Boost Charge

I'm loaded with questions, so I'll appreciate any knowledgable feedback. I read a formula for ruby red stars, which includes Parlon, dextrin, and red gum. What I've read is that each of these has a different solvent. The skylighter formula doesn't even mention one solvent, let alone three. So, dry powder mix, then what? Water, alcohol, or naphtha? Jhcblue

 

I'm new at this as well, but a booster charge would seem more difficult than just using more BP for proper lift. Also test your BP with the "baseball method" as on Skylighter.

 

Ruby Red formula, I'd use water with the dextrin. the other two become fuels and donators. But you should be able to google search an answer for that formula.

This could work if you would use a lift charge like benzolift as the booster.

 

Make up the benzolift into a torro and coat it onto ricehulls. After that coat them with bp. I would try a ratio of 5:1 Bp to benzolift and coat the hulls in a way that they are 5:1 to 7:1 coating to hulls.

 

But be aware of the fact that benzolift shouldn't be coated onto the hulls as long as it is dry, use just the toro method for it. The Toro should provide enough solvent (water) to make all the bp stick to the hulls.

 

Also this way should insure ignition, as the bp bu rns first and ignites the shell

The problem is the space that is left as the shell rises. If the original shell leaves a void, the extra powder used will have a minimal effect. Adding more powder to the lift or a faster powder will increase the lift. The truth is that there is no free lunch, you have to add more to get more...

The first "boom" you heard going off, was most likely the quick match leader(the fuse). The second "detonation" you heard, would have been the actual lift charge.

For small shells I shoot I have been having very good luck with a mix of my homade 20/60 mesh and rice hull powder seems to do exactly what you are speaking of for me. I'm changing out the 20/60M for 20/40 next to test the difference but I notice the rice hulls are very fast also. I cannot hear the difference very much but shells seem to go a lot higher with the rice hulls than without. I guess some more scientific testing is in order with an a stopwatch and some dummy loads.