SHOOTING IS SIMPLY AN ENERGETIC PROCESS:

 te tari pureke - that may also be refered to as 'The Firearms Safety Authority' is building a costly REGISTRY or a list of guns lawfully owned. - This might also be titled an INVENTORY. - I wonder how close the word invention is associated to the word inventory ?

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HOT AIR: So when we use our living bodies - they are making ENERGY by the oxidation of carbohydrates - together with our stored fats, that we eat - by cellular respiration as we digest .. As we warm our bodies we give off carbon dioxide GAS & WATER by breathing out. 

HOT AIR

- When we light a fire and burn something ORGANIC such as wood - we achieve complete COMBUSTION by the oxidation of that compound into carbon dioxide GAS and WATER (as steam) and make heat ENERGY.

Shooting BULLETS from a gun has been done for some 6 - 700 years using "antique propellant"  GUN  POWDER  that very rapidly releases amounts of heat, light, and sound energy by EXPLOSIVE COMBUSTION (complete oxidation) .. this results from the rapid generation of ENERGY as a large volume of hot GAS and WATER.

These three very different physical processes are similar CHEMICAL 

oxidation process's ..

Hard to believe eh, - but that's science.  - When we EAT, the food stuff needs to be tasty - When we light a fire to get heat - that fuel stuff needs to be dry - And when we want our antique propellant to rapidly combust explosively and to powerfully push-out our bullets or shot  - we need to blend an exact amount of oxidizer to feed oxygen to the FUEL fast & in the correct ratio, while in intimate contact and confined.

75% Potassium Nitrate KNO3 - 15% Charcoal - 10% Sulfer.

                                Oxidizer                                               Fuel                              accelerant, by lowering                                                                                                                                                  combustion temperature

A litre of gunpowder will weigh about a kilo/two pounds - during combustion it produces 44% of it's weight in GAS ..  400 litres of gas. This gas - being heated to around 2,400 degrees, occupies a space of some 4,000 litres: consequently the volume of powder is to the volume of gas produced by its combustion as 1 to 4,000.Now - This propellant is a MIXTURE of individual substances - not a chemical compound .. so we need to help the stuff to do it's best. - Each component needs to be finely ground and then thoroughly mixed together in a BALL MILL.Then either COMPRESS the damp mixture into Pucks to make it DENSE - and break it up when dried and pass through a SIEVE to grade it ... 

OR - employ the safer CIA Method using methylated alcohol to clump the milled powder like clay and grate it through your sieves while damp.

Job Done .. but as either way involves mechanical breaking apart of the now explosive mixture - MAXIMUM CARE is needed.

 Fouling: The solid byproducts from gunpowder combustion may include potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, potassium nitrate, potassium thiocyanate, carbon, & ammonium carbonate - these are mostly SALTS ..

You might want to know why some of these 56% sooty residues left in your black-powder gun are so corrosive - if not promptly removed by cleaning ... Well these compounds are HYGROSCOPIC and hold water in contact with your gun's steel.  

However, consider this - in 1746 John Roebuck developed a new system for making SULFURIC ACID .. Roebuck mixed sulfur with a small amount of saltpeter KnO3 on a ladle, ignited it, and placed it on a tray in the bottom of a lead chamber. Water on the floor of the chamber absorbed the gases. This operation was repeated several times, and then he withdrew the acidulated liquor, - which contained about 35–45% sulfuric acid. 

Sulfuric acid likes to eat steel gun barrels .. so be energetic when cleaning your guns.

Marty K.