| We have got an early spring this year. At the beginning of march the weather suddenly turned very warm after a longer period of darkness and cold. The snow melted away rapidly and the heat of the sun was as welcome as pleasant. Briz found to her great surprise the scent of a game bird, the first woodcock that had migrated up to our part of the world. |
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In Scandinavia the spring means a lot to us. It is the final end of a long, dark and cold period of the winter. Peoples spirits lighten up and fill them with new, fresh energy. Suddenly it is important to get rid of all the trace of the winter, both indoors and outdoors, on the lawn and in the garden and prepare everything for a better period of the year - the summer! "What is hidden in snow, will come up in thaw", we use to say and then we start the cleaning work. A friend of mine, who like me hand loads all his practice-, hunting- and competition ammunition decided not only to clean the house but also to re-organize his hand loading bench a bit. Gunpowder has a habit of aging and become dangerous to use and in some locker he found both rifle and handgun powder that could be nearly 30 years old. There are different safe ways to dispose of old gunpowder. The fastest way is to burn it. However, to burn gunpowder safely you must not pile it up in a large pile but you lay it on the ground in a long, narrow string, no more than an inch wide. This practice is emphasised in every hand loaders guide - never build a pile out of the powder! Now, we knew perfectly well how to safely burn old gunpowder but we decided to test and see what happens should you do it the wrong way - burn it in a pile. We had two lots of powder, about 800 grams (2 lbs) of a cocktail consisting of different slow burning rifle powders and then some 400 grams (1 lbs) of very swift pistol powder. It may not sound like it is a lot of anything, but I can promise you that there is a lot of energy in that amount of gunpowder! First we burned the slow rifle powder in a pile and got a very impressive and frightening flame but still no explosion. Then we set up the scene with the swift handgun powder. Opening the screw caps on two 200 grams powder containers and partly pouring out some of the powder in a single pile and leaving the containers with open caps on the pile we draw a fuse consisting of a string of slow rifle powder to the pile. I got ready with the camera and my friend put a match to the fuse. Afterwards we were happy we had used a rather long fuse, just watch this slide show and you will understand! YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE CURIOUS ABOUT THE OUTCOME ANYMORE! |
photo & text: © Torsti Mäkinen