45,000 live rounds found in UK

**spotter** · 04-26-2011, 11:15 AM

At the back end of last year and the begining of this year myself and two others were tasked to recover a cache of ammunition that had been found during routine soil sampling at a former chemical bomb filling site.We found around 45,000 rounds one of the largest finds of live ammo in the uk..The rounds were all american or canadian manufacture and consisted of 20mm,30.06, 303,and 9mm As you will see from my photos the stuff was coming out by the bucket full ,The mod finally released a press article so i can now show you some more pics of the job,,
press article here 45,000 rounds of live ammunition found in field near Thorganby (From York Press)

**no man army** · 04-26-2011, 11:32 AM

and thats how you complete an ammunition collection in one day :P thats an impressive amount of ammo

**darrenj40** · 04-26-2011, 11:46 AM

A lot of brass allright...great pictures..

**Steve T** · 04-26-2011, 12:01 PM

Spotter

Truly amazing. Those 20mms must have caused a little concern I would think !

I expect that the MOD had the whole lot destroyed didn't they? A shame but totally understandable given the age and type of cartridges found. Pity some couldn't have been saved though......

**sighs**

Steve T

PS Excellent work again Spotter. You have a job that has probably saved a number of lives without people even realising you guys exist. Hats off to you !

**Gary J** · 04-26-2011, 12:11 PM

I bet some of them 20mm's very quite nasty to handle .... HE Heads !

Gary J.

**spotter** · 04-26-2011, 04:10 PM

Hi Gary ref the 20mm they were SAPI (semi armour piercing incendiery) Yes they have all been sent for destruction,,apart from one which strangely the projectile broke off

**Nordland/Danmark** · 04-26-2011, 04:28 PM

LOL

strangely the projectile broke of!!! Yea I think we all know what you meen.. That can happen to all that finde somthing like that

**Whitehunter** · 04-26-2011, 05:57 PM

Cracking pictures thanks for sharing

**sitges1990** · 04-26-2011, 08:28 PM

With the cost of 30-06 ammo today, I might have given some of your mud rounds a go. Insane find, thanks for posting.

Jay

**m3bobby** · 04-26-2011, 10:18 PM

And theres bound to be more and worse out there. I did a task at RAF Bowes moor about 10 years back clearing mustard gas bombs, the whole place stinks of Bleach, a by product of the lime used to burn the bombs. We did find a live 500LB bomb in the farmers lean too, he dragged it there with his tractor!!