Recently I read George Orwell’s book, Homage to Catalonia. It deals with the Spanish Civil War, in which Orwell fought as a volunteer on the Loyalist-Republican side against the Fascists led by Gen. Franco. Among many other things, Orwell complains about the terrible conditions of the soldiers on his side and about the very inferior equipment with which they were supplied. He talks about rusted and non-functioning rifles and about unreliable loads that were “refills.†So, I wonder: How frequent has it been that soldiers were supplied with reloads, and have such reloads usually been of inferior and unreliable quality?

In war, there is always someone who will make a plan, or take a short cut to make a shilling.

Read up on the Boer War, and you will come accross references to "Kort nek" rounds, that split badly and offten casued jams. These were 7.65 rounds that somebody had pulled the bullets, necked down to 7mm and re-seated a 7mm bullet. Problem was the 7.65 case was 54mm long as opsed to the 7mm's 57mm case length, so the improvised rounds had a very short neck that failed to hold the bullets properly- but hey, with a total british blocade, they would buy what they could!

Also, the Afgans have always used reloads- normal camera film being cut into small falkes to provide the nitro-cellulose powder. Tried it in a .38 revolver when I was young and foolish and it actually works (shhh don't tell the Brits or they will want to ban all camera's that use film as well as sharp knives )

I would probably guess that in just about every small scale dirty war somebody has had to "roll their own" to keep fighting.

True, Ganyana. In the Vietnam War, the VC used solid human waste to generate explosive gases which they used to make bombs. How they did it is beyond me and my interest level, but leave it to them to use every last bit of anything to make a weapon.

quote:

Originally posted by rootbeer:
True, Ganyana. In the Vietnam War, the VC used solid human waste to generate explosive gases which they used to make bombs.

I would presume that still on many YMCA and other summer camps the tents are lit by nighly methane gas explosions. We called it "fart torches"...

Do not try it at home nor tell your children!

Ganyana. I don't think nitrocellulose based film has been available for many years. Most movies that were on this type film have either been been restored where possible and copied to more modern based films or have deteriorated so badly as to be rust colored trash. I seriously doubt that much has survived into this late date unless some serious good storage was involved.
When I was a kid, I got interested in photography. My dad, who also into it cave me a 50 foot roll of that nitrocellulose film to load into my film cartridges. It was really too old to take decent pictures, so I had more fun cutting off roughly thre foot pieces and putting a match to one end. I do really believe that you just might be able to cut it into flakes and load ammo with it. I wonder where it would have fallen on a burning rate chart?
Paul B.

I would say it would be really fast.
After all, Bullseye originated as the same sort of thing.
Flakes of waste from I believe dynamite manufacturing, really nothing more than some sort of stable nitroglycerin.

-Spencer

Fertilizer is still used in Oklahoma for big firecrackers, as the revenooers found. Where do you think nitrates come from?
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

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I am interested in this mention of kort nek rounds.

Am I correct in assuming that "kort nek" can be translated as "short neck"?

As far as film goes, I can remember a science fiction novel where the hero escapes from a cell with the aid of cellophane cigarette wrappers. This was years before McGyver.

Don't worry, you can do this at home. I tried years ago, and it simply doesn't work anymore. I suspect the same is true of the film. Probably still some of the old stuff around though. I remember a cache of silent films being discovered in Alaska a couple of years ago.

We did similar experiments with table tennis balls broken up and wrapped in aluminum foil, they were then made of cellophane, as well, I remember.

Orwell's book "Hommage to Catalunya" is, by the way great reading. Not only is it interesting to read a well written war novel, also the enthusiasm of the Spanish revolutionaries and the fact that the real enemies of the people were not so much Franco's Falange but at least to the same degree the Stalinist apparatchiks are impressive.

A copy of this book, available for the price of a Big Mac w/ freedom fries should be on every shelf.

quote:

Originally posted by grendelbane:

I remember a cache of silent films being discovered in Alaska a couple of years ago.

First of all, I see that this is your first post. Welcome to the forum!

You are correct about one or more caches of old film being discovered recently in Alaska. What happened was that prints of films went on a circuit of theaters for public showing, and the end of the circuit was in Alaska. Since that was the end, the companies that owned the films didn't really need those prints back, and the cost of sending them back was considerable. So those films were just discarded after their showing-run was completed in Alaska. But, for those of us who treasure old films, this was a great boon because many of those films had been lost before they were rediscovered in Alaska. They were often stored underground there, and the cold of the permafrost tended to preserve them. So now we have a number of films that had otherwise vanished. Those copies discovered in Alaska were well enough preserved that they could be used to make fresh new prints on present-day film stock.