Cook off

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As Cook off (Engl. Also cooking off ) refers to the self-ignition of a cartridge in the superheated cartridge chamber .

principle

In firearms, the cartridge is stored in the chamber and ignited by the firing pin . Multiple firings within a short time, especially with automatic weapons, can heat the barrel and chamber so far that the ignition charge of the cartridge case does not ignite through the firing pin, but spontaneously and a shot is unintentionally released.

Avoidance

Ways to avoid cook-offs include: B .:

  • Modification / design change of trigger systems for automatic weapons: Here the possibility of fully automatic firing ( continuous fire ) is limited to three to five shots (row fire / burst ).
  • Design of the weapon as a firing weapon
  • Cooling the barrel, e.g. B. by changing the barrel or water cooling

Other uses of the term

Independently of the auto-ignition of cartridges, the term cook off is also used for the independent ignition of other types of ammunition, in particular bombs. This also happens through the action of great heat on the explosive device, usually as a result of a fire to which the ammunition is exposed for a certain time. A well-known example of an accident caused by spontaneous combustion is the Forrestal disaster , in which old aircraft bombs from the Second World War that were exposed to a kerosene fire exploded. Modern, conventional bombs can usually be exposed to a kerosene fire for more than three minutes before the heat causes the bombs to explode. In the case of the rather primitive aerial bombs of World War II, this time reserve was less than half as large, which led to a far shorter reaction time for the fire fighting.

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