When I was a kid
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did you ever?
When I was a little adventuresome whippersnapper before and during the #2, BIG WAR, me and some other young enthusiastic friends would do a lot of experimenting with things that would burn, go bang and generally be extremely dangerous but we survived somehow. Any of those things that we used to do would now give you a one way ticket to the ironbar hotel for life. For the safety of any adventuresome kids looking at this site, I`ll not say just what it was that we did that was so much FUN.
Old Man Lived on the edge and still has all of his extremities intact.
When I was a little adventuresome whippersnapper before and during the #2, BIG WAR, me and some other young enthusiastic friends would do a lot of experimenting with things that would burn, go bang and generally be extremely dangerous but we survived somehow. Any of those things that we used to do would now give you a one way ticket to the ironbar hotel for life. For the safety of any adventuresome kids looking at this site, I`ll not say just what it was that we did that was so much FUN.
Old Man Lived on the edge and still has all of his extremities intact.
And seatbelts weren't worn in fear if there was a crash you'd be able to escape a fire easier.
The good old days. You at least had your fate in your own hands and not the Government's.
Damn lawyers!
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Any chance that before you did this you used to be known as 2 EYES ?
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lol
I used to make black powder cannons that fired marbles and, preferably, fishing weights. I then evolved to making .28 Gauge shotguns and eventually .12 Ga (that's were things got interesting). I tried making pistol ctg guns, but could never work out the rifling - so I tried with a Uzi barrel.
Fertile young minds and brave parents make a good combination.
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almost blinded
Shooting the back of a 12 gauge sent the primer cap into my cheekbone that had to be surgically removed. Not one of my brighter moments.
Shooting the back of a 12 gauge sent the primer cap into my cheekbone that had to be surgically removed. Not one of my brighter moments.
Hand canons.
Steel bike pump housing, A penny bunger (cracker) with the wick threaded thrue the little hole in the back, newspaper, marble, more newspaper. Good fun until a slow learner loaded up a plastic pump housing. What a friggin mess it made of his hand and right ear. chester.
Steel bike pump housing, A penny bunger (cracker) with the wick threaded thrue the little hole in the back, newspaper, marble, more newspaper. Good fun until a slow learner loaded up a plastic pump housing. What a friggin mess it made of his hand and right ear. chester.
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I found Pappy's stash of Pyrodex once. I loaded up one of my model rockets, sent it up, and had a hard time hearing for a week or so. Those model rocket engines have three stages: first is the take-off, then there's a cruise stage, then there's a little charge that blows the top and sends out the parachute. However, in this case I had replaced the parachute with about enough Pyrodex to fill the gap between the engine and the nose cone (a cylinder about 4-6" long and roughly 3/4" across).
It sure looked cool, though!
It sure looked cool, though!
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How did I survive to adulthood?
Although I got a bit more involved by using a length of gas pipe as a barrel and a huge wad of Blu-Tac instead of tape. As the Blu-Tac isn't terribly solid, I had to hold the barrel and BB gun together when I touched it off, which I now realise is insanely stupid
It got to the point where I could actually -hit- stuff with the resulting haze of shot, although I sometimes had to rummage through the bushes looking for my "barrel"......
Nope, I did more or less the same thing too back home in the UK.
Although I got a bit more involved by using a length of gas pipe as a barrel and a huge wad of Blu-Tac instead of tape. As the Blu-Tac isn't terribly solid, I had to hold the barrel and BB gun together when I touched it off, which I now realise is insanely stupid
It got to the point where I could actually -hit- stuff with the resulting haze of shot, although I sometimes had to rummage through the bushes looking for my "barrel"......
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313 Posts
We would take a piece of pipe put a cap on one end and drill a hole in it. Take a firecracker
put the wick thru the hole and fill the pipe with anything handy. Not to smart, but at 10 years old a lot of fun.
put the wick thru the hole and fill the pipe with anything handy. Not to smart, but at 10 years old a lot of fun.
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When I was a youngin, my father got us transferred to NJ. Well no fire works and my father was not into guns. Well being bright kids we went to the pharmacy and got a large jar of potassium nitrate. Luckily my father approved and gave us a little guidance (like don't mix the ingredients in the pedestal and then powder them). We were soon into blowing every thing we could up and making our own rockets. My father once made a mistake about mentioning powdered aluminum as a rocket fuel and that is when the fun really began. The local ducks were never the same after a few of our "failed" launches.
If it could burn we burned it, if it could be blown up, it was, if it could be burned and blown up, well that was the best
If it could burn we burned it, if it could be blown up, it was, if it could be burned and blown up, well that was the best
A friend and I found some old .303 rounds in his dad's garage, pulled the bullets, burned the powder, then taped the primed brass on the ends of our BB guns. The primer came back and destroyed the end of the barrel.
Another guy I know (old enough to know better- he was retired at the time, he's gone now) sat a shotgun shell on a fence post and shot it with his pellet rifle. He had to make a trip to the hospital to have the primer surgically removed from his arm.
The fun we used to have. The things I did as a kid that my kids will not be allowed to do. I'm no safety nazi, but I put my foot down when it comes to "fun" that can kill you.
I would say it's amazing we all survived, but some didn't. The difference between a close call that everyone laughs at and a terrible tragedy is often a very fine line.
Another guy I know (old enough to know better- he was retired at the time, he's gone now) sat a shotgun shell on a fence post and shot it with his pellet rifle. He had to make a trip to the hospital to have the primer surgically removed from his arm.
The fun we used to have. The things I did as a kid that my kids will not be allowed to do. I'm no safety nazi, but I put my foot down when it comes to "fun" that can kill you.
I would say it's amazing we all survived, but some didn't. The difference between a close call that everyone laughs at and a terrible tragedy is often a very fine line.
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While growing up in NJ, a couple of mental midgets I went to school with had this bright idea. (Mind you, this was years before the popularity of paintball.) They would remove the shot from 12 guage shotshells & replace them with wads of toilet paper, then procede to have their own wargames shooting wads of toilet paper at each other out of their shotguns. Neighbors called the cops on them and of course it made the local small town newspaper. When interviewed about the potential hazards of shooting wads of toilet paper at each other, the police chief said (and this is a direct quote - still remember it to this day) "at close range, toilet paper can be deadly."
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Well, if we're going to talk about fun going wrong, one of my brothers mangled his left hand and legs making PETN or something of the sort... but he always took things several steps further.
One time he made a glucose based composite that would attract flies, and was so sensitive that it'd detonate when the insect would land on it. That was some crazy stuff.
(none of this was in the U.S.)
One time he made a glucose based composite that would attract flies, and was so sensitive that it'd detonate when the insect would land on it. That was some crazy stuff.
(none of this was in the U.S.)
My first cannon was a front fork off my frends motorbike the bullets where size D ceil batteries a spoon full of black powder I could hit a 55 gal drum at 30 feet. I spent a lot of time out at the dump looking for D batteries or anything i could find that would fit.
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