McKinney police detonate Civil War-era cannonball

[wbindia]

Dear fellow CW hunters,

I am a recent member (April 06) and really enjoy reading the wealth of knowledge and professionalism that is displayed by my many fellow detectorists in cyberspace.

I ran across this news article today from the Dallas morning news. Although the actual news article occurred December 2005, I still believe this article has relevance regarding live CW cannonballs and most recently regarding the accidental explosion of a cannonball by a renown CW ordinance expert last month which was mentioned in this forum.

It appears after reading the article, some CW relic enthusiast purchased a live CW cannonball and had it in his apartment. Apparently someone "tipped off" the local police authorities about this cannonball and the police came to this man's apartment, confiscated the cannonball and detonated it in a secured wooded area, stating: "This was a Civil War-era live round. The mere pressure of it hitting the ground would have detonated it." For all you ordinance experts out there, including Pete, I thought only heat and such could cause one of these "babies" to explode, not just proper handling and stowing it in an undisturbed state-or am I missing something as I know absolutely nothing about live rounds-I've only managed to dig dropped and fired minis thus far-and the occasional CW button-no cannon balls in my collection.

News articles like these I believe-do nothing short of instilling outright fear by misinforming the public in general that all CW cannonballs are live rounds-ready to explode at any minute-when in reality that seems to be an outright misrepresentation of the facts as far as what I have read thus far from this forum regarding live CW cannon balls. Maybe these police officers need to be empowered and educated themselves. In an age when our daily hobby and its' very existence is under increasing attack, and scrutinized-this only adds additional ammunition to the "legal Establishment" to shut us down. I've attached the actual website link regarding the news article below. Thanks


Wayne




http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/n ... 7a1e2.html

 

[PCGeorge]

Wbindia wrote:
>For all you ordinance experts out there, including Pete, I thought only heat and such could cause one of
>these "babies" to explode, [...]

THESE, meaning excavated 1861-65 shells, yes. Civil war era artillery projectiles are "Blackpowder Ordnance," a vastly different class of explosive material from what was developed in later times. For example, dynamite did not exist until years after the end of the civil war. A further example: the US BATF does not require the registration of either blackpowder firearms OR blackpowder ammunition - which is what civil war shells are.

A person need not be an ordnance "Expert" to ask the McKinney police a simple question: If it is an actual fact about excavated civil war shells that "mere pressure of it hitting the ground would have detonated it" ...then why are there NO reports AT ALL of such a thing happening in (at least) the past fifty years? Modern-era relic hunters have dug up more than 20,000 civil war explosive shells. With that many sitting in American households, there ought to be at least ONE newspaper report titled (something like) "Local Housewife Drops Civil War Shell, Causes Explosion." But there isn't.

If I could talk to the McKinney police, I'd challenge them to find even one such report. But every Government official views himself as a top-level Authority - and hates being contradicted ...most especially when his "facts" are flatly incorrect. Obviously in this case, the McKinney police didn't let lack-of-facts get in the way of creating their own sensational newspaper headline.

Every single newspaper report I've located of an EXCAVATED civil war shell exploding in modern times has involved drilling it to disarm it.

Regards,
Pete [PCGeorge, co-author of "Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War" (1980, 1993)]