Posted on 12/28/2010 3:04:57 PM PST by rawhide
A man has been arrested after FBI and TSA officials said his luggage contained volatile gun parts, which caused his bag to explode Tuesday just before it was about to be loaded on a plane.
The unidentified 37-year-old man had 500 to 700 bullet primers in his luggage. Primers are considered the "spark plugs" of a bullet and ignites the gun powder, projecting it toward the intended target.
Officials originally said the exploding bag was caused by a hairspray aerosol can.
The situation turned out to be much more serious and could have been even more dangerous if the bag containing the combustible elements would have exploded while the plane was in the air.
Officials believe when the baggage handler sat the bag down on the ground, it caused one of the bullet primers to rupture and explode, which ignited a chain reaction among the other tiny pieces of metal.
While it is legal to have a gun and ammunition in your checked bags, it is illegal to pack primers or percussion caps.
The passenger faces federal charges of transporting hazardous materials.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcmiami.com ...
I don’t think a primer pop is load enough to injure your hearing but it might make you crap your pants if you have an exaggerated startle response.
Black powder primers come in a little tin all mixed together. You can buy them at Walmart but it is absolutely illegal to carry any component used in blackpowder shooting on a plane.
If you buy either powder or primers and have them shipped then you have to pay an extra $20-25 hazmat fee. You can have 50 pound of either shipped but not in the same container.
And primers are shipped all over the country every day without exploding. This story is bupkis until I learn more.
As a reloader, I can say that from personal experience, a primer doesn’t go off without a sharp, pointed hit. The only kind of primers I can think of that are more sensitive are muzzle loading caps.
If this is true, the guy is an utter idiot. Or intended this to happen.
Primers are not to be trifled with.
Here are some stories:
http://yarchive.net/gun/ammo/primer_safety.html
Are you as clueless as your post indicates? They were PRIMERS. Millions upon MILLIONS of them (one for each BULLET manufactured every year plus the millions used in reloading and black powder hunting) get transported, boxed, shipped, moved, and yes some dropped WITHOUT incident every year. Sheese.
Just goes to show you that baggage handlers aren't gentle enough to work for UPS. :)
Depends in the size of the primer.
I imagine a shotgun shell primer would be louder than a small caliber round.
I have heard a primer go off from a M-16 round. It is very loud.....
....and logically....
Story says primers.
Yep, the pack primers in plastic boxes and percussion caps in metal tins, go figure. I use both and never had one go off without a good blow to it, either by pressure or striking it. Pressure meaning decapping a live one from a military case with a crimp in the primer pocket. Sometimes the pressure of decapping in such cases will set one off. Never have I had a percussion cap go off unless I wanted it to, regardless of the beating the can took in my possibles bag.
Since the report leaves the culprit “unidentified”, I think it’s a safe bet to assume he’s Amish.
STD says there’s three errors in the story. I read on Breitbart that it was a hairspray container that blew. When they saw the primers they thought they were the one’s that exploded. Then the reporter mentions three different things that went blooie.
The story says primers.
Primer dusting can cause an explosion, for those not familiar its when a lot of shaking of open exposed primers shakes loose minute particles of the mercury of fulminate.
Get enough of this powder and some static electricity and it will flash, as a reloader I have seen accumulated material collect on my case primer installation tools.
Quite frankly with enough primer dust, a modified vacuum type thermos bottle and even hairspray a crude IED can be built. I can see using a an emergency glass breaker tool or a spring loaded center punch as a detonator.
Post 33 probably has the facts correct. If this explosion was from a firearms related ignition part, it had to be a percussion cap primer. These are sold loosely packed in small round tins containing 100 caps. If one went off and ignited several more in the tin due to rough bag handling, you would hear a bang as loud as a small firecracker. I doubt the bang would send anything much beyond the luggage bag. It was stupid to try to transport the caps in luggage, but the airplane was not in any serious danger.
I use a progressive shot shell reloader and 209 primers sometimes drop wrong and I fail to notice before cycling. I’ve crushed them pretty flat without any ignition, so rough handling a bunch loose in a container not meant for these wouldn’t likely make cartridge or shot shell primers go off.
I’m thinking he must be either Japanese or a Tibetan monk.
What did he have them in, a mason jar?!? The packaging surrounding commercially available primers very nearly precludes them from detonating from a simple shock.
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