Gunpowder lasts a long, long time...

I don't think smokeless lasts quite so long. But I'm still using up some 50 year old powder.

That is impressive to last that long.

A family purchased an old Civil War cannon shell and put it on their mantle above the brick fireplace hearth, were it sat for many years. The family went on vacation for a week or so, and upon return, made a disturbing discovery- a shredded living room.

The mantle supports had failed, allowing the shell to drop onto the hearth. 100+ years of age had not significantly degraded the munition, and it functioned as intended.

They were very happy to have been on vacation.

.455_Hunter said:

A family purchased an old Civil War cannon shell and put it on their mantle above the brick fireplace hearth, were it sat for many years. The family went on vacation for a week or so, and upon return, made a disturbing discovery- a shredded living room.

The mantle supports had failed, allowing the shell to drop onto the hearth. 100+ years of age had not significantly degraded the munition, and it functioned as intended.

They were very happy to have been on vacation.

Click to expand...

Wow! That black powder can be a mite testy!

.455_Hunter said:

A family purchased an old Civil War cannon shell and put it on their mantle above the brick fireplace hearth, were it sat for many years. The family went on vacation for a week or so, and upon return, made a disturbing discovery- a shredded living room.

The mantle supports had failed, allowing the shell to drop onto the hearth. 100+ years of age had not significantly degraded the munition, and it functioned as intended.

They were very happy to have been on vacation.

Click to expand...

That would be scary.
On a side note. My kids shred the living room well enough without explosives to help.

Smokeless powder lasts quite a while, IF stored properly. Mostly that means do not allow water or moisture to permeate the powder, and store in a place of even temperatures.

Black powder - I've been led to believe - is not as stable in long term storage. Looks like that's not a hard and fast rule. Either way emulating baked bread storage helps. Dry, even temperature and keep it from physical shocks, mutilation and so on.

Note to self: Do not try butter on black powder.

That's wild.....is that a timed fuse on that thing?

Well how about them apples...I didn't know that was a thing in the Civil War
http://civilwarartillery.com/fuzes/bormannfuze.htm

Black powder is potassium nitrate compound for oxidizer, elements carbon (charcoal) for fuel and sulphur for fuel and binder.
All three are pretty darned stable: proper black powder mixture is unlikely to deteriorate over time.
Properly dried and screened, Revoluntionary War black powder is still useable.

They should have sprinkled the contents on the lawn as fertilizer..............

I read a report of a civil war enthusiast in the VA area that had found a shell (UXO) in a battelfield area and was fooling with it in his driveway. Lo and behold he was scattered hither and yon by said shell. They stay "live" for a long time.

EMC45 said:

I read a report of a civil war enthusiast in the VA area that had found a shell (UXO) in a battelfield area and was fooling with it in his driveway. Lo and behold he was scattered hither and yon by said shell. They stay "live" for a long time.

Click to expand...

I used to save reports of people killed by Civil War cannon balls. I do remember in the 1970's, a collector's shop in Gettysburg, the owner was in the back drilling a CW cannon ball, to remove the charge. Well, the charge removed itself the old fashioned way, kaboom!. Must have been a spark or a hot spot. A customer in the front of the store was also killed. I wonder, do they count as Civil War causalities?

Recently I learned about the number of Cambodians dying or losing limbs due to unstable US munitions dropped in the Vietnam War. You can look up the numbers, but the tonnage was greater than what the US dropped over Germany. What I find surprising is the rate of duds is around 30% or more with US Ordnance. You would think that for all the money we pay, each and every round ought to go bang, but, apparently not. This map shows where not to travel in Cambodia


Cambodia landmines and potential ordinance map
https://www.aboutasiatravel.com/cambodia/map/landmines-ordinance-map.htm



https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/vie...ttpsredir=1&article=1165&context=cisr-journal