Originally Posted By: 2-piper
A couple of things must be understood. Pressure & Recoil are not directly related in the way many assume. Heavy recoil can be generated with low pressure & High pressure may generate low recoil. Agree.

Ben-T pretty well has it summed up. Pressure is of concern primarily to the chamber of the gun,ie wall thickness in that area. Frame flexing, stock cracking etc are all dependant on the recoil. Part disagree. Frame flex, locking bolt/locking slot strain, and hinge pin/hook strain are pressure issues. High pressure will, at best, accelerate wear to these parts, and, at worst, deform or break them. High enough pressure can burst or bulge the chamber or barrel tubes. But it is far more usual to have an obstruction bulge or dent to a thin barrel. Pits, overdone bore honing or overdone external striking can make a barrel too thin. The usual issue is not being able to measure wall thickness in the joined areas.

Charge wt and/or velocity determine recoil. Powder burn rate vs charge wt determine pressure. Agree
Incidently there are dangers involved with pressures being either Too high or "Too Low". Any gun I do not feel comfortable using loads of up to 8K psi, I hang on the wall. True and I agree.


Does that help and do you have remaining questions.

Last edited by Rocketman; 08/06/09 12:52 PM.