

[John Boy]

Fill 32 with the 1Fa or 1Fg (just because it will have more effect at the track meet) - cardboard wad and then a squirt of hot glue to seal... Done

[JKH]

Hey Guys,

I Forgot About This Thead So Here Is My Update;

I loaded several boxes of .32 blanks using FFFg, I just filled a case full and used that amount for the rest (I made it enough extra to allow for some compression), for an over powder card I cut thin glazed card stock using a gasket punch slightly larger than the crimped case mouth and sealed them in with clear nail polish which also made them moisture proof. They have a report a bit louder than the factory blanks with as much or more smoke, my friend used them all season for track and had 100% performance, thanks for all your help!
I must say that it is a good idea to wash them soon after firing to kill the corrosive action of the bp, the cases my buddy brought me had sat for a year and were difficult to clean, fresh fired cases cleaned up like new, fortunately the others were still good and cleaned up reasonably well.

Jeff

[country gent]

Some of the Paper cartridge sharps rifles used a paper cartridge rolled from a nitrited paper that helped the cartridge to burn completely. Maybe a wad cut from this paper would burn completely leaving only powder ash ejected. Just something I thought of readingthru this post.

[RonT]

I have a few 32-20 cases that I culled out after cutting the rest back for my Cadet. Want to try making some blanks for a buddy who is a track official.
Am in tune with the compressed Black load suggested above but need overall length.
Cheers,
R
edit-----He brought one to retiree's morning coffee. Going to rig up some kinda' compression stem.
edit #2-----my cut down 32-20's are too fat, need the pistol to see if I can get to chamber. Life goes on......

[TCahalan]

I am new to reloading and very interested in this topic. What dies are you using, and where can I get them?

[RonT]

Not sure who the question is directed to,...but in my case I'm depriming with my Cadet die, and setting the new primer by holding the (his cases) .32 cases in my Cadet shell holder with my finger tip.
Ended up not compressing, but rather dumping in 5 gr. of 2f and pushing a 3/8" card over the powder with a rounded brass rod. A damp wipe (Q tip) with diluted Elmer's glue 'seals' the card to reduce the risk of a chain fire.
Cheers,
R

[duckdup]

Old or cheap wax finished playing cards make good over powder patch wads. Flare cases; prime with mildest primers you can find to keep from blowing out the BP before all grains have time to ignite; fill with fffg; patch with cards cut with a sharpened-flared case; roll crimp. BP salts weaken the cases so de-prime & clean them after firing, along with cleaning the gun. Roll crimp work hardens the case so anneal them after 3rd reloading.

[Nickel City Dude]

I have been loading blanks for Civil War Reenacting for about 20 years. Recently I started making blanks for Cowboy reenacting using cut down 38 Special cases. A wile ago I started making blanks for some .32 track & Field starter guns. I use about 5 grains of 3F black powder and a wad made out of Styrofoam egg cartons. I then star crimp the brass to prevent chain fires. The procedure for the .32 blanks is very similar to the system I developed for the .38 blanks. Here is a youtube link to show you the process for the .38's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifis...ature=youtu.be