From: Jeremy Peter Howells, JPHowells
Auto-acceleration of very small charges of powder have been
recorded. A Target Gun reloading article of several years
ago noted it.
The author of the article was sceptical of auto-acceleration
and said so in print. However during a reloading course (I
believe at Bisley under NRA auspices) they were loading
progressively larger charges of powder into .38's for accuracy
testing - each individual charge was hand weighed and
everything was fully supervised. On range testing some of the
loads that had been made up in .357 magnum cases became wildly
erratic with very small charges of fast burning pistol powder,
weapon report, velocity (they were using a chronograph) and
accuracy were varying wildly from shot to shot.
The author put it down to auto-acceleration, conjecturing
that the very small charges of powder were laying along the
bottom of the case and igniting together instead of in
'sequence' along the case giving a rapidly rising and massive
pressure curve.
Note also that in several of the American reloading manuals
'minimum charges' are stated as well as maximum. I don't
think this is because the bullet wouldn't leave the barrel.
Most reloading writers seem to recommend a powder/load
combination that bulks up well in the case - giving more
consistent results with or without wadding or fillers.
Regards
Jerry
--
On the subject of handloading, I handled one of the Taurus
"handrifles" in a shop the other day, Alex and Richard can
rest assured all the knowledge they have accumulated won't
go to waste!
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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