would this work for making homemade ammo?

[Iceberg Slim]

construct a a shell that fits the barrel of the gun, etc. then fill half the shell with extracted, powdered and compacted model rocket fuel. then could you use a contact explosive (something very sensitive to friction and force) as a primer to ignite the rocket fuel?

my question basically is, when the hammer hits the contact explosive and produces the explosion, is this enough to ignite the rocket fuel or can rocket fuel only be ignited by a fuse/electric means.

any thoughts or alternatives would be appreciated.

[Bullwinkle8357]

There's seveal common things you can use to substitute for gun propellant, but there's not much you can use to substitute for primer. The main problem with making totally home-made ammo is that there isn't any home-made primer material that you can make, that also isn't corrosive to the gun's barrel.

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So if you were wanting to make a cannon deal out of a piece of pipe, yea, you could use whatever--an electric model-rocket igniter, or some contact exploeive. But the residue from either of these will corrode the inside of a real gun's barrel and ruin it.

~

[Iceberg Slim]

ok makes sense. i was looking it it more from the point of making ammo for a homemade gun, so corroding the barrel is no big deal.

but in theory, using a contact explosive to ignite rocket fuel as a propellent would work?

[This message has been edited by Iceberg Slim (edited 06-18-2003).]

[IcEColdPlaYA]

Dont use it in a real gun. Different explosives burn with differnt pressures, and the wrong explosive can cuase the barrel to erupt, cuaseing injury to you, or damaging something else.

I would just make a musket type gun. You can make the barrel out of 1/2 inch steel (1/8 or thicker walls) and 50 caliber lead musket balls are perfect to shoot out of them. Just weld a cap on (very good. your want it to be able to withstand extremly high pressures), drill a hole in the end, stick a fuse in the hole, pour a 1/4 teaspoon of powder down the barrel, drop a musket ball in. Do not hold it in your hand on your first shot. Tie it to a tree, light the fuse, and run. Make sure it is aimed at a safe target in a safe direction. After it goes off, carefully look at the barrel for stretch marks, or any other peice that could have been damaged.

This is just a simple gun that you can start out making. Make sure to be very safe with it, and do not be stupid.

Edit: What contact explosive are you talking about? There are many, but the main ones are very unstable and hard to make/require.

Real bullets use an explosive called lead azide (it think) in their primers. It is very poisonous, and very explosive. Its possible you can make it, but I would suggest you become very experienced with making other explosive, since experience it needed, and it is very unstable.

[This message has been edited by IcEColdPlaYA (edited 06-18-2003).]

[Iceberg Slim]

i rememeber reading in the anrachist's cook book ( i realize that is not the greatest source of chemistry info) that there is a relitively easier contact explosive that can be made from iodine and a few other chemicals. my idea is to try to make my own bullets to try to fire from a handmade pistol (possible a diecast metal revolver-style cap gun with some modifications and welded reinforcements).

basically i theorize that when the hammer hits the contact explosive it will create a samll explosion. im just wondering if that inital explosive will be enough to ignite the rocket fuel as a propellent?

im also going to do further research on making black powder and primer, but i do enjoy trying to invent things and do it "guerilla-style"

[IcEColdPlaYA]

The explosive you are talking about that you saw in the ACB is called nitrogen triodide. It is one of the most unstable explosives in the world, and can go off from breathing on it (im serious). If is extremly unstable, and them chemicals used to make it are far more expensive than the chemicals used to make other explosives that work better.

I wouldnt try to make a primer with an explosive. I would just make an electrical system set up to ignite it. It would be much safer, and would take less time to set up, and will last a lot longer than an explosive charge.

[Iceberg Slim]

thanks for the advice