Death By Detecting

[trdking]

I have not ever heard of a transfer bar that fails open. Are you sure you weren't carrying a SA with one on the pin?

 

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[flinthunter]

For the sake of clarity, the transfer bar between the hammer and firing pin is the part that is supposed to drop down. Glad you're still around to tell the story!

Sandchip, thanks for clarifying this for me. I bought this gun in 1976 or 77 and was told I could safely keep a live shell in the chamber under the hammer. I figure that just for safety's sake, I'll never do it again.

 

[flinthunter]

I have not ever heard of a transfer bar that fails open. Are you sure you weren't carrying a SA with one on the pin?

About all I really know about it is that it's the bicentennial single six issue (Made In The 200th Year Of American Liberty stamped on the top of the barrel) and I was told that it was safe to have a live shell in the chamber under the hammer.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

When I was 19 years old I was called into an antique shop operated by a girlfriend who picked up a live grenade and asked me if it was real. It was WW2 era that came in a box of memorabilia. It was very real. Glad she didn't pull the pin.

I bought a live WW2 grenade at a yardsale long ago... I wonder if the culvert pipe in the creek off in the woods by my moms old house has been replaced yet or if there are still frag holes in it....

 

[ScubaDetector]

Bullets set off outside a chamber of a gun will not cause much if any damage. The lighter casing will travel further than the bullet. There are LOADS of Youtube videos on the subject. Very informative.

And you CAN find WW1 and WW2 ordinance in the USA. Google Port Huron Bomb if you don't believe me. I have 6 of the critters now.

 

[Dave Rishar]

They still are pulling out unexploded ordinance in the fields from WWI. And they used much "better" explosives than were available in our Civil War.

They will be pulling that out of the ground for decades to come. Some of those places were hit by a ton of ordnance per square meter during the course of WWI. Some of those very same areas were later hit with even more ordnance during WWII. I've seen the figure of a 33% dud rate, but it was likely closer to 10%-20%, and some of that was detonated by later explosions. (One. Ton. Per. Square. Meter.) Still, that's a whole lot of pain buried in the ground. Fortunately this has been a problem for around a century now and the locals have adapted. Google "iron harvest" for more information.

There's a book out there called "Aftermath: The Remnants of War," that discusses this along with a few other leftovers of war. It's a bit overly dramatic but it's a pretty good book. The section on France's efforts to clear the UXO was my favorite. I once had to deal with some WWII-era ordnance that was sweating nitroglycerin and I was terrified. These guys dig WWI-era ordnance out of the ground, load it into trucks, and drive it out onto the sand at low tide so that they can blow it up underwater. You couldn't pay me enough to do that. Absolute studs.

 

[faribo]

I got knocked flat on my ass by a bullet that hit me in the chest from and out of barrel det. My brother threw the round at a concrete wall. Big bruise, hurt like hell. Madder than hell. 1 in 1,000,000.