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#3910999 - 02/12/14 11:58 PM A question about cartridges  
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FrenchToast Offline
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Last year at a gun show, a friend and I bought a few "elephant gun" cartridges just for the heck of it (.303s I think).

Last weekend I was at a wargame convention (classical hex&counters cardboard wargames), we were about to start a game of Combat Commander. Now this game uses a "Initiative" card that is passed between the players for some game functionalities. I thought it would be cool to replace the card by one of the 303 cartridges. So here I am taking the game out of its box and proudly showing the cartridge to the 7-8 guys around our table.

EVERYBODY FREAKED

"Wooooooooooh"

"WTF"

"Is that a REAL one?"

"What if you drop it?"

"Man don't wave it around like that"


I told them it was perfectly safe, that it couldn't possibly fire its bullet on its own, that you needed a firing pin, but to no avail : I had to put it away.


So my question : Was I right? Is there any sort of danger passing a cartridge around the table for an afternoon? Am I a dangerous sociopath? (because they certainly made me feel like one...)

FT

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#3911000 - 02/13/14 12:00 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Sethos88 Offline
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I'd really like to see the freak accident that would allow something to hit the firing pin as it was being passed around.

#3911002 - 02/13/14 12:05 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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shan2 Offline
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Cartridges can't be fired by handling them in such a manner. You need a nail, vise, and hammer if you want to set them off without the appropriate firearm.


You're only young once, but you can be immature forever.
#3911003 - 02/13/14 12:05 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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20mm Offline
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FT,
No, no danger in passing round a 303 cartridge. A firing pin has to hit the primer to make it go off.


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#3911007 - 02/13/14 12:11 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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oldgrognard Offline
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Even then it isn't really dangerous. Unless the explosion is contained, it doesn't impart any real power to the bullet. Would sting, but not cause a wound.

Even using a vise, a nail and hammer, it is difficult to get the primer to fire. Difficult.


Man, what a bunch of drama queens.


Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Someday your life will flash in front of your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.
#3911009 - 02/13/14 12:23 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Airdrop01 Offline
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I get ammunition delivered to my office and my staff freaked out at first. (In bulk and it needs a signature and my wife isn't always home). Today for example was 3000 rounds of assorted handgun. Same thing. "Isn't that dangerous?" Only if you try to carry t all at once because it weighs a lot is usually my response.


"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Matthew 5:11

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#3911014 - 02/13/14 12:32 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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mugwump Offline
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Be careful where you pull it out. Some poor #%&*$# in D.C. is facing 2 years in prison for having a spent shotgun cartridge.

http://downtrend.com/71superb/man-faces-2-years-in-jail-for-possession-of-single-shotgun-shell/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013...regis/?page=all


S = k ln W
#3911019 - 02/13/14 12:43 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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FrenchToast Offline
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To be fair, this took place in Canada. Even worse, in Montreal :-D

(Quebecers in general and Montrealers in particular are very gun averse at the best of times...)

FT

#3911022 - 02/13/14 12:51 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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oldgrognard Offline
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Doesn't really matter where ; bunch of drama queens.


Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Someday your life will flash in front of your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.
#3911023 - 02/13/14 12:53 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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#3911024 - 02/13/14 12:54 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Ya guys blow up all the time from touching rounds. UGH wait..

#3911025 - 02/13/14 12:58 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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FrenchToast Offline
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Actually for the next convention next month I am considering bringing one of my Airsoft handguns, look at their faces when I put _that_ on the table

...

...

...

Hmmm probably not a good idea...

FT

#3911029 - 02/13/14 01:18 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Hehe you think they overreacted....remember this from last year?


Quote:
We have friends with young children who could have put one of the bullets in their mouth, or one of our cats could have got hold of one - it doesn’t bear thinking about.

'We were planning to be in this house for years - now we want to move out as soon as we can.


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#3911030 - 02/13/14 01:19 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Originally Posted By: FrenchToast

So my question : Was I right? Is there any sort of danger passing a cartridge around the table for an afternoon? Am I a dangerous sociopath? (because they certainly made me feel like one...)
FT


The only danger any of them were in was something like having an aneurysm or a heart attack due to their ignorance.

That's pretty sad that you could gather that many males together, and you end up being the only one with any clue. I wouldn't put your airsoft gun out... they aren't worthy of seeing/handling a functioning piece of equipment.

nope

#3911039 - 02/13/14 01:52 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Clydewinder Offline
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Originally Posted By: FrenchToast
Last year at a gun show, a friend and I bought a few "elephant gun" cartridges just for the heck of it (.303s I think).

Last weekend I was at a wargame convention (classical hex&counters cardboard wargames), we were about to start a game of Combat Commander. Now this game uses a "Initiative" card that is passed between the players for some game functionalities. I thought it would be cool to replace the card by one of the 303 cartridges. So here I am taking the game out of its box and proudly showing the cartridge to the 7-8 guys around our table.

EVERYBODY FREAKED

"Wooooooooooh"

"WTF"

"Is that a REAL one?"

"What if you drop it?"

"Man don't wave it around like that"


I told them it was perfectly safe, that it couldn't possibly fire its bullet on its own, that you needed a firing pin, but to no avail : I had to put it away.


So my question : Was I right? Is there any sort of danger passing a cartridge around the table for an afternoon? Am I a dangerous sociopath? (because they certainly made me feel like one...)

FT


Sounds like the perfect opportunity to invite some friends to your local shooting range to introduce them to the sport.


Robots are stealing my luggage.
#3911097 - 02/13/14 06:36 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Rick.50cal Offline
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You should ask your friends how police and soldiers manage to get through Basic Training when they handle a thousand rounds of ammunition to load into handguns and assault rifles...

This ignorance IS the goal of the anti-gun movement. They want people to fear it, so they don't want to learn about it, don't get interested in it. This is why kids are being suspended from school, and SWAT teams called, for drawing pictures of guns or pointing their fingers like that: create fear. Its not stupid... its social engineering the masses to fear anything "gun"-like.


POLITICS, WAR, ECONOMY, CONTROVERSY! and other heated discussions and debates in the PWEC sub-forum at the bottom of this forum main page. See you there!
#3911107 - 02/13/14 08:19 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Ssnake Offline
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Looks like they already succeeded with that couple from Leeds (who now have to live in fear of undiscovered "2.2mm 'bullets'") ... and that nitwit reporter from the Daily Mail.

I recommend an immediate relocation to the "Zardoz center for people who can't shoot well and who shouldn't replicate"

#3911112 - 02/13/14 09:03 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Originally Posted By: FrenchToast
To be fair, this took place in Canada. Even worse, in Montreal :-D

(Quebecers in general and Montrealers in particular are very gun averse at the best of times...)

FT


This is something I do find interesting. From what I understand the French speaking population in Switzerland is the same in regards to the German speaking population. Yet gun laws are much more lax in France than the UK or Germany and gun ownership is more widespread.

#3911129 - 02/13/14 09:58 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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Are you talking about a British .303 cartrige? Those aren't even that large. If I remember right they are about the size of the 8mm Mauser rounds I have at home. I have 175 of them.

I have a couple of really old 11mm Mauser cartiges (black power ones, for use with my M1871 Mauser Carbine. I have about 10 of those laying around. You can't have one though, they are really hard to find.


The artist formerly known as SimHq Tom Cofield
#3911131 - 02/13/14 10:28 AM Re: A question about cartridges [Re: FrenchToast]  
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tony draper Offline
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These two are Nitro Express rounds for Elephant and such, the wee thing alongside them is a conventional .223 I think.
Incidentally they cost about sixty pounds per pop in the late 1800 early 1900s
Read a story about a white hunter who back tracked about fifty miles because he had left a couple of these cartridges at his last camp they were so expensive

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