Posted on 05/14/2007 2:18:37 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
LAKE LUZERNE, N.Y. (AP) - A teenager who put bullets in a vise and whacked them with a hammer to empty the brass shell casings was wounded in the abdomen by approximately the 100th bullet he hit, according to Warren County deputies.
Damion M. Mosher, 18, had been discharging .223-caliber rounds, placing them in a steel vise, putting a screwdriver on the primer, and striking the screwdriver with the hammer, deputies said.
Deputies were called to his home in Lake Luzerne shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday when one bullet went about a half-inch into his abdomen. He was treated at Glens Falls Hospital and was released. No charges were filed.
Mosher told authorities he was trying to empty the rounds to collect the brass casings for scrap.
Sheriff Larry Cleveland said about 100 other rounds that Mosher hit had "fizzled," but one was somehow sent with more force. It was unclear if the bullet ricocheted or hit him directly.
An employee of Capitol Scrap Co. in Albany said Monday the business pays $1.70 a pound for scrap brass shell casings.
Cleveland said Mosher's shells amounted to just a few pounds.
Lake Luzerne, at the southeastern edge of the Adirondacks, is 45 miles north of Albany.
signed Lefty Bender
But primed shells (empty) and bulk powder do deteriorate.
My dad had not reloaded for years, and we offered to clean up his reloading bench and incidentally load all his empty .348 Winchester hulls while we were at it. He had a couple of cans of old DuPont IMR 4350 that must have dated to around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis (he and all his Army buddies bought out every gun shop in Atlanta while that was going on. Best excuse they ever had!)
The IMR had a crust on it and smelled very peculiar. We poured it out in small piles on a gravel driveway and ran quickmatch from pile to pile . . . it burned nicely and that was fun. I would never have used it.
We also snapped off all the primers that had been sitting in the empty brass, just because primers are cheap and misfires are a pain. We had a fun time at the local range, because we squared up this big old Winchester Model 71, let it off, and it went < pffft! > .
People kept moseying over and asking, "What in #@!! are you SHOOTING?" and laughed when we showed them.
Didn't you mean to ask "Who didn't?"
Just (morbidly) curious. 8<)
How could she have hurt her left hand with the blasting cap? (Was she right-handed, holding it with the left?)
On the other hand, a teen WHACKIN bullets with a hammer really needs a appointment with Dr Ruth
Most bullets are not too “bad” about aging: most of the time they age gracefully, and ammo as early as WWII can be used now.
Earlier than that? It does break down, and the casing get gummed up/corroded, and the powder breaks down some ...
(Black powder, on the otherhand, is very dangerous since the explosives relatively easily separate from the filler....
Okay, I knew somebody was going to go to a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes reference eventually. The only question was which one.
Oh yes. Can't remember why, but we used to do that quite regularly in the old days. Gave off a satisfying bang and the smell was delightful. (Hmm...maybe that's why.)
“Hold ma beer ... now watch this!”
When I was in high school in the 50s we had a kid tape shotgun shells to the backs of targets then plink at them with a 22. He now only has one eye.
“He’s plan was about 99% safe.”
Hell...sounds a lot safer than walking the streets of Philadelphia.
I knew an old guy who told me that him and his friends found a good way to make money during the depression. THey held a paper drive but to make more money, they inserted scrap lead between the sheets of paper. After the dealer paid them, he told the boys the boys that lead is worth far more than paper.
“Who put the bullet in the furnace?”
Apparently so. It’s the only scenario that I can think of, too. Her father was a mining blacksmith who repaired the iron equipment and tools found around mining sites. At eight, she was old enough, apparently, to entertain herself, but not old enough to have good sense about it. I have never heard the whole story, and she was always reluctant to talk about it. It happened in 1916 or so.
LOL!!!
The kid is 'way beyond stupid. The loaded ammo is worth far more than empty brass is...
...next time, hold them in your TEETH....that way your abdomen is SAFE....!!!
Saves a LOT of time without having to screw the vise back and forth as well.
THAT'S the one...
;>(
I had a college, um, acquaintance who, when aluminum recycling had just started up, would put a teaspoon or so of sand in the bottom of each can before he crushed it. This was in the era of the first earth day, Lenin’s birthday and all, I really didn’t get out of the disconnect long enough to tell him it was a bad idea. Whatever. I made my beer money playing pinball. Hey, I made my rent playing pinball.
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