Fort Taylor CW era shell detonation 1/28/2009

[Cannoneer]

Could this ordnance have been safely deactivated and conserved?

Not a valid youtube URL

[GGaskill]

Probably but too much work.  Easier to play with the C4.

[entsminger]

These shells could have been easily disarmed. I found over 25 similar shells in my relic hinting days and they were all disarmed very easily. What a waste to blow them up!! Criminal!!

  Scott

[cannonmn]

The shells in question weren't rare nor were most of them in good condition, so at least for a public or government organization, they were merely a safety hazard.  999 of these can be safely rendered inert without destruction if the right procedures are used but that 1000th one kills someone, unfortunately.  Those odds are way too high for any gov't or public entity to want to risk for essentially nothing more than a duplicate artifact they don't even want or need.
 
One of the few shells I had disarmed went to a friend who had done hundreds.  He had the wet drill set up remotely etc. but the shell went up destroying his drill etc., no one knows why, just happens.

[onegreatshot]

I believe GGaskill and cannonmn had the right answers. Old and not worth an EOD person getting injured. However after watching them being handled they weren't that fragile.

[entsminger]

==Scott==
  The fellow who disarmed my shells did so by putting the shell in a hole in the ground filled with water and  drilled holes in the shell by hand and flushed out the powder with water. Crazy for sure but he did thousands this way and never had a problem. I think all these old shells or canon balls are valuable whether they have duplicates or not. Government institutions are stupid to waste finds like these. They could let their explosive ordnance experts get disarming practice by safely disarming each and every one of them from a distant drill rig. If one did blow up then they didn't do their job to well and they could learn from it.
  Next I'll read about the government institution that decided to melt down the 13 inch mortar just discovered because some student might trip and scuff their knee on it  or someone might get hurt trying to fire it off.
  Hey that's it!! Someone convince the school that the 13 inch mortar ( see other thread)  could be a hazard and dangerous to society and  the only safe place for it would be my front yard under my security cameras watch!! Now were talking!! I'll start clearing a space for it today!!

[Cannoneer]

An interesting article on the topic.

http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/07/projectiles_exp.htm

[Double D]

An interesting article on the topic.

http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/07/projectiles_exp.htm

Very good article John and very good explanation as to why its safer to destroy them than disarm them.

[cannonmn]

Interesting article, however if you read about the horrific accident that killed a friend of mine, Sam White near Richmond VA a few years ago, you know that a significant amount of black powder in that 9" Dahlgren shell was still live and ready to explode.  I don't want to repeat the gory details but articles at the time got into some detail on the force of that explosion, and in my humble opinion, there was a lot more "energetic material" involved that a few cc's of mixed gases, no matter what kind of gases they were.  The article discounts any contribution from the old black powder, which is wrong.
 
When I was younger and more foolish, I deactivated some larger, excavated CW shells myself.  When the powder was ignited later to get rid of it, it still had lots of energy and burned very rapidly.  These were Confederate 8" spherical shells, many of which were found around old gun batteries in the outskirts of Charleston, SC.
 
The article mentions a Parrott shell that blew up when Lars Curley tried to disarm it; that was mine, the one I mentioned earlier.

[entsminger]

  I took some of the powder from shells I had disarmed and made fire crackers from them. After the old powder was washed from the shells and dried it would burn just like it was new! To all you guys who think it's to dangerous to disarm a shell from a remote drill I say to you that you shouldn't even think about messing with real cannons and shooting them like I see on this forum. It's all damn dangerous when you really look at it but it's a chance you want to take anyway. If anyone finds any shells they don't want to disarm just send me a e-mail. I think they are all worth disarming.

  Scott

[SHOOTALL]

Around Richmond Va. cannon ball and other live shells are found quite often most by relic hunters or construction workers. There was a guy in Chesterfield county ( next to Richmond) who had drilled lots of them. Then one went bang and he is dead. I would not blame anyone for turning them over for destruction .

[entsminger]

  People have accidentily shot them selves in the head with their own hand guns and died when cannons explode. Should we give all guns and cannons to the authorities?

  Scott

[SHOOTALL]

  People have accidentily shot them selves in the head with their own hand guns and died when cannons explode. Should we give all guns and cannons to the authorities?

  Scott

no not at all but if someone finds either and is not sure what to do with either I don't blame them for turning either over to authorities for disposal or if deemed ok for display or what ever. The ref. to shooting ones self with ones own gun would not apply as we are talking finding not already having