Uh oh! U.S. production of bullets, shells, and missiles sidelined by explosion at 1 Louisiana gunpowder mill

[CMJeepster 2,777]

Hopefully this won't cause yet another ammo price increase:  U.S. production of bullets, shells, and missiles sidelined by explosion at 1 Louisiana gunpowder mill (msn.com)

[124gr9mm 859]

41 minutes ago, CMJeepster said:

Hopefully this won't cause yet another ammo price increase:  U.S. production of bullets, shells, and missiles sidelined by explosion at 1 Louisiana gunpowder mill (msn.com)

Seems like a current commercial manufacturer is about to land a BIG government project.

I suspect that means their commercial distribution will end, so current customers will have to go elsewhere...

[10X 3,296]

48 minutes ago, CMJeepster said:

Hopefully this won't cause yet another ammo price increase:  U.S. production of bullets, shells, and missiles sidelined by explosion at 1 Louisiana gunpowder mill (msn.com)

There are a few things in that article that don't make sense to me, but perhaps someone with better knowledge of armament can comment.

They claim black powder is 'used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives', in 'M16 bullets, and 155 mm howitzer shells and Tomahawk and other cruise missiles.'

Now I know that's not true for 'M16 bullets', but I have a hard time believing black powder still is used in howitzer shells or cruise missiles.   It's not a primary explosive; as far as I know you can't use it to set off charges of TNT or C4 or RDX or other secondary explosives.

Also, and this doesn't relate to the explosion in Louisiana, the article says there is only a single source making titanium cases for howitzers.   If they are talking about shell casings, wouldn't titanium be a nonsensical choice?  Expensive, hard to work with, and won't expand to seal the breach when firing the gun?

Still, I was tickled to see that Estes bought the black powder mill in order to keep it going.   I burned plenty of black powder in Estes rocket motors when I was younger.

[CMJeepster 2,777]

It's the media.  You want facts?  Go somewhere else.  

[Shocker 150]

 

2 hours ago, 10X said:

they are talking about shell casings, wouldn't titanium be a nonsensical choice?  Expensive, hard to work with, and won't expand to seal the breach when firing the gun?

Modern artillery don’t use shell casings they used incremented MACS propelling charges (which actually might contain some BP in the ignition train).
 

Making a munition out of titanium doesn’t make any engineering sense. They probably should have said “there is a single source for HF1 steel” for the projectile bodies, which is true 

[raz-0 1,259]

2 hours ago, 124gr9mm said:

Seems like a current commercial manufacturer is about to land a BIG government project.

I suspect that means their commercial distribution will end, so current customers will have to go elsewhere...

For black powder? That's what the shortage is. Last I checked it's not important in most small arms, and BP aficionados had to deal with the middle finger from hodgdon when the plant went up and they decided to get out of the black powder business. It's been priced into the market for a while now. 

 

[Scorpio64 5,153]

4 hours ago, CMJeepster said:

Hopefully this won't cause yet another ammo price increase

That plant blew up almost two years ago.

 

3 hours ago, 10X said:

Now I know that's not true for 'M16 bullets',

The author of that article is a moron.  The plant produced M6 propellant.  I guess to "journalists" everything is a back rifle.

[GRIZ 3,369]

7 hours ago, 10X said:

There are a few things in that article that don't make sense to me, but perhaps someone with better knowledge of armament can comment.

They claim black powder is 'used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives', in 'M16 bullets, and 155 mm howitzer shells and Tomahawk and other cruise missiles.'

Now I know that's not true for 'M16 bullets', but I have a hard time believing black powder still is used in howitzer shells or cruise missiles.   It's not a primary explosive; as far as I know you can't use it to set off charges of TNT or C4 or RDX or other secondary explosives.

Also, and this doesn't relate to the explosion in Louisiana, the article says there is only a single source making titanium cases for howitzers.   If they are talking about shell casings, wouldn't titanium be a nonsensical choice?  Expensive, hard to work with, and won't expand to seal the breach when firing the gun?

Still, I was tickled to see that Estes bought the black powder mill in order to keep it going.   I burned plenty of black powder in Estes rocket motors when I was younger.

Agreed no black powder used is 5.56.

Not sure what they're using now but in 155, 8", and 175s, all separate loading (shell and powder bags) there was a small bag of black powder on the last bag to ignite the rest of the powder which was tubular and each "grain" was about the size of a big little finger.

There is no titanium used in shell cases.  AFAIK all tube artillery in the US inventory is 155mm and is separate loading except the 105mm m102 in an AC130.

Titanium is used in M777 howitzers to make them light and air droppable.  Steel is used in howitzer rounds.  Titanium is a stupid choice for shell casings and rounds and isn't done.

The guy who wrote this article makes as much sense as me writing an article on brain surgery.

 

 

[CMJeepster 2,777]

So, Trump's fault?