Grenade Found in Private Yard

"A day of landscaping turned into a frightening situation for a man in Thornton when he dug up a live grenade in his backyard. 

Thornton Police had to set up a perimeter around Travis Moore's home on Carrol Court on Wednesday night. The Adams County Bomb Squad responded to the scene and removed the explosive.

Moore says he and his neighbors have no idea who put the grenade in his backyard or why. He and his wife have only lived in the home for about three weeks."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: 9 News, Denver

Montana Bullet Finders

"Blue Mountain probably wasn't named for all the blue grenade rounds in its grasslands, but it could have been.

Blue was the color indicating a practice load for military training exercises that took place for 50 years on the mountainside south of Missoula. This week, guys in bright yellow vests are prowling the recreation area looking for those old munitions and perhaps more dangerous explosives.

"This is one of the suspect areas we're definitely going to investigate," said Weston Solutions project supervisor Rick Logsdon, who leads the dozen-man unexploded ordnance team."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Michael Gallacher / Missoulian

WWII UXO on UK Beach

"A novice metal dectoristist had the shock of his life when he dug up an unexploded WW2 bomb instead of treasure.

Colvyn Gillmon, 46, discovered the mortar bomb whilst out searching for hidden gold or metal artefacts near to Dorchester Cemetery on Saturday afternoon.

It was only the second time the Dorchester man had used his metal detector."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Steve Greaves

Afghan IED Mentoring

"The explosive hazard reduction course at Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest, here, allows coalition forces instructors teach members of the Afghan National Security Forces the fundamentals of identifying and countering improvised explosive devices.

The course prepares members of the Afghan National Army, uniformed police and border police to operate in a partnership role with coalition forces when IEDs are encountered, the basics of insurgent IED tactics and how to handle and eliminate unexploded ordnance and munitions."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Petty Officer 1st Class Gino Flores

There's Dynamite in the Desert

"A 26-year-old treasure hunter thought he hit the motherlode when he found a 30- to 40-year-old briefcase in the East Valley desert Wednesday and took it home.

'He takes it home and opens it up and finds papers in there and dynamite,' said Chris Hegstrom, a Maricopa County Sheriff's spokesman. 'It appears to have been from the late 70s and 80s.'"

Read more HERE.

MD + Smartphone = Minefinder

"While mine-clearing protocols have improved substantially since World War II, the technology used to locate buried landmines has changed little: De-miners use metal detectors to find and identify mines. On a battlefield strewn with metal debris, differentiating lethal mines from benign cans, wires, and casings is enormously time consuming.

Now, computer scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have designed an elegant system that ties in smartphones to assist humanitarian de-miners by augmenting the information supplied by their metal detectors. Their system, known as pattern enhancement tool for assisting land mine sensing (PETALS), and which will be presented at this week’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, takes de-mining advances in a new direction."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Justin Ide / Harvard Staff Photographer

Filey Beach UK Grenade

"A WORLD War II hand grenade has been removed from a North Yorkshire beach, allowing holidaymakers to resume their Bank Holiday activities.

The south side of Filey beach was cordoned off and evacuated after the unexploded weapon from was found near Royal Parade at about 11am.

It was unearthed by a member of the public using a metal detector."

Read more HERE.

Pennsylvania UXO Search

"For about 20 years, Marty Holmes has meticulously walked over thousands of acres of woods and fields armed with nothing but a fancy metal detector.

It's not for fun, like a beachcomber looking for buried treasure. It's a chance for him to possibly save lives.

Holmes is an 'unexploded ordnance specialist,' part of a team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that scours land that could contain old ammunition buried deep underground after decades of neglect. The team will find, flag and safely remove unexploded ordnance."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Keith R. Stevenson / Pocono Record

TEEX Wounded Warrior UXO Demo

"Tyler Sloan's five-year career in the U.S. Army ended in 2006 when he was shot in the stomach by a sniper while patrolling in Mosul, Iraq.

He fell unconscious and woke up seven days later at Walter Reed Medical Center. His injuries included damaged nerves in his right leg, which caused him to lose feeling in his foot and eventually required its amputation.

That left him searching for a new job. He considered deep sea diving, underwater drilling and becoming a pilot, but none of them worked out."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: TEEX

UK Authorities Urge Hobbyist to Leave UXOs

Authorities across the UK are urging hobbyists throughout the country to leave any ordinacne found during your activities to leave it in the ground, and alert the proper officials by calling 999 and have them deal with it.

A recent rash of our hobby peers have been coming into police stations with hands or bags full of firearm rouds, and even things like grenades seeing disposal.

Here are a couple recent articles about the issue:
Article 1
Article 2