RE: [HOE] Guns&ammo in odd environments

["Clint Black" <cblack@ohtinc.com>]

A couple of people said Saltpeter was the source of oxygen for gunpowder.

Guys, yes, oxygen is a component of saltpeter, but a separate source of O-2
(straight oxygen) is required for combustion.  Trust me here.  Take it from
a guy who had nothing better to do as a boy but spend all day pouring
gunpowder out of shells and burning it under various conditions.  Take a big
pile of gunpowder, put a mason jar over it with a slight tilt to slip a
match in and let the gases out.  You end up with half a pile of burned and
half a pile of unburned gunpowder.  As soon as the released gases replace
the oxygen in the jar combustion stops, and the gunpowder stops burning.

In fact, unless I forget my basic chemistry, the major byproducts of the
combustion of gunpowder are all gases (the point being that the expanding
gases force the bullet from the shell).  These gases are carbon dioxide
(CO2), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), and Nitrogen Oxide (NO).  You notice that is
five parts Oxygen whereas Saltpeter only has three parts oxygen.  The other
two parts comes from good old fashioned O2 in the atmosphere.  In fact,
since Saltpeter is only a percentage of the makeup of gunpowder, it provides
at best a fraction of the oxygen needed for combustion.

This is one of the reasons gunpowder is a powder.  The space in between the
grains holds the oxygen needed for combustion.  It is this oxygen (a gas)
that would try to escape in a vacuum.

I was only kidding about the exploding part.  Most likely a minuscule space
between the shell and the bullet is where the gas would escape.  The person
carrying the gun would just pull the trigger and nothing would happen.



Clint Black

"You smell that? Do you smell that? ...Ghost Rock, son. Nothing else in the
world smells like that. I love the smell of ghost rock in the morning. You
know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over
I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' Yank body. The
smell, you know that sulphurous smell, the whole hill. Smelled like...
victory. Someday this war's gonna end..."