Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

We had a BALL lastnight. The entire neighborhood showed up in our cove and we literally had a wheel barrow FULL of fireworks between us all. It took us well over an hour to shoot them all (rained us out Monday night). Several guys had those huge blocks of firecrackers and were complaining about only half of them typically gettin lit when you shoot them all off at once.

Well the hairy computer between my ears got to wonderin so I dug through my old reloadin stuff in the garage and came up with THE best way to light off a couple thousand firecrackers in practical unison. I basically covered the manhole cover in the middle of the street with Pyrodex (been sittin around since I went too pellets several years ago, now that I have a Savage I'm tryin to think of a way to use the pellets as well?) and laid the bricks of firecrackers atop the powder. Then I took an old bottle of 4831 and poured a "fuse" about 2' with. Everyone ran for cover despite my pleas telling them that gunpowder isn't explosive unless compressed. I then lit the rifle powder and casually walked too the curb.

The 4831 burned VERY slowly and predictably as it inched its' way too the Pyro. Once the Pyro was ignited it was, "Go for main engine ignition". I'm sure the percussion was felt several blocks away as the firecrackers were lit in complete unison by the intensely hot "flashup" of the Pyro. KABOOOOOOOOOM ran through the suburbs... :D And the kids thought that was the neatest thing they had EVER heard!

I had used Pyro before for lightin fireworks but never thought to use the smokeless as the starting media. WORKS LIKE A CHARM. You can even use such a "startin circle" to quickstart a gross of bottle rockets or even several of those "canister type" bombs.

Now before the naysayers get on here about "showin the kids such dangerous stuff" I think it's up too us adults to keep such stuff locked away and out of reach in the first place. EVERYONE had a blast (pun intended) and at nights end we all had the same number of eyes, fingers and toes that we started with and NO yard were ignited as well. (Can't speak for the "racin stripes" on the street now!)

The bombs burstin in air, ;)
RA

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

Oh really, H4831 burns slowly. You could have fooled me

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

lol Slam, I'm not talking about in the range of burn rate per reloading. I'm talking about pouring it out on the ground and lighting it. It simply burns MUCH slower than Pyro. Pyro will practically FLASHUP instantly (could singe your eyebrows if you don't "make" a long enough fuse! :D)

What powders do while compressed down a barrel/cartridge is one thing, what they do in open air while lying flat is another! ;)
RA

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

I had a powerful urge to do just what you did on Monday night. But there's a sheriff's deputy that lives right next door [&o]

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

On the 4th I went out in the yard and shot off about thirty rounds from different rifles. No fireworks mind you, since they are illegal here in Wisconsin, but I still got to make lots of legal noise and smoke...

:D

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

wooooooooooooo way to go cayugad and redallison

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

I ran a piece of canon fuse through a Pyrodex pellet this morning. Poor man's M-80?

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

LOL that sounds like fun but me and a friend have found the best thing to do for a BOOM and skipping the flames and stuff is to take a PLASTIC! bottle with a screw lid and fill it with oxygen and (please correct me because i know this isnt how you spell it) Ex-ced-a-leene** and if you go ahead and have a safety fuse coming out the lid and cap it quicly and light it, KABOOM! but to much of the E-word and it'll just make the bottle shrink with heat and turn black, not to sure about to much oxygen though ...

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

you should be very careful with acetaline its very volatile and unstable outside of a tank. A friend of mine was filling a plastic trash bag with acetaline, if you shoot a trash bag full of acetaline with a 22 it has a very loud report and huge fireball, but at the same point its very very dangerous. anyway back to my story, my friend was inflating the bag with acetaline after it was inflated he was wrapping a rubber band to keep the end closed mind you Im standing about 10 feet away, static electricity on the plastic bag set off the acetaline, The report inside his barn was so loud I had actually lost my hearing for several days and today I have permanant loss of hearing, my arm hairs were all singed with some minor burns this wasnt the worst my friend on the other hand was holding this zeplin/hydrogen bomb he lost sight in one eye completely and temporarilly lost sight in the other had 2nd degree burns over 30% of his body arms face and chest the acetaline fire burned through his shirt, had a broken nose, 12 broken teeth 4 cracked ribs, and lost 4 fingers off his left hand.we were very lucky the concussion didnt kill us both.

RE: Gunpowder and fireworks!!!
 

When unconmfined in the open, it burns pretty slowly, compared to BP!