HA2 10.3 – Ammo Recycling
Residue of gun powder and dust from the lead were very dangerous when accumulating to certain level, especially if the accumulation took place in a closed space. Therefore, routinely cleaning indoor shooting range was a must even if the range was equipped with the best air conditioner money could buy.
Hide scheduled that shooting range in the workshop had to be cleaned every Saturday, and he would carry the first cleaning this Saturday. After teaching Takeo and Shizuka how to set the air conditioner to maximum level, Hide then gave them a quick explanation.
The black wall was consisted of bullet proof steel plate and 6 cm thick high-density black rubber. The steel plate would stop the projectile while the black rubber would trap and prevent it from bouncing back. In summary, Hide, Takeo and Shizuka had to use small tweezers to take the projectiles out of the black rubber. Then, they would use portable metal detector to check if they miss some projectiles.
After that, they would use leaf blower to ensure all lead dust was blown away to the air and then being sucked and expelled by air conditioner.
“Remember,” Hide calmly said, “Dust lead has strong poisonous attribute. If you inhale it or let it touches your skin, the poison will seep into blood vessel and reach your internal organ.
It will not kill you instantly. However, if it keeps accumulating, slowly but surely your internal organ will deteriorates. So, wear your safety suit, full-face mask, and rubber glove all the time.”
““Understood,”” Takeo and Shizuka replied at the same time.
“Let’s start then.”
Without delay, the three carried out the work. So far they only used a small portion of the black wall, so it was not a big work. After collecting a few projectiles that were grouping and overlapping at one area, Shizuka observed it for a moment before bringing it to Hide.
“Hide, which one is the lead?”
“The piece with grey color.”
“What about the shiny part that bloomed like a flower petal?”
“That’s the projectile jacket, made of brass like the cartridge for premium round, and made of cheaper alloy for military standard round.”
“Projectile jacket?”
“Yes,” Hide casually replied, “The ammo we use is full metal jacket round. Basically, it’s a lead core that being wrapped around by projectile jacket.”
“I thought projectile is made only of lead,” Takeo said as he observed remains of a projectile in his palm.
“First generation projectile is made only of lead alloy, usually by casting it into a mold, while modern projectiles have its lead core being wrapped by jacket made of brass or other material. There is also some latest model that doesn’t use lead to ensure the projectile is environment friendly. This leadless projectile is being referred as green ammo.”
“What is the different between jacketed and non-jacketed projectile?” Shizuka curiously asked.
“Jacketed projectile is more lethal. You can design it to expand, split, or fragment when it hit its target. The basic idea is to create a bigger shock, bigger wound cavity and speed up the blood lost.”
Shizuka nodded and said, “I see.”
Around thirty minutes later, the three had collected all trapped projectiles in the black wall and blew away the remains of dust lead. Then, Hide took some kind of black flour from storage room and mixed it with hot water until it turned into thick black glue.
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“Hide, what is it?” Takeo asked while curiously observed the black glue.
“It’s the compound that formed the black rubber on the wall,” Hide calmly replied.
“How do we apply it?”
“Patch it to the area we want to fix, until it becomes smooth and free of holes.” Hide turned his gaze to Takeo before asking, “Can you do it?”
“I can.”
“Good.” After he handed over a spatula to Takeo, Hide turned his gaze to Shizuka, “Let’s mop the floor.”
“Do you mean this entire freaking huge floor?”
“Yes, this entire freaking huge floor.”
“Okay.”
Without delay Hide and Shizuka took mopping equipment from kitchen and started their work in silence. When Takeo finished applied the black glue to the wall, without many words he joined the work of mopping the freaking huge floor.
Once everything was done, Hide set the shooting range’s temperature to 32 degree Celsius for eight hours. It was to make the black glued dried faster. Then, he took Shizuka and Takeo to firearm workshop. It’s time to introduce them to ammo recycling class.
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In the firearm workshop, Hide, Takeo, and Shizuka gathered in a small space at a corner. Hide stood next to a whiteboard while Takeo and Shizuka sat in front of him.
Without further ado Hide opened the class, “As I have told you two days ago, today I will teach you how to recycle remains of ammo we use.”
“Wait a second,” Shizuka raised her hand before nervously asked, “Hide, are you sure you want to teach me too? I’m sucks at technical stuff.”
“No worry. Ammo recycling is not rocket surgery. You will do just fine.”
“Okay. If you say so,” Shizuka obediently said.
Hide then calmly continued, “Actually, knowing how to clean the shooting range is the first menu in ammo recycling. So, you have already started your journey as ammo recycler when we clean the range.”
While Takeo and Shizuka nodded their head, Hide put a big picture of main components that formed a 9x19 mm Para on the whiteboard. Then, he pointed it one by one.
“Cartridge, primer, gun powder, and projectile. Put it together and you will have a piece of ammunition. If you put it together automatically using machine, we call it factory-load ammo. If you put it together manually using loading equipment, we call it hand-load ammo.
Now, give me your best guess, which component is the most expensive to produce?”
“The projectile,” Takeo calmly replied.
“Nope, other than armor piercing round, projectile is not the most expensive component.”
“The cartridge,” Shizuka hesitantly guessed.
“Correct,” Hide calmly said, “Producing cartridge manually is very time consuming, while to mass produce it using machine requires cutting edge technology. Also, the basic material is expensive so produce it in a small batch is economically not feasible.
However, if we have used-cartridge, all we have to do is re-sizing, annealing, and cleaning it, and we will have shiny and ready-to-use cartridge. This type of recycling will cut the production cost for more than a half.”
“So, the first step is to re-size the cartridge?” Takeo asked.
“Yep,” Hide then took three pieces of used-cartridge and arranged it in his palm before continuing, “As you can see, each cartridge has different length. Its lips also slightly deformed, and even if you can’t see it with naked eye, the main body actually also has slightly different diameter. This expansion is the result from heavy pressure when the ammo is being fired.”
“Is every cartridge always expanded after being fired?” Shizuka curiously asked.
“Yeah, the manufacture makes it that way.”
“Why do they do that?”
“Cartridge is the component that seals the firing chamber when the gun is fired. Its expansion will maximize this purpose,” Hide calmly explained. “If it is not for the amazing resilience of the cartridge case, you will get a blast of hot gas in your face every time you pull the trigger.
“I see,” Shizuka said while nodded her head.
“For the 9 mm round we use, the expansion can go up to 0.04 mm before it return closely to its original diameter. Actually, even if you don’t re-size its diameter, it will still fit to the firing chamber that fired it. However, there is a high possibility it will not fit to firing chamber of other gun. That’s why we have to re-size it back to its original diameter.”
““Okay,”” Takeo and Shizuka replied at the same time.
“Now, before we re-size it, we have to take the primer cup out.”
Without delay Hide then showed the method to take primer cup out. It was pretty simple. He used a handheld device that would hold the cartridge, and when he squeezed the handle a small rod would enter the cartridge until it pushed the primer cup out of primer pocket.
“Store the primer cup properly before you continue with the next step,” Hide said as he put the primer cup into a container.
Then, Hide lubed the lower half of the cartridge before putting it into sizing die. After that he pulled the lever until it reached the lowest position. This process would put the cartridge’s diameter from the neck, shoulder, and down to its base back to its original size. However, the neck would still be slightly longer than its original size. It also would become slightly thicker.
Therefore, the cartridge’s neck would need a touch of turning and trimming. Hide used a device called case trimmer to carry this work. It’s an electric-powered device where the user could set how deep the trimming should be done, so Hide finished the work in matter of seconds.
“That’s how we do the re-size step,” Hide said as he showed the result of his work to Takeo and Shizuka.
As he took the cartridge from Hide’s hand and checked it with his finger Takeo said, “It’s a pretty smooth.”
“Yup.”
“How many times we can re-size a cartridge?” Takeo asked without turning his eyes from cartridge in his hand.
“Generally,” Hide calmly explained, “A cartridge is no longer serviceable because of two main reasons. First, its neck becomes too thin from repeated sizing and trimming. You can detect it by simply looking and touching it. Your accumulated experience will tell you that the cartridge is not ‘right’, and it’s time to melt and remanufacturing it from scratch.
Second, you find a split on its neck. Usually, you will spot the split when you collect the cartridge after firearm training. If you find this kind of cartridge, just threw it straight to remanufacture procedure.
As for how many times we can re-size a cartridge, it entirely depends on its quality. For our 9 mm round, as far as I know we can re-size it 6-8 times.”
“I see,” Takeo calmly said.
“Well, let’s divide the task.” Hide paused for a moment before continuing, “Shizuka, your share is to take the primer cup out of the primer pocket.”
“Okay.”
“Takeo, uses the sizing die to squeeze the cartridge back into its original dimension.”
“Roger.”
“As for me, I will do the trimming.”
““Okay.””
Wasting no time Hide, Takeo, and Shizuka started the work to.
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