Post by Cwi555 on Jan 24, 2014 12:40:42 GMT -7
I'll have to look into that, thanks!
Here is a rudimentary method for testing.
You will need a cheap but solid single shot 12 gauge that uses a hammer. A place to remotely trigger the round via a string and a fixture for holding the shotgun. The latter isn't hard to make with many cheap designs on display via a little bit of googlefu.
The next items will take a bit of ingenuity.
A salt spray box usually works better with actual sea water/salt water but there are formulas available for it on the internet.
If a salt water mist is no concern to you, simply use creek or lake water.
The box can be built out of 2 50 Cal ammo can as there is no need to boil the water. In fact, you don't want it over 120f. Drill a hole in the top of the lower box, and a matching hole on the bottom of the other box to plumb a 1" PVC line by 8" long between them and to one side. Suggest using the hinge side as well. You will also need a small hole in the opposite side of the bottom box lid that can be corked and used to refill the water in the bottom box as necessary.
For the top box, drill a 1/4" hole in its lid to assure no pressure build up. Pick whatever random material that can support the weight between the two boxes so that they can stand on their own unsupported.
Last but not least, mount a thermometer on the lower box side.
To get this test going, fill the bottom box half full of water. Take whichever shells your testing and put them in the opposite corner to the PVC hole.
mount the apparatus on a heating plate bringing it up in temperature slowly until it stabilizes at 110F.
Every 9-10 hours or so the temperature will climb as water evaporation gives the heat less to work on, you will need to top off the water from time to time.
You can run this in cycles but the important part is to assure 240 hours or 10 days total run time at temperature.
Before running, take pictures and dimensions of the test rounds, and the same after. Use a minimum of 10 rounds per run to assure against anomaly effects.
Now we get to cold. This one is easy enough. wrap 10 rounds in a freezer bag and Chuck them into your freezer for ten days.
Corrosion test gets squirrely but a good sim for shotgun shells is to boil water with heavy amounts of salt in it. Let cool to touch, stir water vigorously, the soak a clean rag in it. Pull the rag out and wipe down 10 shells with it. Immediately drop the still damp rounds into a freezer bag. Let sit on shelf for ten days.
Remember for each test to document before and after.
Use common sense when fire testing. If it won't go easily into the chamber it's probably going to blow up your test rig.
Under no circumstances post your results on the Web other than telling someone what happened and how you went about it for a 'failure', only at that.
Your results will be subjective to your local area environment. What passes muster for you may not for some viewer in another part of the world.
That btw is why I try to stick with the military or LEO variants for ammo where I can. They usually have been put through all the above for multiple permutations of environmental conditions. However, you can test for your local environment with the above.
