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Revolver.45

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Jan 29, 2020
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Hello.

I’ve seen old black powder revolvers with very thin cylinder wall thickness, like these cylinders for example:

ruger-converters.gif

and this pepperbox has also resonable thin walls:
medium_item_275418_eeac23b70a.jpg

Back in the days the quality of steel was inferior, so it got me to wounder about the steels of today.

What’s the minimum (with a safety factor) thickness of a chamber (or overall barrel for a pepperbox or derringer) in cal .40 containing a 25-30 grain FFFG black powder (or equivalent pyrodex P) load with a 92 grain lead roundball tightly infront of it (+wadding) if it’s made out of a steel with following properties:

Yield strength min [MPa]
700

Tensile strength [MPa]
900-1050

Elongation A5 [%]
12

Hardness
270-325 HB

And how many PSI will such a load described above generate?
 
The old 1975 Lyman Black Powder Handbook lists the following data for a patched 92-grain lead ball - 2690 LUP (Lead Units of Pressure) with 25 grains of Gearhart-Owen FFFg, and 3760 LUP with 30 grains of G-O FFFg.
LUP is not equal to PSI, but it should be in the ballpark.

I would note that the 1975 G-O powder was produced at the Moosic, PA plant, which was shut down twenty-some years ago. The 1975 G-O powder was apparently comparable to the Swiss or Old Eynsford powders which are available nowadays.
 
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