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Posted: 3/6/2013 5:35:00 PM EDT
| So, I got a little bored today (snowstorm and all) and dug out my wifes digital food scale and some blackpowder. Well, as I'm sure all of you know that I didn't, 1/4 ounce is nothing! I couldn't even fill half a shot glass. My question is this: Obviously, .50 BMG and 20 mm (both non DDs) have more than half a shot glass of powder, how do they get around the 1/4 ounce rule? |
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Quoted: So, I got a little bored today (snowstorm and all) and dug out my wifes digital food scale and some blackpowder. Well, as I'm sure all of you know that I didn't, 1/4 ounce is nothing! I couldn't even fill half a shot glass. My question is this: Obviously, .50 BMG and 20 mm (both non DDs) have more than half a shot glass of powder, how do they get around the 1/4 ounce rule? There are different types of explosive compounds. Also smokless powder is a propellent not a low grade explosive like black powder. |
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The relevant part of the 26 U.S.C. ยง 5845(f) definition of a "destructive device" reads as follows:
(1) any explosive, incendiary, or poison gas, (A) bomb, (B) grenade, (C) rocket having a propellant charge of more than 4 ounces, (D) missile having an explosive charge of more than 1/4 ounce, (E) mine or (F) similar device.
As you can see, the 1/4 ounce threshold on the explosive (bursting) charge relates only to a "missile" under (D). 1/4 oz or less in a "missile" is OK; over that and you have a destructive device. (This is the bursting charge, not the propellant charge. For the propellant charge, see (C) above.) There is no explosive threshold for a "bomb," "grenade," "mine," etc. Any amount of explosive at all in these makes them destructive devices. (I think the 1/4 ounce refers to a spotting charge in a tracer-type projectile.) |
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