75 rounds of ammunition found underneath house, nearby homes evacuated

[rci2950]

http://news4sanantonio.com/news/loca...omes-evacuated




SAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio Police Department's Bomb Squad was called to a Southwest Side neighborhood Saturday after dozens of rounds of ammunition were found underneath a home.

The ammunition was discovered on the 7900 block of Dempsey Drive, near Old Pearsall Road and Southwest Military Drive, around 2:45 p.m. Saturday.

Capt. Troy Balcar of the San Antonio Fire Department said a family member found a sealed box with about 75 rounds of decades-old ammunition underneath the house. He said the rounds are .40 caliber and about 40 years old, based on a date written on the box. Half a dozen nearby homes were evacuated for about three hours.

"This is definitely a big danger, because they've been under there so long," Balcar said. "They've rusted, they've been exposed to the weather, elements outside so we definitely want to get them disposed of as quickly as possible."

Family members said a veteran who served for more than 30 years lived at the house until he passed away recently.

This is the second time old ammunition has been found at the home. Just last week, the bomb squad spent about half an hour disposing of shotgun shells found there.

[imanaknut]

OH MY GOD!!! If 75 rounds of .40 S&W went off all at once it would have taken the city of San Antonio off the map, and most likely triggered a seismic event of catastrophic proportions!!!!

[BISHOP]

WTF?!?!!!!!!! THIS IS NOT ENGLAND!!!!!


BISHOP

[Sherman]

The biggest threat that ammo has is stupid people and possible environmental lead contamination. Just think if it was a case of 7.62x39. Chernobyl?

[raxar]

He said the rounds are .40 caliber and about 40 years old

Of course, the 40 s&w cartridge is less than 30 years old.

Illuminati confirmed

[Schuetzenman]

What a load of over hyped bullshit! Loaded rounds of ammo are very safe even if exposed to fire they do not go BOOM!

[alismith]

If it's all rusted (how can brass be rusted? Corroded, possibly, but not rusted.), then it's probably filled with damp powder. Water and gun powder are an explosion just waiting to happen. It's a wonder that family isn't traumatized. I hope they have counselors for the kids...

Must have been a real slow day in San Antonio...

[NAPOTS]

When I was younger and much dumber a 20 round box of 7.62x39 ended up in the burn pile on accident. The rounds went off like fire crackers other than that nothing worthy of note happened

[skorpion]

What a joke. I'd just throw it in the trash...

In Iraq we had thousands of rounds of MG ammo in ammo cans pop off in a fire. They simply sounded like fire crackers going off but didn't do any damage.

[number6]

I too, thought this was in England. Last time I read something like this, a bunch of .22 LR rounds were found in a side-yard garden pond. Homes were evacuated, the bomb squad was called along with divers (pond was probably 15" deep). It was absolute mayhem. The new home owners were so traumatized, they wanted to sell the house & move.

But on to what I wanted to say. If the rounds were rusted, they could have been Wolf steel-case. I left a Wolf .223 in my leaky Jeep and the case rusted. How long have they been around, or any steel-case .40, for that matter?

[Richard Simmons]

As noted by Raxar the .40 S&W pistol round was designed in 1990 so it can't be 40 years old. I'm thinking it was 75rds of 40mm not 40cal. They claim the guy was a 30 year vet so we might be talking about 75rd of 40mm HE for the M79/203 grenade launchers. I could see the hoopla and evacuation for something like that.

They either have the age wrong or the description of the "ammo". If it was .40S&W then we are talking major overkill! I could someone stashing some illegal HE rounds under their house for SHTF but a box of pistol ammo seems a little light for a stash.

[rci2950]

I am going to email the local police and fire department and demand those involved be fired for gross incompetence. I know they wont be fired but if anything enough emails demanding their jobs might make them think twice about putting on a show like that again. emails to the town counselor will have similar effect.

[Helen Keller]

im thinking 40mm too.


that's nothing i'd want to play around with if it sat around that long, especially the older shit.





who knows, could be 40 bofors .

[ltorlo64]

As noted by Raxar the .40 S&W pistol round was designed in 1990 so it can't be 40 years old. I'm thinking it was 75rds of 40mm not 40cal. They claim the guy was a 30 year vet so we might be talking about 75rd of 40mm HE for the M79/203 grenade launchers. I could see the hoopla and evacuation for something like that.

They either have the age wrong or the description of the "ammo". If it was .40S&W then we are talking major overkill! I could someone stashing some illegal HE rounds under their house for SHTF but a box of pistol ammo seems a little light for a stash.

This makes much more sense. If it is .40 S&W I wonder what they would send if they found out I have 500+ rounds of 30-06 that was made in about 1975. Alismith and I can confirm they are explosive because when fired out of a Garand a couple of weeks ago they went bang (rather loudly!) and cause a hole to be produced in a piece of paper 100 yards away.

[imanaknut]

40mm does make more sense to evacuate. Too bad the news media hasn't a clue when it comes to anything related to firearms and related material.


UPDATE!!!

They edited out the part where the fire dept captain mentioned .40 caliber!!! Maybe someone in the news media does have a clue?!?!

[5.56NATO]

Wonder if they're old Bofors rounds, some of those are 40mm and pack a bit more punch than the typical m203 round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYFZGxlvRxA

[raxar]

40mm does make more sense to evacuate. Too bad the news media hasn't a clue when it comes to anything related to firearms and related material.


UPDATE!!!

They edited out the part where the fire dept captain mentioned .40 caliber!!! Maybe someone in the news media does have a clue?!?!

Let us remember too, every cop there had at least 45 rounds of ammo (probably .40 cal) on his duty belt.

[FunkyPertwee]

Its not just gun "crimes" that get treated this way. I've unfortunately been watching a show called north woods law, because I leave animal planet on for my dog and this show is on when I get home. You ought to see how they treat fishing licenses or coyote "hunting" (its called pest control in SC) on a Sunday.

The police out here instructed me to please always shoot coyotes in a safe manner no matter what.

[Helen Keller]

Wonder if they're old Bofors rounds, some of those are 40mm and pack a bit more punch than the typical m203 round.

enough to knock a plane out of the sky.. start out as 40mm and blow up about the size of a coke bottle when they hit.