Bullet Expansion by UPSET:

- Don't get upset now - if you take offence I'll have to build a gate eh ...😆

I guess that we all know what a "mushroomed" bullet looks like..

Mushroomed .223" Bonded Bullet.

- This is the expansion of the forward section of a fired bullet - when it decelerates on impact with a material.

- But what about the expansion or "UPSET" of the bullet's base as it accelerates from rest upon firing?

When a projectile is fired - the propellant gasses or 'muzzle blast' impact the base and cause it to accelerate and expand into the rifling of the barrel ... we know that - it's another familiar image:

BUT - those fired pills with the rifling grooves were contained by the gun's barrel for the period of forced acceleration while they 'obturated' .. have you ever wondered what might happen if that barrel restriction was removed?

Hornady 38 Special jacketed bullet fired from Revolver
with no barrel - has no rifling marks.

 - This "pregnant" looking projectile from 1976 was 'upset' by the force of the propellant gas "muzzle-blast" - but was not held to shape inside a barrel bore. The revolvers barrel had previously been removed.

Link to earlier background story about that fired round:
https://flicense.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/bullet-sizes-diameters-v-bore-sizes.html

I guess that when you think about it - it's not really surprising that the initial force applied to a bullet's back-end is likely somewhat greater & more direct than that which causes it to 'mushroom' at the front as it impacts downrange.

Now .. there are lots of earlier interesting 'upset' images and details of experiments firing bullets from very short barrels - in this 1909 book "The Bullet's Flight".

- Dr. Mann establishes that a barrel longer than 10 inches is needed to completely prevent such upset expansion - and that the bullet's base is driven forward and starts expanding sideways before the main projectile's body and point starts accelerating.

BASES Expanded by 'Upset' Pressure As Bullet Leaves Very Short Barrel.
.32" Caliber bullets, Smokeless Powder, 1/- is unfired .. 2/- Fired from 5/8" (0.625") long barrel 12 gns powder .. 3/- Same with 15 gns. powder .. 4/- same again but 17.5 gns powder .. 5/- is front nose view .. 6 - rear view of base.

.32" Caliber rounds fired from varying very short length barrels, 5/16', 5/8", 2. 5/8"

( - excepting the top row shows a .32-40 case &

 bullets squashed by various weights between two steel plates.)

Franklin Mann was catching the fired rounds in  snow  and later, in oiled sawdust.

- So hollow-point nose technology is not the only way to expand bullets ..

- Now, imagine what dramatic video might be shot (110 years later) by an techie-expert with the latest ultra high speed cameras .. 'super-slow-motion' of such bullets emerging unrestrained from a short barrel test gun and growing in size as they're hammered from behind by the muzzle-blast powder/gasses - in full color .. WOW!

Dr. Franklin Mann concludes that lead becomes very plastic when subject to high pressure saying:

"When it is fully comprehended that a soft lead bullet, with a charge of powder behind, acts like a ball of putty in a popgun ..."

- Later in the book he further demonstrates that copper jacketed rounds driven by smokeless powder are setup in exactly the same way.

Marty K.

I can't tell you anything about this found image.

(Maybe after Major Earl Naramore - who worked with Hatcher?)

M.K.

The Bullet's Flight - F W Mann, 1909:

Old mate Rod pushed me towards this classic early ballistics book when commenting on one of my scribbles - Link:
https://flicense.blogspot.co.nz/2017/09/mushrooming-or-expanding-jacketed.html

- I bought a used copy from Amazon USA and it's just landed in the foothills of our New Zealand Southern Alps.

.. where I've started to read it - and I'm very impressed by the thorough records and inquisitive mind of the author Franklin Ware Mann (1856-1916) who grew up on a farm and started shooting at the age of twelve.

 He was intrigued by the spread of bullets fired at a single point of aim. He graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1878 and from Boston University School of Medicine as a Doctor of Medicine.

 Verry interesting, - Cheers Rod,

I LIKE New Zealand (despite the bloody earthquakes).

Marty K.

Maori Warfare Tactics .. Battle Of RUAPEKAPEKA - The 'Bat's Nest' 1845:

Have you got half-an-hour to spare?  .. to watch a freshly made video about the NEW ZEALAND WARS between Maori and the "European" settlers - that are being commemorated currently. You'll see a fair bit of the Northland countryside - and some muskets:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/nz-wars/story/2018619186/nz-wars-the-stories-of-ruapekapeka

They had lots of heavy rainfall when filming which helped make conditions very like how it was for the invading troops back in 1845.

It strikes me as being fair & honest about what actually went-on - and makes a good fist of telling how our Maori were militarily smart and resisted the British military technology with all that they had.

I must say that this story very much reminds me of the Vietnamese fighting from "The tunnels of Chu-Chi" (Cu Chi District , Ho Chi Min City area) from that much later 1968 Tet Offensive.

Marty K.

UK's HINKLEY POINT Nuclear Failures. Simple as A-B-C:

simple-minded

adjective

1. having or showing very little intelligence or judgement.
2. 
   

Oh my life ! - I was watching an ever-so-English TV doco. about pommy rivers - and it introduced the UK's defunct Hinkley Point A nuclear site (located on the River Severn)

A is for Asset.

- as a wildlife asset .. because it is under an exclusion zone that favors natures creatures.

Nuclear "Wildlife?" Wardens.

Banned Guns Are GOOD To Protect Nuclear Sites.

You know how we are bombarded at every opportunity with anti-gun hysteria whenever the smallest opening presents (- we had an antique arms auction here in NZ cancelled this month due to a "security risk" posed by anti-gun protesters) ..

Guns are "banned" in UK - while leaky radiation sites are privatized into the control of LIMITED LIABILITY corporations - and the Supreme Wise Leaders of The Nation are proposing to build even more of them - but with the interesting twist that the new Hinkley Point C  nuclear power station in Somerset will be controlled by the Chinese - if it is actually ever built.

Proposed C ( for 'cock-up')(or Chinese?)

- Now I'm no expert on things nuclear - but it's perfectly clear that British nuclear "energy" has been a total cock-up right from it's earliest 1956 Calder Hall beginnings.

The Queen Opening "epoch making" Calder Hall in 1956.

The long decommissioned Somerset Hinkley Point A blew itself apart in testing in August 1963 - two years before it first produced any power .. and it's turbines catastrophically failed again in 1969.

Hinkley Point B - since it was started in 1967, has enjoyed a succession of design failures caused by 'vibration', faulty insulation, and faulty welds - and has run for most of it's life at reduced capacity.

B is for Botch-up.

Electricity from the planned Chinese financed & controlled Hinkley Point'C' is expected to cost twice as much as clean wind and solar power to produce (-if at first you don't succeed .. try, try, & try again?) - but it may help to support Britain's nuclear deterrent Trident submarine fleet we are told.

Trident II D-5 Has Problem With “data acquisition system” 
-Are your kitchen windows covered with brown paper?

I guess there does seem to be an underlying or covert reason for persisting to build power stations that produce plutonium as a by-product. - Is there something that our Masters  representatives aren't telling us?

I used to enjoy drinking the odd pint of Somerset cider with a Ploughman's lunch when in that locale .. not any more.

Oh I don't know though - that does look very tasty .. pork pies are from pigs eh - and they don't get bovine spongiform encephalopathy, (BSE) do they?

New Zealand certainly is something of an underpopulated backwater - but we are NUCLEAR FREE. (and Mad Cow Disease Free).

Cross reference Link to an earlier piece about the Sellafield Nuclear "dump":

https://flicense.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/sellafield-windscale-nuclear-facility.html

Marty K.

Rimmed Cartridges In Semi-Autos (& Full-Autos):

Of-course rimmed cartridges will feed fine (ish) from a properly designed magazine into a semi-auto firearm - the obvious example is the .22" rim fire

Familiar Spent .22" Rim-fire Case

 - I've used these for around 60 plus odd years. My first semi-auto 'two-two' pistol was the excellent Margolin MCM (Oh No - not a dreaded Russian!)(Designed 1948 by well known blind engineer Mikhail Margolin).

You likely will get a few mis-feeds plus a few mis-fires with 'two-twos' - but that is mostly down to cheap bulk ammunition - or a worn crappy magazine - or it being time to clean your gun - or perhaps time to sell it😅.

There are more than a few rimmed centre-fires used in 'autos' too - such as the Colt 1911 in .38 Special and both 357 Magnum & .44" Magnum are used in the massive 'Desert Eagle' ..  many older auto-rifles ran on rimmed cartridges.

 If a ''1911" will consistently feed flat nosed wad-cutter Rimmed 38 Special - it can feed anything eh. (maybe only from a 5 round magazine but).

1911 Magazine for 38 Special.

Target pistols used to often come in .32" S&W wad-cutters & .22" rim fire options

Hammerli Model 280 takes either .32" Center-Fire or .22" R/F.

'RIM-LOCK' is a sometime problem where the top round in the magazine has it's rim hooked behind the round below and just can't feed forward - & is the issue that makes the rimless cartridge a surer bet in a serious purpose gun - you can't always just raise your hand at the match firing line whenever you get a jam - and have the R.O. clear you to re-shoot that sequence without penalty.

While the rimless pattern may be better suited for a self re-loading mechanism to function reliably, - it is possible to build and refine just about anything until it will work: "If you can imagine it - You can make it."

One further small issue with rimmed (& tapered) rounds in autos is NOSE-DIVE .. As the base of the top cartridge in the mag is pushed forward to be chambered - it's nose can dip down and then impact the metal below the chamber opening and jam.

'Nose-Dived Forty-Five.

This can be fixed by adjusting the feed lips by squeezing or bending them slightly until that magazine behaves itself. - Other cartridges, despite being rim-less, can be liable to nose-diving, particularly the short'n'fat .45" ACP  ... you can even buy specially made 'anti nose dive' "Sure-Fire" magazines for your 1911 from Gun-Pro.

Marty K.

P.S.  Another issue with rimmed or tapered cartridge cases is that the magazines properly need to be curved .. such as the iconic AK 47 shape"

but there may be other design priorities eh ..

Some "Straight-walled" Cartridges such as the 9mm Bergmann / Bayard / Largo (and the 9mm Parabellum) actually taper around 12 thou. to the mouth. ( The Russian AK 7.62x39 rounds also taper a fair bit - which is why they use that distinctive curved magazine .. it is of course, a rimless cartridge).
M.K.

What Do The Headlines Mean?

.. Not a lot :

In 2016 - 62,000 Americans died from overdoses of OPIOIDS. That is almost twice as many drug deaths as were caused by guns (.. 33,636 in 2013),  The average number of US gun deaths over a ten year period is 30,179 per annum.

You need to remember that the population of USA is 323.1 Million.

So opioid drugs are twice as deadly to Americans as guns.

 America has a drugs problem that causes twice as many deaths as guns.

Have you been told that on TV ? .. of course not.

marketing:
the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

delude:
make (someone) believe something that is not true.

belief:

1.

an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof.

politician

a person who is professionally involved in politics, especially as a holder of an elected office.

• US

  a person who acts in a manipulative and devious way, typically to gain advancement within an organization.

Representative democracy (also indirect democracy:

 is a type of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy whereby the electorate would themselves have a vote.

faith:

1. 1.complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
3. 2.

   strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.

Spin doctor:

a spokesperson employed to give a false interpretation of events to the media, especially on behalf of a political party.

'nuff said?

Marty K.

1. 
   

9x23 Winchester Cartridge:

 I actually started today to look at the .38" Super - but when I tripped-over the 9x23 Winchester and was awed by it's SAAMI internal pressure limit set at 55,000 p.s.i. - I changed tack. - This round is like a very much hotted-up rimless 38 Super but with a Luger styled lengthened, strengthened (& slightly tapered) case.

Then I found a new website and an excellent story about this round,  9x23 Winchester - that I had known nothing about until now. Link:

https://www.deadcalibers.net/9x23-winchester/

The 9x23 Winchester delivers more velocity & 'power' than the 357 Magnum and is being credited by someone with the greatest "STOPPING POWER" record of all handgun rounds.

I had previously researched the 9mm Winchester Magnum (The 9x29mm): Link:

https://flicense.blogspot.co.nz/2017/02/9-mm-winchester-magnum-45-auto-magnum.html

If you too don't know just how many "Nines" there are .. take a look at the table listing them on Wikipedia - I had no idea:     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_mm_caliber

Glock 20 adapted to 9x23 Winchester:

I'll 'fess-up' that what attracted me initially was an online SHOOTING Times story written about converting a 10mm Glock 20 to the 9x23 Winchester by a barrel swap - Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_mm_caliber

Do we need a super hotted-up 9mm ?

-Well it seems likely that the answer is no .. not really - as standard NATO 9x19 mm is currently performing fine and also seems OK with recoil sensitive people.

But for the power hungry .. it will be lighter to cart around than a S&W X-Frame 50" caliber and will hold many more rounds.

Marty K.

After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?

https://www.patreon.com/posts/24075745