Alternative propellants

Radio Shack used to sell a little portable torch kit that had fuel and oxidizer "tanks". Fairly expensive little buggers, if I recall.

A couple years ago I bought a little torch kit made by Miller. Uses propane, or MAPP, or Acetylene and Oxygen to run upto nearly 6000 degree F!!!

Point is, a fuel source is available for a high explosive suitable for the purpose mentioned. Portability would be in a smallish backpack. Room fot the tanks, regulators, hoses, couplers, etc...

I had also thought about this a few years back, but never had a gun suitable to experiment with.

Possible NFA violations involved there.
But had an idea about feeding bullets held on strips, being chambered, tightly I might add, then metered fuel, and sparked a couple millliseconds later. All after the trigger was pulled.
A small fan would "clear" the chamber prior to each shot, thereby insuring a clean, reliable burn.

I had some drawings of this thing(AutoCad), might still be around here someplace..
 
Donny, a couple of weeks ago someone posted a link to a gut who made a breech-loading , rifled metal barrel spud-gun with propane-oxygey mix. he didn't say any chrono readings, but he did claim a 12 shot per minute firing rate cycling the bolt and spuds by hand! You may be able to find it in older pages or archives.
crankshaft
paranoia is a good thing to have when they really are out to get You.
 
Donny, the fuel and o2 wouldn't have to be in a backpack, it could sit in the stock of the gun. With stuff that is much more explosive than gunpowder, the amount needed per shot would be small.

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
The Spudgun Technology Center

Okay - this is a good one...
This fellow makes a super spudgun. He becomes concerned as to it's legality.
He then writes a letter to the ATF and includes a picture.
The ATF's response...
"You better send it to us."

What follows? He can't ignore that can he? I doubt it - that nifty spud gun he made now has to go to the ATF or he could end up being raided! Nice.

I'ld have called on the local Sherif and asked him... "What do you think? Spudgun or Weapon?"

Whatever this guy was on when he decided to ask the ATF... I'll have what he's havin!

[This message has been edited by George Hill (edited September 12, 2000).]
 
Wow, that's both disturbing and cool at the same time.

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
You guys are right! I mentioned having a "pack" simply because it was the idea I was toying with. It could definitely be made to be integral with the stock. Possibly even a tube under the bore (like a shotgun magazine) to hold the fuels.

The idea I had was to use the Oxy/fuel mix in a fairly modern semi-auto. Place the bullets in a holder, or a modified magazine.

I see that the simplest way to do this would be to have a barrel without the cartidge chamber. Just a slightly larger bore to accomodatete the bullet. The combustion chamber would be external to the barrel, and bolt assembly. The bolt would provide the locking of course, and also provide the path to charge the combustible gases into the combustion chamber. The bolt would also serve to provide the directed path for the ignited/expanding gases behind the bullet.

As for the trigger mechanism. I 'spose most of the original components could be used.
Even to the firing pin. Machine the actually "pin" off far enough into the bolt, to utilize a piezo element for the ignition of the gases. The piezo would be a far more reliable method of generating a spark than the method used in most "spark" lighters.
The piezo units rely upon a striking, or quickly compressed action to generate the park. But it's very reliable!
The cigarette lighters all use a small magnet/coil assembly to generate a high voltage spark. While this works most of the time, that won't cut it on this type application.

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"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... in the several kingdoms of Europe ... the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms" (James Madison, the Federalist Papers, No. 46).
 
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