Wild Willy

Yeah, they mix thermite in a crucible in the field and use the molten iron produced to weld. The acetylene trick works real good- fill balloons with it, the trick is light them from a safe disctance. Heard a story of a guy doing this with a garbage bag and blowing the windows out of his shop.
The smokeless powder in your Mauser shells burns to slow. Go to the gun store and buy a pound lf black powder, or use the flash powder from your "M-1000's"
Put it in a good container, and, when it burns, it will rupture almost anything. Watch out for sharpnel- the pieces will wreck your eyes, cause all sorts of problems.
Kids, don't attempt this at home- trained professionals only, all disclaimers apply- I am not advocating any of this stuff, but sure have had fun with it, with a modicum of caution and sense-

TUMBLRws6

iTrader: (1)

my bro makes some AWESOME explosives...you doing it right mostly...just wrap it AIR TIGHT with electric or duct tape

Elite_Hot_Rod

***** that's wrong, smokeless powder burns extremely fast which is it's advantage over black powder, that and it's far less corrosive. When smokeless powders were first intorduced the pressures it developed required the use of a better grade of steele than had been used previously in modern firearms manufacturing which is why it's extrmely dangerous to fire rounds loaded with smokeless in weapons designed for use with black powder. Histircally that was the dividing line in the P series Colt revolvers better known as the Peacemaker. From 1872 until up to about 1892/1893 the Peacemakers were manufactured with a lower grade/mild steele and could not handle the pressures developed by the smokeless powders and many were destroyed by owners who didn't know any better. I've been competing in all sorts of shooting sports for many years now and several were on the national level. I reload all of mine own rounds be it pistol, rifle or shot gun and for quite a while I cast my my own bullets. Please people if you intend on building your own fireworks be extremely carefull and think about what you are doing, you or someone with you can easily be severely injured or even killed.

slayer_taunu

iTrader: (3)

yeah, i knew it had something to do with the properties of the powder i was using. i did some reading, and everything for homemade fireworks says to use black powder, but i figure i'd try the smokeless since i was trying to work with stuff i just had lying around the house.

slayer_taunu

iTrader: (3)

yes, i originally tried emptying out commercial firecrackers, and got better results, but it was such a pain in the *** and time consuming to do, i figure i'd take a shortcut and try the smokeless powder. it would be cheaper to just buy a can of blackpowder than dismantling commercial fireworks that they charge an arm and a leg for.

its also possible that the powder in the bullets was different cuz its older military surplus ammo. it wasnt really 'powder' and moreso it was like little square 'flakes'. i've only helped someone reload bullets once (handgun ammo), and the powder was a finer granular powder

Elite_Hot_Rod

It's still smokeless powder just different ways of forming it, what you had in the Mauser rounds is called extruded. Some is shaped like pencil lead some is in flat flakes and others are round granuales. I've got a can of FFFG that I won't use if you want to come get it but I will not be responsible if anything negative should happen to you or others, kind of a disclaimer.

95 N2OT/A

iTrader: (37)

the formula i listed earyler for flash powder is the formula they use to produce commercial firecrackers just on a much smaller scale for example a single black cat has about 1/50th a gram of flash powder, the ones i was making had anywhere from 1 to 5 ounces (30-150 grams) and would do some serious damage!!!