Louisiana town evacuates; While Police Relocate Massive amounts of Explosives

[jtnf]

Zero.

Artillery propellant comes in bags. The shell is rammed into the rifling from the breach, and then the prescribed number of bags is put in behind it. Close the breach, put in a primer, connect the firing lanyard, and wait for the order.

Excess bags are dumped in a burn pit and set afire before the battery relocates, or whenever the pit gets full.

This stuff is just smokeless propellant, not an explosive, just a big version of what all reloaders on this forum have.

Jerry Miculek lives and shoots right next door. On a recent video, he commented about having to hurry to get his trick shot done before the smoke blew over his range.

That's all that is really required: lay it out in a line, and set it on fire.

I guess I simply assumed these were howitzer shells, not from the USS Iowa!

 

[KBCraig]

I guess I simply assumed these were howitzer shells, not from the USS Iowa!

I was describing howitzers: they have no "shells" (as we use the term in small arms), except for the 105mm, which uses "semi-fixed" ammunition. In a 105, the projectile isn't crimped into place. Upon receiving the fire mission, the crew lifts the projectile out of the case, pulls out the number of bags that won't be used, drop the projectile back into place to cut off the excess bags, attach the fuse and set its timing, verify everything, then load the assembled road and fire on command.

All other artillery loads the shell and powder separately. The most common artillery is the 155mm.

Here's a crew at work. You can see the shell being loaded and rammed by hand, seating it into the rifling, Then the powder charges are dropped in behind, and pushed into the breech. The breech block is closed, primer inserted, lanyard connected, and on command the gunner pulls the lanyard.

Tracked howitzers have hydraulic rams and use fewer crew members.