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| S, charcoal and KNO3 was used for black powder, e.g. muzzle loading and colonial era gun powder. When burned it would turn to sulfur oxides and carbon oxides, along with various potassium/sulfur compounds and free nitrogen, gasses or very fine particles according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder. The smoke would stay in the air and wander off with any slight or strong breezes. It wouldn't settle to the soil unless dissolved by rain to make sulfuric acid, and some potassium sulfide, components of acid rain from power plant fumes burning sulfurous coal very hot.
Thing is black powder hasn't been used much for shotgun shells for quite some time because its messy and corrosive. Modern shells, I think use a nitro cellulose mixture that burns cleaner and corrodes less. But in either case the combustion products are gasses and spread through the atmosphere, they don't fall out much. Modern smokeless gun powders are varied, hard to tie down the composition but most of the combustion products are gasses, with few particulates and so won't settle, but will stay in the air. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokeless_powder
Likely its the lead shot that have poisoned the ground, might need a miner's assay to see if there's enough lead to recover.
Then I'm sure that clay pigeons have varied in composition over the decades and there may be chunks of them present to poison the soil. Recovery may be very difficult.
Gerald J. | |
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How do I fix this problem area? (Old shooting range)
