Six million pounds of explosives found in Doyline, La

[leadman]

This kinda goes along with the post several down about using artillery powder for our guns. Apparrently the authorities became aware of an industrial area that has 6 million pounds of artillery explosive stored in it. I can't believe this was unknown to everyone.
If it is the propellant and not the explosive for the projectile it might be usable to push a cast boolit down the bore.

Can you say "Massive Group Buy"? LOL

Any member live in that area?

[Jim]

".....If it is the propellant and not the explosive for the projectile it might be usable to push a cast boolit down the bore."

The kernel sizes of some artillery propellants are as large as a half inch in diameter. Might have a little trouble getting that to meter through your dispenser.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

It would probably work in my 50-110 and 550 Gibbs.

[Junior1942]

Isn't Goex in Doyline, Louisiana?

[shotman4]

one thing that stuff has to be compressed to explode like fertilizer

[M-Tecs]

M6

86.1% Nitrocellulose
9.9% Dinitrotoluene
3% Dibutylphtalate
1% Diphenylamine

[softpoint]

".....If it is the propellant and not the explosive for the projectile it might be usable to push a cast boolit down the bore."

The kernel sizes of some artillery propellants are as large as a half inch in diameter. Might have a little trouble getting that to meter through your dispenser.

You could turn a few down on a lathe to fit in the 'ol 45/70

[Sweetpea]

".....If it is the propellant and not the explosive for the projectile it might be usable to push a cast boolit down the bore."

The kernel sizes of some artillery propellants are as large as a half inch in diameter. Might have a little trouble getting that to meter through your dispenser.

Awwww come on, Jim... I know somebody around here has to be ingenious enough to figure it out... Maybe those lead smashers can figure out how to swage it to just fill the case!!!

[beagle]

Somebody e-mailed me about that today. It was designed for the M109A1 SP howitzer as a propellant. My memory is not as it use to be but that's probably a 155MM, semi-fixed. As I recall from Army days, that stuff is about 1/8" in diameter and about a 1/2" long and comes in trains of seven bags. I've ignited the grains with a cigarette and it burned so slow, that you could drop it before it got your fingers warm.

Sounds to me like someone got their panties in a wad and yelled, "the sky is falling" before they checked it out. Certainly, it's explosive but has a higher burn potential than anything else.

Sounds as if someone has just found some really cheap fertilizer. That's all it's good for./beagle

[gmsharps]

Growing up we had access to this type of powder and when we went on a camping trip we would take some and use one as a fire starter. Once lit there was no putting it out and it would start a mighty damp piece of tender.

[Frank46]

Saw this on the local news here in LA. From what they showed it was stacked in what looked like white containers about 3-4 deep all around a building. Actually had to use the rewind function on the box as I could not believe what it was about. Ran through it twice. Not my stash that's for sure. Frank

[9.3X62AL]

I read that a company was recycling this matter to recover constituent elements. Some busy-body probably got their Jockey shorts in a square knot over the DANGER posed by EXPLOSIVES, so now it's a media circus. Not much to see here, I reckon--unless you're a news-***** or controversy-pimp.

[leadman]

Sounds like it is time to sharpen the pocketknife and whittle it down to fit the case! LOL.

[Gunfreak25]

Stick the powder in a sandwich baggie and crush it with a meat mallet. Hey, it works for Oreo cookies!

[Bert2368]

As far as the danger of the stuff blowing up, here's a nice study the Navy did. Depending on how it's initiated, it can produce up to 70% of the blast effect of an equal weight of TNT. (to get it to do that, they had to stuff over a ton of it into a strong concrete structure and initiate it with 40lb. of high explosives and a blasting cap)

http://www.arblast.osmre.gov/downloa...nts%20M1,6.pdf

As far as why they reacted the way they did- There are very specific rules on how to store ANY explosive. Tables of distance of separation required per weight and type of explosive, magazine construction requirements, RECORD KEEPING REQUIREMENTS, it's all in the BATFE's "Orange Book"

http://www.atf.gov/publications/down...f-p-5400-7.pdf

These guys were not even trying to do the storage correctly. Live material just stacked out of doors and piled haphazardly in structures not designed and registered as magazines? Company management is going to burn over this.

How would you like to be a fireman called in for a grass fire or structural fire and not know you were working next to multiple tons of powder?

[Whiterabbit]

6 million pounds is 3000 tons, or 3kilotons. There are nukes that have less power than that.

That's pretty neat.

[Eutectic]

When Olin Chemical Co. invented "Ball" powder back in the thirties one of its highest praises was cost savings from the USE OF OLD SURPLUS ARTILLERY AND CANNON POWDER IN ITS FORMULATION! Seems the old propellant was dissolved, and some fresh nitrocellulose added and then the ball powders were made from that blend. Components not wanted were removed from the cannon propellant while in liquid form.

S O O O ........ Why not have St. Marks make up tons of ball powder from it and sell it to us for $8 a pound or so???

Eutectic

[jumbeaux]

I live about 80 miles west of the plant.....it is the former La. Army Ammunition facility. A contractor now operates the facility. They had a bunker explosion a couple months ago (the second in about a year) and have been under the microscope since. I believe they demil and recycle muntions. Last Friday night they asked all residents to leave their homes for a few days while the bundles were moved into proper storage. The schools remain closed until Thursday IIRC. The Shreveport TV outlets have been regularly reporting on this situation. Goex did have a couple of accidents over the past several years at this facility. I am not sure why no one seemed to know about all of this.....at one time within a 100 mile arch of NE Texas there were three Army Ammunition Plants and Barksdale Airforce Base....home of the B52 squadrons that bombed the Iraq/Afganistan regions since '90.....there were 100's of millions of pounds stored in this region for many years....

rick

[OldManMontgomery]

The account I read listed the explosives as 'guncotton'. If that is correct and not a mistake on someone's part (either the reporter or the person who gave the reporter the information), it is explosive. Guncotton is the first step in making what we all think of as 'gunpowder'. It is very touchy and is an explosive, not a progressive burning propellent.

Yes, I'd love to see it turned over to an outfit who could competently turn it into real propellent - smokeless gunpowder. However, it does need to be stored correctly and not present a hazard to the local people.

And yes, someone had to know this was a problem. That person or persons need to have their sins presented to them in a meaningful way; Due course of law and all that.

[Goatwhiskers]

Yesterday a Baton Rouge newsie referred to the stuff as "smokeless black powder". I did take the trouble to e-mail him with the correct info. Don't expect to hear back--not exciting enough. GW