Powder in hot barrels

teachhunt · 01-19-2007, 01:49 PM

Someone asked me the other day why powder doesn't ignite when put down a hot barrel immediately after previous shots have been fired. I admit my best idea was that the barrel temps just aren't hot enough to ignite it. Does anyone have a better answer than that?

cayugad · 01-19-2007, 02:34 PM

you can get a "barrel flash" although thank goodness it is not common. Another good reason for swabbing the barrel of fowling by the way. Usually a barrel flash is caused by hot powder granules or fowling, still glowing down in the breech and you then immediately dump fresh powder into the barrel. This is one reason why it is so important not to have any part of your body at any time over the muzzle. I have witnessed two barrel flash incidents in all my years. One fellow lost a little eye brow, and the other time, the person was not over the muzzle, but the flash was felt on his hand which had poured the powder.

How many have dumped powder and then saw smoke come out of the muzzle? I have and it sure makes me careful when loading the next round. All I can picture is pushing the next projecte down on to a powder charge where there was smoke coming from the barrel...

Pglasgow · 01-19-2007, 02:37 PM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: teachhunt

Someone asked me the other day why powder doesn't ignite when put down a hot barrel immediately after previous shots have been fired. I admit my best idea was that the barrel temps just aren't hot enough to ignite it. Does anyone have a better answer than that?

No better answer can be given.

I've never seen seen fouling smolders cause a flash on reload but most manuals will warn of this. This is why you shouldn't load from a flask.

outdoorslover · 01-19-2007, 04:46 PM

It can burn up the powder, but I've never seen it happen. It might just burn it up a little. Maybe it just makes it smoulder. I can't tell you for sure, I just know that it can burn from a hot barrel, but I haven't experienced it.

teachhunt · 01-20-2007, 07:41 PM

Thanks. Makes sense to me and really drives home the need for constant safety around any firearm loaded or not.

Doe Dumper · 01-21-2007, 07:56 PM

I was loading for a quick followup once and had a lot of smoke..thankfully it didnt flame. When I shot it out though it was a hangfire. Thats been on my mind everytime I have tried a quick follow since then.