Don’t Try This at Home
This is offered for educational reference purposes only. The component parts are safe until combined at the proper ratios. Avoid situations where static electrical charges can develop, because they can ignite the powder.
A star fort in Elvas, Portugal (Forte de Nossa Senhora da Graça)
They don’t fare well against indirect fire from artillery, but they’re still cool.
Sniper
WW1 Sniper with 121 kills, Gefreiter (corporal) Herrnreiter, a former poacher with an extensive civilian criminal record, once known as the best shot of the Bavarian Army, who was decorated with the coveted Bavarian Golden Military Merit Medal in January 1915.
If I owned that car…
I might not take decorating that far. But you have to admire his commitment.
Masks
The List of Accomplishments
I read somewhere once that Georg Herrnreiter was allowed to use his own personal hunting rifle but I was never able to find out what it actually was. Also that number killed was from 1914 and he was KIA in 1916 so some say the number could be a bit higher.
Yes, the numbers of KIA usually required a spotter/witness or some confirmation. The actual numbers of sniper kills are almost always higher than reported.
You can also find those proportions in the book “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen”, by H Beam Piper.
It works.
I loved that book.
Making black powder can be dangerous and I’m left shaking my head at idiots who say how easy it is. There was another explosion this year at the Goex plant in Louisiana. Luckily no one was hurt.
Traditionally, magazines were made of wood, no metal allowed, and in shops where black powder was made, there were only loose slats of wood on the walls with a free flow of air. If there was an explosion (or WHEN), there was fire but no over-pressure because the slats on the walls just blew out.
Read about “unconfirmed” kills…that line from Shooter, “…in places where there are no witnesses to confirm.“
Masks…The isolationist accessory willingly used by far too many who believe one can stop a mosquito with a chainlink fence.
Obama and The Mrs….the great dividers who should be sent – free airfare – to their pals in Iran.
I feel that the Obamas were emblematic of all donkeys. You have Barack win two terms as president and yet, it is not enough to show that America is not fundamentally racist. I didn’t like him because he was black, I didn’t like him because he was a corrupt, collectivist, who was not good for America. He worked to divide people along “grievance” lines. His harpy wife is a hideous example of what a First Lady should not be.
Spot on…for all those who “love” the O’s shows severe lacking character and morals and brains.
We will see this same gushing fawning over RBG. POTUS had the correct public off-the-cuff comment, a true leader. For me, privately I look at: “and ye shall know them by their fruit.” We are to be fruit inspectors. Her’s was not good fruit.
Rotten fruit.
Chicago machine politics in the White House.
The processes for making potassium nitrate and charcoal on the farm can be found in the book “Foxfire 5”.
Black powder residue is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the air. See that “SO/4” in the equation results? The formula for sulfuric acid is H/2SO/4. Best to clean your gun the same day you shoot it. The result will be ugly if you don’t.
The U.S. military used to have procedures for testing the quality of black powder–e.g. burning a small measured sample on a sheet of copper, then examining the color change in the copper. I would love to find an old ordinance manual explaining all that. And no. I have zero desire to attempt making my own powder.
I didn’t know about burning black powder on coper to evaluate it. If you find that, e-mail me. I’m with you. I shoot black powder, but I do not MAKE black powder. Yes, wash your rifle or musket with soapy water, then clean water and then dry it off after EACH use.
The book I mentioned had a person lighting off a small sample on thick paper, then examining the residue to determine of the proportions were correct.
The guys I saw shooting black powder and surplus ammo with corrosive primers, always flushed out their barrels with “Windex with Ammonia-D!” at the end of their day. It flushed and softened the hard deposits, and the Ammonia helped neutralize any acidic compounds.
Snipers are force multipliers. Relative inexpensive force multipliers. While not easily carried, a M-2 with a scope can reach out 2,000 yards with good accuracy in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing.
The Barretts weigh 35 lbs dry. Add ammo and your standard load out and you have a load to hump. HOWEVER, you’re right. In the hands of a skilled marksman the .50 BMG round can be lethal over a mile away (given the right conditions). Wind is often an issue, but at 1000 meters, a water target (animal/human) will come apart when hit – disjointed.
Barrett’s .416 has some good ballistics but the .416 doesn’t have the pantheon of wonderful speciality rounds. (Yes, John, I still like the Raufoss ammo)
Barretts came along well after my time but I loved the M-2, all 127 lbs of it (with tripod). We Engineers had several for AA, ring mounts on trucks, but the First Sgt insisted we were also dismounted Infantry and we did many road marches. Even with three sharing the load it got tiring.
Like many things in life making black powder is simple in theory but the reality is much more complicated..and dangerous.
Yeah, don’t try this at home.
As kids we made a slightly different formulation of black powder to make smoke bombs, same ingredients different proportions. We also had the formula and instructions for nitroglycerin but we weren’t that stupid.
Which is why all the ‘cells’ at Dalgren have three foot thick walls, and six inch angled thick ceilings… Seen the same thing in Australia at Adelaide where their weapons development was done.
What a powerful post and you caught me right away with the sniper Lee header. Which reminds me to finish off the final (1 of 3) Lee project guns. As I understand it, they were rebarreled etc for 7.62 and kept on as sniper rifles into the ’70s. Which is cool.
As are Star Forts. Yes, I want one.
I thought of you when I posted the Enfield sniper rifle, my old friend.
Cheers!
If you add a small amount of water to your powder, then push it through a strainer, and let the pieces dry, you now have corned powder that doesn’t separate, making it easier to store and carry.
How do I know this? I made some. What? Didn’t every kid up to about 1978 make their own black powder?
As to masks, I subvert the dominant paradigm of masks by wearing a “Trump 2020” mask. They can either yell at me for wearing a Trumpish mask or let me not wear a mask. Stupid libtards. And I love that California came out and said face masks won’t help at all with blocking smoke particles, but will stop viral loads. Yeah, right.
Star Forts still have uses. If your enemy only has a limited amount of indirect fire (like home-made rockets aka Hamas) then the forts are still very effective against infantry or low-powered direct fire weapons (won’t stand up to a tank gun firing flat.) Plus the powder magazines and built-in bunkers and tunnels and basements and other covered and protected rooms and hallways are excellent protections against fire. With some reworking or pre-planning, air-locks and air filtration systems can make said forts protected against gas and some biologicals. Plus the makeup of the wall structure makes it easy to concentrate fire upon ground targets, and there’s lots of places to mount your own direct and indirect fire weapons.
Useful against ignorant jihadis, drug cartels and other turd-world militia, as long as said people aren’t being supplied by someone like the ChiComs or Russians or Iran.
I could see building some along the southern border in order to control easily crossed terrain, as long as building them also comes with a more… lenient Rules of Engagement.
And, dude, I was just eating my dinner when I scrolled over those two worthless POS posers. Foul, foul I say. No, didn’t turn my stomach, but…
I skipped the “Make Your Own Gunpowder” phase and went right to solid fuel rocket motors.
Had some spectacular failures…..
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