Dangerous range lead ? Maybe

[tomme boy]

I was at out local range a few days ago. I was watching a fellow shoot his Barret 50cal. He was camplaining about his tracers and incinderary bullets were not igniting.

It got me thinking about when I melt lead. I find 50 cal bullets all the time. How dangerous would one of these be if one got in my pot when melting?

[Jim]

You got me on that one, but that's just one more reason why I hand sort EVERYTHING before it goes in my smelter. I've had a couple of .22LRs that I missed cook off and it'll make ya' jump like a frog when it does. I've found live center fire handgun ammo and thought "Boy, I'm glad I found that!"

[Jon]

That's why I put the cover on the dutch oven when I'm "cooking" a batch. I think I've had a 22 go off on me before. A center fire round would be a bit scary.

[Dan Cash]

Cal. .50 tracers would not create an explosive hazzard if ignited in a melting pot though you would likely be startled. An armor piercing incendiary tracer(APIT) could cause a hazzard and a RALFUS (sp?) projectile, which is high explosive, would cause a real problem. In theory, the last two are not in civilian circulation but one never knows. APIT has a silver and red tip. I don't remember how the RALFUS projectile is marked. It was quite new the last time I dealt with Cal. .50 ammo. Be careful out there.

[tomme boy]

Red an silver tips are readily available a few years ago. A friend had a M2 50 belt fed and we use to shoot 1K's of rounds threw it. That is the other reason for this post. I know we used to fire these all the time. They made a nice shower of sparks when they impacted. I have been sorting these all out. But, I also know that there are a lot of ball ammo that was shot also. A lot of lead in them.

[mold maker]

I've found lots of live rounds on the berms. I missed the first one, but that was certainly the last also. Pot had the cover on it and the explosion lifted the lid enough to spray out the sides. None on me, but the driveway was a mess.

[beagle]

Now, I've experienced a .50 tracer igniting in a Lyman Mouldmaster furnace. You get a loud POW! when the tracer ignites followed but a seemingly never ending display of pyrotechnics. Surprisingly, no tinsel fairy affects though. Now, I cast with a piece of screen over the pot and don't melt down .50s anymore.

I have set off .303 British Incendiary rounds in a 55 gallon drum using gasoline. They give off a loud pop when they ignite and a screen on top is a must.

Think i'd stear clear of API or Inciendiary .50s altogether./beagle

[Del-Ray]

I use APIT in my 50 sometimes.

Here's where I buy them from: http://www.50bmgsupply.com/components.shtml#APIT
Though normally I just use API rounds. I reround the pulls through a LEE .510 die just to be sure, and load em up!

Nothing illegal about them, at least in the free Republic of the United States.

Also be aware of "spotter tracer" rounds. They have a primer in the tip that ignites a large flash charge. They were used as a sub-50 BMG spotter round for a large cannon the military had. Fire off a few of the "cheap rounds", then open up with the big guy.

They shouldn't be loaded to full charge in a 50 BMG, but that does not stop people from doing it anyways...

[MGySgt]

Also be aware of "spotter tracer" rounds.

The 50 cal spotter was on a 105 recoiless rifle - WWII through Vietnam. It was loaded to match the trajectory of the 105.

Lot of fun to shoot - some of the better gunners 'pulled the trigger' on the 105 maybe a heart beat after the 50 hit.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have never thrown a tracer in the melting pot but I once did something just as stupid and I did it on purpose which makes even less sense. Chalk it up to lesson learned the hard way. I happen to have a .50 cal tracer bullet someone had pulled from the case. I thought it would be interesting to clamp it in my vise and hold a match to the base. After a moments thought I decided to simply scrape off a few flakes and ignite that. When I lit the flakes of the compound, what ever it was, there was a large purple flash that temporarily blinded me. I hate to think what would have happened had I lit the base of the bullet. As I said, lesson learned.

[beagle]

Yeah, I forgot about those things. We used the M8C Spotting rifles mounted on Cobra helicopters during VN days to simulate rocket firing.

The rounds will explode when dropped and that fuzing system is very reliable.

That's the most aggravating piece of equipment I have ever attempted to work on. You can adjust the gas port on the ground and the rifle functions fine. Add a thousand feet of altitude and it jams unless set high.

BTW, thats WP in those projectiles so be careful. We had a firing pit set up to test for repairs. 2 foot concrete culverts. The rifles mounted straight down and after a rain, the pit would get water in it. My Lt sent one of our stellular soldiers out one day to dip it out and dig it a little deeper. About an hour later, he came back and told me that the sand he was digging out was smoking. Pit hadn't been shot into in months. The WP was coming back to life when the air hit it.

So be mighty careful with them./beagle


I use APIT in my 50 sometimes.

Here's where I buy them from: http://www.50bmgsupply.com/components.shtml#APIT
Though normally I just use API rounds. I reround the pulls through a LEE .510 die just to be sure, and load em up!

Nothing illegal about them, at least in the free Republic of the United States.

Also be aware of "spotter tracer" rounds. They have a primer in the tip that ignites a large flash charge. They were used as a sub-50 BMG spotter round for a large cannon the military had. Fire off a few of the "cheap rounds", then open up with the big guy.

They shouldn't be loaded to full charge in a 50 BMG, but that does not stop people from doing it anyways...

[2wheelDuke]

I have never thrown a tracer in the melting pot but I once did something just as stupid and I did it on purpose which makes even less sense. Chalk it up to lesson learned the hard way. I happen to have a .50 cal tracer bullet someone had pulled from the case. I thought it would be interesting to clamp it in my vise and hold a match to the base. After a moments thought I decided to simply scrape off a few flakes and ignite that. When I lit the flakes of the compound, what ever it was, there was a large purple flash that temporarily blinded me. I hate to think what would have happened had I lit the base of the bullet. As I said, lesson learned.

My dad told me a story about doing that. He ignited it with a soldering iron, and he said a purple jet of flame reached out several feet across the workshop for what felt like an eternity from a .30cal projectile. He said he never messed around with them again after that.

[Gelandangan]

Just yesterday I got a live .22LR on my pot of range lead.
I was just starting to stir the lead to separate the dirt once everything started to melt.
It choose that time to ignite..

Yup big silver fairy..
Lucky I use my long spoon and got my welding apron and welding gloves on..
WOW..