WHY !!!!

[WOLVERINEQTG]

Enough to make a grown South African man cry !!

http://www.thegunzone.com/m1akb.html

[DS]

Damn Scary!! cfd89

[Ignatiusvk]

Damn Scary!! cfd89

:o ??? confused0083

[MyLani]

That used to be a nice rifle.....
It could happen to anyone at any time!
Much safer to reload, so that if anything happens there is only one person to blame.

[Sean Murphy]

I wonder if the shooter or someone else had cleaned that ammo in a case tumbler.

I have heard that this can be very dangerous. Modern powder granules are extruded or formed to a particular size and coated with retardants to set and control the burning rates. If a loaded cartridge is tumbled for a while the coating can be removed from the surface of the granules causing the burning rate to increase. If a case is tumbled for long enough the powder can be reduced to fine dust which will burn at an extemely fast and uncontrolled rate due to the high surface area and the absence of any retarding effect.

It would be interesting to here if anyone else has any knowledge on this.

Sean.

[Sean Murphy]

Here is a post I lifted from the Whitesmoke BP forum. The subject was about shooting old ammo and this reply is from a respected and very competent gunsmith with a lot of experience.

Post as follows:

Firing old ammo is like a crap shoot: you don't know what you're going to get. There was an article in Magnum some time ago about old ammo damaging guns: bad damage if I can recall. A German customer of mine bent a very nice 375 (one I built for him) with old ammo he scrounged somewhere. (Typical, he pays R35k for the gun and then bargain basements the ammo!) A couple things can happen with old ammo:

They work perfectly
They fire at much reduced velocity
They discharge and lodge the bullet in the barrel
The sealant around the bullet corrodes the bullet onto the case neck. The case bursts and the escaping gas hurts you and the gun
The 'nitro' leaches out of the cellulose and you end up with a nice little bomb in your rifle's chamber. This happens especially to old powder exposed to high temp's and what happened to my customer's gun. (Sonchem's findings)

Keep the stuff in collection or sell/give it to a collector or have it deactivated if you don't have a 9.3 on license: but don't fire it!

Seems like there is some merit in the idea that the nitro can become seperated from the powder and cause a detonation.


Sean.

[Diederick]

Sean

How old is old ammo if I may ask, does this "old ammo" also apply to the ammo I have for my .303? I am not sure, but think they are very old. Only have about a hundred or so left, however we shot about 50 of them the other day and were fine? Also found some empty cases at the range with similar markings?

Thanks.

[Sean Murphy]

I'm also not sure what "old" means exactly. It also depends how the ammo was stored. Ammo that is 10 years old but that was stored in someones roof with high temperature and humidity fluctuations will probably be in worse condition than ammo that has spent 30 years in someones cool dry safe. If you are not sure pull a few of the heads and check the powder and condition of the case inside. If the powder looks inconsistent or smells sour or acidic it could be detoriorating. Clumping is also a bad sign. Also, if the inside of the case is corroded then the powder if probably not good.

Sean.

[SnipeJan]

A bit off topic but I am curious:
What about carry ammo? People often keep their self defence ammo for a long time while shooting cheap reloads to practise. That means ammo is being shaken around day after day. Are the pressure margins in a handgun such that the same type of kaboom is less likely than in a high power rifle?

[ikor]

A bit off topic but I am curious:
What about carry ammo? People often keep their self defence ammo for a long time while shooting cheap reloads to practise. That means ammo is being shaken around day after day. Are the pressure margins in a handgun such that the same type of kaboom is less likely than in a high power rifle?

SHort answer is usually 'yes' assuming it is good quality factory ammo. SD ammo should really be changed out at least once a year, but that is not always feasible in SA.