Today, I picked up the current issue of Handloader Magazine and in the back in an article by Terry Wieland about gunpowder myths. In that article he talk about how hard smokeless powder is to ignite. He pretty well discounts it's role in bomb making.

If my memory serves me right, there have been a number of pipe bombs using pistol powder that has done real damage.

He also references references the death of J Bushnell Smith in 1958. He talks about reports that his cigar fell into a open keg of shotgun powder. My memory tells me that Smith hand an accidental discharge from 30-06 rifle that hit a large drum of rifle powder across the room and the fire resulted.

I recall my High School Physics teaching telling the class, that smokeless gun powder can't be ignited by hitting it. I told this to my gunsmith/mentory in all things gun related and he just sprinkled a little powder on his anvil, handed me a large hammer and told me to hit it. I did and it ignited, so there is no doubt in my mind that a 30-06 round into a drum of powder would be bad news.

What are the thoughts of the cognoscenti on the issue.

...experiments necessary to obtain first-hand empirical data.

It is only logical that some powders will be more suitable for certain uses than others and that some would be more sensitive to certain external forces than others.

YOU ARE TOTALLY CORRECT, CHARLIE !!!
Weiland is also totally wrong on damn near every point he made in that column. i did not check to see if he spelled his own name correctly.

I would like to pick up some extra bucks as a Gun Writer. It seems you don't have to know much about the subject, so how do I go about it? I can write as wrong an article as the next fellow. Why should lack of knowledge been a barrier?

. . . I'm not the only one who has wondered about some of TW's writings.

A young relative of mine got hisself crossways with BATF over him and a buddy building recreational pyrotechnics out of Bullseye and PVC pipe. I didn't see the results firsthand, but I understand one of them pretty much trashed the whole underside of a car it landed under.

I will have to say, the BATF guy, after listening to the whole story, concluded that the kids were not a threat to national security and turned them over to the local cops after a rather stern lecture about how easily they could have blown themselves up. John pled guilty, did his public service picking up trash, and has been Mister Super Straight ever since. Got his felony expunged, got married to a lovely little gal, and now has three great kids and a Georgia CHL. BATF guy made a good call on that one.