Doyline evacuation extended; 6M pounds of black powder to be moved (LA)

KSLA12 ^ | Dec. 3, 2012 | Carolyn Roy

[bgill]

CAMP MINDEN, LA (KSLA) - Authorities now believe they're dealing with more than 6 million pounds of M6 powder at Camp Minden.

Original estimates had the stockpile officials say was improperly stored on property leased by Explo Systems, Inc. at 1 million pounds.

[Darksheare]

Or they’ll just load it onto CSX railcars, leave it in a railyard, chase the trainspotters off and threaten them with lawsuits for snapping pictures of railcars, and let about a month go by before saying “Well, you see, the railcars were broken into and we were busy chasing off the railfans instead of securing the railcars..”
But at least those criminal camera carying railfans were chased off good! /sarc*
*Based off a real event.

[Calamari]

http://www.tpub.com/gunners/6.htm

From the link:

M-6 and M-6+2.-M-6 and M-6+2 propellant designations equate to the SPDN and SPDF (respectively) descriptions previously provided. These designations are used to describe the propellants used in 76-mm ammunition. The +2 refers to a 2% mixture of potassium sulfate.

SPDN.- SPDN is a diphenylamine-stabilized smokeless powder to which nonvolatile materials are added to reduce the’ hydroscopic tendencies of the propellant. The N stands for nonhygroscopic.

SPD.- SPD is a single-base smokeless powder stabilized with diphenylamine.

Another useful link:
http://www.saami.org/specifications_and_information/publications/download/SAAMI_ITEM_200-Smokeless_Powder.pdf

[buffaloguy]

I have used the black powder substitutes in muzzle loaders and am quite familiar with them and this is not one of them. The substitutes are basically black powder with substitutions of other chemicals for the sulfur.

Hard to clean, somewhat corrosive and quite frankly the lack of a large fragrant cloud is a real bummer compared to the real thing.

[Cold Heart]

4831 all over again:)

[FreedomPoster]

76mm ammunition!? For what? An M4 Sherman tank?

Surely this stuff hasn’t been there since WWII.

[calex59]

Actually there are several types of black powder substitutes that are called "smokeless black powder", they have all the characteristics of black powder but they smoke a good deal less and leave less residue in the barrel upon firing. One of the earliest attempts of this was Pyrodex,which does smoke slightly less and produces a smaller amount(not much difference)of residue. However, there have been great advances made since then, one of the names, just off the top of my head, is Clear shot(I think)and others are Black Thorn 209, triple seven and at least one more whose name I forget.

I prefer Pyrodex because I am used to it and it doesn't leave me covered in goo the way real black powder does and is easier to get, black powder is limited in production, however the new substitutes are a lot cleaner. Be that as it may, Pyrodex is the number one substitute used by most muzzle loader shooters.

[Calamari]

“Surely this stuff hasn’t been there since WWII.”

Possible. Dangerous because there is so much of it and it is stored where the sun can heat it which may cause deterioration which can lead to spontaneous combustion which in a 6 million pound pile of this stuff may lead to more than a large fast fire or may not.

[calex59]

76mm ammunition!? For what? An M4 Sherman tank? Surely this stuff hasn’t been there since WWII.

Actually the Sherman used a short barreled, low velocity 75M. The British took the Sherman and ripped out the 75 and replaced it with a long barreled 76 MM and they called the tank the Firefly. The new(for then)M24 light tank also had a 75 MM but was a long barreled high velocity gun. The M41 Bulldog that replaced the M24 had a high velocity 76 MM.

No reason for pointing this out except I sometimes like to show off, the older I get the more often the urge crops up. :)

[FreedomPoster]

Actually there were quite a number of Shermans built with the U.S. 76mm gun, as opposed to the British 76.2mm / 17 pounder used in the Firefly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman

[riverrunner]

I found the black powder substitutes easier to clean then Black powder.

Then one could shoot a savage like I do and use smokeless for a substitute and can go 50 60rounds at least with out the worry of cleaning or that sinky large foul smelling cloud of smoke.

[Squantos]

After sandia did the evaluation and investigation on the Iowa 16 inch gun accident long ago..... we went out to our range and disposed of the 20,000 plus pounds of the powder left over.

Each grain / pellet of powder for the old 16 inch guns was the size of a 8 gauge shotgun shell.....

Layed it out in a looooooong snake like pattern and tossed a couple of thermite grenades into the pile left at one end......

Bubbled the paint off the tailgate of the truck we tossed the grenades from before we could get away it went so fast and so hot.

Streams of powder were about a foot wide and 6 inches deep. But almost a mile long spirialing circle on our range.

You would have easily seen the results from your office. Quite the smoke and heat event on the backside of the manzanos and our butts as we left ate fast as our truck would run.....

Hot hot hot hoooot....

It was one of many, hold my beer , watch this moments in a long career in EOD .....

[Eaker]

Maybe you can get Slim to rub some salve on yer butt as you ain’t getting any help from me!

[Tijeras_Slim]

Was that before or after the AF tried to burn the East Mountains down?

[calex59]

True, but the 76 MM in American shermans only showed up towards the end of the war, after most Shermans had the sh** shot out of them trying to fight off Panthers and Tigers(mostly Panthers, Tigers were actually kind of rare, comparatively speaking)with their pitiful 75 MM. The firefly came along a lot earlier. Took American Brass a long time to realize our gun wasn't cutting it. To be fair though, the M4 Sherman was actually on a par with the Mark IV Panzer, the main German battle tank when we entered the war in Africa, and was better than the Mark III. The Mark IV, with their long tube, high velocity 75 MM, was able to hit our tanks at a greater distance than the M4 could hit the Mark IV and do damage but other than that they were closely matched, except for the fact the Sherman blew up so easily.

I often wondered why they didn't put a 76 MM in the M24 since by that time they knew our 75 wasn't much good against the Mark V and Mark VI, and the M24 was supposed to be a tank killer(as originally visualized) with their high speed used for a getaway after firing.

Side note: Most of the Shermans used in Korea also had 75 MM tubes still in use and were slaughtered by the upgraded T34s the North Koreans and Chinese used. Fortunately we had the M26 and later the M46 tanks in play by then.

[FreedomPoster]

So you’re saying you’d like to do the same with 6E6# of powder?

;-P

Maybe not.

[Squantos]

After...thems wuz PJ’s trainees that done burnt yer side of the Manzanos....

We neve let a fire off our range. Amazing what a few ford 350 dulies doing doughnuts over a grass fire can do to put said fire out.

Drifting and fire fighting EOD style....

Why won’t Eaker rub burn ointment on our butts anymore ? You make him mad ?......:o)

Stay Safe ya’ll....nite !

[a fool in paradise]

[buffaloguy]

I recently switched back to black powder from modern powder and I was amazed that it was so easy to clean up. I use it in a cartridge rifle and after the shooting session I simply poured 4 cups of water down the barrel and dried it and it was squeaky clean. 30 seconds to clean. No 132.00 per gallon Hoppes, just cold tap water. What a pleasure.

I am experimenting with .45-70 loads now that use filler and if what I am hearing is true, the filler will go a long way to keeping the barrel unfouled. I may go to a .45-90 later on and use the additional room for filler and a nice plug of lube.

[riverrunner]

You are right catridge arms are easer to clean then muzzle loaders.

I still shoot smokeless loads in my 45-70s.

I been using tripple 7 in my non smokeless muzzle loades cleans very easy to.

[deport]

Explosives plant clean-up disrupts Louisiana town