Armorer Field School-Sydney (funny)

[Printer]

I taught a revolver field school in Sydney, Aust. building 686's. Had a great time and the New South Wales Police Dept was a great host. During the class we had a guy from Hobart, Tasmania who would hang on every work I said. The guy was kinda scary ( I'm sure you've met the type). Anyway some of the guys in the class were always were playing practical jokes. I decided it was my turn. Toward the end of the class I had the guy that hosted the class come in and ask me if "the special ammo" came in yet.(The last day of the class we shoot the guns and they have the option to buy the one they build.) The guy from Tasmania overheard and asked me about it. I told him that Smith was developing an "entry round" that when you shot it at a door it would blow the door off the hinges. He asked me to tell him more. Well I told him the .357 had a centrifugal fuse like a 40mm grenade launcher where it would arm about 30 feet from the muzzle. He got so excited I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Shooting day I got there real early and we went down to the range and stuck a couple of "exploding targets" on the back of the target and a small pencil mark on the front so I knew where to hit it. The class came down to the range ready to shoot. The Tasmanian student was all excited and stood right behind me. Well I forgot just how powerful those exploding targets were and I put two back to back and the range was real narrow. I fired the first round and .......BOOM!!!!!!!!!! There was a hell of a bang and wood and smoke came up the range. I was picking wood and pieces of target off me. Everyone was laughing. You should have seen the expression on the guy from Tasmania's face. It was hilarious. I'll bet to this day he is still waiting for Smith to release the ammo for sale.

 

[BUFF]

Good one!

My police academy was operated by the state's POST department. There were officers from a dozen agencies in my class. They issued us each a case of .38 Special reloads for firearms training. The reloads were mixed brass (mixed makers as well as both brass and nickel) in 50 round, orange colored cardboard boxes. The cartridges themselves were loaded with a cast, flush-seated lead bullet and there was barely enough powder used to propel the bullet all the ways to the target from 50 yards but they felt like .22s. Mice fart louder.

I saved my brass. After one range session, I tumbled 100 rounds and reloaded 50 with Pyrodex, a non-corrosive black powder substitute. Huge cloud of nice, stinky smoke and a fair amount of flash. I loaded another 50 with a stiff but safe load of 2400, well into the Plus-P range. I had shot this load many times myself, and knew what a solid BOOOOOOM!!!! and healthy kick they produced from a 4 inch K frame-size revolver, which all but 2 of us in the class had. Both boxes used a wadcutter bullet I cast and when loaded back into the orange boxes, there was no way to tell them from the remanufactured reloads we had been issued.

During the next range session, I carefuly picked a time when my intended victim left his gear bag unattended and traded out a box of his factory reloads for the box of my near-magnum cow killer reloads. He was a small guy, physically, and had a tendency to get excited when surprised, so I expected some entertainment. I told one or two of my classmates to keep an eye on him while shooting. His relay shot before mine, so I got to watch. "Tweeeeeet! Pop pop pop pop POWWW! pop pop pop pop POWWW! pop pop..." My classmate immediately noticed his much louder report and more-than-doubled, abrupt recoil. He paused briefly and looked up and down the line at his fellow students with their "pop pop pop" performance, then gritted his teeth and went back to work. "POWWW! POWWW! POWWW! POWWW!" He just hunkered down and did the job. Afterward, the shooters on both sides of him commented about his gun and ammo's loudness compared to theirs, but not being gun cranks, they just shrugged it off as odd.

I was very disappointed that my efforts didn't provide much amusement.

The Pyrodex rounds were more worthwhile. By the time I got an opportunity to use them, we had graduated from the academy and were doing firearms qualification for our own employer, our sheriffs office. It was January, so our departmental instructor/armorer decided to use our inadequately-ventilated, poorly lighted indoor range, located in the basement of our administrative headquarters and jail downtown. There were 8 of us. We fired in 2 relays, 60 shots each. By the time we were done, the air was so filled with smoke that you could barely see the targets at all at 25 yards, and you had to get them into about 5 yards to see the scoring rings. We were all coughing and choking, even the heavy smoker there. We all had black snot for a couple of days. I had only told one other guy what was going on beforehand, and he had a heck of a time shooting, choking and laughing all at once.

I didn't tell the others until we got off of probation. I like to think that my little trick helped along the decision to quit using the lead-infused, poorly ventilated, seldom cleaned indoor range, which became a storage area for stuff we didn't need shortly thereafter.

 

[Printer]

Buff,
lol, now that's funny. Its nice to see someone else with a sense of humor. You have to have a good time at work it releaves the stress especially in your line of work.
Bob St.George

 

[BUFF]

Yep. If we don't laugh, we will cry.

 

[Texas Star]

Buff

I'm not too sure that doing that wouldn't get you in trouble, especially as a new officer. That can damage people's lungs. On a public range, someone with asthma might have a serious problem.

Does Pyrodex require specialized cleaning of the gun? I've never shot any.

 

[BUFF]

It was 30+ years ago, there is no physical evidence left (the building was torn down 10 years ago), I am the only person present then who still works for the department, and any statute of limitations that may have applied, had any criminal act or tort occurred which I ain't saying happened, has long since run it's course. Pyrodex is a gunpowder, intended to be ignited on firing ranges, so if it's smoke was poisonous or extrordinarily hazzardous to people with athsma, somebody would have said something, I am sure. I will quit worrying about it soon. You can, too.

Pyrodex (a Hodgdon product) is non-corrosive but filthy. The crud left is easier to remove than black powder fouling and standard cleaning practices will suffice. I am not sure if they still make and sell it any longer, the single pound I bought is long gone.

 

[EugeneNine]

Pyrodex is still sold, its one of the more popular muzzleloader powders.