This story was reported in the Dominion Post, NZ Herald and in Stuff.co.nz.
The New Zealand Defence Force bought $590,000 worth of bullets for the army’s Steyr rifles, despite the manufacturer warning they were useless. The stock of 5.56mm ball ammunition had worked well in the past, but when the manufacturer changed the alloy content, they could no longer be fired accurately because the bullets disintegrated as they came out of the barrel, the Dominion Post reported.
Army spokesman Kristian Dunne said the ammunition was bought for use on the Ardmore range, south of Auckland and their reduced range overcame the danger that a ricochet would fall outside the safety zone.
I don’t know about you, but the way I read that, the bullets are supposed to be safer on a short target range. But because they disintegrate they are inaccurate. Yet the army sold the 1,284,220 rounds of ammunition to Gun City in Christchurch for between $300,000 and $350,000, meaning a loss of around $240,000. Gun City director David Tipple said he had sold a large quantity of the ammunition to a United States wholesaler and kept the rest. I doubt that either Gun City or the US wholesaler intend to use the bullets as ornaments.
Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said the army’s decision to sell the ammunition was appropriate and the best way to minimise the cost to the taxpayer.
Someone please tell me that the NZ Army has not sold sub-standard, potentially dangerous ammunition to a dealer, to be sold on to public purchasers in NZ or overseas. All for no better reason than to minimise the loss they would suffer as a result of incompetent purchasing. Please please convince me that is not true. Please convince me that the Dominion, NZ Herald and “Stuff” have been guilty of shoddy journalism and failures in sub-editing.
Because right now, I am disgusted with what the Dominion, Herald and “Stuff” reports appear to reveal about the army and the Minister of Defence.
References:
NZ Herald Article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10634190
Stuff.co.nz article: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/latest-news/3502207/Army-off-target-with-590-000-of-dud-bullets
3 Comments
The ammo is saqfe to use – it is just unsuitable to use in the Army rifles because the rifling in their barrels spin them too fast and they come apart in the air after leaving the barrel.
Most civilian rifles are older and have slwer twist rifling so the bullet are not spun as fast. They do not disintergrate when fired from the correct type of barrel.
The bullets are not as strong so they will break up when they hit the ground – as a safety feature to prevent them bouncing off the ground and out of rifle ranges.
They are weak enough so they come apart if spun too fast.
But are perfectly safe to fire from suitable civilian firearms.
Hmmm. I guess this means that they are specifically designed for target practice and therefore unsuitable as live military ammunition.
So they are simply a bad batch, unfit for the purpose of target ammo for miltary rifles. Already there are two degrees of separation from the army’s stewardship of the bullets – the NZ dealer and now the American one. And I am left with two questions:
Presumably they are still unsuitable for the newer civilian rifles that have a spin rate comparable to the Steyrs, so isn’t there still some risk?
Acciidants happen. If the the bullets are used for hunting, what happens on impact with an animal (or a man)?
I don’t like this one bit, I nearly bought an ammo box of this ammo on trademe. They are selling it for $750 for 1000 rnds. No mention of being sub standard ammo. They also selling it in Hunting and Fishing for $40 for 50rnd boxe’s. I’ve got a newer type hunting rifle and not sure if it this stuff works with my rifle. But they should state where it come from. Check out Gun city site under 223 ammo.
Gun City has just received a small shipment of 223 ammo at a great price!
It has been years since we have seen High Quality FMJ 223 ammunition for sale in New Zealand at such a great price.
Top quality manufacture, made in 2006 by Fabrique National in Belgium (Headstamp FNB) (FN is part of the famous Browning company)
What a rip off, Gun city and Hunting and Fishing. Shame on you!!!!