WW2 ordinance

[OH-MAN]

These guys dig up WW2 metal detected sites in Mother Russia.
My question is how dangerous is 70 - 80 year old munitions?
Moter rounds, rifle and pistol ammo, artillery rounds.
Some seems dry and some under water in swamps.
Awesome stuff but can some still go boom?

[That Guy]

Yes. They still can. People have been killed by WWI UXO’s in France.

[792mauser]

Oh yeah, it'll still go off if it wants or is provoked.

One of the gigantic mines the British laid under the German trenches in 1917 failed to go off. And it lay underground in horrible conditions until lightning set off the almost 500 tons of explosive in 1957.

[Suck My Glock]

I don't know about Russian or German ordnance, but a lot of American stuff used piezio-electric crystals as the power source for firing their initiator caps. These are crystals which have a solid state electrical charge which gets "excited" and released from being crushed, such as the impact of a bazooka round crushing the tip of its nose cone on a tank hull.

Depending on the type of metal detector used, you could accidentally energize and "excite" such a piece of ordnance and...KABOOM!!!! No more gold nuggets for you, treasure hunter.

Rumor has it that some guys a couple decades ago ended up doing exactly that while trying to find artifacts out at General Patton's old 3rd Army training area out in the desert between here and Commiefornia. They found one of the training ranges and were metal detecting the impact berm where tanks and bazookas used to shoot.

[OH-MAN]

Wow,
I have seen them pull out dozens of mortar rounds and stack them like firewood!
Russians!!!

[Hunter]

It's been a few years since I read this, but something like 30 French and Belgium's die every year from unexploded ordnance fired off over a hundred years ago in WW1. Some are chemical.

I'd still risk it if I could dig up a Tiger Tank

[OH-MAN]

I saw them dig up a motorcycle.
DKW I think it was.
Might be a Tiger out there somewhere.

[QuangTri]

Rumor has it that some guys a couple decades ago ended up doing exactly that while trying to find artifacts out at General Patton's old 3rd Army training area out in the desert between here and Commiefornia. They found one of the training ranges and were metal detecting the impact berm where tanks and bazookas used to shoot.

Most of Patton's old training area is now within Ft. Irwin AFAIK. Even the old racetrack for moving targets is still there, unop. Only found expended cases and a projectile, along with a Russian looking popup target with various holes in him.


Worked on a contract job at Pearl Harbor 15-16 years ago. Was doing some testing on Waipio Peninsula. At the time, they were dredging up UXO from where a munitions ship exploded just offshore. Were depositing it in a large cleared area. One time I wanted to cut across and got a very excited response.

[xerts1191]

Not my cup of tea for sure