homes evacuated after 75 rounds of ammo found under a house

[M-Quigley]

http://foxsanantonio.com/news/local/nea ... eath-house" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Capt. Troy Balcar of the San Antonio Fire Department said a family member found a sealed box with about 75 rounds of decades-old ammunition underneath the house. He said the rounds were about 40 years old, based on a date written on the box. Half a dozen nearby homes were evacuated for about three hours.

"This is definitely a big danger, because they've been under there so long," Balcar said. "They've rusted, they've been exposed to the weather, elements outside so we definitely want to get them disposed of as quickly as possible."

Family members said a veteran who served for more than 30 years lived at the house until he passed away recently.

This is the second time old ammunition has been found at the home. Just last week, the bomb squad spent about half an hour disposing of shotgun shells found there.

[502ci]

[Cruiser]

I have military ammo older then that! Some from the 1930's.

[Brian D.]

I cleaned out my locker at work and found a couple of 8 gauge industrial rounds. Three ounce slug at 1750 fps, fired from a mounted gun in order to knock slag/clinkers off the interior walls of kilns and drums at quarries etc. I've been carrying one around for show and tell ever since. Admittedly, I've been careful not to drop in primer-first onto hard surfaces.

[catfish86]

Were these mortar rounds. They did not do this over 75 round of rifle and pistol ammo did they? There was a previous incident with shotgun shells. This is flat out absurd.

[WestonDon]

Well the article did say that they were rusted so it may well have been something besides small arms ammo. Of course who knows what the first responders were told before arriving on scene.

[M-Quigley]

Well the article did say that they were rusted so it may well have been something besides small arms ammo. Of course who knows what the first responders were told before arriving on scene.

If it was 75 mortar or artillery rounds that would be a news story by itself. Someone saw a cannon shell that I had once and freaked out, until I told them it was a dummy round, the gunpowder was removed and the case filled with sand.

It could be steel cased ammo.

http://hueysgunsight.blogspot.com/2010/ ... se-in.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In this forum article the author posts of his experiment using PMC brass ammo and steel cased Wolf ammo kept damp for extended periods. The results are quite disturbing. While the brass ammo did see some discoloration it was fully functional. The steel cased ammo, even the lacquer coated rusted heavily and would not even chamber in the authors AR.

[M-Quigley]

I have military ammo older then that! Some from the 1930's.

I got that beat, I have a small box of 7mm that says 1918 ano on the box. I don't think they're rusted, but I guess I better take a look at them I guess.

This is a news story that I would expect from NYC, NJ or California, not Texas.

[schmieg]

I have military ammo older then that! Some from the 1930's.

I got that beat, I have a small box of 7mm that says 1918 ano on the box. I don't think they're rusted, but I guess I better take a look at them I guess.

This is a news story that I would expect from NYC, NJ or California, not Texas.

While San Antone isn't Austin, there is a pretty liberal contingent there. It's still a great city to visit.

[walnut red]

Rusted is not that surprising for small arms ammo if you remember all of the steel cased ammo made by various countries since WW2.

[bignflnut]

For the benefit of the class:

What happens when you have a live round, but no weapon to chamber it in...and you heat it to exploding?

Hickock45 splians

(spoiler: Barely enough to evacuate a room...much less enough to evacuate half a dozen nearby homes)

[JustaShooter]

Even more dramatic is this video from SAAMI:

http://www.saami.org/videos/sporting_am ... ighter.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[walnut red]

We'll. not recommended but we used to through blanks in the fire when on maneuvers just to see how the newbees reacted..

[3FULLMAGS+1]

Even more dramatic is this video from SAAMI:

http://www.saami.org/videos/sporting_am ... ighter.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That was a really hard video to watch.....all that ammo goin' up in smoke.

[Sneakypete]

When we stood down the Long Binh ammo dump in "72, we ad dug pit about twetv meters long, 19 meters wide and 15 meters deep, then lined the bottom with old bridging timbers and 2 or 3 dozen old tires, topped off with a couple of barrels of peneprime and about 300 gallons of diesel fuel. On top of this, we dumped close to three million rounds of small arms ammo , from 12 ga shotgun shells to 50 call bmg, lots of 5.56 & 30 cal, ( NO HE rounds).
All of this was from mixed lots, and/or broken cases. I had the honors of adding a WP grenade.
When this really started going, it sounded like pop corn popping, burnt for most of the day.