69Chevy
Member
What if you came across live WW2 grenades? Could you get them deactivated and make them legal or are they forever illegal?
Deactivating grenades
- Thread starter 69Chevy
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Eightball
Member
I'd want to know where you got one
. Chuck it and run? You might as well get what you payed for. It wouldn't be reliable for any combat purpose, so saving it wouldn't be too viable an option, and it would be expensive to get it de-milled.
AStone
Member
Don't take Peter Gabriel's advice about sledgehammers.
Here's an August story from Reuters, posted to MSNBC:
Here's an August story from Reuters, posted to MSNBC:
I can imagine that, just before he hit it, he put down his beer and said, "Hey, watch this."
69Chevy
Member
So I am guessing if I can pay someone to deactivate it, it isn't that illegal? Wouldn't that be like an unregistered class 3 item? I had a friend who received a german potato masher with the fuse flipped. He promplty gave it back.
Powderman
Member
NO!!!
Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, attempt to defuse or render safe a live grenade. This is an easy way to kill yourself and anyone around you. Remember, grenades are designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: To kill or severely injure anyone in the blast radius.
If you have one, do the following:
Find an area at least 50 yards from ANY structure.
Dig a hole in the ground about 12 inches deep, and about 6 inches wide.
GENTLY lower the grenade into the hole. Do NOT pull the pin.
CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.
If for some reason the arming lever or pin is missing, LEAVE IT ALONE. DO NOT TOUCH IT. EVACUATE EVERYONE FROM THE AREA OF THE GRENADE, AND CALL 911.
It isn't worth your life to play with it. Leave it alone.
Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, attempt to defuse or render safe a live grenade. This is an easy way to kill yourself and anyone around you. Remember, grenades are designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: To kill or severely injure anyone in the blast radius.
If you have one, do the following:
Find an area at least 50 yards from ANY structure.
Dig a hole in the ground about 12 inches deep, and about 6 inches wide.
GENTLY lower the grenade into the hole. Do NOT pull the pin.
CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY.
If for some reason the arming lever or pin is missing, LEAVE IT ALONE. DO NOT TOUCH IT. EVACUATE EVERYONE FROM THE AREA OF THE GRENADE, AND CALL 911.
It isn't worth your life to play with it. Leave it alone.
MachIVshooter
Member
I wouldn't go near it. The explosive used in that era weren't nearly as stable as what we have today, and 60 years worth of fermenting could make them heat or impact sensitive.
Call the sheriff and tell him to send a bomb squad.
69Chevy
Member
Like how bad are we talking here? Suppose an old vet had a box of these things stuffed away in his attic for the last 60 years, would it be hazardous to move them? I haven't heard of grenades just going off unless someone was doing something really dumb with them.
deadin
Member
Something really dumb would be attempting to move them without the proper gear and training.
Dean
Dean
Keith Wheeler
Member
Screwing with UXO is probably one the dumbest things a human being could do.
Call somebody who knows what they are doing. It ain't safe for you, and it ain't safe for the next chap who stumbles across it.
Us gun folks often make fun of the illogical anti-gunner concept of "guns kill". Guns don't just go out and shoot somebody, firearms require an operator.
Explosives do kill. There are plenty of trivial things that could set off explosives -- two-way radios, static electricity, getting bumped the wrong way. Disarming an old grenade is not like clearing a pistol.
Call somebody who knows what they are doing. It ain't safe for you, and it ain't safe for the next chap who stumbles across it.
Us gun folks often make fun of the illogical anti-gunner concept of "guns kill". Guns don't just go out and shoot somebody, firearms require an operator.
Explosives do kill. There are plenty of trivial things that could set off explosives -- two-way radios, static electricity, getting bumped the wrong way. Disarming an old grenade is not like clearing a pistol.
EOD Guy
Member
I am a trained Master EOD Specialist and my advice is to leave them where they are, call 911, and keep others away from the area until police arrive. The responding agency will either call the local Police or Fire Department bomb squad or request military EOD assistance.
Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to inert (deactivate) anything.
Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to inert (deactivate) anything.
Danger Danger!!!!
I spent the past few months working on UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) sites in California. Now and then we would catch kids coming to scrounge for nifty things left over by the troops. No matter how many signs that we put up the dummies would still try to get in. Even better was in some places the UXO sites were OPEN TO THE PUBLIC with running trails and everything!! :banghead:
I found lots of old ordnance out there but I never touched a single piece. The only people who could touch them were the UXO technicians.
In closing, if it aint yours or you don't know how to work it, don't touch it.
I spent the past few months working on UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) sites in California. Now and then we would catch kids coming to scrounge for nifty things left over by the troops. No matter how many signs that we put up the dummies would still try to get in. Even better was in some places the UXO sites were OPEN TO THE PUBLIC with running trails and everything!! :banghead:
I found lots of old ordnance out there but I never touched a single piece. The only people who could touch them were the UXO technicians.
In closing, if it aint yours or you don't know how to work it, don't touch it.
Archie
Member
Once again for emphasis...
Old grenades - or any other form of 'bomb thingie', to include but limited to RPGs, rockets for rocker launchers, bombs of any type and even old dynamite - get unstable with age.
What was reasonably safe with proper handling when new is now 'touchy'. Do not mess with.
Old grenades - or any other form of 'bomb thingie', to include but limited to RPGs, rockets for rocker launchers, bombs of any type and even old dynamite - get unstable with age.
What was reasonably safe with proper handling when new is now 'touchy'. Do not mess with.
BigDave
Member
Food for Thought!
Have you thought if you found someone, lets say no so bright as to try and disarm a WWII hand grenade and it blew up thus killing him/her, you could be charged with murder? by introducing an explosive device that again you would not be in legal possession of. Not to mention civil liability.
Have you thought if you found someone, lets say no so bright as to try and disarm a WWII hand grenade and it blew up thus killing him/her, you could be charged with murder? by introducing an explosive device that again you would not be in legal possession of. Not to mention civil liability.
I can't answer the legal question, but I certainly can tell you what the practical answer is.
Don't touch.
Call the cops.
Try to keep them from blowing them in place if they happen to be under your house and call your insurance agent if they do want to blow it in place.
There is no way that UXO should be handled.
They become unstable and unpredictable.
Justin
Moderator Emeritus
hso nails it.
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