Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewM
Forgive my ignorance but with this semi, would any hot load cause a case to look like that one? If it’s perfectly timed wouldn’t it be risky to use war time ammo?
Absolutely would love to see why it couldn’t be a hang fire.
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Something I should have pointed out is that a semi-auto, like any other propulsion system, is subject to Newton's Third Law, which tells us: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
In other words, if a hot load was fired from a semi-auto in perfect working order, the only thing we would see is a bullet leaving the barrel quicker than normal, and the action cycling rearward quicker than normal. They would still be perfectly timed to each other. Of course, though, this is not an excuse to start cranking handloads upward for old pistols, as there are other things that tend to let go and make for a bad hair day.
Something else I should have explained better is deteriorated gunpowder. When I said it had the potential to become "hotter" as it deteriorated, I made a poor selection of adjective. By hotter I did not mean the temperature of the gunpowder would be elevated. What actually occurs is the rate of burn increases, causing peak chamber pressures to be realized sooner and in a more confined space (ie. when the bullet is closer to the chamber). There is a vast difference between volumes of gunpowder in a cartridge and rate of burn between different powders.
As one gunsmith pointed out to me, a semi-auto pistol is like a fine Swiss watch, and must be totally dismantled to find the one errant part that has gone awry. In the case of Stanley's pistol, I would suspect the locking lugs or the bolt return spring. I am far from being a gunsmith, though.
I have to go out but will sit down tonight to discuss hangfires and out of battery discharges.