While I'm not sure much would be needed, the idea of stuffing fulminate of mercury into a .22 hollow-point would seem to be odd on several grounds but, just naming two:
1) there's not that much mercury fulminate that can be fit into the hp,
I like your post
If you have read mine, you might have found that I said “mercury”. I meant “mercury”. It’s also called quicksilver in the suburbia, or Hydrargyr in scientific circles (symbol Hg).
I didn’t say “fulminate” and I didn’t find "fulminate" in any other posts previous to my previous one (but it may be because I’m a little tired now).
I also said “glycerin”.
Mercury doesn’t usually explode. And it doesn’t burn at temperatures nor in conditions easy to be found.
I will try to explain the idea of my previous posts about mercury, because it caused some confusion.
First type:
Almost 100 years ago, some people had the evil idea to fill the cavity of a HP bullet with mercury, leaving some room for air and closing (or plugging) it. If I’m not mistaken, mercury is the heaviest element on Earth. On impact, the bullet is slowed first, naturally, but the column of mercury tends to keep moving forward (inertia, eh?), bursting the tip of the bullet, producing, so they say, additional wound, (damage, etc) which I will not discuss here. You can (re)read in my previous post what I said about the hole as thin and long as opposed to large and shallow.
Second type:
Some other people had some even more evil ideas, and engineered the shape of the hollow cavity in the bullet in such a way that the pressure in the mercury column during the impact produces a lateral (sideways) fracture of the jacket.
So, in the first case, the mercury column uses its heavy mass to rupture the tip and produce additional damage.
In the second case, the volume of mercury uses its hydraulic properties to transmit the impact to the sidewalls causing the jacket to rupture.
However (in the second case), this effect was minimized by the fact that the very heavy mercury column still had a great tendency to move forward. So they started to experiment in order to find a lighter hydraulic agent to replace mercury. They found some things to work better than others: glycerin, some paraffins (actually a whole bunch of waxes), oils, greases, etc. They said they work more efficient than mercury in producing the sideways fractures of the jacket, if used in connection with that cavity of special shape.
Those would be the two main cases of the filled HP cavity to use heavy mass moving free inside the projectile or some hydraulic effects to cause tip or jacket ruptures that the solid projectiles can't offer.
Kids, don’t try this at home. I can't emphasize it enough. Mercury is very dangerous. It’s liquid and it also evaporates at room temperatures. The human body doesn’t know to identify mercury and it deposits it in all kinds of tissues, because it confuses it with some other elements. It’s VERY toxic.
In addition to this, mercury has the property to dissolve a bunch of other metals, including lead (that is why some people immerse their barrels in mercury to clean the lead fouling).
When the regular joe blow will try to fill the HP cavity with mercury, if there is any fresh cut (un-corroded) in the lead, the mercury will start to “mate” with the lead (it’s absorbed in the lead), resulting in a very crapy bullet, like a cheese, possibly distorted too. This shyte is very soft and produces very harmful fumes and vapors if you try firing it in a gun.
To avoid this, the lead in the cavity has to be covered first (insulated against the mercury) with something, but this is another story. I am the only one to blame because I knew I shouldn’t start posting in a thread like this.
Random disclaimer: if it's unsafe/unlawful, don't do it.
I can't agree more. This is no joking matter.
2) those cartridges could very well be as dangerous to the shooter as they would be to the target, given the "jostle-factor" inherent in the firing process.
I can't agree more.
I didn't/don’t discuss here fulminates and other things. Yes, I know they can be dangerous (in fact, ANYTHING can be dangerous, sticking the nose outside one’s home at the wrong moment can produce death or serious, permanent and debilitating injuries).
I hope this post helps in the understanding of my previous ones
About what member hunter64 said about the 22 blanks. Yes, it exists, they say it works, although I can’t testify to this as I didn’t try it. It’s referred to in many internal publications available to forensic specialists, together with photos, including photos of the wounds.
One of the best solutions is said to have the blank recessed in the cavity so it doesn’t get hit and ignite prematurely on the barrel ramp.
For information only.
I go in the other thread to bug Deckard
oops, sorry eltorro. I thought you were trying to improve the ballistics of a 22 by basically turning it into a solid. I didn't realize you wanted to improve the expansion factor. As a bullet caster and a reloader I'd like to make two points on the subject if I may. 1) I have seen photos of .22 in ballistics gel that has totally fragmented into little bits. There velocity would probably be too low to be explosive, but they would still cause a lot of damage due to the fragmentation. The lead used in a .22 rimfire is extremely soft. IMHO I don't think you would be able to improve upon them by added anything to the tip, although I haven't acually tried myself. 2) The next point. As a reloader, the amount of propellant added to the case directly corrosponds to the weight of the bullet. And since most HP rimfires are high velocity, one could assume that their case capacity and pressures are maxed out. Therefore, even though there may only be a very slight increase in bullet mass by filling the HP up with foreign material, is this practice safe? Just a couple of points to ponder
