Hi Gary and others,
First off: thanks for your concern. Then to address some of the points you
make:
Please take this very seriously.
I do. I know a little bit about ammunition (though, admittedly I'm not an
expert), and I hope I judged all of them correctly, let's see:
It is very possible that some of those shells are explosive. Do not count
on them being inert unless there is blue paint on them.
All the ones that I found that still did have paint on them were blue (i.e.
target ammunition; full metal jacket) indeed. The only issue is that some of
them do not have paint on them anymore. However, as far as I can deduce from
the shape and weight of them (all are equal to the full metal jackets with
blue paint), and hence I am pretty positive they are normal full metal
jackets.
There are a few odd ones though: they are 30mm shells that have a heavy base
and a big blue point on them (the point is made of thin metal). At first I
was a bit wary about these ones, and feared they might be of the armour
piercing kind, despite their blue paint (instead of red or blue/yellow),
however, I found one or two of which the blue part had burst open and I
could find no evidence of any explosive charge whatsoever having been
present in these bullets either. Am I correct to assume that these bullets
are the "practice variant" of armour piercing bullets?
Please contact local authorities and have them inspected by
qualified ordance disposal personnel. DO NOT TOUCH OR DISTURB THEM! A
USAF airman was killed last year at White Sands Missile Range picking up
such an item. The fact that you handled them in the past is no guarantee
that they are inert and will not detonate in the future.
I realise that there are some dangers to these things. At the range there
were also various types of flash bombs etc. and even though they were all
painted blue, I never messed around with those. All I picked up, AFAIK, are
the normal full metal jackets. I tried looking up the various different
types that were fired by the airplanes but couldn't identify all of them,
however, I did read/hear somewhere that the blue ones are always safe and
are regular full metal jackets. From what I've heard too, the red ones and
especially the black/yellow ones are the armour piercing types which have
explosive discharges (am I right here?). In all the times I went there, I
have never seen any other kinds than the blue ones. The weird thing is that
the security at the site is very low, on a week-day I guess one will get
busted (either by the personnel or by one of the airplanes :0 ) when
venturing out into the fields, but on a Sunday no one really seems to care.
I think (but am not 100 ertain) that at this range they only use the
regular blue full metal jackets. Also, when looking at the targets, they are
only big cloths and there is one old tank. Near the tank many rounds can be
found, but the tank does not show any evidence of ever having been hit by
armour piercing bullets.
The 30 mm A-10 rounds could also be depleted uranium. The dust is very
toxic if inhaled or ingested.
This is another thing I heard/read about. For these purposes, I once
borrowed a Geiger teller from my father's university: it showed no radio
activity whatsoever on the 30mm rounds (nor on the other ones). Do you know
if the depleted uranium variants will have a measurable amount of radio
activity?
Please heed this email. DON'T HANDLE THEM!
Again, thanks for the warning, please don't think I'm not taking it serious.
However, what I would like to know is if in your opinion I am correct about
the above. Also, do you know of a site where one can see
pictures/descriptions of the normal and armour piercing kinds of rounds?
Finally: Chris: any ideas whether people ever used different kinds of
ammunition than the regular blue full metal jackets on that range ?
Cheers!
Olafo
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