Just a thought... This fall semester I was thinking of pulling some HE High Energy loads apart and running them through a mass-spectrometer and a infrared spectrometer to see what their excact composition is.

You sound like a chemistry student.... I believe that it would also be interesting to compare HE to regular loads. I doubt if the IR spectra would differ much since the compounds probably have the same chemical groups, but the mass spec should be interesting. If you have access, it would also be interesting to compare their x-ray powder diffraction (for crystallinity, rather than composition). I originally got into chemistry due to my interest in why exactly explosives work. Now that I know the answer to this, my work revolves around enzyme mimicking. Good luck.
Shawn
Chemistry Graduate Student

[This message has been edited by Shawn460 (edited 07-01-2001).]

While you're at it, figure out what the component in Hodgdon powders is that they claim gives it temperature insensitivity. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Seems to depend on either case capacity or percent fill. It would be a great topic for a 2^K factorial experiment, which is about the easiest way to untange something that is influenced by several variables with interactions.

Though I wont be able to test these powder(s) until fall, I would like to get a consensus as to what the HE powder might be so as I can compare it with the "known".

Some of us are guessing a double base powder, something like the VV 500 series powders with nitroglycerin content added to the single base powder. Also see if you can get the powder back in and reassemble without undue compression. A heavily compressed load may also be part of the "secret technology" they are not revealing to us handloaders.

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Good huntin' and shootin',
RAB