.45ACP of the Ancients...

[Cowled_Wolfe]

Going through a box of old stuff, I came a cross a few .50BMG bullets (not complete rounds), a couple crimped .22LR rounds (birdshot? (sure didn't cycle well )), and then the oddest thing.

This entire box's firearm-related contents were from my grandfather on my dad's side -- and never did anyone on my dad's side own a .45.

Oddly enough, though, there was a .45ACP cartridge -- apparently live...

The contents of the box all have to have come from 30 years ago -- minimum. If I had to guess, these items would be from the 50s.

Now the shotshells as you may have figured are already safe and fired. The .50 bullets are nice and tucked away... But what to do with the .45? Don't take this poll seriously, as I already plan on getting a .45 one day and firing it... But do feel free to choose the answer that suits your fancy the best.

 

[DT Guy]

Ammo lasts a long time--but it can eventually break down and do something unexpected. If you don't know how old it is/where/when it came from, I'd probably do something with it that didnt' involve a firearm, or at least didn't involve ME and a firearm...

(Coming from a gun who once put an old one pound can of Bullseye in the Weber to see what it would do.... )


Larry

 

[Walter]

DT Guy...

...What DID it do?

 

[DT Guy]

Well, I guess the family statute of limitations is over...

It was when I was younger, living at home. We had a can of REALLY old Bullseye that I didn't trust anymore, so I was trying to decide a safe and environmentally sound way to dispose of it. So I've got this powder, and an empty Weber, and well, you can see where this is going.

Long story short, I TRIED to be safe and responsible...put the powder in the bottom of the empty Weber, stood a ways off and tossed a match in....

The fireball lasted much less than a second-literally a flash in the pan-but went up a good 10-12 feet. Would have been interesting and harmless, except I forgot to pull the Weber away from the house.....needless to say, my dad was NOT happy about the scorch marks on the eaves of his house.

Absolutely NO residue in the Weber, although my dad did make me use it the first time after my little stunt.

Larry

 

[Bytor94]

Ka-Whoooofff!!!

BWWWHHHAAAAHHHAAA

(of course I would never do anything like that either)

 

[Cowled_Wolfe]

Ingredients:
One paved driveway.
One can powder, FFg black preferable.
One fireplace match, or long-handle lighter. (BIC/Zippo/regular match will result in serious personal injury and/or death.)
One fire extinguisher.

Directions:
Spill powder onto sidewalk in neat patterns like spirals, cursive writing, and fun drawings, being careful not to leave any isolated areas of powder.
Ignite powder with either incindary advice.
Observe cool patterns burnt into driveway .

This post is for academic purposes only, and I'm not at fault if you try any of this.

 

[Magnum88C]

Bullseye removes ant hills very well, also. . .

 

[tokarevman]

Speaking of old ammo i cam across some old 22shells and took them to the range with me one day and was a little sceptical about shooting them and anuther guy who is always there was like give them to me ill shoot the he loads them into his gun and bang and poof a huge cloud of smoke belows out of his gun and ill be darned if they went black powder 22shells who would have thunk it.

 

[Ozzieman]

Altho I said abondon I would pull the bulled and reuse the case.

I have very good guns and very old ammo can have very crossive primers, plus you never know how it was storred.
A very knolagable man told me somthing once and I will shair it will you all.
If you carry a gun every day how often do you replace the ammo in your gun, weekly, monthly, yearly, neverly???????
Think about what your doing, the car shakes you as you drive along, your shaking shakes the gun and that shakes the ammo inside the gun.
Dosent sound like much but do it day and day out and what do you get.
You get a powder thats very soft and fragle shaken within it self and it breaks down to smaller parts, what does this do to the pressure curve, I sure as heck dont know but it made me start thinking about the old ammo in my guns and what else can change them.
Oil from the chamber over a long time, can it get in side the case to damage the powder or primer, sealed rounds like the millitary use probably not but what about comercial ammo.
Remember were talking about tempature changes, humidity changes and barrometric changes.
I replace my ammo every 3 months. that dosent mean I throw the old away, thats the stuff I use for the last rounds I shoot the next time I go to the range.
But if I dont know what or where it came from, I pull the bullets.
I had a man standing next to me shooting ammo a friend gave to him in an AR15. I was standing several feet away getting my breating down when a sledg hammer hit me in the face, knocked my glasses off and almost broke my nose. Got blood all over my HK SLR-8.
The T handle of his AR-15 hit me in the face after the gun came apart in a most explosive way. He was not hurt other than some small cuts and a big bruse to his ego but he did end up with the barrel in one hand and the pistol grip in the other and nothing inbetween, NOTHING.
The club that I belong to confisgated the peices and the ammo he had not shot and at some point had me fixed up, (Lots of cleaning patches up the nose, clean ones that is)
A week later I found out that it had been the second round that he fired that day and he said that the gun did kick a little hard on the first round.
I also found that the 50 some rounds that he had left to fire had a flake type power that matched several pistol powders, somthing on the order of H110.
And they were pretty much full of it.
Any one want to guess the pressure point of that.
He dosent shoot there any more.
So if you want to shoot that old stuff setting around go ahead. You might get a nose job out of it.

 

[Cowled_Wolfe]

What if I used a string on the trigger? A really long one?

 

[Vitamin G]

triple dog dare you...


(slight breech of etiquette)

 

[Tom2]

Decorative item

If it is a wartime military .45 round, you could make a keychain charm out of it. I got some WW2 dated rounds from someone once. Steel case with a nickel(?) plating. So instead of wasting them firing them, I disassembled a couple of the cleanest ones, dumped the powder of course, and deactivated the primers with a drop of oil. Then I drilled thru the case to allow a keychain, and polished the case and bullet to nice and bright. Oh, yea, I had a seating die for .45 to reinsert the bullet in the case. Nice keepsake, conversation piece. Also did it with a WW1 round that had been in the family as a vet bringback. If you are really ballsey, you could take a small risk and drill into the case carefully, with a hand crank drill. Then dribble out the powder and put something inside to kill the primer. You better wear good goggles for that!
I don't endorse that method but have tried it once or twice. Kids- don't try it at home! Better use a kinetic bullet puller like I have now! Pliers don't work!