Does anyone have any experience with or know of others who've tried the Gibbs "front ignition reloading technique" that uses flash tubes to start ignition from the top of the powder column?

From what I remember, it wasn't worth the trouble.

You might check some of Elmer Keiths writings. He played with it. Some of the photos that I remember used an open ended tube with a few side holes drilled in it. The tubes were often mashed into metal macaroni by the chamber pressure and burning powder.

.50 BAT round



The .50 BAT round for the 105 recoiless rifle used that type of ignition. The military drawings and specifications for that round should be easy to find.

It certainly didn't catch on, and I'm getting great performance from my 338 Gibbs using traditional reloading techniques.

The problem for modern hunting is not having a powerful enough gun to harvest game, the problem is finding the game in a World with 7 billion people.

Thanks for the replies - AIU.

I am familar with the technique, and the reasons for it...

It might have had some merrits, back in the day, with the avialable powders, but in todays world, not worth the effort IMHO.

But I will add that Elmer Keith was on the cutting edge, many times ahead of his time...

I have fired a lot of rounds from a 105 RR; (many years ago). I didn't realize the spotter rounds had that primer tube. I can say that if it was invented by a Government engineer, that does not mean it was better. (Having worked with many of them as well). No hate mail from Picatinny engineers, please. There are a lot of good ones there.

The primers and powders we have today may have negated the need for a flash tube and maybe the flash tube was an idea that needed to be explored but wasn't really needed in reality.

Yes, and if it ever was a valid concept to start with; remember all the outlandish claims for velocity back in the 50s and 60s; no one had chronographs or any way to measure pressure, and all kinds of wild claims were made for velocity; many of which were just fantasy once some scientific mensuration got into play.

They used to have these on British Army 25 Pdr guns. Or at least did when I took the last ever artriller course at the Artillery School at Larkhill using those guns.

As others say I don't think that the gain (in a shoulder fired arm) is worth the effort. Especially as the tube itself will before it does anything else, will reduce your case capacity.

As I recall it Gibbs was also playing with duplex and triplex loads at the time and thought the tube would help keep ignition on a even flow.