So I was watching the history channel Sunday

[Curt]

Or maybe it was the Military channel. The show was called Boneyards and they were at Anniston showing the rebuild and test firing section for small arms.
Then out of no where this woman is on and she is saying this machine we call "Captain Crunch" We have destroyed over 1 million weapons in the last ten years with her. I have heard of this machine. Then a guy started tossing a skid full of complete M16A1's into her.Then they picked the pieces out of the conveyor on the Back and melted every last little sight,pin and flash hider to a blob with a torch. "to make sure none of these pieces make it to the civillian market". Then they bragged about how much money they save rebuilding weapons.
I didn't feel so well and had to lay down for a while.

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[Bill Hollinger]

Those are our tax dollars hard at work! I'm witcha on this one fo sho!

[Curt]

The rest of the show was them de-milling Tanks,2 1/2 ton trucks ETC ETC, I didn't have any more interest in watching.

[M1 Rifleman]

Concerning the notorious "Captain Crunch", I've heard that several "employees" got rich selling parts taken off the arms before being sold. True or not, I cannot say.

I remember several years ago one of the "news magazines" did a story on arms destruction (I think it was during the klintoon years) and the selling of gun parts removed from the arms before being crunched. Can someone confirm?

[goo]

i would guess that's where m1 and m14 'parts kits' which ain't available no more, came from.
...
capt. crunch crunches other stuff, too,
...
http://www.aerialarchives.com/stock/img/AHLB3543.jpg
...
i wonder if b52 parts kits are still available

[Calif-Steve]

Exactly why they don't remove barrels and bolts for reuse is beyond me. This is not a recent development as they have been doing this for years. Many stories about crunching up flintlocks when base closures began. Excess flintlocks from the various post museums where crunched up. Nice.

[JimL]

Who wastes more than the U.S. Government?
Nobody

[Bill Ricca]

Nothing New. These come to mind:

1976 I crawled in an appox 10x12 ft room filled 3-4 inches with cut up XM16E1's, and XM177E1's.

Circa 1975/76 Rock Island released tons of Thompson stocks, all from cut up Thompsons.

Circa 1978 I saw two gondola cars filled with cut up BAR's (total rebuilds), and M2 Cal. .50 Aircraft Machine Guns.

Circa 1978 I saw one gondola car filled with cut up Riot and Trench shotguns.

Circa 1979-80 a friend/dealer sold me upper receivers, used, which came from a scrap yard of demilled M16A1's out of either Anniston or Crane, I do not remember which.


Letterkenny and several tons of cut up M1 Bayonets, M17 Gas Masks (Brand New), 03 Rifles, Helmets (Brand new steel pots) with a pick axe hole through them. I could go on and on.

[smle-man]

I believe it all comes down to accountability - both short and long term. Any weapon or weapon component has to be tracked, inventoried, secured, counted again, year after year. Rendered into scrap the whole process ends. When the government can just go out and buy more of what they need when they need it, why keep obsolete stuff around that has to be managed? Careers have ended for accountable officers who lost some weapons parts out of warehouses. The longer the stuff sits around the greater the quantity that grows legs and leaves. Long term no one wants to be the person who unknowingly sold a bunch of stuff off to jihadists, narco gangs or milita types via DRMO auctions only to have it show up on 20/20's expose' of the week. Much easier to demil it and be done with it. It hurts our hobby but if you look at it from the other side it makes perfect sense.

[Bill Ricca]

I have run into several items that were supposed to be demilled, but never were. I received a bid from Red River circa 1987/88 and in a bag were items which I will not go into. The items could have caused legal problems for somebody so I destoryed them.

They were in a plastic bag marked "can not identify". Yes it was the lazy civilian workers who did not want to demill them and then go thru the paperwork process certifying their destruction.

I visited the Industrial Home for the Blind in Brooklyn, in 1984/85. I was purchasing their M16 silents slings which were under contract. I saw a large quantity of women working on Helicopter Basket Straps, the safety straps that kept the wounded in the retrieval basket. Industrial Home for the Blind had a contract for several 10's of thousands. Government cost in those days was around $3.60 each.

At the exact same time they were being released at the Naval Facility in Mechanicsburg by the pallet. Average bid price was around 29 cents each.

Circa 1985 I bid on M84 Telescopes with M14 and M1C mounts attached in a facility in Washington state (I do not remember the name). I was not high bidder but managed to purchased them from the individual that got them. At the exact same time either Anniston or Red River (I do not remember which one) released several dozen, all cut up, demilled. I purchased them from a friend Hugh Brock from Georgia, who was the high bidder.

Circa 1975 I was told to hold onto any BAR Bipods, Carry Handles and Flash Hiders I had (I had none). My friend got information that approx. 2,000 1918's were found in storage. The government had to up grade them to 1918A2, and would be purchasing those items (in those days you could sell surplus back to the government, today it is next to impossible). The BAR parts were purchased, the guns were upgraded and then short thereafter came the order for them to be destroyed. I saw them cut up in pieces, in the Gondola car three years later. The same guy that told me to hold onto the parts was the guy who won the bid.

Having been in the surplus business since 1971, I could fill a book with stories that are hard to believe and go against any sense of reason.