Temperature of burning gunpowder?

Question

What is the highest temp I could expect a rifle to be exposed to by a h.v. round? Assuming we are talking about a hunting rifle.

Thanks. I'm only interested in the heat. 400 seems low but I could be wrong. Any second opinions?

Answer 1

On high velocity it not the tempter I worry about it’s the combination of heat and pressure that causes barrel erosion, those super fast calibers usually don’t hold their accuracy very long before long they erode the rifling and part of the bore away from the chamber.
This some times happens in under 1000 rounds and that not good in my book .
But the heat is high enough that the exposed lead starts to melt.
That why it is becoming problem in some enclosed ranges to shoot an exposed lead base projectile, some of the lead is being vaporized even with pistols.


Well if you consider lead melts at 621 degrees then the gun powder must exceed that.

D58

Answer 2

Machinegun barrels get hot enough to droop. Suppressor tubes get Cherry Red hot. This is 750* C. Since the hot jet of steam exits the barrel rapidly, this means that the gas must be around 850*C.

Answer 3

some get to 400 F. for like 1/1000000 of a sec. but ave. is 250 F.