What happened here? Was it the pistol or the ammo manufacturer?

DWalt said:
Amazing that disposal of a single bad round has generated such an extensive discussion.
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This terrifying London "incident" was actually reported verbatim in The Guardian although the link is now dead.


LIVE ammunition has been found lying in the doorway of a busy high street shop.

The .22 calibre short round bullet was found at the entrance of the 99p Stores in Walthamstow High Street on Wednesday morning, November 1.

Haroon Khan, who has a firearms licence and is a member of a local gun club, was alarmed to discover live ammunition in a Walthamstow doorway.

The bullet, of Swiss origin, was still in its brass casing, complete with enough gunpowder for it to fire itself.

Mr Khan said that if it had been struck hard enough or exposed to heat it could have gone off.

"This sort of thing should not be lying around. It was live, primed and active," he said. "But rather me pick it up than a little kid.

"How can you feel safe when you are finding things like this on the street?

"To get hold of one of these is not easy. You have to go through a scrutinised search, you need a licence and you have to belong to a club."

Ammunition of this kind would ordinarily be used in a small handgun or pistol, and both can be owned legally under licence.

But to leave strictly controlled goods out in the street would be enough for a firearms licence to be revoked.

The bullet has been examined at a Metropolitan Police laboratory and details about it kept for future reference.

A police spokesman said: "Recovering firearms and ammunition is a priority for the police. We take the same view of ammunition as we do of a gun.

"If it goes bang, it is still lethal."

Police are treating the unattended ammunition as a crime. Mr Khan alerted them at 10.16am, and they arrived at his shop to pick up the bullet at 11.32am.
 
Oldsalt66 said:
This terrifying London "incident" was actually reported verbatim in The Guardian although the link is now dead.


LIVE ammunition has been found lying in the doorway of a busy high street shop.

The .22 calibre short round bullet was found at the entrance of the 99p Stores in Walthamstow High Street on Wednesday morning, November 1.

Haroon Khan, who has a firearms licence and is a member of a local gun club, was alarmed to discover live ammunition in a Walthamstow doorway.

The bullet, of Swiss origin, was still in its brass casing, complete with enough gunpowder for it to fire itself.

Mr Khan said that if it had been struck hard enough or exposed to heat it could have gone off.

"This sort of thing should not be lying around. It was live, primed and active," he said. "But rather me pick it up than a little kid.

"How can you feel safe when you are finding things like this on the street?

"To get hold of one of these is not easy. You have to go through a scrutinised search, you need a licence and you have to belong to a club."

Ammunition of this kind would ordinarily be used in a small handgun or pistol, and both can be owned legally under licence.

But to leave strictly controlled goods out in the street would be enough for a firearms licence to be revoked.

The bullet has been examined at a Metropolitan Police laboratory and details about it kept for future reference.

A police spokesman said: "Recovering firearms and ammunition is a priority for the police. We take the same view of ammunition as we do of a gun.

"If it goes bang, it is still lethal."

Police are treating the unattended ammunition as a crime. Mr Khan alerted them at 10.16am, and they arrived at his shop to pick up the bullet at 11.32am.
Click to expand...
God bless the USA.
 
I have referred dud/deformed/mutant ammo to the range personnel. How it is handled thereafter is the ranges business. Round file, HAZMAT barrel, recycle. I defer to their expertise in dealing with these rounds.
 
I find this thread completely unbelievable, but then again not. Are people really that lost that they don't know what to do with one defective round of ammunition? Most if not all ranges have a "dud" can where you can place defective rounds of ammunition. I know a lot of shooters that own kinetic bullet pullers, but they don't reload. It pays to have one of these $20 dollar items for instances such as this. If this is the OP's first go around with something like this it won't be his last unless he quits shooting.

Yeah one could just throw it away or out in the woods or waterway, but come on, I would have thought we progressed a bit further than that in our concern for the environment. And remember, kids are inquisitive. If they come across a loaded round of ammunition they no doubt will monkey with it and possibly get hurt. Do you really want that to happen??

The most amazing part of this thread is how the English treat situations where a loaded round of ammunition is found, especially a .22 Short. It's no wonder that they have the problems they do in that country if they can make a major investigation out of finding .22 Short laying in a doorway. How do they handle something really serious like a garage burglary? Perhaps they call in Scotland Yard...

Have things really gone this far? Perhaps I am just getting too old for my own good.

Rick H.
 
Randall_G said:
The shooting ranges near my house all have "dud cans" for mis-fired cartridges (i.e., primer strike no bang) or any other cartridge that needs to be disposed of safely. Never give it a second thought...problematic cartridges go straight into the can.

But I don't how where and how the dud cans are dispositioned. I'd like to know, but never remember to ask. I imagine someone who works (worked) at a shooting range would know.
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I'm the president of our local gun club, with 1,100+ members, so we get a lot of dead rounds in the "dud round" containers on our various ranges. We leave them unlocked, so if a reloader feels like going through the dead rounds and finding the calibers he/she reloads, they can take them and salvage the components for their own use. Sometimes a member will feel like breaking some down, but it's tedious work. Some bullets can be reused. If the brass is salvageable, it will be reloaded, after decapping the old primer. The powder becomes fertilizer, since it's nitrogen rich, and you don't know which powder it is. If the brass can't be reused, it's recycled. The last batch I took to the recycler got us $2.25 a pound, but prices were up at the time. Our range receives an average of about $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 a year from recycling brass left behind by shooters who don't reload.

On that note, PLEASE PICK UP YOUR BRASS at the range. Range slobs are one of our biggest complaints. If you don't pick it up, someone else will have to.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
NH Pistolero said:
The powder is a propellant, not an explosive. Take a good pair of wire cutters and nip a hole in the case behind the bullet. Pour the powder out and take a match to it. If you have some Break Free penetrant, fill the case with it to deactivate the primer. Or just throw the empty round in the trash. Buried in a landfill, it's going nowhere.
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No, no and no. Here is what happens when you mess with a live round. Anything can set off a primer. Pressure, sparks, anything, this one was stuck in die and the idea was to nip open a hole and let the powder drip out, just like you suggest. I have more pictures for anyone not convinced.

Or, use a bullet puller. Everybody you know that reloads has one. I have three.Hand injury thumlb.jpg


Or simply put the round in a plastic water bottle and let it soak until the next time you go to a range where they have a place to dispose of live rounds. OR, the next time you drive by a lake, just toss it, it will die of risk pretty quick.

If it were me, if it will chamber, I would just fire it.
 
Yikes! Still trying to figure how to despose of one singe round? A fellow i know was doing a home remodel found a live WWII hand grenade when installing shrubs. Now that was worthy of what to do. Call the police, they'll tell you what to do with a single deformed round and you likely don't want to hear their reply.
 
s&wchad said:
Almost all people who reload have bad rounds. People leave them at our club range too.

You have a number of options...
- Leave them on the shooting bench at the range.
- Put 'em in a box and set them aside. When you have a good size pile, take them to your local PD. You can also put them out a swap meet/gun show and price them at $5.
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Throwing them in the trash is not an option, some clubs have a place to leave bad ammo and they will take care of it for you. Otherwise, like mentioned, roll the cartridge around on the bullet to loosen it. You can also loosen the bullet with a pair of pliers then soak it in WD40 for a couple of days, weeks or years. The WD40 will soak into the case and neutralize the powder and probably the primer too. The sealants that some manufacturers put on the primers usually rupture when seating the primer. This would allow the oil to penetrate and neutralize the primer. Not long ago I took the gallon milk jug that I had dumped 10 w motor oil in back in the 70s and used for my damaged or otherwise unserviceable ammo and powder. The bad ammo had been soaking in the oil for many years. I put it into a burn barrel and burned it, milk jug, oil and bad ammo. None of the ammo exploded so it must have worked.
 
I would mic up the diameter just to see if it's the correct bullet ( just for curiosity's sake )
Then pinch the head in a vice and twist the case off with some pliers. They're not that tight.
But don't put the case back in the gun as it will probably be deformed and get stuck in the chamber.
Then just pop the primer with the empty case in the vice.
 
kingston73 said:
I was shooting my bodyguard 2.0 and it was running great until it failed to lock up on a round. Maybe the 5th or 6th round in the magazine. Cleared the jam and the bullet was very deformed. Could it have somehow happened while I was shooting or was this a factory defect?

Also, since it won’t chamber what do I do with it? I don’t have a bullet puller and do t want to just toss a live round in the trash.

View attachment 770735

View attachment 770736
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Absolutely factory defect.
 
Doriangray6 said:
If it was factory ammo I'm thinking it was defect that got by the inspection steps.
Buy a bullet puller. Inertia style ones with several different size collars are relatively cheap and work fine.
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And don’t forget to de-mil the primer before disposing of the brass. I’ve never found a better method than to drop the emptied brass into the barrel of my handgun and let the firearm “bust the cap” in the barrel. Works well for one to three bummers. Couple dozen is a different story!
 
DixieRanger said:
Yikes! Still trying to figure how to despose of one singe round? A fellow i know was doing a home remodel found a live WWII hand grenade when installing shrubs. Now that was worthy of what to do. Call the police, they'll tell you what to do with a single deformed round and you likely don't want to hear their reply.
Click to expand...
I concur. Stop obsessing about this. The range personnel can deal with it far better than we can. They see these problems far more than we do. Thankfully most US manufactured ammo does not produce many duds. If they do produce defective ammo, market forces will lead to their demise.
 
Oldsalt66 said:
This terrifying London "incident" was actually reported verbatim in The Guardian although the link is now dead.


LIVE ammunition has been found lying in the doorway of a busy high street shop.

The .22 calibre short round bullet was found at the entrance of the 99p Stores in Walthamstow High Street on Wednesday morning, November 1.

Haroon Khan, who has a firearms licence and is a member of a local gun club, was alarmed to discover live ammunition in a Walthamstow doorway.

The bullet, of Swiss origin, was still in its brass casing, complete with enough gunpowder for it to fire itself.

Mr Khan said that if it had been struck hard enough or exposed to heat it could have gone off.

"This sort of thing should not be lying around. It was live, primed and active," he said. "But rather me pick it up than a little kid.

"How can you feel safe when you are finding things like this on the street?

"To get hold of one of these is not easy. You have to go through a scrutinised search, you need a licence and you have to belong to a club."

Ammunition of this kind would ordinarily be used in a small handgun or pistol, and both can be owned legally under licence.

But to leave strictly controlled goods out in the street would be enough for a firearms licence to be revoked.

The bullet has been examined at a Metropolitan Police laboratory and details about it kept for future reference.

A police spokesman said: "Recovering firearms and ammunition is a priority for the police. We take the same view of ammunition as we do of a gun.

"If it goes bang, it is still lethal."

Police are treating the unattended ammunition as a crime. Mr Khan alerted them at 10.16am, and they arrived at his shop to pick up the bullet at 11.32am.
Click to expand...
Fun story that never happened. Turns up on the internet from time to time but never with anything verifiable.
 
Flemtk said:
Fun story that never happened. Turns up on the internet from time to time but never with anything verifiable.
Click to expand...

That incident was reported verbatim in The Guardian exactly as I posted.

Unfortunately, too many trolls have found this place since the upgrade.

Sad to meet you glad to see you go.
 
People have different comfort levels. 50 or so years ago my cousin's Jeep caught fire in the driveway after a duck hunt. He had 4 or 5 boxes of shells in the vehicle, which started cooking off about the time the local volunteer FD arrived. They refused to take any action until the kabooms stopped. By that time the fire had spread to the house. Total loss on both counts.

On another occasion a sweet little lady walked into the Watch Commander's office one afternoon carrying a 3 pound Folgers can and asked that we dispose of the contents, which had her nerves shot since she found it in her late husband's stuff. Inside, wrapped in pink fiberglass insulation, were 2 boxes of WW II era .300 Savage cartridges.

On the other had after flying into NYC in 2001 I discovered a single round of .32 Long in my checked luggage. I wiped it down for prints, wrapped it in TP and tossed it in the trash. I feel safer around live ammo than New York gun laws.
 
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