Workable alternative to caps or flint?

[Shotgun Willy]

Ok, this is just something that made me go hmmmmmm.

I was thinking about fire pistons the other day, and since BP firearms is never far from my mind, I had an idea.
Why not build an in-line with a firepiston on the back, instead of a primer/cap ignition system? Part of the power's going to backup into the piston, so it would have to be made sturdy enough not to blow back through your face. Dry-firing it might blow out the connecting aperature and maybe part of the smoke from the barrel.
It might have to have something like the charging handle on an M-16, to cock/decock it, and a spring in the stock for firing it. All you'd need to fire the weapon would be powder and projectile.

Like I said, it's one of those ideas I get, usually when I'm short of sleep. But still, hmmmm.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I don't think that I could make that work. Fire pistons have to be completely closed on the working end if you want to get ignition. Perhaps if your barrel was inside of the piston... Well, maybe not.

What I'm working on is a spark plug ignition system, using a linear magneto for the spark.

Kind of a pump-action muzzle-loader.

Hey, it's something different.

 

[JohnKSa]

Daisy made a gun based on this principle back in the late 1960s that used caseless ammunition.

 

[BlackNet]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=479603

 

[Shultzhaus]

Isn't there already on the market, a rifle with electronic ignition? Geesh

 

[azyogi]

How about the igniter from a propane grill? been thinking about piezo-electric firearm ignition for some time, experiments reveals is not reliable as spark sometimes is not hot enough to start combustion. would like to see one though.

 

[BHP FAN]

Works for the potato guns all my ''red neck'' buddies bring to our barbeque's.

 

[MCgunner]

Yeah, there's a "spark plug gun" I like to call it. I really have no interest. I hate electronics. I was tempted to shoot this computer just this morning.

 

[theotherwaldo]

The design that I'm working toward has no batteries or electronics. It would have a magneto based around windings wrapped around the barrel, a set of magnets set in a pump-type slide, some sort of accumulator, a condenser, and a microswitch. Fully self-contained except for the powder and ball.

 

[Smokin_Gun]

Calculator solar panel, storage battery/source, transformer, electronic ignitor from a gas stove... :O)
Here's where size matters I guess... that's kinda how the Air Force's new 747 Lazer Jet was designed made large to be fighter jet adapted...sumday :O)

 

[ThomasT]

Waldo I can't believe you wrote about using a sparkplug. I was just talking to my buddy about the same thing a couple of nights ago.

I used to fly RC model planes. You could convert your glow engine to a sparkplug ignition and run regular gas. They make a tiny little spark plug that is threaded for a 10/32 hole. Thats what I was thinking of using. Then all you would need was a battery, ignition module and a switch for a trigger.

I have also been thinking of using a nichrome wire like used for setting off model rocket engines. I think you could use a flintlock and a modified touch hole liner and insert a loop into the chamber before adding powder. The wires would have to be insulated so it wouldn't short out.

 

[GENTLEMAN OF THE CHARCOAL]

There was a man a long long time ago who developed a pretty good system. Hell, I still use it today my own self. Don't know that it could be improved on very much. His name was Colt. That's C O L T son. Maybe ya'll have heard of him. Pretty smart little humdinger from all accounts....

 

[NobleSniper]

Amen

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Approximately 1980, I belonged to tidewater muzzleloaders outside of Annapolis Md. They had two guys who built muzzleloading spark plug guns. One guy had to run a cord to his car's cigarette lighter to power his.

Any body ever check on how a needle gun works. Bullet was held in a fibre sabot that was hollow. The hollow was filled with powder and sealed with match material. A rough serrated needle went forward in a bolt action and lit the match material which in turn lit the powder and sent the sabot and bullet down the barrel. An Austrian gun smith named Dreyse perfected the design by incorporating a percussion cap in the base of the bullet which was stuck by the needle. Google the 1848 Dreyse Needle gun. The design was actually developed in England in the 1830's. It was really the first working bolt action gun. And explains why when countries were rushing to cartridge guns, Germany went with the Mauser Bolt action, they had already been using bolt actions for 20 years.

When all other European powers were using slow Muzzleloaders, the Prussians had superior firepower with their breech loaders.

The fisrt lever action guns made by the Volcanic Arms company used this principal and caseless ammo. Also 1830's as i recall.

 

[arcticap]

He's an electrical based design built around a Ruger 10/22 that was tested and really worked!

An Electrically-Fired, Black Powder Breechloading Rifle

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/electric_ml/electricml.html

 

[theotherwaldo]

Hey, I'm just designing up something for a story where the substances in percussion caps are banned by the government. My design set included basic breech loaders and muzzle loaders that fired pelletized powder cylinders that had flammable metal fibers capping the ends. The fibers can be magnesium, steel, or almost any fairly pure metal.

 

[SHIPCHIEF]

The CVA Electra:
http://www.cva.com/rifles-electra.html
No More Caps. Not even 209 primers.
Could this be adapted to a Cap-n-Ball revolver?
Mini spark plugs?