Surise and grandpa's

I hope you guys get the de-activated grenades back! I'd have contacted a lawyer first to ensure that the relics were returned.

I hope you guys get the de-activated grenades back! I'd have contacted a lawyer first to ensure that the relics were returned.

Click to expand...

Please tell me you missed the sarcasm smiley?

You want the EOD team to de-activate them, and then return them? You know they just blow them up, right? They aren't going to risk their hands and eye -- or lives -- to disable an unfamiliar, unstable, and antique, foreign grenade, just so you can have a memento of grandpa's illegal and lethal keepsake.

You know grandpa -- or whomever was in possession at the time -- was technically on the hook for a 10 year prison sentence and $250,000 in fines for possessing an unregistered NFA Title II item, right? (Does that get doubled for two?)

And they came and took them without any further unpleasantness? I'd call that a "win." And I think I'd give the good folks in the responding agency a hearty thank you, and maybe offer them a nice glass of tea and some cookies or something, to express my gratitude for taking care of this nightmare without ruining anyone's life over it.

Sam1911 said:

Please tell me you missed the sarcasm smiley?

You want the EOD team to de-activate them, and then return them? You know they just blow them up, right? They aren't going to risk their hands and eye -- or lives -- to disable an unfamiliar, unstable, and antique, foreign grenade, just so you can have a memento of grandpa's illegal and lethal keepsake.

You know grandpa -- or whomever was in possession at the time -- was technically on the hook for a 10 year prison sentence and $250,000 in fines for possessing an unregistered NFA Title II item, right? (Does that get doubled for two?)

And they came and took them without any further unpleasantness? I'd call that a "win." And I think I'd give the good folks in the responding agency a hearty thank you, and maybe offer them a nice glass of tea and some cookies or something, to express my gratitude for taking care of this nightmare without ruining anyone's life over it.

Click to expand...

My best friend works for an EOD unit in Detroit. His unit gets calls for similar situations from time to time - At least twice, last year that he told me about. While the possession laws are fairly clear, most people (in his unit anyway) have the sense to realize and take into account that the reporting party had nothing to do with the acquisition (and were not aware of the existence of) the Title II items. His unit has deactivated and returned several WWII "bringbacks" over the years he's worked for them.

Sure there's a slight amount of TECHNICAL risk involved in reporting such a thing, but do you really expect me to believe that someone can successfully be prosecuted for something someone else did in this situation?

Grandpa's still alive. Just moving. He can't claim this is someone else's fault.

If you know someone who does this for people, wow, that's cool.

Sam1911 said:

Grandpa's still alive. Just moving. He can't claim this is someone else's fault.

If you know someone who does this for people, wow, that's cool.

Click to expand...

Not everyone buys into the "Zero Tolerance" BS that has been injected into our loving, caring government. If I didn't have kids, I'd be working EOD and doing my best to do the same.

What is a surise?

I'm thinkin suprise spelled wrong (typo)....

Outdoorsman1

I thought "rising sun".??

As the older generations pass on, for a nicer term, more incidents like this and unregistered firearms will surface. I have picked up a really nice M1 Garand and M1 Carbine in the past few years because grandpa died and nobody in the family wanted them or grandma wanted them gone so the boys wouldn't fight over it.

Rail Driver said:

My best friend works for an EOD unit in Detroit. His unit gets calls for similar situations from time to time - At least twice, last year that he told me about. While the possession laws are fairly clear, most people (in his unit anyway) have the sense to realize and take into account that the reporting party had nothing to do with the acquisition (and were not aware of the existence of) the Title II items. His unit has deactivated and returned several WWII "bringbacks" over the years he's worked for them.

Sure there's a slight amount of TECHNICAL risk involved in reporting such a thing, but do you really expect me to believe that someone can successfully be prosecuted for something someone else did in this situation?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've seen the "ordinance" they've blown up on Belle Isle. Funny how many people are told before it's "disposed of" to join the party. Even the photos/videos shown on the news confirm it's inert. Too many agencies justifying their existence through the ever willing to comply media.

id be tempted to go to the woods and set them off

I would have kept them. maybe drive to our family property and set one off, but keep the rest. too unique to get rid of.

would have kept them. maybe drive to our family property and set one off, but keep the rest. too unique to get rid of.

Click to expand...

That's a horribly dangerous idea. Do you know how unstable, and at the same time unreliable, 70 year old explosives typically are?

There is fairly decent chance one could blow just from handling it or in the ride to the car out to the property.

And, at the same time, the other issue is that old explosives are unreliable. There's no guarantee WHEN or IF they will explode when you pull the pin or, with a Japanese grenade, bash the primer on a rock, to set them off. It might go off instantly or with an overly short delay. Or, it might not go off at all, at least not right away, and now you have an unstable "dud" explosive out there as a hazard.

Old explosives are too unpredictable to take chances with. There's no telling what will happen when you move them or try to deliberately set them off and the danger is very real.

Not trying to pick on you particularly, but other people will read this thread and the dangers of messing with unexploded ordanance shoudl be made clear.

Might take out a few Asian carp trying to make their way into the Great Lakes from Obamaland, I mean Chitown. lol

So grandpa, speaking of hand grenades. Oh shoot I forgot about those things u didn't tell nobody did ya. lol

Good thing these weren't found thru the years by snooping grandkids.

Happy to hear the whole thing was taken care of without alot of hassel.

You're lucky EOD didn't blow them in place!

This is why god invented Tannerite!(SP?) Almost all grenades are black powder and comp B or some blend there of. Incredibly stable, under most instances. These could easily be demilled and returned as curios or as I have done for friends in the past, used tannerite or better yet tannerite and propane and an old car in a ditch +300 yds! I love helping people clean up!

Just the fact that one assumes the Law enforcement would react bitter on
a call like that ... makes me not want to live in america, btw.

That is common sense.

I would have kept them. maybe drive to our family property and set one off, but keep the rest. too unique to get rid of.

Click to expand...

Let's once more point out that possessing ONE of these grenades is a crime with a penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Tell me again how great an idea it is to keep a few around for nostalgia's sake?

Not to mention the instability of old explosives and the insane risk to yourself and your family.

We have GOT to be smarter than this.

Sam1911 said:

Not to mention the instability of old explosives and the insane risk to yourself and your family.

Click to expand...

Type 97 used a TNT filler right?

Impure, wartime manufacture, desperation TNT?

Not something you want to knock off of a shelf after 70 years of exudation.


*shudder*

I remember some years ago, some of my buddies in the Bomb Squad had recovered some German Potato Mashers, They were scared to death of them.. Seems that the materials, especially the fuse material had a tendency to denigrate over time and could become somewhat unstable. Something about crystals that can form that could ignite/detonate with very little friction or tampering.. There was some mention of Japanese Grenades having the same type of issues... I doubt very seriously if anyone would attempt to de-mil them..

On a side note, one of my buddies picked up a dummy/training Japanese anti-tank mine,, we set it in our office, right next to where the Bomb Squad parked their truck and used it as a door stop... One of the Bomb Squad guys came by, we asked him to close the door, when he budged that dummy mine, he turned ghost white.. was pretty funny.. Then he went into the stories about the unstable property's of some axis power fused explosives..