Live From Las Vegas
Live From Las Vegas ... now living in Freedom!
Howdy from Las Vegas (the hottest shooting place on earth ... literally)!
Just found this board yesterday. Used to yak on the AOL gun boards years ago before they got so politically correct you couldn't talk about anything gun related. I'm a 24-year recently retired Air Force Vet, been shooting most of my life. I enjoy the metal aspect of shooting and reloading. I specialize in crazy (and often useless) experiments and tests I dream up. I love collecting old (and new) ammo, taking it apart, measuring and weighing everything, looking at it with microscopes, magnifiers, various light, all while researching it's history.
SOME EXAMPLES OF MY CRAZY TESTING:
- Battle of the Denmark Straight: A 6-month long test recreating the Battle of the Denmark Straight in WWII (where the Bismarck sunk the Hood). This included full scale illustrations of every ship involved the 4-day event, correctly scaled to the 100-yard range. A wobbling rifle rest was used to ensure the rile was unstable in the North Atlantic. Cellophane was used over the front scope objective to simulate fog in various intensities, with a spray bottle adding water droplets. The scope was adjusted for magnification to control the ranges to target between shots (salvos). All the ranges are well documented in history. After each engagement, which usually took all day, I compared my hit ratio (of volley fire) to the actual historic battle. Of course this had no real scientific value at all, but the guys at the range got a real kick out of it. After return home after each test, I would analyze the scale drawings of the ships, looking at history books, to try and determine the damage that would have been cause in the impact areas. I even set up anti-aircraft fire to shoot at the
Swordfish Torpedo bombers that successfully hit the Bismarck’s rudder. In my test, they didn't stop the Bismarck, and she sunk most of the British fleet! This was because I kept missing vital areas on Bismarck such as the gun turrets, the Admirals Bridge, with too many shots hitting the thick amour belt.
- BRITISH CORDITE BURN TESTING: Pulled bullets from early WWII .303 Ammo loaded with Cordite "spaghetti" powder. Test was to determine if burn rate could be altered by changing the configuration of the Cordite itself. I cut the cordite (which is quite long) into shorter and shorter lengths and sorted them by size. I also took some and ground it to a puffy powder in an electric coffee grinder. I then lit identical small piles of the power on fire to observe the burn rate. As I was hoping, the short cuts burned with more energy (due to their increase outside burning surface). The ground powder ignited with clearly more energy. I won't get into the rest of the test (but yes I did do what you probably think I did ... and it worked).
PS: For all my experiments I wear extra protective gear, cover the action of the firearm just in case, and ensure nobody else is around. I keep the pressures low, use filler if the charge is too low to be stable, and always try to think of all the variables before hand. Safety First!
Look forward to chatting with all of you, and have a great day!
Marlin1888