Monday, December 03, 2018

I can't find this on Youtube, but if you're using Bookface you can see it

here: a very good demonstration of what happens when you
A: Don't clean up the unburned powder on a range, and
B: Have matting or some kind of 'residue falls here' setup in front of the line where said powder can accumulate.

Once, after a really busy weekend, we were cleaning up brass and this stuff and wound up with a fairly impressive pile of powder when it was all pushed together; my comment was "Gentlemen, the smoking lamp is OUT."

2 comments:

Capt Craig said...

I am 74 years old and have been shooting since I was 10 and have been in too many ranges to count and I have never heard of any such incident, ever, and you can bet that if it really happened we would all know. I am calling bullshit or a single incident of gross negligence.

Firehand said...

From what I can find out, it happened. They've got either some kind of matting or a grate over a lowered area in front of the line to collect unburned powder, and they apparently didn't clean it out in quite a while; get enough built up, and one spark...

I've cleaned firing bays after a busy day/weekend, and- depending on types of firearms and what ammunition- you can find a surprising amount of unburned powder. If you let that collect like they apparently did, you could get one hell of a fire.