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I have taken in several hundred rounds of shotshell and centerfire ammunition that was heavily damaged in a house fire. I did this to accommodate a customer, but now I'm not sure what to do with it. It is not shootable. I doubt that I can send it to the landfill. I'm open to suggestions..... Bill Jacobs NRA Endowment Member US Army Veteran CWP Holder Gunsmith | ||
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Maybe bury it...... NRA Benefactor Member US Navy Veteran | |||
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Put it into the trash, not more than 50 rounds at a time and not together. It poses no danger that way. Or bury it in your back yard, 3 feet deep, in holes that contain one round each. Or disassemble it and scatter the powder in your yard like fertilizer, which it is. The most efficient, approved, DEMIL procedure is to put it into an enclosed steel cylinder and heat it up until all the rounds pop off; the result is brass, copper, and lead scrap. | |||
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Like a discarded water heater? | |||
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That should do it. I once saw a demonstration where they put several rounds on a hot plate and cooked them off with nothing but a cardboard box over the hotplate. Nothing penetrated the cardboard. Have gun- Will travel The value of a trophy is computed directly in terms of personal investment in its acquisition. Robert Ruark | |||
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Give to Sheriff or Fire Department. M | |||
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Everything I have read and observed tells me that the primer is like the most dangerous of the component using thermal disassembly. Don't limit your challenges . . . Challenge your limits | |||
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Some 30 years ago my house burned. I had thousands of rounds of ammo, when the fire hit them it sounded like the Fourth of July. Sorting through the debris it was obvious that the bullets were laying beside the cases. Without a chamber & barrel the cartridge is just a firecracker. "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind..." Hosea 8:7 | |||
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I don't know anything about how a water heater is made, but as stated, it doesn't take much to hold in the popped primers, cases and bullets. | |||
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Call your local fire department. Down here we can take it to the sheriffs office . | |||
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We never throw anything away. I disassemble any ammo I am given that cannot be shot. We mainly use the powder. Got thousands of 8x57 ammo made in Egypt 113 years ago!! I pulled the bullets, and used the powder for several cartridges. 6mm PPC 6MM BR 308 WINCHESTER. Works great. Got naval flares that have expired in 1980! Four different types. We took them apart, mixed all the powder together, and use it for 357 Magnum and 44 Magnum practice rounds. Got a load of AK47 ammo from the army. Mostly rusted primers, different manufacturers. Again, took them apart and recovered the powder. Mixed all together, and used it for 223 Remington. Works great. Thing is we have a hard time getting powder, so we make use of everything we can get hold of. | |||
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A few years back I experienced a split case on some Korean surplus 30-06. It split from the primer thru the web and up about 3/8 inch of the case. My ‘03A3 handled it ok. I decided to pull down some of the ammo and found a wet greenish goo in several cases. I placed a handful of rounds in my cast iron smelting pot and covered it with the cast iron lid. After lighting up the burner, I placed a brick on top and retreaded around the corner of my shop. To my surprise it sounded like popcorn... just as dpcd said, no problem. Shoot Safe, Mike NRA Endowment Member | |||
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Bill, we had a pallet of 12 gauge shells infested with termites a few years ago. Their feces corroded about half of the shells. Sold them to a local gun club for components. With a waiver! Bob
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I read about a study someone did several decades ago. Apparently when a round cooks off, sometimes bits of brass is showered outwards. So it is possible to lose an eye from a bit of shrapnel. Perhaps you can use them as weights for dekes? I know a method of turning them into cheap and easy-to-make anti-personal mines, or predator kill traps, I’ll not share that online. BH63 Hunting buff is better than sex! | |||
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Check with nearest town with a bomb squad they usually take it for destruction. | |||
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It's a mass thing. Cook off a round with a bullet heavier than the case, the case goes flying but not far. If they both weigh the same both move but not far. With out a barrel to trap the gas it just pushes the bullet or the case goes backwards and disperses in to the air. A 45 ACP case will bruise you at very close range. Never cooked off a shotgun shell. I would be a lot more leery of them. Pellets might travel farther! | |||
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If you have a bullet puller, easy enough on the centerfire ammo. Shotshells can be cut open with a razor and rendered safe by pouring the powder out. Throw the powder in the yard & call it good. Or keep all the powder in a Ziploc bag for a good campfire trick. | |||
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I would never call in any authorities on myself, for something I don't really need them for. Do not trust any Govt bureaucrats; and I used to be one. They have agendas in some locations that are not friendly to you. | |||
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X2, Dig a hole  | |||
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I also would find some use for it. | |||
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I took inventory yesterday. Looks like about 1000 rounds of lightly damaged rimfire, 1000 rounds of heavily damaged shotshells, and maybe 200+ rounds of corroded centerfire ammo. The local law enforcement people won't take it. If you want it and are willing to come to Greenwood, SC, to get it, it is all yours. Bill Jacobs NRA Endowment Member US Army Veteran CWP Holder Gunsmith | |||
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A favorite memory: a deputy had his kids help him clean the range building in preparation for a county wide qualifying day. We throw ammo boxes and used targets in a burn barrel. Nearing the end of the day someone lit ‘er off to burn all that debris. Down inside the barrel was 10 or so linked 7.62, a handful of 50 bmg some shotgun with buckshot and 22 LR that had been all in a paper sack that looked like trash to a teenager... I happened to be at the 25 yard line shooting when it started to cook off. Since I was one of the RO’s for the day, last to qualify. The burn barrel was 20 yards to my left. Everybody scattered and brass shards from the 50 rains down on the vehicles. There were 30 caliber holes on the side of the barrel with the bullets laying feet away. I presume it was the fact that they were linked ammo that happened. Nobody was harmed and I cleaned the 25 yard line. I told the scatter-ies “anybody can shoot when nobody is shooting at you...”. Had fun with the young fellas with that. "The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreeably to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights." ~George Washington - 1789 | |||
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uhm.. partially cooked ammo now has unstable and changed powder in them --- recall that smokeless powder usually burns WAY slower than BP .. but changed powder, who can say? i might setup a burn barrel, and feed in a couple at a time ... dropped in with a golf ball retriver "club" --- the rimfire stuff will actually be the ones i was worried about .. really fast powder opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club Information on Ammoguide about the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR. 476AR, http://www.weaponsmith.com | |||
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don't know how far you are from the coast but a fishing trip 15 miles off shore would probably put you in an environment that ammo that fell overboard would probably never bother anyone. just sayn' I'm with Tom on this one. I worked for the enforcement arm of the government. I wouldn't say anything to anyone. | |||
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Our Police Dept in my city will accept for destruction. Just drop them off and that's it. Phil | |||
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Cut the shotshells below the wad so that you can throw away the casehead and dump the powder. Sell the bit that is left...effectively a plastic/paper cylinder containing an ounce or so of shot...to someone who reloads. | |||
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Rimfire you can usually just use a pair of pliers to grasp the bullet just above the case neck and "bend" the bullet out of the case. | |||
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Don't they call the bomb squad in England for ammo disposal.  | |||
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Kinda along those same lines, several years ago I was walking to my shop from the house on a Sunday when the whole world erupted (at least that is what it felt + sounded like). One helluva an explosion, ground shaking, chickens everywhere going ape shit + my 1st thought was that my loading room had gone up. No, after all the smoke cleared (figuratively + realistically) the truth became known. I'm out in the country + one of my neighbors was out walking his property + found a box of deteriorating Dynomite sticks shoved under a cedar tree. Well, he calls the S.O.; they look at this pile dripping nitro + they aren't going to touch it so they call the bomb squad; the same result, nobody wants to touch it so they sandbag it right there + blow it. They did + that was the horrendous explosion that scares me just a little bit less than all the neighborhood chickens. I'll bet there wasn't an egg laid in days. Come to find out that the dynamite was placed there by one white trash neighbor who stole a case from the local quarry with the intention of going "fishing". He never got the chance as he had to go off + work for the state for a spell (in prison). So he just went onto the neighbor's property + stuffed the case under a tree. I am still thankful that some kids didn't find it. Never mistake motion for action. | |||
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On another tac about ammo going off. I have a friend that has a ranch a few miles from here. After letting his wife + daughters go into town for supper, he went to bed. He awoke later to the sounds of small arms fire close by. He looked out the window + his whole house was on fire. It was pier + beam + cedar construction + it literally went up like a house on fire. Being pier + beam the fire skirted the bottom of the house + then hit every room. The 1st room to go was Buzzy's ammo room + it cooked off all that ammo that woke him. He got out in his underwear + lost some cats + dogs in the fire along with all his guns. But he got out. Interesting bit he told me when the insurance adjuster came by + he was describing his gun loss + the molten metal that had once been revolvers; the agent could tell what was a Colt from a Ruger in the molten material. Those insurance adjusters are pretty good; after all their job is to take money, not give it out. Never mistake motion for action. | |||
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Unfortunately, this isn't universally true. Law enforcement here doesn't want any part of old/damaged/obsolete/antique, etc. ammo. Bill Jacobs NRA Endowment Member US Army Veteran CWP Holder Gunsmith | |||
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When my Dad took over the farm from my uncle he found a Dynomite box with sticks of deteriorating dyomite in it and a box of caps. He hauled them out to the field set the caps on top of the box. Settled down a fair bit away and fired one shot with his 99 300 savage. Granma told him latter it rattled the windows in her house close to a mile away. Didn't need no sticking bomb squad in the good old days. | |||
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If you dump old ammo in a lake, pond or river and someone reports you it cam have serious repercussions. Technically you dumped hazardous materials in the waters of the US (lead styphnate among others). I deal a lot with Army Corps regulators for permits and the old timers tell me 75% of their investigations originate with a civilian reporting another civilian. Not saying you will actually harm the environment to any detectable degree but a lot of these agencies get partial funding from the fines they collect and they are infested with young ecowarrior zealots. Burning them is the best means and the cast iron dutch oven or lidded cast iron skillet was a good idea. Especially if you could find a junker in a thrift shop. Not sure I'd cook in one after that. Same reason I wouldn't use my Webber even though it would contain the bits and pieces. A fire pit in the boonies works too; as long as it's safe to light it and walk away. | |||
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P dog I totally agree; we didn't need bomb squads or a lot of other things in the past. We took care of our own business, + quite well I might add. A story, case in point. I live in what used to be a little town prior to the transplants. Anyway, in the early 70s, we had a constable name of Lee Hays. He was illiterate; if he needed to serve papers, etc, he took his wife along because she4 could read. He drove a 1959 Red Impala with a dashboard stick on cherry. One day we were all at the cafe in town when one of the locals comes in + says "Lee, there's a bunch of hippies skinny dipping down at the blue hole; you need to go do something about it. So Lee goes down to the river, parks his car, takes the cherry off the dash, removes his revolver + badge + walks down to the river + says "Hey you kids, somebody just called the law on you. You'd better get out of here right now!" With a thank you old timer they were gone in minutes. The point here that I have always been able to see is that there were no0 arrests, no harassment, no waste of tax dollars, etc. The problem was solved with NO victims; the only ones who lost out were the county on charging fines.For an old illiterate cop, I thought he acted very well, much better than a lot of new ones would have done. Never mistake motion for action. | |||
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Normans post about the dynamite made me remember back many years ago when I was more stupid than I am now my best friend and I went to the County Supervisor to get some dynamite to blast a Beaver dams. He said we have some old stuff down in that shed, get you a half dozen sticks well we went down to the shed and all we saw was a half case of swelled and split sticks that were all wet with a clear liquid. We got seven sticks and laid them in the back of my old Toyota truck and proceeded to drive back home over five miles of bumpy gravel roads with the sticks rolling from side to side in the bed of the truck. We went to the Beaver dam and shoved a hoe handle down about 3 feet and stacked up sticks in it till one was sticking out the top and backed off about 50 yards and shot it about three times till it went off. We got showered with mud and saw some clumps that looked as big as washtubs fotunately none of those hit us. Years later we learned the good Lord was looking out for us that day because the stuff sweating out of the sticks was Nitro Glycerine. The sticks rolled from one side of the truck to the other at least half dozen times. The same buddy and I built a fire one time and put a steel plate in it and laid three 308 factory rounds and two 250 Sav reloads on the plate and when they finally cooked off the bullets only went maybe 6 inches and the cases maybe a foot. One round popped out the primer and spun around a few times like fireworks with stuff shooting out the flash hole. All this was some of the safer things we did, it is a thousand wonders we ever survived. Steve............. NRA Patron Life Member GOA Life Member North American Hunting Club Life Member USAF Veteran | |||
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Several years ago I made a post about disposing a couple unwanted rounds I had. I lodged them into cracks in an old stump and shot at the primers until they went off. People reacted as if I was nuts. But it really wasnt a big deal. I was at a safe distance and the rounds had no barrel. Got rid of them and had a little fun in the process. AK-47 The only Communist Idea that Liberals don't like. | |||
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Oh good Lord, what a story. You made my day with that one.  AK-47 The only Communist Idea that Liberals don't like. | |||
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Whats this world coming too...put it in a coffee can and dump it in a lake or river where in time it will rust and replenish the copper supply in the ground, unless you live in Kalifornia wherein you must apply for a permit, a 10 day inspection, and be investigated by ATF, FBI US Customs, and such for the remainder of your life..thereby creating a problem that you in fact instigated.   Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Many moons ago a buddy bought a 358 mag. Savage + we took it down to my range in the valley. We went + bought a huge turnip (ala Day of the Jackel) + painted a little De Gaule moustache on it. Doug shot that turnip at 100 yds. + we were still spattered by gobbets of a turnip. Oh + BTW Ray, don't get me started on Governmental ineptitude. Never mistake motion for action. | |||
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I often get orphan stuff from folks and just pull them apart dump the powder in the yard. The bullets/shot are put in a can for later use for cast bullets or test loads. I have several boxes of brass cases that have been ruined over the years and just save them up. | |||
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