Biodegradable magazines? A possibility?

Status
Not open for further replies.
If you are trying to save the planet, conserder this- a firearm built of steel will last, with proper care, hundreds of years, adding no polution to the environment. A firearm that needs to be replaced every six months because it is constantly degrading will add lots of polution to the environment during its manufacturing every six months.

It's this kind of lunkheaded thinking why I have concluded that environmentalism isn't about the environment. Every solution to environmental problems always results in the same conclusion, more big government and lower living standards. Every time an environmentalist proposes something, the conclusion is socialism. No thank you!

Buy good quality firearms that you can will to your children. That is the best thing for the environment.
Cheers,
Mauserguy
 
Make them reliable, cheap, and durable enough for the military, and also implement reliable, cheap, durable caseless ammo, and you could actually be onto something, for military use. Instead of boxes of ammo on stripper clips and ancient magazines near-permanently in rotation, it'd be disposable ammo "casettes." Shoot all the ammo and toss 'em.

Only problem is the trade-off between bio-degrading fast enough to make a difference, and slow enough to not fall apart between manufacture and shooting.
 
Wow.

An "Earth-friendly" battlefield.

The mind boggles.

(I rather suspect that the reason that they wanted the magazines to degrade after use is that they didn't want the enemy - the Viet Cong, for example - to reload those mags and use them against our troops.)
 
JWarren: "I can't imagine a reusable warhead."

Not one containing a detonator, anyway. Two things abnormally challenging to put back where they came from after their use: toothpaste and tritium.
 
KevinAbbeyTech: "If we are going to make something biodegrade, it should be landmines ..."

This issue has been talked through for years. The idea being that after a decade or so the mine should "deactivate" and become (mostly) harmless. It's a laudable goal. The trouble is that in fixed minefields such as along the Korean DMZ, you'd have to send guys out to replace the mines every decade, without any guarantee that all the old mines are completely inert. You'd also have the problem of a window of opportunity for Lil Kim to invade the South when the mines hit their expiration date. For some applications, however, a perishable mine could be both useful and humane -- so long as it didn't detonate spontaneously as the components decayed. This happens every so often at Verdun and other fun places. Le Department du Diminage loses a significant percentage of its personnel each year to UXO incidents.
 
This issue has been talked through for years. The idea being that after a decade or so the mine should "deactivate" and become (mostly) harmless. It's a laudable goal. The trouble is that in fixed minefields such as along the Korean DMZ, you'd have to send guys out to replace the mines every decade, without any guarantee that all the old mines are completely inert. You'd also have the problem of a window of opportunity for Lil Kim to invade the South when the mines hit their expiration date. For some applications, however, a perishable mine could be both useful and humane -- so long as it didn't detonate spontaneously as the compenents decayed. This happens every so often at Verdun and other fun places. Le Department du Diminage loses a significant percentage of its personnel each year to UXO incidents.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

I just hope they find a way viable answer as the technology improves.
 
Speaking of minefields that won't be killing civilians a hundred years after the war is over...

Have you heard of The M131 Modular Pack Mine System (MOPMS)? It has some limitations, and it really isn't suited for long-term use in fixed minefields, but it isn't meant for that. It's intended for use to close lanes and gaps in minefields, at chokepoints, to reinforce obstacles, to emplace point minefields and for protective mining. Basically, it's for creating a temporary minefield that won't cause unintended casualties after the conflict ends.

Basically, it's a mine pack that you place on the ground. Using a remote radio control, you can deploy the mines from the pack. They shoot out of tubes and land in a pattern all around the pack. Once the mines are deployed, they will stay armed for four hours. If the remote operator doesn't tell them to stay armed, they will self destruct, automatically clearing the minefield. The remote operator can tell the mines to stay armed for up to sixteen hours, after which the self-destruct cannot be delayed any longer.

If the pack is put in place but the mines aren't deployed, then the pack can be disarmed for reuse later. Once the mines are deployed, they can't be disarmed and repacked for reuse, but they can be destroyed either by waiting for the four-hour auto-destruct cycle to run out or manually at any time by the remote operator. This allows a unit to counterattack or withdraw through the minefield, as necessary, rather than wait until the self-destruct time has expired.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m131.htm
 
I see what you are saying... disposable mags.. kind of makes sense, but I can't see that ever becoming economically better than using the steel ones.
 
The only reason for biodegradable magazines is if the antis mandate it so they can change the laws at will and the existing stuff will quickly go away.
 
A firearm magazine isn't exactly something I would want to disintigrate at a date uncertain, either. I mean, of all the things to make biodegradable ... what else, parachutes? Think of the poor seagulls entangled in chutes and cord ...
 
Biodegradable fire extinguisher tanks?

Then, people would never have expired or discharged fire extinguishers laying around. They'd be forced to replace them at regular intervals. This is better than the reusable fire extinguishers we have now, since nobody really ever bothers to recharge them when necessary. :)
 
Of course, the mess you'd have to clean up when your fire extinguisher tank naturally fails at the end of its life expectancy is another matter...
 
What would the indiginous peoples do if there was no USGI spent brass and magazines littering their countryside??

And where would I get my crushed 105mm ashtray, vase etc. if all this stuff was degradeable.

I think of it as a foreign aid program.
 
steel & aluminum are biodegradable...

leave some brass in an aluminum magazine and then put it in the ocean... same thing with steel...
Click to expand...

erosion and biodegradation aren't the same thing. Anything will erode and degrade over time, but for biodegradation to occur, there must be an organic chemical compound available for enzymes produced by living orgasnisms to break down.

Steel and aluminum do not meet the criteria to be considered organic. Aluminum doesn't contain carbon (which is required for something to biodegrade). Steel does contain carbon, but it's an alloy (a combination, a mix), not a chemical compound (the iron and carbon do not form molecules) which all organic material is.

You guys, stop saying steel or aluminum are biodegradable.
 
Hey, if you want to "go green" then make some poly-mags out of old soda bottles or something. You can even color them green, and paint slogans on the side like those damn hemp grocery bags.

Cheap "throwaway mags" are what stripper clips are for.

Mags will not pollute the ground if dropped, someone will eventually pick them up and sell or use them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

R
  • Locked
High Capacity Magazine Ban
Replies
12
Views
954
Al Thompson
A
HoosierQ
  • Locked
Making ones own magazines?
Replies
7
Views
516
cook45
C
MachIVshooter
  • Locked
Magazine trusts?
Replies
5
Views
745
femoralis
F
T
  • Locked
organic, environmentally friendly reactive targets
Replies
17
Views
621
kis2
K
Z
  • Locked
Something I can't understand about magazine capacities
Replies
11
Views
845
Father Knows Best
F
Back
Top