UK unearthed ordnance courtesy dailymail.co.uk

The weather in the UK this winter has been devastating, with massive storms and deluges of rain causing widespread flooding across southern England. But in another potentially explosive effect, the storms have torn up the British coastline, in some places setting the beach back by 30-50 feet, or even more. In the process, unexploded ordnance from past conflicts has come to light. According to The Daily Mail, a 100lb Mk XIX Second World War British anti-submarine mine was found by surfers at Watwick Bay, Haverfordwest, while a rare First World War German mine surfaced on a beach near the popular Cornish resort of Newquay. Mortar shells have been found . . .

on nearly a dozen beaches across the southern coast, and at Woolacombe, North Devon, one of the key training beaches for the D-Day landings, the storms revealed an old pill box together with concrete anchorages and pile-driven iron girders. Authorities are, of course, warning folks not to touch the finds, but notify police officers so they can be disposed of properly.

Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from Lake Mary, Florida, where Lake Mary High School and nearby Greenwood Lake Middle School were put into “code red lockdown” on Friday. (Autoplay video warning) The lockdown followed a call to 911 reporting a shooting at the high school, from a student who said he was in a bathroom at the school. As it turns out, the caller was a 12-year-old boy from a local middle school. The school was evacuated and the campus was searched room-by-room, and the little schmuck who called it in was located later in the day. He’s been charged with misdemeanors of misuse of 911 and disruption of an educational institution, and there’s talk that he (which means his parents) may be responsible for all the costs of the police response associated with the incident. There’s a bunch of photos and some raw video at the link above, including lines of students walking out of the building with hands on their heads, and cell-phone footage of a police officer in a tac vest and carrying a rifle walking through a room full of students with their hands in the air (half of whom seem to be laughing).

A couple weeks ago, MAIG and MDA jointly released a report (pdf) “analyzing” school shootings since Newtown. Although the report received widespread news coverage, John Lott notes in a column at foxnews.com that none of that coverage has been critical of the problems with the report. They cite 44 shootings (“one every 10 days”) that claimed 28 lives, but their misleading statistics leave out things like the fact that 40% of the deaths (11 of 28) were suicides, and also that included in that number are late night shootings taking place in school parking lots, on their grounds, or even off school property. One example of their “school shootings” was a 38-year-old man who was shot to death at 2am on the grounds of the Clarksville, Tennessee High School. (Original story) Somehow, to these deluded gun-grabbers, that incident (and several other similar ones) constitute part of an “epidemic of guns in schools.” Lott has too many other numbers to reproduce here, but I recommend you visit his column to read the rest.

CompTac Trojan Horse rifle case

From The Tactical Wire: HOUSTON, Texas – Comp-Tac Victory Gear, a leading manufacturer of Kydex holsters and leather Kydex hybrid holsters, has released a Heavy Rated version of its popular Trojan Horse Long Gun Case. The Heavy Rated Trojan Horse Long Gun Case is an updated version of the Trojan Horse Long Gun Case that Comp-Tac originally released in 2012. Based on customer feedback, Comp-Tac created the Heavy Rated case with handles for easier carry, and heavier duty stitching to allow the case to carry and transport up to 35 lbs of firearms and related gear. The Trojan Horse Long Gun Case – Heavy Rated has all of the same great features of the original case; rigid side panels to eliminate printing, a heavy duty adjustable shoulder strap, zippered pockets inside for organization, a dividing panel with Molle loops and Velcro panels as well as a 36″ length perfect for long guns with a 20″ barrel and adjustable stock. At an MSRP of $100.00, the Heavy Rated case is available through the Comp-Tac Website and select dealers.

Merle is back! Michael Rooker from The Walking Dead shows how to get it done with a “1911 .45 Colt, Ion Bond, Engraved, 10-round mag, all legal, [redacted].” Headshot, headshot. [h/t ENDO]

Yes, I know he said “It’s OK” when she asked if they were shooting. You’re not going to score any points by pointing it out.

If you can watch this video without smiling (or possibly clapping your hands like a little kid), just go ahead and delete your TTAG bookmark now. Video is from the 2013 Northern Rockies Machine Gun and Cannon Shoot, from the Wyoming NFA Shooters Club. This year’s event starts May 30th. [h/t ENDO]

The time on those .50 BMG shots at about 3:07 was a bit over 2 seconds. I make that a touch over a mile. The speed of sound is ~340 m/s, a .50BMG travels ~900 m/s, and that shot is around 2000m. The sound of the shot would get there about 4 seconds after the bullet, if I did the math right. Down before you hear it. Long before.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

71 COMMENTS

  1. QUICK! Salvage the powder from the unexploded ordnance!

    Fact of the day: Oerlikon 20mm shell powder from surplus shells was sold to civilians after WW2. It’s modern equivalent is IMR 4831.

  3. hammers should be issued to beachcombers. When they find unexploded ordnance they can test to see if it’s still live or not before calling the experts and wasting their valuable time.

  4. Why oh why are LMGs so far out of my price range!? F*ck the Hughes amendment and a SCOTUS that won’t take up every gun rights case!

  11. Later, local residences can sign up for grief counseling to learn how to deal with the emotional aspects of hearing about finding the bombs!

    • 106 letters sent to unregistered rifle owners. Say they do that every week. The state’s estimate is maybe 300,000 unregistered rifles. This will take about, let’s see: 300,000 / (106 * 52) – yup, 54 years.

      And forget about knocking or not knocking on doors. If they do 5 of those a week it will take them 1154 years :).

  15. Around 4:16 in the machinegun video, I half-expected the Id Monster from Forbidden Planet to appear in the middle of the action.

    By the way, yes I smiled. Would I had that kind of money…

  16. MAIG should be spending their money discovering why inner city schools in cities with Democratic political machines are being denied accreditation.

    And if they REALLY wanted to reduce violence they would fix that.

  17. Those are definitely BDU-33s in the first article picture… Which would make them quite modern. Probably dropped by an F-15E out of Lakenhell. I always wondered where they dropped ’em.

  18. It was the Gatling to Mini gun transition that got my chuckle.
    Also, that last shot of the guy with the Minigun going on…and on…and on… As fun as it looked, all I could think was: “I could pay my rent for 6 months with that kind of ammo money.”

  19. I was just toying around on Hornady’s ballistic calculator (http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator). Using the Hornady 750gr. A-Max round from a 36″ barrel (because they actually publish the data), it should; 1) take about 2.5 seconds for the round to travel a mile, 2) it will hit like a .338 Winchester Magnum would at the muzzle when it gets there, 3) sighted in at 300 yards, you’ll need to hold the sights 75′ high if you’re doing the ol’ Kentucky windage, and 4) you’ll have to hold about 10′ left or right if there’s a 10mph crosswind. Those figures are for 950′ above sea level (where I live), 59F, and 78% humidity.

    I’d love to try my hand at a mini-gun, but I’m afraid my ammo budget right now would barely allow for a 3 second burst.

      • I also neglected to test my results in the real world. Mostly due to the fact that I have neither a .50BMG nor a .338 Winchester Magnum and probably wouldn’t have found any volunteers to confirm that the two would hit as hard with the .338 given a 1 mile head start. Consider my results for entertainment purposes only.

        • Seriously, though, I’m surprised that their calculator doesn’t have a barometric field; it’s at least as relevant as temperature and altitude.

          Also, I forgot latitude and azimuth in my heckling.

        • It does have barometric pressure (29.53). Also shooting angle. Just click on the ‘advanced’ setting.

          I can never remember whether to hold left or right when facing north or south anyway.

  20. Matt. Your math is pretty good.
    I’m working on a video of a trashcan hit from one mile with an APIT.
    Darn things are kind of squirrelly. Not as near accurate or fast as the Barnes bore riders.

  21. No no no, the British can’t have bombs…except for piers of course. Hopefully he is going back, Jeremy’s knuckle looks like its healed.

    • Some say his fists are registered as “Piers-seeking missiles”. Others say his chin warps the fabric of reality around it into the shape of a scone.

      All we know is… he’s called The Clarkson!

  22. Guys. A quick heads-up. I know this is off-topic but I might save you some aggravation and being out-of-pocket.

    DO NOT USE the LYMAN case lube in the spray pack. I used it exactly as-per the instructions and it has cost me a Hornady New Dimension Full-Length resizing die. I now have a case stuck fast in the die. I have used this die a lot over the last 15 years. Now it has been trashed by a product that is not fit for its stated use. The Lyman lube has a viscosity about that of WD40 or RP-7. Other case lubes are much thicker. I only used the product because my preferred brand was unavailable.

    Now I have to replace the die (not cheap in my part of the world) and try to get the product I should have bought in the first place.

    • Drop a 4 oz chunk of ferric chloride into a pint of water, mix and then drop in the die.

      Stir and swirl every five minutes; after half an hour or so, no cartridge.

      Um, that is if it’s brass; if it’s steel, I dunno – but I’ll think on it.

      Cheers.

      • EDIT: MATT or someone, would you please make certain that S.C. hears of this?

        Presumably you’ve access to his e-dress, yes?

        Thanks.

    • In the future if you run out of lube you can use mink oil. It’s cheap, easily obtainable almost everywhere and you will never have a stuck case again. It also makes your hands very soft but smells terrible.

  25. That lock down bit with the students being led out with hands on heads…what the HELL has American public education come to?

    Anyone care to try to convince me that this is anything other than pre-conditioning the current generation for institutionalization and martial law?

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. No matter where you are, no matter how good you think YOUR public schools are….get your children out of there. Please.

  26. John Lott is good people, he fights the good fight.

    I’m glad there are people with real credential willing to run through stats and counter claims, lord knows we need them.

    • There’s part of the problem, though. In regard to the stats and studies and all that, we are essentially at an impasse that is basically a (slightly) more grown up version of:

      No, you’re not.
      Yes, I am.
      No, you’re not.
      Yes, I am.

      Etc, ad nauseum.

      Lott or someone else publishes some research, and the anti’s come out saying how flawed it is. They publish a study or quote stats, and we come out saying how flawed it is.

      Who is really convinced by all of this? It’s a red herring, anyway. Moaning over which set of numbers is closer to The Almighty Truth of the Matter really goes nowhere.

      The real underlying debate (in my opinion) centers on individual vs collective sovereignty. And given that most people seem to have closed minds on this particular issue, all the stats in the world are not going to change minds; “they” will always have some excuse, some rationale for why Data X (or policy x, etc) is flawed.

      In other words, it’s a religious debate. Like most religious conversions, it takes an epiphany moment, something truly profound (to the individual) to alter course by 180 degrees.

      That said, though, I do think the stats and analyses are important for checking momentum in the direction the anti’s wish to go. So long as the debate can be muddied, it provides some level of resistance to the momentum.

  27. BTW those mortar rounds are inert training rounds, look I can prove it!
    No, really they are inert w/holes drilled in them and painted blue

  28. RE: 2013 Northern Rockies Machine Gun and Cannon Shoot

    Anyone who says there is no sporting use for a machine gun has never fired one. Dang, but they are fun …

  29. The only thing I could think of at the end of that MG shoot was that was probably my annual salary (or more) in ammo, but damn, that would be a fun way to blow it.

  30. Those are not motar rounds, they are BDU-33’s. They are 25lb practice bombs with a smoke spotting charge.

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