UTMC

So another day of cleaning out the grandparents-in-law home has yielded a collection of 12 gauge shells, 22 and 38 cartridges, emergency marine flares, primers, and gunpowder. Being of indeterminate age, and not having any firearms to put it through we're wondering what the proper disposal procedure is. Should we just call the local sheriff, or is there some other more appropriate disposal agent?

I'll take it!

If they're the parachute-type flares, drown them in a bucket of water. More likely than not they're expired and half the time they don't work even if they're not, BUT-- don't be tempted to shoot them off. I know of at least one guy who thought it'd be fun to do at a party, shoot off some expired flares. He lost all but his thumb and pinky on one hand. They become unstable after time goes by, so don't risk disaster.
The other stuff, good luck. Someone will want it. If you put a listing on CL for "reloading supplies" someone will snap it up.

When my grandpa passed, my parents cleaned out his basement firing range and found, apart from his guns, a whole bunch of ammo, mostly small caliber stuff.
One phone call, and the cops turned up instantly and were very helpful in getting rid of the stuff. But then again, this was Germany, plus the terrorism-nervous early 80s. If you ever need to find a good thing about a non-gun-loving culture, the ease of ammo disposal seems to be it.

Furthermore, logic dictates that the stores selling flares and ammo regularly find such stuff past it's expiration date or damaged on their hands. Logic further dictates that the market offers a solution for such conundra, someone will make a living out of disposing such stuff. I'd ask a gun store what to do with it.

If you just want to get rid of it, find a local range, call them and ask if they would like some free ammo of indeterminate age. They'll probably take it, writ large, then you'll be off the hook.

Not relevant to your question but a good story nonetheless:

Museum where I worked long ago was doing an inventory a few years before I came there, noticed that they had some Civil War munitions in one storeroom. Senior Curator called a Civil War buff friend who's also a police officer to ask about proper storage.

Less than 10 minutes later, fully-suited bomb squad barges into museum. Bomb squad chief asks Sr. Curator what his favorite drink is, then tells him to go to a bar a few blocks away and have three of them.

Apparently the explosives used in artillery shells back then become VERY unstable. Just moving them from the shelf to the inventory table could have blown up the museum. Far too dangerous to try to remove/neutralize the explosives and save the shells, bomb squad actually evacuated the neighborhood and detonated them in the street.

AZRider wrote:Apparently the explosives used in artillery shells back then become VERY unstable. Just moving them from the shelf to the inventory table could have blown up the museum. Far too dangerous to try to remove/neutralize the explosives and save the shells, bomb squad actually evacuated the neighborhood and detonated them in the street.

Who says museums are boring?

--Jaeger

Airhead wrote:I'll take it!

Sounds good. There's a bunch of bullets as well, 38 I think, wax and steel, you want those too? We'll be back up there next weekend and I'll bring 'em down on our return.

That reminds me of something some dude told me at university.
Apparently, he had been working for a company doing a lot of fibreglass stuff.
They poured all their waste chemicals into a big, pool sized vat, after all, it's only resin and solvents, right?
Then someone informed them that they have some regulations for chemical waste to follow. Because the chemicals they used could turn into acetone-peroxide, the super sensitive high-explosive.
They must have had a ton of the stuff diluted in their storage vat.
Quick phone call to the fire department. "Uh oh, we can't handle that."
Quick phone call to munitions-disposal service, the people who usually deal with unexploded allied munitions that have spent sixty odd years in the ground. "Uh oh, we can't handle that."
In the end, after exhausting everything, up rolls with much fanfare the only organization they could find in all of Germany that could handle that large an amount of acetone-peroxide. The effin GSG9 rolled up quick-response style and had all the stuff to verrry carefully pump the soup from the storage vat and then get rid of it. No explosion, buggers know what they do.

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AZRider wrote:Not relevant to your question but a good story nonetheless:

Museum where I worked long ago was doing an inventory a few years before I came there, noticed that they had some Civil War munitions in one storeroom. Senior Curator called a Civil War buff friend who's also a police officer to ask about proper storage.

Less than 10 minutes later, fully-suited bomb squad barges into museum. Bomb squad chief asks Sr. Curator what his favorite drink is, then tells him to go to a bar a few blocks away and have three of them.

Apparently the explosives used in artillery shells back then become VERY unstable. Just moving them from the shelf to the inventory table could have blown up the museum. Far too dangerous to try to remove/neutralize the explosives and save the shells, bomb squad actually evacuated the neighborhood and detonated them in the street.

HOly shit. Growing up in my house was kind of like a museum. My dad had a 4" parrot rifle shell sitting on the fireplace mantle. AFAIK, he still has it!

That shit's dangerous. You should burn them in your fireplace so nobody gets a hold of them and hurts themselves!

Rabbit_Fighter wrote:That shit's dangerous. You should burn them in your fireplace so nobody gets a hold of them and hurts themselves!

Why didn't I think of that? No fireplace though, I'll have to use the grill on the deck. Probably want to keep the cats inside.