Cartridge Detonation Story

[M-Tecs]

What you guys never taped a marble to the base of a 12 gauge shell and threw it to a concrete surface? One of the guys I grew up with in a small town did it all the time. Same for hitting a 22LR in a vise with a hammer during shop class. I never did anything silly like wasting ammo in that manor. I was much more of filling balloons with a oxygen/acetylene and shooting them with a tracer type kid.

[Mk42gunner]

I've never yet set off a round in the oven, probably won't since I don't wet tumble.

I did however set off a 12 gauge shell with a riding lawnmower one time. Honestly, it was less exciting than when the pressure plate blew up and came through the steel floor in my 57 F-100.

I do wonder about it every time I get on my new mower though, somehow I don't think the plastic discharge chute cover is as safe as even a thin piece of steel.

Robert

[joatmon]

You guy's can't be tellin the truth!! I know it shoots right out! Didn't you'all ever watch Larry,Moe and Curly throw those rounds in the wood stove ?

Aaron (hehe)

[Gewehr-Guy]

So what happens with the marble and the shotshell ?

We used to pull a bullet from a 22 shell, and spill a small trail of powder leading to the primed case, and light it with a bic lighter. They would go a long way down the school hallway. Teachers made us quit that stunt

[2A-Jay]

I dry my tumbled Cases in my Food Dehydrator that I bought for just that purpose. I do all my reloading and casting in the garage/Man Cave.

[M-Tecs]

So what happens with the marble and the shotshell ?

We used to pull a bullet from a 22 shell, and spill a small trail of powder leading to the primed case, and light it with a bic lighter. They would go a long way down the school hallway. Teachers made us quit that stunt

If you can get the marble to hit first it will set the primer off. The case head would rupture but the front half the the shotshell moved very little. I haven't seen it done since the mid 70's and I always kept my distance but the kid doing it never got hurt.

[blackriver]

Hatchers notebook is a great read. Good section of him intentionally setting off many different calibers underneath a cardboard box.
Very interesting and educational.

[monkey wrangler]

We used to pull a bullet from a 22 shell, and spill a small trail of powder leading to the primed case, and light it with a bic lighter. They would go a long way down the school hallway. Teachers made us quit that stunt[/QUOTE]

I did that as kid too mom was not very happy about the experiment either.

A 22 also fits quite nice into drinking straw then throw the straw up and it will land on the primer end. Never thought about that one till later then did not have the nerve.

[Lloyd Smale]

well ive got a story that flys in the face of some of that advice. I had my pole barn burn down. In it was probably a couple hunded thousand rounds of ammo. I was gone 45 minutes and came back to the fire dept and one partial wall still standing. Fire was so hot (Many Many lbs of powder primers ect) that the steal of the barn actually melted and my two 4 wheelers were melted globs of aluminum. That partial wall standing was FULL of holes. I mean hundreds. I found cooked off ammo 50 yards from the fire and even found cases on top of my house. Now for the most part im talking rifle rounds and a good many of them that went the furthest were wolf 762x39. But i learned that day that the old storys about the bullets staying next to the case arent allways the facts. Takes some velocity to push an empty case through pole barn steel and if will go through that my t shirt and skin are no problem. It is NOTHING TO PLAY WITH. Now you can believe the internet or go by your one time cooking off a light loaded 38 special but i actually saw what the real results can be and it made me nervous enough that when i built the new barn it had a dedicated loading room with 8 inch poured concrete walls. If it happens again im not risking the life of some firefighter or my familys.