“I even collected metal from the missiles but couldn’t find anyone to buy it,” says Myrhorod. “I’m 30 years old. I’ve got legs and arms, but nobody wants them.”
From missiles it’ll be mostly aluminium. $1500 a tonne for scrap, maybe, about? Not many buyers in an actual war zone, to be fair, but definitely worth piling up in a courtyard for when it’s over.
The actual thing that’s worth tons of money is the brass scrap from fired bullets and shells – the cartridges. There’s actually a whole specialist little industry segment that deals with it.
Has to be specialist because, of course, before you put it into a furnace you’ve got to really know, know know know, that it’s expended and not merely a misfire.
Is depleted uranium very valuable ?
We always had to collect all spent cartridges after a range day. Occasionally a fatigue party would be put together to sift the sand behind the targets.
As you say, valuable stuff.
‘Is depleted uranium very valuable ?’
Given the way the woke scream about the necessity of sealing the stuff away from the environment for millions of years, I’d guess not Otto.
I think – I think – it’s about $10 per kg. Shells that have been used tend to be in little droplets, a mist – that’s the purpose of them. The energy of the hit melts it, burns through the armour and, well, makes a mess really. There was one guy who made golf clubs – drivers – out of it……
The cases to contain the radioactive Iridium pills used in industrial radiography are made of depleted Uranium. Clue: “depleted”.
There was one guy who made golf clubs – drivers – out of it……
Pretty embarrasing if the head came off and blew up the 13th green.
I was just wondering whether there was much kicking around Ukraine and if it was worth collectting .
Cartridge brass is not actually THAT valuable, although it’s a nice little earner if you’re getting it for free. About $3 a pound, or $6000 per (short) ton. Most small-arms cartridges, the effect of accumulated water in the case is much-more hazardous than the odd live round.A live rifle round just goes ‘pfart’, but a case full of water blows molten brass quite a long way . . .
later,
llamas
. . . know, that it’s expended and not merely a misfire.
Do people really remove the projectile from misfired ammunition and retain the cartridge?
A very courageous decision, minister.
Placer gold mining equipment works quite well for recovering depleted uranium. A local military range used dry washing equipment to recover DU and clean up the target areas. Recovered gold nuggets are a bonus.
PJF
I’ve forgotten his name now, but there was a well known WW1 historian who blew himself up doing just that in his shed.
Pretty sure the 5.45×39mm used in those AK74’s is a steel cased round. So not much brass to be recycled.
(Depleted uranium) Shells that have been used tend to be in little droplets, a mist – that’s the purpose of them. The energy of the hit melts it, burns through the armour and, well, makes a mess really. There was one guy who made golf clubs – drivers – out of it……
DU shells are a penetrator. It’s not only the mass of the DU aids penetration but DU is self sharpening. It keeps a point rather than blunting or shattering. It’s also inflammable & what penetrates the armour is damned hot. Tim’s thinking about HEAT which has a shaped charge & copper cone forms a plasma jet.
Llamas is entirely correct about what happens to bullets chucked on a fire. Without the chamber of a gun to support it, when the propellant burns the case just splits & phut. So removing that plot twist from action movies where our hero has concealed bullets in the baddies cooking fire & they’ve succumbed to flying lead. The smell of sulphur doesn’t do the taste of their bacon much good though.
DU shells are a penetrator. It’s not only the mass of the DU aids penetration
Fnarr fnarr.
“I wasnt looking at porn, I was reading up about depleted uranium artillery…”
A quick google has reminded me that the US at least has used DU as armour. So I suppose there might be some worth picking up to sell after all.
As for toxicity, Argonne states that chemically it’s much the same as lead. Or indeed other heavy elements. The radioactivity is of course low.
BiS: that seems unlikely at first glance. The reason for using brass is so it expands and seals things, then contracts enough to be extracted. There may be an alloy of iron that does that, but I think it would be unusual.
Admittedly I am an expert in neither metallurgy nor guns, so I could certainly be wrong.
@M – no, the old Soviet-bloc and Chinese-bloc countries and their successors have made steel-cased ammunition very successfully, most notably for their 7.62 and 5.45 assault rifles, but for many others
as well. The surplus-ammunition market is full of this stuff. They consider slightly-degraded obturation due to the lower ductility of steel vs brass to be acceptable, and they design the chambers of these weapons to use this ammunition. The old Soviets were also real experts at hard-chroming chambers and bores, to optimize performance with steel cases. It’s probably not the best idea to use these in Western weapons that you care about, although everything that’s to SAAMI spec is likely fine, and Soviet- and Chinese-bloc weapons using these cartridges are likely not what you’d call collector’s pieces anyway.
llater,
llamas