Reloading Shotgun Starter Blanks

mooncoon

mooncoon

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
22   0   0
Location
Vancouver Island
Does anyone have any knowledge of reloading 12 guage shotgun shells to make the blanks used in starting tractor engines? Obviously there cannot be any wads in the shell to plug up the channel to the engine or starter

cheers mooncoon
 
I assume you are interested in the Field Marshall cartridges? I can remember talking to a fellow at the Pioneer Acres show (vintage farm equipment, steam engines, etc.) many years ago and he reloaded for starting his Field Marshall. If I remember correctly he used standard modern plastic hulls with the crimp cut off.

I do not remember the type or amount of powder he used, but it was held in with a cotton ball or two. I don't think a cotton ball would prove any problem as it is entirely organic and would just burn to carbon inside the cylinder. Field Marshalls would run on almost anything flamable, so a tiny bit of carbon from a cotton ball would be insignificant to the amount of fouling produced from some of the old kerosene and early diesel fuels.

I have a friend who still runs a variety of old tractors. I'll check with him and find out for you what the Field Marshall owners are using today.
 
Much appreciated. My concern is that smokeless powder requires resistence / pressure to burn explosively. Puzzled how to achieve that in a blank shell without leaving wads etc inside the tractor. I think the shell blows directly into the cylinder in the Field Marshal (which is the tractor concerned) and I think I may have read of using something like crush charcoal briquet instead of a wad. Presumably it would be blown out of the cylinder within the first stroke or two.

cheers mooncoon
 
Yeah, I am thinking blackpowder is the way to go... Crushed charcoal briquet makes sense as I believe the first diesel ran on coal dust...
 
Do a search on Google for starting engine cartridges. After posting above I took a quick look and found a fellow that was suggesting a duplex load of a layer of FFFg black powder, a layer of tissue, and a layer of a very slow smokeless that I had never heard of. His reasoning was that the slow smokeless was to prevent the pressure spike of a heavy load of black powder.

Okay: found it for you --- look at post #7

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48080

It seems to me to be a LOT of powder, so I take no responsibility for what may happen!

Let us know if you try this, though, as I am interested. I have an old Field Marshall cartridge in my collection, although I don't really want to cut it in half to find out what is inside :~)
 
That is the recipe that the fellow who owns the tractor quoted me. I definitely would not try using it because 170 gr of virtually any smokeless powder sounds like a horrendous charge. According to Wikipedia the original shells were loaded with cordite but the cordite that I have seen was honey coloured brown rods like short small sphagetti. It in no way resembles the coarse black powder described in some of the posts and that was used in original shells that were cut apart.

cheers mooncoon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom