Indians For Guns

While doing research for a recent article, I found that an official website for the Indian government shows that 12 Bore ammunition is made with mercury fulminate primers. http://ofbindia.gov.in/products/data/am ... add_24.htm:

Case Made from bi-axially oriented HDPE plastic tubes

Primer Mercury fulminate based compo (23 to 29 mg)

Projectile Lead-Antimony alloy shots (Chilled)

Propellant Double base shotgun propellant (1.7 to 2.1 g)

All the mercury fulminate primers that I am familiar with also used potassium chlorate, and were corrosive.

Does anyone know if any of the 12 bore cartridges produced currently use mercury fulminate based primers?

If they do, they may be the last manufactures on earth to use that type of priming compound. It would be news, and I might do an article about it.

The official website says that mercury fuminate based priming compound is used. Before I take them at their word, I would like to read what members of this forum have to say. From my previous reading, many are very well informed and well educated.

Dean Weingarten

The ammo is surely quite corrosive. I have seen the stuff that comes out while cleaning the barrel of a 12 gauge after about 25-30 shots. I have not had the opportunity to test imported stuff.

Using a 0.22LR (BSA model 15) i have seen the difference between kf and elley. kf leaves some residue while elley doesn't. I think its more of an issue of unburnt propellant than primer being corrosive.

Mercury fulminate based primers are not corrosive, but they weaken and destroy brass cases. As the shotgun hulls are usually paper and plastic, they would not be weaken by a mercury fulminate priming. I am curious as to if the IOF still used the very old mercury fulminate system in the shotgun primers.

I do not know an easy way to test it.

For corrosive primers, the test is to remove the projectile and powder. Here is one way to test the primers :

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread. ... osive-ammo

You might also be interested to know that IOF shotshells still use real brass for their bases. If one completely takes the shell apart (remove the paper case etc.), there is a steel plate visible on the inside bottom of the brass base, probably to add strength.

This is unlike almost all the freshly imported shotshells I've seen, which seem to use steel which is polished/ plated to give the look of brass.

I really don't know why they use brass in stead of steel, as steel would most certainly be much cheaper.

The primers are also not of the "usual" shotshell (self contained) variety, but of the older type, not sure of the correct term.

The residue left behind by these shells (in the barrel) is almost certainly due to shredded bits of the cardboard wadding/ overwad and not due to unburnt powder or anything else I can think of.

Very interesting. I would love to see a picture of the primer and primer pocket. Could you measure the diameter of the primer?

A sectioned view of a case would be very enlightening.