Comments on: Weekend after action report for 8-24

By: Bob Benson

Bob Benson — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 19:46:02 +0000

Mac The water Idea will not hold up. A lot of powder is made in a water solution then dried before use. A friend of mine was an expert witness in a court case. The small commercial reloader was injured when he discarded a cigarette while mowing grass in an area he had used for many years 30+ as his dump where he spread his used or unusable powder. The man was burned in a flash fire. He sued the powder makers. He thought that years of rain and snow had made it safe. My friend brought in many older to new reloading manuals. They all said the proper was to dispose of small quantity’s of unwanted powder is to place it in a pile or concrete. and light a fuse or powder train so you can be away from pile when it burns. The man was found to be the cause of his own accident.

By: Pete F.

Pete F. — Tue, 26 Aug 2014 02:02:47 +0000

That’s interesting! I have similar with an 8″ pipe partially full of sand but am using a dense foam rubber piece that plugs the end but is slit so the barrel can go thru. I shot a .223 in it and the pressure blows the plug out. Thinking I need to let it vent out the rear more than that plug lets it.
Pete

By: Mac

Mac — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 17:09:50 +0000

One quick remedy that could(should)work would be to spray or mist some water into the end of the tube. That should wet the build up of unburnt powder enough to prevent it from igniting when you fire a round into the tube.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:29:28 +0000

Interesting and thanks for the info. I will look into making changes to the test fire tube.

By: John D.

John D. — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:25:55 +0000

No easy answer to your test tube autoignition situation. Smokeless powder is essentially self oxidizing (actually nitriding), so you really have to clear out the unburned powder.

Guys around here who use scrap tires to suppress gunfire noise cut the tires all the way across radially in one location each and orient the cut at the bottom with a several inch opening gap. Then they position a collection pan with angle iron baffles below (angle up, at the top of the collection pan, with small spaces between the angle ‘leg’ ends) to collect the unburned powder.

You have to chamfer the tire cuts so the powder will slide out of the tires at the gap, and then drop into the pan. The tires have to be fixed so they won’t rotate, but this can be done by drilling them and using bolts or lag screws to hold them in place, with the bottom gap open. The catch pan can then be slid out and dumped. The angle iron baffles also seem to retard ignition of the accumulated powder in the pan.

The other alternative is an ‘L’ shaped suction wand on an explosion proof vacuum cleaner. Very expensive.