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B.L.E. · January 4, 2012, 10:09 PM

It's not bullet friction that erodes the throat of a barrel, it's the high temperature flames of the gunpowder.

I doubt that they use black powder in those blanks but black powder makes a lot of heat. I sometimes wear a leather glove on my left hand when shooting black powder skeet with my old open hammer double because the barrels get so hot. With smokeless powder, they only get a little warm.
The corrosive fouling of black powder would wreak havok on the gas piston of a gas operated automatic weapon.
However, blank powder most likely is a special composition engineered just for blanks. Pulling the bullet from a live round and shooting it in a rifle makes for a blooper load without the resistance of the bullet's inertia to generate pressure.

I'm inclined to believe trainer A because a blank has just as much or perhaps more powder in it as a live round does.

January 4, 2012, 10:09 PM	#3
B.L.E. Senior Member Join Date: December 20, 2008 Location: Somewhere on the Southern shore of Lake Travis, TX Posts: 2,603	It's not bullet friction that erodes the throat of a barrel, it's the high temperature flames of the gunpowder. I doubt that they use black powder in those blanks but black powder makes a lot of heat. I sometimes wear a leather glove on my left hand when shooting black powder skeet with my old open hammer double because the barrels get so hot. With smokeless powder, they only get a little warm. The corrosive fouling of black powder would wreak havok on the gas piston of a gas operated automatic weapon. However, blank powder most likely is a special composition engineered just for blanks. Pulling the bullet from a live round and shooting it in a rifle makes for a blooper load without the resistance of the bullet's inertia to generate pressure. I'm inclined to believe trainer A because a blank has just as much or perhaps more powder in it as a live round does.