Chesh740R wrote:If the fire had happened. It would have been the casing that would have fired across the room not the actual round and unless you were standing pretty point blank range it would not be fatal.
If your feeling brave, Put the casing in a vice, Grab a nail and a hammer and fire the round!!!!!
Don't do that!!!!! But thats what kids that knew no better did in the 2nd world war.
In about 1987 or thereabouts a group of 14 yr old lads at the Judd Grammar School in Tonbridge in Kent found a couple of 0.303 rounds in one of the former WW2 underground bunkers that were on site used exclusivley by military personell and that had been exposed to the elements by the fabled '87 hurricane.
Now these lads were of an inquisitive frame of mind and happened to wonder if the rounds were live, and if indeed were still capable of being fired. Rather than hand them in, or suggest that a trial firing or these bullets in one of the School Cadet Forces Lee Enfield rifles it was felt that the best course of action was to wait until a chemistry lesson, hold a bullet in a set of tongs and place the bottom of the cartridge in the hot blue flame of a Bunsen Burner..........
Assuming the school chemistry labs haven't been refurbished (I hope not, they were good old fashioned solid affairs) there should still to this day be a large chunk missing from the 4" solid oak front desk and a large chip out of the frame of the old fashioned roll type blackboard. The hole in the wall got plastered over though.
Yes, I went to Judd School.
Yes, in 1987 I was 14.
Yes, I did explore the underground bunker.
Yes, I was present in that Chemistry lesson.
That's all I'm prepared to say without my lawyer present........