BURNING QUESTION

Richard Atkins gives an insight into the powder that makes our cartridges go bang!

Black powder, commonly called ‘gunpowder’, served the armies and navies of the world and later also the sportsman as hand-held firearms developed. Black powder had one problem – smoke! Battlefield commanders were unable to see the enemy once the first heavy bombardments had been fired. Black powder is messy, fouling gun barrel bores, and the residues are prone to cause rusting. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that French chemist Henri Braconnot took the first steps towards ‘smokeless’ powders. Braconnot treated fibrous cellulose with nitric acid to produce an explosive polymer. The early products were difficult to handle safely, but by the 1880 the first safe nitrocellulose-based propellants were being used. Smokeless powder Early smokeless powders from the 1880s onward met with varying responses from shooters. The lack of thick smoke…

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Clay Shooting (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2021

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