Freaking out in Hubbardston

[jcr]

A bunch of linked 30 cal NATO _blanks_ was found in a brook in Hubbardston.

Chief of Police offers, "If you put fire to it the gun powder will explode..."

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO62931/

 

[Jose]

[Chicken Little]The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling![/Chicken Little]

 

[bpm990d]

State Police dive teams safely removed the ammunition on Monday.

Bomb disposal is clearly the organization that should have been used.

ROFL

 

[Arioch]

Those weren't the evil black cop killing armor peircing blanks were they?

 

[Prepper]

Oh how many more must die before we finally ban blank ammo?

Could gun powder even burn after sitting in water that long? I've never tried that. Could you get the stuff to ignite if you remove it from the cartridges and let it dry?

 

[Adam_MA]

Military blank ammo is sealed up pretty well. There is a good chance the powder is still dry.

 

[Chris]

Someone needs to tell this chief that smokeless powder is not classified as an explosive.

 

[Coyote33]

Telegram article: Dumped ammo found

(Comments section at bottom)

 

[bpm990d]

According to police, the ammunition shares characteristics with that used for M-60 machine guns, a popular military weapon.

A quick look at the picture shows it is clearly 5.56 M200 blanks.

B

 

[Adam_MA]

“When they were fired, they were blanks,” Chief Perron said

So is this actually fired blank empty cases that have been linked back together that everyone is getting pissy about?

 

[dwarven1]

Comments added...

Folks... it was BLANKS. This should be investigated as an environmental crime and nothing else.

And the only "characteristic" that it shares with M60 ammo is that it was linked into a belt. Nice way to write the article so that it sounds more menacing that it really is, BTW. Good way to scare the sheeple. What's next, evacuating schools because you find a couple of empty .22LR cases? Oh, wait...

 

[jcr]

A quick look at the picture shows it is clearly 5.56 M200 blanks.

B

Is it that clear without a reference to scale? In hand, it would be easy, in the picture do you tell by thickness-to-length ratio?

 

[jcr]

So is this actually fired blank empty cases that have been linked back together that everyone is getting pissy about?

Check the picture at either of the referenced articles.

It is (corroded) unfired blank ammunition that is still linked.

 

[Adam_MA]

Ross, looks like they just pulled your comment!

 

[MikeD]

Those look like M-13 links used on the 7.62 round.
Just my WAG

 

[dwarven1]

Nope, it's there now... maybe they didn't register the click in the email that they sent me until now when I clicked on it again.

 

[sig shooter]

WOW BIG f***in deal!!!!. i all most got kicked out of school because a had some old spent shotgun shells in my jacket pocket because i wore the jacket hunting that week end. i mean what are you going to do with shells stick them up your ass?. i realize these found in the river were live blanks... but its still not a big deal

 

[Adam_MA]

Nope, it's there now... maybe they didn't register the click in the email that they sent me until now when I clicked on it again.

No, I saw it there, and then it was gone. Strange! I still don't see it. I only see 2 comments, and mine isn't in there either.

 

[dwarven1]

They may not show all of them at once; I also used worksurf.org to go in a second time so I wouldn't have to deal with any cookies still in my browser.

 

[Weerd Beard]

"The bullets, which were blanks, were likely used for training purposes, but were full with gunpowder."


They at least got the gun powder part right....but being blanks there wasn't a bullet to be found!

Tools!!!

 

[bpm990d]

Scroll down and look at the M82 Blank. Then go to this page and look at the M200 Blank.

The 7.62 is not crimped. It has a wad. The 5.56 is crimped. The picture has crimped blanks.

B

 

[Adam_MA]

Strange, I have a bunch of 7.62 blanks that have the star crimp.

 

[bpm990d]

Are you sure they are not grenade launching blanks?

B

 

[Adam_MA]

I honestly don't know. How would you tell the difference?

 

[LoginName]

Are you sure they are not grenade launching blanks?

B

Linked grenade launching blanks?

I think the last time the US military used rifle launched grenades was when the M1 Garand was standard issue.

As far as all the hoopla about any danger of explosion goes... when I did my 4 years with Uncle Sam I would serve on aggressor details a couple of times a year. It was actually a lot of fun because we pretty much operated outside the rules and they gave us shit-loads of pyrotechnics and and stuff that goes "boom" to play around with. At night we'd build a campfire and toss hundreds of rounds of blank ammo into the fire... both belted 7.62 and boxes of 5.56. it was pretty uneventful as most of the time the stuff would just pop off or do nothing .

+1 on the 'danger to public safety' being 5.56 blanks.

 

[bpm990d]

Linked grenade launching blanks?

No.

Adam said he has some 7.62mm blanks with the star crimp. I asked him if he was sure they were not GLBs which do have a star crimp with red lacquer. M82 Blanks, which would be the blanks used in an M-60 have a long neck like a bullet and a wad on top.

B

 

[Twigg]

Sheesh, you guys are like Star Trek nerds with guns.

Oh, wait...

 

[Adam_MA]

I'll have to take some pics of the ones I have, and let you decide.

 

[JonJ]

Here's a 100 linked 7.62X51 blanks that I have. Headstamped FA 62 (Frankford arsenal) with the NATO circle cross.