[mrerick]

Originally Posted by kurusu

One thing I can say. The original .45Colt was 40 gr blackpowder behind a 250gr bullet. The pressure was in the vicinity of 12 000 C.U.P., and you can't put half of that amount in a .45 ACP case. Only possible source of problem is if there was empty space behind the bullet.

Mario,

CUP (copper crush) pressures can't be related to PSI strain gauge measured pressures. The relationship between them is not linear.

in studying Mauser's work (actually Feederle's design) on the C96 Broomhandle pistol for the Mauser Archive book Mauro and Gerben just finished, I realized that he could did not proceed on it's design until he had smokeless powder from Max Duttenhofer's powder mill in Rottweil. (1884)

The difference is that in single shot firearms and revolvers, you don't have the violent recoil movement of the action against hard stop parts during cycling, and the force that slamming the cartridge into the chamber in a semi-auto represents. That generates pressure waves within the cartridge itself.

Since explosives like Black Powder detonate, this must have always presented a risk and prevented progress into semi-auto designs before the late 1880's. Detonation is the chemical reaction of an explosive due to physical pressure. Smokeless powder doesn't detonate, it combusts (or burns very fast).

In any case, this has been an interesting thread...