Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Live Ammo

ks coyote

ks coyote

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Joined
Nov 4, 2011
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I've found several live rounds lately from the 40's and 50's including a couple of 50 cal rounds. Is ammo this old safe to handle and dispose of?:?:
 
ks coyote said:
Hate to throw it in the trash if the powder may still be good.
Click to expand...

Month ago or so I dug up some ww2 era rounds, they were so badly corroded that some cases had holes in them. I noticed it after I washed the rounds..then in the next day I poured out some of the powder and showed it a lit match :) Perfectly flammable stuff even if it wasn't quite to the original specs.

So yes, it is quite possible your rounds have working powder in them.

Voriax
 
Some of that 40s ammo if military can have Cordite in them over powder. But unless the round is in a chamber it will not hurt you. I set off a couple of .22 round when digging at campsites in Arizona that were under the dirt. Scared the hell our of me when they popped though.
 
Joves said:
Some of that 40s ammo if military can have Cordite in them over powder. But unless the round is in a chamber it will not hurt you. I set off a couple of .22 round when digging at campsites in Arizona that were under the dirt. Scared the hell our of me when they popped though.
Click to expand...

Wow , I assume dangerous too !!
 
not dangerous without a barrel, why dont firemen get shot inside burning houses when ammo cooks off? no barrrel = no pressure, no serious danger
 
700 varmint

im not here to start a arguement, but to educate others from your last comment. Let me tell you that YES ammo without a barrel is STILL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS when set off in situations. The theory of it not traveling through a barrel wont do anything is WRONG!!!! If you where "AND PLEASE DONT DO IT PEOPLE" to take a bullet and set of the primer, the bullet may travel a inch or maybe 5 feet who knows. That isnt what is dangerous. What is dangerous is the shell. I have first hand seen some idiot take a .32 cal bullet and shoot the primer with a BB gun. The bullet just fell on the ground while the cassing went flying at a seed so fast could have done serious damage. Same thing as a firecracker. When flammables of any sort is under pressure and is designed to explode,,,,well thats exactly what it is gonna do. Also the silver bullet and pawn gun shop in Palm Harbor Florida caught on fire a few years ago. There was an immediate shut down of 1 mile radius all around. Film footage shows shell casings that landed in peoples driveways and yards hundreds of feet away and the local news that was shooting the footage, you can here the casings shooting off like mortars
 
I have all the ammo that I have found in the drawer not a foot form me. The bullets are stable and are never going to go off on their own. It's not sweating dynamite for Pete's sake. It takes extreme heat, or a LOT of pressure on the exact spot of the center fire primer, or a quick crushing force to ignite the powder. Rim fires are safe as well, dropping them is not going to cause them to go off. However as was said above, you can possibly set them off prying them out of the ground or striking them with a shovel.

So if you manage to get them out of the ground you might as well keep them. They are great conversation pieces.
 
700varmint said:
not dangerous without a barrel, why dont firemen get shot inside burning houses when ammo cooks off? no barrrel = no pressure, no serious danger
Click to expand...

In another lifetime long ago, Uncle Sam trained me to be a MOS 12B30 Combat Demolition Specialist. I have seen many a live round go off in a fire and yes it explodes and I wouldn't want to be close to it but it's not as dangerous as when fired from a barrel.

"NRA technical expert Julian Hatcher and his team conducted numerous tests. Page 145 of "The NRA Fact Book" states:

“When small arms ammunition is burned, cartridge cases may burst open and bits of brass may fly about, but not with any great velocity, and usually not with force enough to be dangerous to life. The bullets generally have even less velocity than the brass cartridge cases, and it is necessary for the powder to be rather strongly confined to develop any velocity in a bullet. The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufactures’ Institute (SAMMI) reported a demonstration made by taking a large quantity of metallic cartridges and shotgun shells and burning them in a fire of oil soaked wood. The cartridges and shells exploded from time to time, but there was no general explosion of throwing off of bullets or shot to any distance. … The test showed that small arms ammunition when subjected to fire will not explode simultaneously but piece by piece, and then the material of which the cartridge and shells are composed will usually not fly more than a few feet.”

Subsequently, NRA staff conducted similar tests and surrounded the fire with cardboard. They found that neither the cases nor the bullets that flew any distance had enough energy to penetrate the cardboard.
 
hunter081 said:
im not here to start a arguement, but to educate others from your last comment. Let me tell you that YES ammo without a barrel is STILL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS when set off in situations. The theory of it not traveling through a barrel wont do anything is WRONG!!!! If you where "AND PLEASE DONT DO IT PEOPLE" to take a bullet and set of the primer, the bullet may travel a inch or maybe 5 feet who knows. That isnt what is dangerous. What is dangerous is the shell. I have first hand seen some idiot take a .32 cal bullet and shoot the primer with a BB gun. The bullet just fell on the ground while the cassing went flying at a seed so fast could have done serious damage. Same thing as a firecracker. When flammables of any sort is under pressure and is designed to explode,,,,well thats exactly what it is gonna do. Also the silver bullet and pawn gun shop in Palm Harbor Florida caught on fire a few years ago. There was an immediate shut down of 1 mile radius all around. Film footage shows shell casings that landed in peoples driveways and yards hundreds of feet away and the local news that was shooting the footage, you can here the casings shooting off like mortars
Click to expand...

have you ever heard a real mortar? (I have) so your fear amplified the noise? how many people were killed in this calamity? move back one mile again the liberal publics fear probably prompted this, how do you know for sure that it was because of live ammo? how much was there? anything else in the pawn shop that was not released to the public? maybe bulk gun powder for reloaders? alot of questions I would have. cases flying hundreds of feet I have a hard time buying since I seriously doubt it was as loud as a mortar in the 1st place. Some guys used to burn C-4 to heat thier C-rations and dynamite is stable unless put under compression. from what I understand you can throw it in fire just dont hit it with a hammer.
I can see how shooting a primer with a bb gun will make the bullet fall out and the case go in the direction of which the bb came from since the bullet is probably heavier than the case. the neck of the case will work in a venturi type action just like a rocket not a firecracker. Since every action has a opposite reaction but we are diggin with leshe tools or even shovels not bb guns and I highly doubt at any depth a primer hit by accident while underground has enough energy to come out of the ground like a ICBM.
it might make a good pop but it would be catagorized as a "freak" accident if anyone for injured from this. no I wont take the time to google to see if this actually ever happened. if there are any former or present EOD tech's here please chime in on this.

no arguement/ill feelings from me either I have been a avid reloader / long range rifle shooter for 30+ years so I do know something about bullets caseings, gunpowder and how it all works.
 
700varmint said:
have you ever heard a real mortar? (I have) so your fear amplified the noise? how many people were killed in this calamity? move back one mile again the liberal publics fear probably prompted this, how do you know for sure that it was because of live ammo? how much was there? anything else in the pawn shop that was not released to the public? maybe bulk gun powder for reloaders? alot of questions I would have. cases flying hundreds of feet I have a hard time buying since I seriously doubt it was as loud as a mortar in the 1st place. Some guys used to burn C-4 to heat thier C-rations and dynamite is stable unless put under compression. from what I understand you can throw it in fire just dont hit it with a hammer.
I can see how shooting a primer with a bb gun will make the bullet fall out and the case go in the direction of which the bb came from since the bullet is probably heavier than the case. the neck of the case will work in a venturi type action just like a rocket not a firecracker. Since every action has a opposite reaction but we are diggin with leshe tools or even shovels not bb guns and I highly doubt at any depth a primer hit by accident while underground has enough energy to come out of the ground like a ICBM.
it might make a good pop but it would be catagorized as a "freak" accident if anyone for injured from this. no I wont take the time to google to see if this actually ever happened. if there are any former or present EOD tech's here please chime in on this.

no arguement/ill feelings from me either I have been a avid reloader / long range rifle shooter for 30+ years so I do know something about bullets caseings, gunpowder and how it all works.
Click to expand...

WOW, seems like you and I have something in common. As i am also a shooter and reloader. Im not a long range shooter though, I hunt hog and also shoot with the boys at my P.D. I have been with the county for some time and have great knowledge on this subject as well as what the F.D does when dispatched to a scene with "knowingly" info on rounds in the apt, home, business, car or what have you. Also there are youtube vids of the silver gun n pawn shop that was taken live, and again yes the casings travelled a great distance and enough to do bodily harm
 
Umm that video is somewhat bogus. They use .50 rounds and a lot of them on the fire. This means you will get debris from the casings flying out because of sheer numbers. If you throw say one .22 round on a fire it will with more probability have close to a zero chance of doing damage. When I popped off those .22s in the ground accidentally there was a pop but no flying debris, except for a puff of dirt on the one.
 
Link to bullet puller

I use a device that looks like a plastic hammer. You place the cartridge in the hollow "hammer head" of the device with the bullet facing the right way and hit it on a hard surface. The bullet comes out and the gunpowder is captured. The shell case will still have a primer, but won't be able to explode the cartridge casing throwing out brass shrapnel if the primer is activated.
 
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