THE GUN ROOM

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Here is another common gun myth.

I get calls every week to my shop about ammunition. Usually some little old lady has found some ammo in her deceased husbands dresser or garage and she is fightened to death that it will explode and blow her and her home to pieces. If you do not think that the Liberal press has brain washed the public about guns then you have another think coming.

Ammunition is dangerous and will explode.NOT

NO it will not explode. Only if it is crushed between two extremely heavy steel or concrete blocks would there be any chance that it would do anything.

You can drop it on the sidewalk, on the floor, on the ground, on the concrete garage floor and it will not explode. If you have a house fire, the ammunition will indeed burn with a "pop". It will not blow your house up. All the fire departments have had a bulletin from the SAAMI explaining to them about the hazards of burning ammunition. It will not shoot them or cause any undue acelleration of the fire as long as the quanities are normal for a hunter or sportsman.

Not long ago the city I live in, put out a bulletin in the local paper that some ammunition has been turning up in the trash and the sanitary personel was being put in danger because it could explode and kill someone. I laughed and laughed about that letter, then I got to thinking, these people are going to scare a lot of folks with this nonsense. So I wrote the City a letter using my letterhead. I explained how there was no way that any ammunition would explode and have enough pressure to penetrate the thick steel walls of the average garbage truck. And if ammunition was dropped it would not explode either. I went on to explain about the SAAMI requirements about ammo and about Gen Hatchers experiments with ammunition. I offered to show them how safe ammo was.

I never got a letter back from them. Nothing ZIP Nada

So anyone can tell me of something that happened to them concerning ammunition I would sure like to hear it.

Sarge

Some time ago I read an old American Rifleman magazine*(1968?) about a sporting goods shop that had caught on fire. Some of the firefighters had recived wealts from the cartridge cases that had been launched down range.

Yep, the cases,the case lighter than the bullet, simple physics dictates the heavier objest remains somewhat stationary while the lighter objcts get moved. I had to point this out to some instructors at a US Forest Service training session I attended one time,earning the emnity of two of the instructors.

Also I am led to believe that the powder cans have a weak solder in them that weakens at a fairly low temperature to help reduce the chance of an explosion in case of a fire,would like to know if this is true or not.

I have seen a lot of ammunition dropped over the years and dropped a good bit of it myself. Once, I saw a shotshell land with something pointed hitting the primer hard enough to set it off. It was much less than spectacular. The casing split in several places just above the brass and the crimp showed no sign of opening.

no questions asked. How's this for a memory ,shorts were.40 cents longs were.45 cents and long rifles were all of a half a buck or .50 to the unknowing. The rich kids bought those--------------------- LOL Gordo the fat one

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