Sparklers in BP Sub or BP Rounds

[FigmoBohica]

Question that I have - I was at a shoot this weekend and a fellow shooting BP Sub had a really neat round.  When it went off there were fire in different colors and such headed down range.  When I asked how he did that he told me that he had cut up some sparklers, ya know the kind you give the little ones on the 4th of July type sparklers.  Well it was sure enough neat and a crowd pleaser, but I got to thinking, aren't those sparklers on steel wire.  Would not the steel wire have a good chance of scaring your barrel or getting hung up in the forcing cone?  Just was wondering how safe it would be and if it would or could rune a good gun, he was using them only in his pistols. Thanks for your in put.

[Dick Dastardly]

Won't begin to guess about sparklers in my powder, but I sure got a LOT of smoke rings last Saturday.  I was asked how I loaded my ammo to get so many smoke rings and I answered that I was shootin' 'em out of a hollow barrel and that the rings were a natural result.. . . . .

Ok, that's cool, but it doesn't help with yer sparklers.  I'll keep watchin' to see what shows up.

DD-DLoS

[River City John]

The material that coats the wire can be broken off. Hopefully that is what he did before loading them into cartridges.

I bet that stuff is corrosive, though.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Said River City John:

"I bet that stuff is corrosive, though."


Ya mean like BP?   

[Utah Bob]

I strongly recommend against mixing ANY flammable/incindiary chemicals with black powder unless you have a strong backgrouind in chemistry. Amature adjustments to the mix might do odd things to the pressure curve and the stability of the load. Also might  be embarassing to have 5 rounds go off in your holster because you concocted some witch's brew.
You can always use carpenters chalk dust or glitter in the shot portion of the shotshell. That's as far as I'd care to go.

[FigmoBohica]

I know about adding glitter to shotgun shells.  That is not the question.  This was sparkler pieces added to cartridges.  The kind that you get for the kiddies on the 4th of July.  Questions was, is this safe?  I will be willing to bet that it is not and besides could or would there be damage to your pistols?  I don't think that I would even consider using it in my rifle. Would most likely start burning will still in the barrel.

[rickk]

If you wish to avoid the hot wire sparkler core, consider "flying fish fuse" instead. There are several sources of it on internet... search for it on google.  Pyrocreations and Skylighter are two sources I deal with regularly. They come in different colors. The burn very ferouciously by the way, but they do not explode.

It looks like regular cannon fuse. Cut it into 1/4 inch lengths and use those instead of the sparklers. They make a few variations of them that "crackle" as well.

Try them first with no audience to make sure you understand what they do. They won't exactly go straight... they sometimes have a mind of their own. If the result is to unpredictable for your particular situation, cut them into smaller lengths. 1/4 inch is fairly short, and should be a good starting point. Keep the propellant charges light.

By the way, bunching up sparklers can cause an explosion... go to you-tube and search for "sparkler bomb". You would not believe what a few in a bunch can do.

[Doctor Bill]

Well, let's see.  I'm supposed to be some sort of a chemist so let me ponder this a bit.  I would be afraid of a couple of things.  First, I would make sure all the wire cores were taken out of the mix.  The last thing you need at a CAS shoot are AP rounds.  The scratches on the inside of the barrel are bad enough but I would be more worried about the chunks of wire bouncing around the range.

I would also be very careful to not make the bits of material too small or add too many of them.  This could result in making the load act more like a modern progressive powder or a "flash" powder which could give a spectacular but very nasty result.

In summary, I would be really hesitant to do this kind of experimentation where I was the "test bed"  .  This kind of thing, if you are determined to do it, just cries out for a dedicated load development barrel strapped down to a saw horse out in the middle of a field.  If you want something that attracts attention, try 90 grains of ffg under 7/8 oz of shot.


Doctor Bill

[Grapeshot]

This could turn an ordinary BP round into an incindiary round in short order if the sparkler shards don't burn up while flying through the air and are still burning when they hit the ground, especially where dry brush/grass tends to hang out.

One reason private and state owned ranges frown on TRACER and AP/I military ammo.

I've seen enough fires started here at Aberdeen Proving Ground when ammo tests are being carried out at the small arms range.  Even the 5.56 NATO Tracer Round will start a big fire when impacting into dry brush before the tracer element burns out.

[FigmoBohica]

Thanks everyone for the information. The guy that was shooting them will find out one of these days that its not safe.  I wanted to know so that I will be able to change posses if I have the chance to shoot with him again.  I can see using chalk to make some color but when you add other chemicals to the mix I can see where it would not be all that safe.  I like making colored smoke but not when safety is involved.

[Wills Point Pete]

 Just out of curiosity, did anybody bother to ask the feller that was shooting those things how many rounds he had fired off? For how long?
We have one piece of data, the Pard was shootin' those things. In this one piece of data there is no mention of a ruined shotgun or big explosion. Yet we seem to have decided this was unsafe. Why?
While I would not make a blanket statement that this is a safe practice I certainly haven't enough information to declare it unsafe, either. How many rounds did the Pard shoot at that match? How many innocent people died horribly? Zero. How many had legs burned off? Zero.
It ain't that I like being unsafe but I don't want to be a hysteric safety ninny, neither. I would suspect that a few chunks of the dried goo off a sparkler mixed into the shot, above the wad might well be lit by the BP flame as it came out the muzzle. Kept inside a shotcup wad it would not harm the bore. My shells throw enough flame where they might light.
At the end of June they'll start sellin' fireworks 'round here. If I remember I'll buy a couple packs and shoot some out the back door. As expensive as lead shot is getting it might just save some money. My idea is a layer of pieces at the bottom of the shotcup, the shot on top. That stuff should be kight enough to slow down into the still burning powder gas.
I doubt that I'll try mixing that stuff into the powder, though.