That was odd

Yesterday I mixed up some Boomerite a little differently than normal and had some interesting results from tests done within a couple hours of the mixing. This morning, about 20 hours after mixing I did some more detonation tests. I expected the original mix would be difficult to detonate with the .22 and maybe one or more of the new mixes would be relatively easy to detonate.

Wrong.

I had one original mix target fail to detonate at 25 yards, but then the next one detonated at 25 yards and the next two detonated at 30 yards. The decreased sensitivity after storage did not seem to occur. What is going on? Was the period of storage too short or the temperature too low for it to occur? It was stored at a temperature in the low 80s for several hours cooling to the low 60s at night.

The new mixes, except for the desiccant dried (DD: Dried with Desiccite 25) version seemed to be about the same sensitivity with fairly reliable detonation as 25 yards with occasional detonations at 30 yards. The DD version required 15 yards for reliable detonation.

The estimated velocities for this mornings test (60F) are:

  • 15 yards => 1429 fps
  • 25 yards => 1366 fps
  • 30 yards => 1335 fps

I guess I’ll have to store the targets longer to see if that makes the difference. It seems that it is always the case that more tests are needed.

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3 thoughts on “That was odd

  1. Welcome to the joyful experience of “cookbook chemistry.”

    This happens a lot when you are using a recipe to create an unstable mixture, or when mixing powders to try to kiln fire into a certain crystal lattice (such as making a superconductor).

    The humidity in the air, the particular purity of a batch of reagents, all work together to give you confounding results.

  2. joe:

    i will ask you again, are you a chemist.

    and, i will remind you, that being smart in general does not make you a chemist.

    i’d leave such experimenting to people who know what in the hell they are doing.

    john jay

    • I’m not a chemist. Although I took chemistry classes in college. I also have a chemist looking at what I’m doing and offering advice.

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