It was always lively fun when the guy in the back seat tasked with chucking the lit M-80 out the window in the tunnel dropped it on the floor behind the driver. Or, better yet, in his lap...
Shooting the Anvil
- Thread starter Bekeart
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Feather the end of the (woven) fuse with a finger nail.
Never gave it a second thought.
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"Hold my beer and watch this"
My brothers and I did such sports as drop rocks on 22 shells, throw primers in camp fires, fill those hard cardboard tubes that were in the center of rolls of calculator paper with black powder, then graduated to pipe. Along the way there were a few minor mishaps. like cuts from flying brass or in the case of the wooden cannon and firecracker powder, some slivers. My stepfather finally took charge and educated us on how to use explosives. Launched some decent sized rocks quite a ways.
I have graduated from such foolishness
11" in length. 2" OD at breach firing .750 balls with 60 gr of holy black. But on holidays its just the black and a good wad of aluminum foil which doesn't go far. Solid boom though
I have graduated from such foolishness
11" in length. 2" OD at breach firing .750 balls with 60 gr of holy black. But on holidays its just the black and a good wad of aluminum foil which doesn't go far. Solid boom though
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That wheel is one piece? Beautiful.
Ya, the wheels are on piece except for the rims being slices of 6" pipe and having a brass insert for the center of the hubs.
Here is a shot of it after some stain, the brass taking on some patina, I also made brass castle nuts for the axles
Here is a shot of it after some stain, the brass taking on some patina, I also made brass castle nuts for the axles
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
Now THAT looks like fun!!!
We used to get drunk around the camp fire on hunting trips, somebody would throw a handful of .22's into the fire and yell "ammo in the fire" and we'd scatter.
Love those REAL M-80's and silver salutes-one could do damage with those. We had galvanized pipe cannons that we would load black powder in and shoot marbles at the brick school until we tried packing the powder and blew a hole clear through the brick, split the pipe and sent it skittering down the block. Thank God nobody was near or behind it when it went off. As a responsible adult I gravitated to safer things...like potato guns using White Rain hair spray as propellant. Can't wait until my grandson gets a few years older so I can build him his own potato gun
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NFrameFred
Member
We were always told " three second fuses . . . aren't "
Geee...I lived a sheltered life I guess. About as far as we went was smacking roll caps with a hammer.
Saw a kid in school put an M-80 in a toilet as his buddy flushed. That bathroom was closed for a few days.
I remember a aluminum container that held a fuel pill, that was ignited
by a rolled up fuse at it's base, that stuck out the back of the container
that acted as a small jet engine, that we could attach to our toy cars or big bulsa airplains, for a fun thing to do, when around ten years old.
by a rolled up fuse at it's base, that stuck out the back of the container
that acted as a small jet engine, that we could attach to our toy cars or big bulsa airplains, for a fun thing to do, when around ten years old.
OP
Jetex propulsion units
Jetex motors are powered by a solid pellet consisting mainly of guanidine nitrate, which burns to release an exhaust gas in large volume, leaving little solid residue. Thrust developed is modest and sustained, making it suitable for aerodynamically lifted flying models. The exhaust gas is not excessively hot, which confers a safety advantage.
More at:
Jetex - Wikipedia
There wer also the CO2 cartridges for propulsion
Bekeart
Jetex motors are powered by a solid pellet consisting mainly of guanidine nitrate, which burns to release an exhaust gas in large volume, leaving little solid residue. Thrust developed is modest and sustained, making it suitable for aerodynamically lifted flying models. The exhaust gas is not excessively hot, which confers a safety advantage.
More at:
Jetex - Wikipedia
There wer also the CO2 cartridges for propulsion
Bekeart
We took chances that in retrospect seem foolish yet had the foresight to take precautions and no person suffered injury nor did we destroy property. Hand held bottle rocket wars were chancy, but it taught us how to duck and cover.
The one really stupid thing I did was with a CO2 cartridge. No one had the spring loaded needle gizmo to pop the exhaust end so I held it in place in the road with my foot and popped it with a hammer and nail. Had no idea how fast and far that thing would go skipping down the street, by some miracle it managed not to go airborne or smack a parked car or house.
Never again, that one I left to the pros.
There was an Army Surplus store "Smith and Edwards" that sold large gunpowder pellets in bulk, 25cents a pound. They were about an inch long, quarter inch in diameter and had about dozen very small holes running through the entire length. We would take those and wrap in aluminum foil, put a point on one end and poke a hole in the other with a pin. Hold it with a pair of moms kitchen kitchen tongs and hold a match to the end with a hole, they would ignite and hiss off into the air, sometimes going quite far. We fooled with those things for hours, they were probably nitro smokeless cannon powder for all I know. We tried to make bombs but didn't have the equipment or know-how to use a threaded piece of pipe...Good Thing. There was a radical kid at school that somehow got his hands on dynamite, probably through his dad's business or somehow. He would sell quarter sticks with a fuse for more than I ever had to spend, maybe five bucks. A couple of my well heeled friends bought one and stuck it under an outdoor payphone on the shelf. They lit it and ran down the street where their car was waiting. It went off and lit the street up like daylight, flattening the phone booth. Unfortunately an off duty cop was on his way into the house and saw them running to a red V.W. It was a small enough town that they narrowed it down pretty quick. The next day one after the other got a visit from the F.B.I., they were good boys after that episode, their families were well connected...if it had been me they would still be piping sunshine to me somewhere.
Funny you mention that. We were at a World Series of Rock concert in the old Cleveland stadium in 1977 (I think). Kansas, Rolling Stones and a bunch of other bands. It was one of those day long affairs with the Stones playing last.
To make a long story short someone was lighting M-80's or Cherry Bombs in the bathrooms. The concert security came over the loudspeakers threatening to cancel the remainder of the show if it didn't stop.
I can't imagine the riot that would have ensued with the thousands of stoned, drunk and hallucinating kids in attendance, but it stopped.
We had been hearing the booms echo through the stadium, but we were on the infield, so we had no idea what they were doing.
Certain little things jog your memory.
My grandfather and his grandfather inadvertently did a similar number with a huge tree stump back in the 30s. The younger man had been summoned by the elder one to provide the physical labor, digging out a small chamber under the stump and chopping away at the major roots anchoring the stump, while his grandfather, who had handled explosives in the nearby coal mines, prepared the dynamite charge. After they were all set up, the older gentleman twice decided to add just a little more to the charge - just to be sure, mind you. By the time they were ready, they had attracted quite a crowd of neighbors surrounding the old man's big back yard. They lit the fuse and waited, making sure everyone stayed well back. When it blew, it really blew, sending the stump hundreds of feet, over the old man's house, across the street, over my grandfather's house, and down to the bottom on his terraced back yard. My grandfather's main concern afterwards had been how close the stump had landed to the new stone barbeque he had just finished, dreading my grandmother's probable reaction. The incident became a favorite story often told by my mom, my uncle, and my very numerous older cousins. The two gentlemen involved achieved a certain amount of undesired notoriety for their achievement.
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