4th of July Black Powder Noisemaker Cartridge Blanks

[ClemBert]

Was curious to know if any of y'all ever load up some blank cartridges specifically for 4th of July noise making. Specifically, I'm talking about loading up some brass with BP as blanks to shoot for 4th of July in a vacant area away from people.

If so, what do you think would be a good configuration for 45 Colt? 35 grains of BP with just a felt wad compressed on top? Gimme your recipe! Me likes a lot of smoke-n-boom.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I punch out leather wads and load them down on top of 150 grains of powder in my 1.25 inch cannon. It can be heard 8 miles up river.

(But when Charlie Smithgal has a cannon match at his farm, I can hear it almost 20 miles away. I think he has more live firing cannon than the National Park Service.)

I never loaded up blanks for BPC. I have the components gathered to load for my Winchester 10 ga cannon.

 

[Busyhands94]

I was just going to load up some .22 BP blanks, those might be pretty fun! My guess is there will be a good smoke ring! I did get the idea of loading a piece of cannon fuse into the cartridges and shooting them out of my revolver, pretty much a little tiny .22 caliber flare!

 

[kBob]

"Cannon fuse? What do you have cannon fuse for?"

Love that movie. Language is too rough for my kids though.

-kBob

 

[Busyhands94]

"My cannon"

Haha! I love Tremors!

 

[Foto Joe]

I did this for grins to use as a SAA starting pistol for some golf cart races a couple of years ago.

45 Colt brass with about 35gr 3f then compress it with a compression die pretty good. Then fill the brass with cornmeal and compress again. One word of caution: Wear ear plugs!!

 

[robhof]

robhof

That cannon fuse burns faster under pressure, as going out a barrel. Many years ago, my brother and I got the idea to make exploding rounds for our 3/4 inch cannon and used plastic 20Ga empties packed with 100gr of b/p and about 1/2" of cannon fuse where the primer was, placed over 70Gr of powder the fuse lit, but exploded a few inches from the barrel, so we added 4" more fuse and turned the shell around and had bangs about 50ft from the cannon.

 

[Pulp]

From what I've read through the years, .45 blanks must have the primer flash hole drilled to about the same size as the primer pocket. If not, the primers will back out a bit and jam the revolver.

Note: this is just acquired from reading knowledge, not acquired from experience knowledge. Take it for whatever you think it's worth.

 

[Curator]

Pulp is correct about drilling out the flash-hole on cases used for blanks. Drilling them to 1/8 inch is usually sufficient to keep them from backing out and jamming the cylinder's rotation. A good load for .45Colt is 28-30 grains of FFFg and the rest compressed Cream O Wheat. (some reenactors use Coca-puffs cereal as a compressed wad) More bang and cleaner burning than a full case of powder.

 

[Mizar]

ClemBert, you may consider one of these - http://www.hornady.com/store/Blank-Cartridge-22-45-Cal-2-Die-Set/. The star crimper alone works well enough. It makes loading and handling the cartridges easy and raises the pressure enough for a good, loud "BANG".

Boris

 

[BADUNAME30]

I jist use my cannon also.
It has a 5 er 6 " .36 bore that i PACK with BP.
I pour and pack and pour and pack and pour and pack ( with a wooden dowel and a hammer) until it is full.
Insert fuse and light er off
M-80's er 200's er whatever they are got nothin on me

 

[Busyhands94]

That reminds me of something we used to do with empty cartridges and powder. My papa used to order these big rolls of cannon fuse for me and I'd of course pay him for the stuff. What we'd do is get some empty .30-06 or .223 casings, drill out the spent primer, insert a fuse, pour as much powder as we could fit in there, then crimp the case mouth shut with some pliers. Then seal the fuse and crimped case mouth with some lacquer and let it dry.

What we'd do is get a bunch of these things and go down to the swimming hole, light the fuse and chuck the thing into the swimming hole. They'd sink to the bottom, let off these tiny little bubbles on the way down, then they'd explode. It was like a deep thud and you could feel the shock wave go through the rock under your feet.

Now above ground, those things were really loud! Almost like an M-80 if an 06' casing was used. Of course they do produce shrapnel, so you have to be careful. And of course .17 HMR's and .22's would just blow open and fly a good distance like a little rocket!

It would be awesome to build a cannon that would shoot those, I wonder how far they'd go before exploding!

~Levi

 

[ClemBert]

Pulp is correct about drilling out the flash-hole on cases used for blanks.

Hmm, that seems to be a bit counter intuitive. Seems to me the only difference between the 45 Colt blank and the 45 Colt cartridge is that the former doesn't have a bullet but the later does. I would think there would be more back pressure against the primer when there is a bullet versus when there is not.

In other words, the primer is more likely to back out when a bullet is inserted...No????

 

[Skinny 1950]

The whole case is pushed back when the bullet is fired... this will re-seat the primer against the frame of the gun,with a blank the case won't move much and so the primer sticks out.

 

[Foto Joe]

I had to give the bulged primer thing some thought as well. Since I've fired a total of probably six of these things and I didn't have any issue with the primer backing out it was probably more luck than skill on my part. It does make sense though that the recoil from the bullet would force the cartridge head back into the recoil shield.

Maybe that's why some folks refer to that thing as a recoil shield in the first place.

 

[ClemBert]

I did this for grins to use as a SAA starting pistol for some golf cart races a couple of years ago.

45 Colt brass with about 35gr 3f then compress it with a compression die pretty good. Then fill the brass with cornmeal and compress again. One word of caution: Wear ear plugs!

Just curious if it is know if cornmeal, grits, or COW stay put in the "blank cartridges" in the unfired chambers when shooting these things. I'd hate like heck to have 6 of these sitting in the revolver only to find out when the first one is shot I end up with a chain fire situation. I suppose a card or felt wad could be put on top to help the cornmeal/grits/COW stay put.

 

[Foto Joe]

Actually, the cornmeal works all by itself when compressed. Remember, there isn't any recoil.

I have seen chainfires with cream-of-wheat on somebody elses gun. It's a non-event but it will spook your horse when the streamers of fire go past his ears.

 

[ClemBert]

You using Coarse, Medium, or Fine cornmeal?

 

[Foto Joe]

You using Coarse, Medium, or Fine cornmeal?

I had no idea that cornmeal even came in 2f, 3f and 4f. I usually just grab what ever is on the shelf. I don't have the original container to look at any more, I normally dump the stuff into a tupperware that I can make sure the lid is NOT going to come off of in the RV or the shooting box.

 

[ClemBert]

I had no idea that cornmeal even came in 2f, 3f and 4f.

LOL...

Apparently, it does. Was just trying to figure out which one is the one that compresses and stays put.

I've bought agricultural grade "corn meal" for use on the yard as a "natural" lawn fungus killer. It turned out that the 50 lb bag contained 1f (whole corn kernels), 2f, 3f, and 4f (corn flour). The lawn was slightly damp when I used my broadcast spreader to put it on the lawn. There was a cloud of corn flour as I went along the yard. Since you follow the broadcast spreader my feet walked through it and since it was damp...well...it looked like I had wet pancake batter all over my shoes. Additionally, I was covered head to toe in corn flour like I had jumped into a barrel of it. Since the corn meal had whole corn kernels in it I noticed several weeks later that I had corn growing all over the yard. It was really a failed project and I have doubts that it really solved my lawn fungus problems. So much for my attempts to be a tree hugging hippie using "all natural" remedies.

 

[Foto Joe]

Good Lord, that sounds like something out of "Green Acres", if you're old enough to remember that one.

Just buy the stuff at the grocery store, I think the last one I bought was Quaker cornmeal. It's not the masa flour that you would use for making tortillas, it's a little more course. By the way, don't try to make tortillas with it either, I did THAT a couple of weeks ago when I ran out of masa and didn't want to go to the store, the two don't interchange very well I found out.

Now....I would hope that when you get your final formula down that you are going to use this in a certain "Monster" Walker conversion that nobody has heard much about in the last year. A video of the mushroom cloud AND shockwave would be proper payment for all the help you've received on making blanks.

Don't ya think??

 

[ClemBert]

I see...ya want the 60 grain version of the smoke-n-boom show. I was gonna just do the 45 Colts with 35-40 grains using a SS ROA. Was just tryin' to keep it simple-n-lazy with the SS. But, I suppose you may have just coaxed me into making the 45 BPM bigger boomers.

 

[Jaymo]

Ya could just load up some paper cartridges with BP and cornmeal and use the percussion cylinder.

I was thinking about loading a 26.5mm shell with BP and chopped cannon fuse. That's about 4 gauge, BTW.
Then, I'd load it in my flare gun and launch a bunch of "sparklers" that will fly all over the place.
I think it will need to be a wet July 4 or else it'll be a fire hazard.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I use my BP muzzleloader either the musket or the mortar..., here in the People's Republic of Maryland I don't use either, I have to go to God's Country (West "by God" Virginia) to use them on the 4th, AND even if I was shooting blanks I'd not use cartridge guns..., probably would catch a "discharge of firearm" and a "reckless endangerment" charge if I did, and even if the charges were dropped they'd still have my handgun or rifle locked away until after the court proceedings finished. Be sure before you fire what might happen... heck it'd be better to actually launch banned fireworks here in the PRoM than to use centerfire blanks.

LD

 

[Saddlebag Preacher]

We reload our Shells (Shot gun and .45's for blanks for our Wild Western Shows. I was the safety officer for the group for several years. We carry individual reenactor insurance and must comply with those regulations. Here is how I reload my .45 colts shells, but will work with 38's and inbetween.

(Keep in mind, you may have a primer back out once fired unless you drill out the primer hole somewhat. Backed out primers are our worst enemy as it can make it rub the frame and make your cylinder hard to turn.)

After replacing the primer, pour in BP or pyrodex....20 grains for 38 up to 30 grains for .45. lightly tamp down with (once is enough, just enough pressure to compress the powder slightly) a wood dowel or simular tool. I use envelope sealing dots from walmart by using a wooden dowel to push the oversized dot evenly down to the powder and it seals itself around the inside of the casing.

OR...many use floral foam bought at a florist to seal the catridge by compressing it over the powder.

Make sure NOTHING comes out the end of the barrel. We have to do 12 foot splatter tests for habdguns and 20 foot splatter tests for shotguns by using a white paper plate.

Now, this is what we use, I am NOT recommending anything, it's all up to you.