10 ga "Night shoot" shell.........

[Knarley]

Am going to the SASS regional shoot shortly. They have a "Night shoot" for the soot lords one of the evenings. Hitting the target is purely optional, as the spectators revel the the flame, sparks & roar of the gunfire.
I am going to be shooting my "New to me" 10 ga, that now has 22" barrels. It is a modern double chambered for 3 1/2 Nitro loads. I will be using Goex 1Fg powder, and was wondering if sawdust under the fiber wad would increase the sparkage?

Knarley

[ndnchf]

No, but glitter will! Get it at a craft store.

[Knarley]

No, but glitter will! Get it at a craft store.

I've used glitter during the day shooting clays. I didn't think it would show up in the dark....

[rancher1913]

figure out what they put in the "dragon breath" shells and copy that.

[country gent]

I beleive magniesium filing or fine chips would be impressive, but they burn very hot and risk of fires being started would be high. Maybe simple flour would give good results as it is very flamable when in dust form and suspended in air. What blows up elevators every so often. I worked trying to lower muzzle flash for loads for awhile never really tried to increase it for show.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Magnesium powder mixed with potassium chlorate was used for early flash photography, and I don't think finely divided magnesium, which you can buy quite cheaply on eBay, would burn long enough to cause a fire risk. I don't believe it could commence burning in the bore, which is an oxygen-starved environment. That is why we get a muzzle flash at all, as flammable gases encounter the atmosphere. I think a little would go a long way. There might be a fire hazard in the slower-burning metals used to produce different colours in fireworks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireworks

Of course you could make part of the charge the coarsest rifle black powder you can get.

A mixture of magnesium powder and fine red iron oxide powder, ignited by magnesium ribbon which you in turn ignite with a blowtorch, is thermite. Besides its attractions for the pyromaniac, it deposit molten iron, and is a method of welding things which are out of reach to more conventional equipment.

[smoked turkey]

When you get it worked out we want to see pictures!

[oldred]

A mixture of magnesium powder and fine red iron oxide powder, ignited by magnesium ribbon which you in turn ignite with a blowtorch, is thermite. Besides its attractions for the pyromaniac, it deposit molten iron, and is a method of welding things which are out of reach to more conventional equipment.


Not always, thermite is normally a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum powder although magnesium and even titanium is sometimes used.

[Geezer in NH]

We used to shoot 4/0 steel wool out of a Brown Bess at night. It looked like a Meteor

[AllanD]

Smokeless powders produce a surplus of oxygen, typically in the form of Nitrous Oxide,
This is why "Duplex loads" burn so much cleaner...

And what is typically used in those "Dragon's breath" rounds is typically elemental Zirconium metal powder.