Monday 20 July 2020

Thunderstruck Ballistics - & Firewood:

Doesn't ANYONE in U S own a chronograph?


I'm getting desperate to find-out what velocity .22" WMR manages when shot from a 1.25 inch barrel with a cylinder gap .. I NEED to know.

It is more than a year since American industry offered this giant step forward .... SURELY some shooter has tried this revolver over a chronograph.

.. It's almost as if the reviewers have to sign a confidentiality contract NOT TO CHRONO THIS GUN.

Honestly - I LIKE the idea of this novel THUNDERSTRUCK four-shooter that loads eight two-two Magnum rim-fire rounds .. If only the New Zealand authorities would allow me to own & shoot one I'd be into it as fast as a rat up a drain pipe - but that is not the way of our world down under.

I also like the .22" WMR cartridge that usefully stretches the small calibre range for bunnie & possum control here - when shot from a rifle. 

- BUT when fired from a one and a quarter inch diddle - I'm betting that it will struggle to make 800 foot per second .. maybe slower even than a .22" R/F from that short wee barrel.


Sure - the blast , flash  and  roar  will be scarily "powerful" .. but the slugs will be arriving later.

Can't some enterprising ex-pat Aussie, Canadian, Kiwi, or Pom over there in the Land of the Free borrow a THUNDERSTRUCK - load every other chamber - and carefully fire single shots through a chronograph from a bench rest .. remembering that these have a reputation for shooting a bit high - and you might need to hang a bit of old carpet or a pair of Levis down in front of the muzzle to protect the chrono from the blast gasses eh? - I'm guessing that there will be a wicked jet of incandescent gases and un-burnt powder pushing past the wee bullets as they struggle out of their muzzle ..


BBTI .. Ballistics By The Inch - most sensibly only cut & recorded their barrels down to two inches .. where the two-two rim-fire rounds are found to be neck-&-neck at around 850 ft.per.sec.


- Maybe America only dry-fires it's 1.25 inch carry Magnum revolvers? - Is the blast that horrible?

I'd like to illustrate the futility of putting a 'high power' cartridge into a very short barrelled firearm by talking about moisture in FIREWOOD fuel.
FIREWOOD:

Families using a log-fire or wood furnace will know that the wood fuel needs to be 'Properly Seasoned' to reduce it's water content to a range around 10-15-20 percent .. any moisture content above that will result in sulky inefficient fuel that is wasting much of it's energy evaporating water as steam.

Your cheap-to-buy moisture meter is a great tool .. but like all modern electronics will be dead with flat batteries whenever you need it .. 

Too WET Sure -But TOO DRY?

Yup - we do need to be aware that firewood kiln dried to a moisture content below 10% is also nearly useless unless you can store it long enough to recover moisture from the ambient air. - It will burn uncontrollably too hot and smokey from insufficient oxygen and indeed may shorten your stove's working life & even warp it's metal.
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Technical stuff needs to be right for it's purpose eh -  .22" Magnum needs a proper length barrel .. I just watched sooch00 road test a S&W Model 351c Airlight seven shot .22" WMR Revolver that has a 1.875" (1. 7/8 inch) barrel with a recessed muzzle. I also read a chuckhawks review of a similar 'J'-frame '351PD' model also firing 'two-two-Magnums' and neither either measures the gun's muzzle velocity. - Is this velocity a 'hidden issue'?
S&W 351c Seven Shot .22" WMR
- Look at that UGLY CYLINDER-to-FRAME GAP ..

Marty K.

Here is a link to some great slo-mo video of bullet impacts - fascinating to watch later ..

Time to act now.

😄


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