Lookey What I Dug Up Today!

[2LaneCruzer]

I found 3/4 of a case of dynamite...with blasting caps.

I knew where it was, but when a neighbor said his son had ADHD I said, "well you don't want him to find this then", so I reached down in the floorboards and removed the dynamite and blasting caps. I threw it in my truck, and drove around with them for a week. But then my wife wanted dog food, so here I was at Walmart, a big white and red box that said "EXPLOSIVES" in huge letters on it in my front seat, so I could just picture coming out of Walmart with the police and Bomb Squad surrounding my truck. So I threw a sweatshirt over it, and figured I had better do something better with it then keep it in my truck.

So I threw it in the attic of my sheep shed.

After a few years I asked a friend who worked for the Bomb Squad what I should do with it, and he said, "DO NOT MOVE IT". I did not think it was that bad. The paperwork said it was made in 1983, so it was not that old.

So I just kept it there. Then I asked a good friend who was a police officer if he could find a way to get rid of it without having my name in the newspapers and on TV, and he said he could. As I was waiting for the ATF to show up, I thought, "I out to put that in an old car out in the woods or something so they do not freak out an blow up my sheep shed or something". The Maine State Police have a habit of blowing up people's homes around here (look up Maine State Police Blow Up Mans House in Dixmont if you question that).

But in the end the problem took care of itself. I did not know this, but rats LOVE nitroglycerin, so they got into the box over the years, and ate it. So its now gone, which is probably a good thing.

My Dad was in the aggregate business, and since they did a lot quarrying, he worked with dynamite a lot. He said that the nitro would separate in old dynamite, and I believe he said that it would also separate after being frozen. The nitro is very sensitive when separated, so he always disposed of it in those circumstances. I remember shooting sticks with a rifle to dispose of them.

 

[oosik]

My property is an old homestead from 1892. What do I find the most of ........ acres of old "flat barbed" barb wire and nails. I go out where the old homestead buildings were and pick nails - one day, every year. There wasn't a spike or nail that the homesteader didn't like.

Once I found an entire large box - 2'x2'x2' - full of old dry cell batteries of some type. There was never electricity here on the homestead. I think these old batteries powered a radio they had. No electricity, no phone, no inside plumbing.

 

[bunyip]

I had several old dynamite sticks that were leaking. I put them on a brush pile and hoped to see fireworks. Unfortunately all they did was burn.

We used to get rid of red cord like that, it was funny to watch everyone run away for cover as it just melted and burned like a piece of plastic tube.

 

[oosik]

Out early moose hunting and found a small shed with half a dozen cases of dynamite. Some type of mining operation that had closed down eons ago. The cases of dynamite had, what looked like, honey oozing out and running down the sides. Called & reported to the State Police when we got home from the hunt. They probably just blew it in place. It was a very remote location.

 

[Diggin It]

Digging a small trench for a drain line for a downspout. Too small for the BH, so doing it the old fashioned way. Hit something solid. Once I got it out, it looked like the metal top or bottom to some kind of can or container. The more I think of it, probably a battery tray off something ... tractor, truck, car ... who knows what, or how long it's been there.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I always got the impression that iron and steel scrap was of little value to the early settlers. I guess there was no facilty to recycle it and it was about as worthless to them as used plastic would be to me today.

 

[sixdogs]

I could be wrong but I've always heard that any cartridge detonated [tossed in fire] outside the gun is nothing to worry about. The brass is lighter than the lead so it just blows back and is essentially harmless.

I still think that and thought that when I was around 12 years old. I tossed a 22 blank into a campfire (OK, several) and they all went bang as the primer burned. Then I felt a pain on my cheek below my earlobe and the flow of blood. Uh-oh.

Off to the doctor and had to handle the embarrassment of "what did he do this time". He pulled out that brass case from my cheek. It missed my ear by not much. The doc fixed up up, no stitches, and told my mom "see you again soon". Scar is still there.