Small arms ammunition is relatively stable, and the suggestions made to date
are all good ones.

While I am hardly an expert on ordnance explosives, I have had to handle it
over the 29 years I was an army officer and I would like to add a further
warning to what's been said.

A more serious problem exists with larger artifacts, such as hand grenades,
mines and artillery shells, where the content is a HIGH explosive, such as
picric acid, TNT or a derivative, rather than a LOW explosive propellant. Most
propellants, such as cordite, can be handled with relative safety, even after
many years, due to their chemical composition and the presence of a binding
agent, though the latter is itself flammable/explosive.

Over time, high explosives become notoriously unstable and must be handled with
GREAT care. On the bus going to the museum this morning, I was discussing the
matter with the staff officer responsible for ordnance explosives disposal for
the Canadian Forces.

A colleague from the W.A. Maritime Museum in Fremantle had described, in her
recent (and VERY fascinating!) catalogue of shipwrecks off Perth, W.A., the
wreck of a munitions ship which went down in 1942 with a large cargo of 6"
naval projectiles. These are now covered by several feet of sand and I was
curious as to how long my military colleague thought it would take such
ammunition, under such conditions, to become unstable to the point where
handling was potentially dangerous. His reply was that their location and
storage was relatively unimportant, but that, by now, the high explosive filler
in the shells had reached the point where handling was NOT a good idea.

PLEASE - if you discover this kind of material in your collection, do NOT
handle or move it, especially if it is WW II vintage or older. Call the
experts. Yes, it IS possible to remove the explosive filler, render the fuze or
primer inactive, etc., but it is NOT something YOU should attempt to do.

Bear in mind that the French army still maintains an ordnance disposal unit
that does nothing but dispose of this kind of material from WW I, which is
still working its way out of the ground. As several people have pointed out,
help is almost always close at hand. Use it.

When I was a boy living in Quebec City, there was always the odd damned fool
who couldn't stay out of the then disused artillery range at nearby Camp
Valcartier and who blew himself up (or parts off his person!) attempting to
handle unexploded shells ("blinds"). It was, indeed, where I first noticed how
much the visitors ignored the signage.

Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum