Baaa Humbug Time....

**getsome** · 12-13-2021, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by wyntrout

I was 8 years old when I analyzed crackerballs and the residue left after they exploded. I figured out the mechanism where the tiny bits of flint-like rock were squeezed together in a tight space with powder.

There were always dud firecrackers and plenty of tiny rocks. I used brown grocery bag paper and a lot of the tiny rocks and a bunch of powder. I twisted the multi-layers of paper around the ingredients... pretty crude... and I couldn't throw it down to make it explode, so I used a length of pipe to smack the "crackerball". I was only eight and we were poor... usually with no "father" with tools and stuff around, so I had to improvise.

It DID work... a great tooth rattling explosion... with some damage to exposed body parts if you weren't careful. I didn't know much about being careful, but I didn't let that stop me from getting "free" fireworks from the abundant dud firecrackers.

I always did like making things go "bang"!

You sure you didn’t live in my neighborhood? My buddy and I spent many hours unrolling thousands of Black-Cat firecrackers to harvest the powder until we got a large jelly jar packed full and twisted a bunch of fuses together and stuck it in a small hole in the top sealed with silicone…..We set it off in his fathers brick grill and the blast was “atomic” complete with a huge mushroom cloud….It was hard to hide the damage to the back wall of the BBQ grill and we both stayed inside for about a week……I’m not sure if our parents didn’t know the stuff we were doing or didn’t care, I’m hoping for the former but I’ll never know……Funny how little boys and explosives are a natural together, heck even God liked to blow stuff up when he was a youngun……

**Bawanna** · 12-13-2021, 11:34 AM

I'm there for ya pal.

**getsome** · 12-13-2021, 11:40 AM

It’s the toy companies fault, they start us off early…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPTUV77u6s8

**JohnR** · 12-13-2021, 12:36 PM

Wow, I've never heard of that gatling cap gun before.

**dustnchips** · 12-13-2021, 01:44 PM

**dustnchips** · 12-13-2021, 01:45 PM

**mr surveyor** · 12-13-2021, 04:09 PM

^^^ LIKE ^^^

jd

**AJBert** · 12-13-2021, 06:03 PM

My dad reloaded shotgun shells when we were kids, and he taught us how to do the same. One of us, me or one of my brothers, came up with a brilliant plan of loading the shells with primer, powder and the wad, no shot. We would then tape a marble onto the bottom of the shell, centered over the primer. Toss them up in the air and they would land on the marble every time. Worked like a charm for a big bang, not so much for the explosive aspect.

Fast forward to my high school days and the danger increased just a bit. We would take spent CO2 cartridges and whittle out the tiny hole poked in the skinny end just wide enough to funnel some of that powder into the empty cartridge. It would take about 10-15 minutes to fill just one as those necks weren't very wide. Then we'd take some fuses off of the black cats, stuff one down into the neck and pad it all around with some wads of paper towel. Light fuse and let it fly...along ways we discovered! Somehow, no one ever got hit with shrapnel, but these things did more damage than any M80's we ever had. Growing up in the country helped to conceal such activities from the folks. Only bad things about them was if you tossed them into the pond, the fuse would go out.