Why you shouldnt try to supercharge BP

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T

Titus

45 Cal.
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A friend of mine works in a gunshop. They recently had this returned to their shop. Apparently the intelligent owner decided its a great idea to scrape off some of the sulphur mix on matches and mixed this volatile mixture into his BP to give it some more oomph... :shake: :nono:

This was the nett result or a series of stupid actions. :shocked2: Luckily for him he got off unscathed and learned a valuable lesson from it.

DSC01091.jpg
 
Idiot! :nono: Lucky to have a hand, be able to see, be alive. Then again, maybe the Darwin Awards would have featured him.
 
Lucky it wasn't a Colt copy. No topstrap there to hold that cylinder in place. Although it looks like the cylinder pin is still in pretty good shape, Lucky guy.
 
" sulphur mix on matches and mixed this volatile mixture into his BP to give it some more oomph...
SORRY but that wasnt sulphur that did that, and we cant go into what makes BP or BOMBs so I'll stop with THAT WAS REALLY DUMB AND GOOD THING HE DID"NT USE JUST THE STUFF OFF MATCHES :nono: Hed be dead. FRED :hatsoff:
 
He sure ruined a nice Whitney.

That, by the way is a .36 cal gun so he couldn't have loaded much more than 20 grains of powder.
It's a good thing it wasn't a Walker loaded up with 40 grains! :shocked2:

zonie :)
 
Let me guess, he wondered if the shop could fix it? I didn't realize match compound produced such pressures. Looks like something smokeless powder would do. Lucky idiot. Hopefully he learned something and more importantly, will pass it on.
 
Titus,
:nono: Another canidate for "Here's Your Sign" fame.
snake-eyes:hatsoff:
 
I thought those percussion revolvers were impossible to over load, as the cylinder can only hold so much..?

matchhead scrapings???? whats the point now hes wrecked a beautiful piece for nothing...

If you loaded a cylinder with powdered matchheads in the stead of powder would it explode???

Some one explain this critical failure to me please!

Rob
 
Strictly speaking, it isn't possible to overload a BP revolver when using the PROPER powder. When improper powder is used, all bets are off.
 
Or maybe he just "said" that he used match head scrapings. Could be he loaded it with smokeless like Red Dot. Anybody pull the ball in the other cylinders to see what's behind them? GC
 
Plink said:
"...Looks like.......smokeless powder..."
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
I'll never be convinced it was anything else...black powder and "match heads" aren't going to turn a revolver into a hand grenade...it was probably "Bullseye" powder or something fast like that
 
Claude said:
Is it possible this was also a chain-fire?
Click to expand...
Seems like a chain fire, which happens often enough to be given such a name, would still have been contained within their respective cylinders.

I'll bet the farm that was caused by smokeless powder...I've seen 3-4 revolvers over the years blown up exactly like that where Bullseye charges were doubled or tripled in Rugers, S&Ws, etc...same result...top cylinder blows up into the top strap with collateral damage to the other two adjcent cylinders
 
:shocked2: match heads are powerul when I was a kid I would get a say 1/2" nut start a bolt about 2-3 threads into one side fill the nut with match heads turn another bolt into the other side of nut 2-3threads pitch into fire the assembly would be blown apart. I know that was crazy. Shifty
 
We need to refrain from telling exact methods of creating compounds or devices that will explode on this post or we will be violating one of this Forums Basic Rules.

IMO, it probably was a chain fire after the first chamber ruptured it's walls. :rotf:

Another way to get your pistol to look like this one is to have oil soaked powder that has just enough energy to drive a ball up the barrel an inch or so, then fire the next chamber.
It's a good idea to watch for that big old cloud of smoke from the muzzle indicating the ball has gone downrange. :)
zonie :)
 

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