How does gunpowder smell

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The victim is shot in his vehicle and the body is discovered within a half hour after the murder. The police arrive about 45 minutes after the murder.

The death is staged to look like a suicide, with the victim having fired a shot from a pistol with his right hand. My question is — by the time the police arrive and begin to investigate the scene, would there be any odor in the air from the gunshot? I realize that CSI techniques at that point in time were not as sophisticated as today. Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Interesting blog. I am a gun collector, target shooter, engineer and huge fan of crime fiction. This has been my pet peeve for 15 or 20 years. I can remember the approximate time and I believe the actual book where I first noticed this error and the rapid rate at which the mistake propagated through popular literature. I found this such an off-putting error to be included by so many major authors that I posted comments to several them through their listed websites.

These were some of the most popular mystery writers in the game. I sent them polite, concise comments on the subject and explained to them how knowledgeable fans were really negatively impressed by obvious technical mistakes.

Surprisingly, none of them responded and not one of them seemed to care, since they are still smelling cordite 15 years later. Anyone marginally in tune with the subject was rolling with laughter. Writers should understand the damage they can do to their reputation with such unfounded drivel.

You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Search for:. TLDR: Avoid depicting cordite , use gunpowder as a default, reference propellant to look like a smarty pants. Like this: Like Loading Cordite vs.

Gunpowder vs. Thanks James Like Like. Hi James, Thanks for stopping by the blog. Hope that helps! Good luck. Ben P. Thanks, James! All the best for your novel, and I hope you enjoy the book. OMG This is so useful. Thank you for letting me know you found it helpful.

Happens to the best of us. Regards Alan Australia Like Like. I did once, and it used a. Was that what you were using? That is the smell of freedom. What you smell is probably the burnt paper. Thanks for getting back. Thank you so much for your help. Awesome, thanks! You can never go wrong with gunpowder. Propellant is fine for your situation, too.

Thank you for your response! Much appreciated. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Black powder does not smell the same as burnt black powder, but in any case it should not be added to anything someone may strike. The entrance to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico smells like bat guano and also has a slight gunpowdery smell to it. So maybe the OP can try to procure artificial old guano scent? Smokekess powder will sometimes have a vaguely ether-like odor of which one can catch a whiff when opening a cannister of powder or an ammo can.

Different formulations have different aromas when fired, but most of them smell something like ammonia to me. I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning.

Your overview, John, should help all of us avoid stupid mistakes. Evidently at one point they also had one with zebra stripes, although that one no longer seems to be on the market. Her father the cop sends it to her for self-protection. Who knew there were so many steps to making a shovel?

A whole hour on the story of salt or bread. I was just doing research for part of my current wip and this really helps. I have to tell you and the rest of the authors here, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and lives. Ah, the. Went from black powder to Cordite and to modern powder.

You can still buy rounds for them from some Italian manufacturer. Manageable recoil, slow moving round, but very effective. Yes, but here I go again…. Great bit of information John. That means one man could not operate the weapon alone. While a person could fire it alone for a very short period of time, they required a minimum of two, a preferably three people to operate properly.

And they were hardly what we would call portable today, weighing between 60 adn lbs pounds. A machine gun squad would be men all focusing on serving taht weapon. They also required a large amount of water to keep them cool. If they ran out of water soldiers were known to urinate into the barrel jacket to keep the fight going to the enemy.

If fired too rapidly, the barrel would turn white hot, bend, then a round could explode inside possibly killing the crew that manned it. Great post, John- very helpful. And Basil, great point. And the stories were truly harrowing. I really appreciate you posting this.

My current WIP, Uninvoked, has nothing whatever to do with guns. I do have plans and an aging rough draft that could all benefit from your article. Just wanted to ask — I know next to nothing about guns, but I have a character in my book sniffing the breech of a shotgun to tell if its been recently fired… how warm am I?

A fully cocked revolver that is dropped and the hammer releases will not discharge since the trigger is not being pulled back hence transfer bar stays down.