Yamato71
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Non Newtonian mixtures using fumed silica
This thread was split from the DIAMINOURONIUM (DI)NITRATE thread.
The project that resulted in my experimentation with fumed silica was the desire to find a more humane method of dispatching feral hogs. Like many
shooters today, I have become a real fan of precharged pneumatic (PCP) airguns. The larger calibers (>.30 caliber) are referred as "big bore"
airguns and are available in calibers up to 20mm. These weapons are not toys. My .457 caliber Air Force Texan will sling a 315 grain lead bullet at
almost 900 fps and deliver twice the wallop of a .45 caliber pistol using 3000 psi of compressed air. Because no gunpowder is involved, most
governments do not classify these as firearms. That is why my rifle sports an untaxed suppressor and I don't have to worry about a bunch of thugs in
black ski masks kicking down my front door at 4 am to ask me about it.
Hunters, especially feral hog hunters, have jumped onto the suppressed airgun bandwagon recently. A properly suppressed PCP is so silent that the
snap of the valve spring is about the only sound audible during firing. With a powder weapon, the hunter will get one shot as the report scatters the
rest of the group. There is one disadvantage to using air instead of gunpowder however and that is knockdown power, or lack thereof. My rifle will
easily drill completely through a hog, and that's a problem. Hypersonic bullets induce a shockwave in tissue that creates a wound cavity many times
wider than the bullet itself. A large relatively slow bullet drills a channel not much wider than itself. Worse, once the bullet passes through the
animal, it carries away energy that could have been expended within it. There are dozens of videos on YouTube posted by hog hunters showing pretty
much the same scenario. The bullet strikes the hog in the shoulder and passes through. The hog will either bolt, or about half of the time will just
stand there wondering what just happened. Blood will pour out of the wound while the wounded animal is still fully conscious and will be a few
seconds before it begins to show signs of distress. It will stagger around in circles for up to a minute before slowly going to the ground and
convulsing to death. The animals that choose to run must be tracked for up to half a mile by following the blood trail. This does not qualify as a
humane death by any measure.
I found that there are hollow point versions of big bore airgun bullets available and these do help to dispatch prey more quickly, but the shock power
of hypersonic projectiles is still missing. One online airgun bullet maker, mrhollowpoint.com sells a 315 grain .457 caliber soft lead hollow point
bullet that made a perfect platform for my experiments. The cavity in the nose is .25 inch by .50 inch and is the perfect size to accept a common .27
caliber rimfire nail gun blank. The entire circumference of the rim rests on the rim of the bullet, so impacting anything firmer than snot at 900 fps
will reliably fire the blank. Tests conducted by firing these at 12 inch lengths of 2"x4" wooden stud are impressive. A non augmented bullet will
leave a ½' entry hole and will exit the wood through a ¾" exit hole, retaining a good portion of its impact velocity upon exit. A charged blank
will make the same half inch entry hole, but will leave a conical void expanding from the point of detonation (about one inch inside) to the point of
exit. The hole at that point is usually about 2 inches across. While this represents a marked improvement in knockdown performance, there was still
room for improvement and that room was beneath the nailgun blank. With the blank fully seated, about half of the cavity volume remained. That volume
was filled with various compounds such as PETN, picric acid, ammonium picrate, lead azide, azo-picrate clathrate and so on. Tests were even conducted
with black powder, flash powder and inert gelled filler with widely variable results. Some of the materials were not reliably detonated (PETN, picric
acid). The blanks had to be tin plated in some instances to avoid the formation of sensitive copper azides and picrates. Of all materials tested, a
10 grain charge of nitroglycerin gelled with 7% fumed silica offered the greatest performance and consistency. When a 2"x2" board was shot with a 10
grain load of azo-picrate clathrate, the exit hole spanned the back side from edge to edge. With 10 grains of NG/SiO2, the target board was simply
rendered into splinters. Another test showed something amazing. A brand new 1 gallon metal paint can was laid on its side with its lid firmly
attached and facing the shooter. The 10 grain NG/SiO2 bosted round was fired into the center of the lid at a range of 25 yards. The lid was found
near the point of impact with the body of the can on the ground directly beneath the post on which it was placed. Remarkably, there was no
penetration or denting on the can bottom. In the lid was a perfect ½" bullet hole with no distortion. The body of the can told the story. About
3-4 inches beyond the point of entry was a continuous ring of tiny sub millimeter holes caused by thousands of sand grain sized lead fragments. The
bullet had passed through the lid, initiating the detonation sequence which shattered the bullet about 2 inches inside the can. The fragments
retained their initial velocity, but the detonation imparted a large outward velocity vector several times greater than the muzzle velocity. This
caused the fragments to spread out in a cone shaped pattern, piercing the can sides and leaving a circular pattern of tiny holes. From this test it
is apparent that 100% of the bullet's kinetic energy will be expended within the body of the hog. Each of the thousands of fragments will create a
separate wound channel. A hog on the receiving end of one of these would most likely drop into its shadow.
10 grains of explosive is well below the threshold of a "destructive device" as defined by he ATF.
I think I shall call these humane hunting bullets "SchweinFaust" or Hog Fist after the German anti tank weapon of WWII. Feral hogs are nature's tanks
and they're doing billions of dollars of damage here in Texas and the nation.
[Edited on 21-6-2019 by Yamato71]
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Twospoons
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You will have trouble if your explosive round gets classified as "armor piercing".
Helicopter: "helico" -> spiral, "pter" -> with wings
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Microtek
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I did something like that many years ago, on a much smaller scale. I loaded TATP into 4.5mm air rifle pellets and discovered that same effect of
detonation shortly after penetration. I used it on a magpie, but even though I hit it quite nicely, and the pellet clearly detonated, the bird was not
killed. I had to hunt it down and discovered that the pellet had hit the wing and detonated, but that meant that the fragments did not have enough
penetrating ability to reach a vital organ.
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XeonTheMGPony
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Please use this literary device called: Paragraphs
Once this is don I will read and assist.
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MineMan
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This is awesome. Sounds like a lot of fun....
I do agree you will want more then 2” of penetration. Honestly if I was a hog I would want a minute to consider the life I lived in the face of
death and a chance to have the expirence every living thing deserves.... a few minutes to contemplate thier coming fate.
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unionised
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Please use the literary device called: spelling.
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twelti
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If you are going to be picky
Please use proper grammar: an independent clause before the colon.
[Edited on 23-6-2019 by twelti]
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unionised
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We heard you the first time.
I know it wasn't the right use of a colon.
I was parodying Xeon.
Perhaps I should have misused a capital S to make it clearer.
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twelti
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Not sure what the repeats are, but it seems to happen frequently on this server. It is not me. Anyway, just keeping it light!
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