How Dangerous is Sporting Ammo?

This has probably been posted before, but it's worth reminding people of every now and then. SAAMI produced the video below where they dropped, ran over (with a bulldozer), ran into, and burned well over 1/4 million rounds of sporting ammunition. IMHO, this video should be a mandatory must-see for all firefighters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SlOXowwC4c

SIL told me once about the military's foiled attempts to "destroy" ammunition. Small arms (rifle/pistol) ammo is pretty difficult to "destroy". His story was the first time I'd heard the line "It rained bullets for about a minute". This was after "an officer" (only officers do stupid stuff in his unit??) decided that a few blocks of C-4 would totally obliterate 1/2 a truck load of machine gun ammo.
This was topped by the story of the failed attempt to destroy mortar ammo by similar means. The difference was that some of the mortar projo's managed to arm themselves during the original blast and began doing what mortar shells do when they fall back to earth.

Great video!

Very good video.


I would like to see what happens to a 50 can full of ammo though.

Dan in MI said:

Very good video.


I would like to see what happens to a 50 can full of ammo though.

Click to expand...

If it were Ball ammo, it probably wouldn't be all that much more dramatic. The brass might be flung a bit further and with a bit more force, but I doubt that it would penetrate walls or anything like that. Now API, API-T, or Raufoss might be a different story entirely. Hence, their disclaimer at the beginning of the video that this only applied to sporting ammo.

GREAT! Wish I had this when I was running EMS & LEO.

Yep, been a firefighter/ first responder for 20+ years. Usually we get there, and what has happened is too catastrophic to matter. We save vehicles, out buildings and cool down propane tanks. I have seen similar videos. Thanks for posting.
gramps