InigoMontoya
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To hell with the scent... The head rush of inhaled nitroglycerin? Shear heavenly bliss.
What is the smell in gun powder? (not cordite)
- Thread starter Willie Lowman
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InigoMontoya
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FrankenMauser: I'm curious as to what/where your statements on the smell of nitro come from. I work with reasonably large quantities of nitro and have done so after stabilizers were stripped away (yes, that was a bad thing and it only happened once). I didn't notice any significant difference in that lovely, lovely smell (although I confess that in that situation I wasn't doing any serious analysis of smells... I was just trying to safe the situation). Further, after reading this thread I asked a coworker of mine - who for about 5 years worked in ATK's NG production plant in Magna - if I was smelling stabilizer or nitro. His answer was that both had their own smell.
And so I ask because I'm curious.
And so I ask because I'm curious.
Strafer Gott
New member
Collodion is a coating used on some powders, particularly double base stick form, and is the second "base". The incomplete ignition of collodion is one of the more distinctive stenches, akin to a bad catalytic converter. If you are loading H335, this probably isn't what you're smelling. If it's a stick, like 4064, look around for unburnt powder. Unburnt collodion looks like tiny maggots, as the internal component can burn out, leaving the collodion like a limp noodle. With enough neck tension, or dare I say crimp, powders burn much cleaner due to higher start pressures.
I never knew that unburned nitrogycerin had any sort of distinctive odor but if dogs can sniff out explosives it certainly makes sense that it would have an odor.
I know that it acts as a drug that dilates blood vessels.
Allegedly, TNT is pretty toxic and there were a lot of health issues with people who handled it in the bomb making factories during the war.
I know that it acts as a drug that dilates blood vessels.
Allegedly, TNT is pretty toxic and there were a lot of health issues with people who handled it in the bomb making factories during the war.
FrankenMauser
New member
Nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin are very different beasts. ATK's Bacchus (Magna) and Promontory sites only deal with the latter.
I was referring to nitrocellulose, if you scroll back up.
InigoMontoya
New member
FrankenMauser: D'oh! I'm so used to dealing with NG that I guess when I see the letters "nitro" my mind fills in the glycerin part without paying particular attention to the rest. My apologies.
FrankenMauser
New member
Not a problem. I've done the same.
I shot a round of skeet with a gentleman who was shooting Federal paper shotshells. The distinctive odor of those shells took me back to the days when I first started shooting shotguns, back when plastic shells were still new and paper was quite common.
Plastic shotshells just don't smell the same way.
Scientists say that smell is processed by the most primitive part of our brains, the part of our brains where our emotions come from. You never forget a smell. When you smell something from your past, it immediatley takes you back. The smell of your first grade school room, the smell of your first electric train, the smell of burnt castor oil from a model airplane engine exhaust, the smell of Woolworths department store, the smell of a toy steam engine, when I smell those, I remember when I first smelled them.
Plastic shotshells just don't smell the same way.
Scientists say that smell is processed by the most primitive part of our brains, the part of our brains where our emotions come from. You never forget a smell. When you smell something from your past, it immediatley takes you back. The smell of your first grade school room, the smell of your first electric train, the smell of burnt castor oil from a model airplane engine exhaust, the smell of Woolworths department store, the smell of a toy steam engine, when I smell those, I remember when I first smelled them.