Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How to dispose of old ammo?

Yes - the 'bullet' is the heaviest component and when ammo is not 'contained' lighter objects -not the bullet- are/can be blow away in ANY direction.

Jerry

Would you guys fer chrissake LISTEN to Redgwell.

He's ( no pun intended ) BANG ON the money,...I've burned my fair share of small arms ammo, and have yet to see anything "Shot".

And FWIW, the "soak condemned primers in oil, WD 40, etc is pure BS.

GTC

Force feed it to some Islamic POS before burning it....

These are hand loads,loaded a long time ago ,lots of corrosion.I would not want to be responsible for ruining someones Rifle.Huntz

It is for calibers I no longer have.It is simply not worth the effort involved.If I could use them I would pull them apart.

A common burning barrel, with cinder block blocking the lower air intake "ports".

If a guy's really worried about minor upward dispersal of small odds and ends at LOW velocities, a screen on top.

Get a HOT fire going and a good bed of coals going.

Have your tramp ammo packed in a coupla' layers of WET cardboard.

Stoke the fire and toss the box in on top,...stay away from the drum for the next hour or two,...

The show will be singularly unexciting, indeed BORING.

GTC

I've been "pinged" countless times by ammunition cooking off in house fires in my 30+ years of firefighting. The bullet basically lays there as the case splits open. As Steve so aptly points out, the case slits open and dumps the pressure out harmlessly to the air. The primer is often pushed out at a high velocity but it is so light that it acts like a ping pong ball and quickly slows down. At near contact distance the primer will not penetrate turnout gear nor damage the face piece of our breathing apparatus.

In most cases we will not even realize ammo is igniting as there are so many other objects and substances making much the same noises. The risk from uncontained ammo is so low that I can only recall a couple of articles regarding this in my career. Hairspray and other aerosols are mentioned much more often to give an idea which the fire service considers more hazardous.

The most recent mentions of ammo igniting in a fire actually involved loaded guns. The ammo in the chamber did act much as if normally fired but the rounds in the magazine just split and fizzled.

There was one case where a semiauto did fire multiple times but it was thought a very rare circumstance as it would be difficult to heat a barrel/chamber enough to ignite the chambered round but not enough to cause the ammo in the magazine to not cook off. I seem to recall mention of heat inpingement on the barrel with the rest of the action shielded in some way. It seemed odd to me but it is the only way I can see for multiple shots to be fired.

SAAMI has a rather interesting video of how ammunition responds in a fire, it is a bit better than the one done be Federal Cartridge and the Fridley, MN Fire Department in the late 70s or early 80s.

Ammo laying in the open is not a problem when exposed to heat. It could be if contained in a vessel such as a chamber.

Yes, loaded firearms in a fire would be more of a worry. Putting explosives and propellants in a hole has been common practice for many years. The correct way to dispose of large quantities of propellant (smokeless powder) was to take it to the dispoal range and lay out straight lines of it a few inches wide and deep. We'd use a fusee to start the burn.

Fires are very slow explosions, with a rate of detonation significantly less than 400mps. With that in mind...

I used to tease the firefighters when I was in the service. We used to dispose of old napalm containers by burning.

We chopped holes in the aluminum containers and ignited the contents with a railroad fusee (road flare) and a length of fuze. The firefighters had to send a crash truck to monitor the burn and prevent any unintentional spread of the fire.

I'd light the fuze and wait. The canisters would start burning and I'd say, "They're starting to explode."

Napalm burns for hours. The boss would radio after a while and I always told him the napalm was still exploding.

Actually, it's kind of fun to burn ammo. In campfires and stuff. Which is dumb...you're risking eyes doing that.
I've done it during "burn barrel" sessions with wood-shop scraps. It's not a danger if you have eye protection and are wearing work-weight clothes. Even tossing in a cardboard box gives you several seconds to be well clear of any primer shrapnel.
Tossing it in the garbage is probably just fine, too. Most landfills don't burn, and there's so much other stuff being thrown away, some lead and nitrates aren't going to kill the planet.

Yeah, Hatcher debunked this myth decades ago by experiment.

Oddly enough he found .22 rimfire to be the most potentially dangerous. Sharp pieces of brass case could penetrate the skin - or an eye - at close range of course. Thin case, crimped bullet, fast powder and the case can give way before the bullet can release.

Yeah, why are you guys talking about burning ammo? Although not very dangerous, it is much more dangerous than just tossing in the trash for a trip to the landfill.

And there is no way that if ammo ignited in the back of a garbage truck that it would penetrate the walls of the truck.

We like to live on the Wild Side!!!!

One aspect of burning it that doesn't seem to have been considered is the fume. Lead vapour in particular is not going to be good for you.

There is no danger from fumes, unless you were to burn what amounts to thousands of lead bullets in a confined space.

WRT dumping unwanted cartridges in the garbage, you should be concerned about others digging through the dump and collecting them. Children, or people who might try to shoot them.

For safe disposal, phone your local police or fire dept for advice.

Quickest & Safest = Pull bullets - dump powder.

Jerry

Except that he does not want to do this. Oh...

Yes, I know-- I asked him what was his objection. Duh!

That doesn't change the fact that dismantling the rounds solves the problem very simply.

Y'all do what ya want.

Jerry