Olaf, for the sake of being specific and cautious I'd refer to those
items that are not loaded in cartridges as projectiles rather than
bullets. To the best of my knowledge (as a longtime shooter and
reloader of my own ammunition) the term bullet refers only to small
arms projectiles - 50 caliber or less - that are known to be
non-explosive. A projectile *could* be considered explosive or
frangible.
"Round" is the normal term for any size of military weapon. I agree
with your distinction of course.
Regarding whether any of this ordnance is live or dangerous, from
what I've seen, projectiles of 20mm or less are generally
non-explosive or non-frangible.
Not true I'm afraid. These 20mm are rounds from an aircraft's gun,
probably an F16 since the F15s were AD only in that part of Europe,
and the standard war fit for air-to-surface is a mix of HE and AP.
He AP is normally kinetically piercing, the HE is a little bomb.
However, it was unlikely that much, if any, of the rounds fired on
this very small range (in US terms) was HE. I don't recall there
ever being an HE target since we normally had to travel to another
range to have fun with our HE strafe (and fun it was!).
Primers and powders in unfired casings are another matter. Small
arms ammunition of 50 caliber or less have proven quite safe and
stable over many decades. At worst they simply won't fire even when
you want them to. But I don't know about the larger cartrdiges.
Linked ammunition like some of the samples you've photographed
typically contain non-explosive projectiles - but, again, I'm not
certain about your samples. Even many non-explosive rounds contain
tracers spaced apart at least every few rounds.
You're right to imply that care is needed.
Chris
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Chris Barker
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