Front Ignition...

[RLB]

Anybody here tried this?? I was reading through the C.T.W 10 edition and came across this article on page 482..man this looks interesting, complicated but interesting...

RLB....

[Smokin Joe]

Been tried many times as far back as WWII. The rewards weren't worth the effort in small arms ammo. The BIG stuff did yield some performance increases.

[jhalcott]

 that's the dealy with the tube to take the primer spark to the front of the powder charge right!? Some guys tried that in the 30-06 .they used it in some of the cannon ammo to get higher fps with about the same powder charge. That's a lot of work for a little gain when you can BUY a magnum to beat the few fps's gained.Plus the worry if one of the tubes blows out?

[Questor]

It is a potentially dangerous technique. The story I have is that Elmer Keith demonstrated worked up some examples and got small but arguably significant (also arguably insignificant) improvements in velocity for 50BMG ammo during WWII. The concept was expanded to other cartridges and there were some dangerous detonations that caused destruction of the test guns. The conclusion was that the techique works, but really complicates case manufacture, yields only slight improvements, and could yield dangerous ammunition. The idea has been dropped since then.

[jhalcott]

  it worked fairly well in artillery pieces,increasing velocity quite a bit.I believe it was dropped more from improvements in powder than any thing else.It WOULD ignite the front of the powder charge and throw it back against the breech .As the projectile was started moving the pressure increased and the powder was consumed more rapidly,creating a lot more gas than normal ignition did.

[PaulS]

The problem with front ignition is that you either have to have a primer on the back of the bullet and a pin that the firing pin hits to ignite it or you have to have a tube that runs from the rear primer to the front of the powder charge. The "pin fire" design was dropped in favor of the rear primer because it made bullet and case manufacture easier (and cheaper). The idea of a tube was discarded because the tube could rupture and flash the rest of the powder causing a catastrophic detonation. It was deemed impractical on a number of levels not the least of which were safety, cost of manufacture, non-reloadable ammunition, and reliable ignition with "standard" primers.