The Foolish Things I've Seen And Done

[mrbillbus]

When I was in Jr High, the next door neighbors were deeply involved in Soapbox Derby racing. The kids were all pretty slight of build. The different race classes were based on age and total weight. Due to their small body size the kid's cars all needed some extra weight built in to qualify. What better source of weight than lead?

Okay, let's go back to the 1970's and find a cheap source of lead for ballast. Yep, car batteries. First we would pop off all the chamber caps and turn the batteries up side down on the ground to let all the "water" run out. Then a couple of whacks with a sledge hammer to break open the case and we were ready to start. We built a nice camp fire and got a good bed of coals going. Then we would set the cracked battery casings on the fire. As the plastics melted and burnt away we would rake out the individual lead plates. Leaving them at the edge until most of the plastic was burnt away.The "clean" lead plates were set aside to cool down and then stacked for smelting/melting later.

As I said, these were pretty small framed kids and there were four of them. Some years they would race in two divisions each. Eigth cars times 20-40 lbs (maybe more) of lead per car. Yep, that is a lot of battery lead. Now if it were just Jr High kids doing the deed, we might chalk it up to youthful ignorance. Nope it was their dad who set up the whole operation. He even sold (gave away) spare lead to other racers. :shock:

Me? My personal peak of insanity was probably the shooting arrows straight up inthe air and the then watching them fall back to earth, jumping out of the way at the last moment so as not to get stuck falling projectiles. But, I'm okay. [smilie=s:

[zuke]

I did the arrow thing also, and I'm still here!

[shooterg]

I'm sure y'all had OSHA approved hard hats on while doing the arrow thing...I personally used an old GI helmet.

[Harter66]

Me too,arrows that is.

All the fellows I knew that did the batteries had a steel troff w/a baffle ,then again those "tarpaper"batteries were way safer I'm sure of it.

My girl friend drove her Bronco home ,60 mi,w/a 235-75-15 spare on the rearend,the other 3 were 33-12.50's, 2 weeks later I was putting new spider gears and friction discs in the limited slip.

[Lizard333]

Me too,arrows that is.

All the fellows I knew that did the batteries had a steel troff w/a baffle ,then again those "tarpaper"batteries were way safer I'm sure of it.

My girl friend drove her Bronco home ,60 mi,w/a 235-75-15 spare on the rearend,the other 3 were 33-12.50's, 2 weeks later I was putting new spider gears and friction discs in the limited slip.

OUCH!!
Thats almost as bad as my buddy that was coming back from the lake he had a tire blow on his suburban. He had to put it in four wheel low to get it out of the sand that was on the side of the road. He fixed the tire and then had his wife, who was driving the suburban, follow him the 110 miles back to Flagstaff. HE forgot to take it out of four wheel low before she took the wheel. She drove it the whole way..... She said it sounded "funny" but kept the pedal to the metal the whole way home.

New motor on that one after the trip home.:cry:

[Canuck Bob]

Do ex-wives count.

[evan price]

Back "in the day" batteries had a lot more usable lead in them. Nowadays, not so, plus all the other additives are toxic.

[Bill*]

We (4 brothers and I) did the arrow thing many times. Standing under the crabapple trees, hands on top of head, waiting for the return to earth. We all survived...don't ask me how. This was in the early sixties-LESSON-don't leave 5 boys at home while both parents work! Someday I'll relate the dry cleaning bags filled with natural gas from the stove :shock: (seemed like a good idea at the time)

[gray wolf]

Amazing what we survived, how about a sling shot full of BB's shot up in the air and we would see how many we could count on the way down. DUMmmmb

[H.Callahan]

We used to play war with pellet guns. No eye protection, no heavy clothes -- and we pumped up the gun about 5000 pumps between shots so we were getting hypersonic speeds out of the pellets. How we kept from maiming ourselves severely, I'll never know.

[Rangefinder]

bb-gun wars... Oh, I have no idea how we all came to see adulthood...lol

[acl864]

Yep, I did the arrow thing and the BB gun wars too. But the most foolish thing I ever did was set the primer off in the base of a 410 shotgun shell with a ball peen hammer and the metal tip of a mechanical pencil when I was about 11 or 12.... At least I took the shot and powder out first.

[t_dickinson]

I grew up in the 80"s.

Remember lawn darts?

Dad gave me a .410, a BB Gun, a pocket knife, and a Kawasaki 100 when I was 9. THAT was a good year![smilie=2:

[1Shirt]

Yep, did the bb gun wars thing, however not the dumbest thing. I got my first bb gun for Christmas when I was I think about 8 yrs. old. Took it outside and promptly shot a window out of my grandmothers front sun room. Lost the bb gun until spring.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Jim]

I found out that a 12 gauge shell would slip fit in a 3/4" steel pipe nipple. I put a shell in a nipple I stole from Dad's stuff in the garage and taped it on the end of my BB gun. Boy, I didn't expect it to do THAT!!

[dudley2112]

well im a younging (19) and ive grown up in the era of sheltered children but ive done my best to have fun. 1) home made electric fence to stop the dog peeing on a tree i planted, luckily the wire was thin and it melted and i didnt get fried to a crisp,2)disassembling fire works to make my own fire crackers since those are banned here, like a 12 gauge going off way better the the stuff smuggled from the US :D. 3) Home made "cannons" out of copper tube or old brass 4)potato cannons, even when you think its all out of fuel DONT point it at your buddy 5) fire works + brio train set = ROCKET TRAIN :D that spins out and makes a mess on mom and dads deck 6) making my own mine and holding up the roof with 2"x2"'s ... sure there pleeeenty more

[SharpsShooter]

I found out that a 12 gauge shell would slip fit in a 3/4" steel pipe nipple. I put a shell in a nipple I stole from Dad's stuff in the garage and taped it on the end of my BB gun. Boy, I didn't expect it to do THAT!!

......and so began Jim's career as a pipe fitter :D My brother and I did the arrow thing with broadheads and the BB gun wars too. It was good sport to hide in the barn loft and play sniper as he rode by on his bike.......must be where I acquired that ability to "lead the target" :rolleyes:

SS

[1911GrayWolf]

Speaking of lead, did anybody else chew on the little split shot sinkers when it was time to fish for sunnies during the summer?

[Mossy Nugget]

When I was maybe 14, my brother and I used to fly Estes model rockets. Soon enough we discovered that you can hammer a D-12-0 booster engine and extract crumbled up C-class toy propellant. This made a dandy bomb from a spent Co-2 cartridge primed with either a model rocket igniter (for electrical ignition) or a plastic cap gun "primer" set on a piece of brass tubing soldered into the neck of the cartridge (for impact detonation) . As extremely dangerous as this alone may sound, the greatest danger was my next-door neighbour. He was a bookie with multiple phone lines. One series of detonations brought an armed man to my front door while my parents were away, warning us to stop. :holysheep We did exactly as we were told.

[HollowPoint]

I never personally did the "Shoot the Arrow Straight Up in the Air" thing but during an archery deer hunt I watched a couple of my drunk hunting buddies do it.

One of the arrows came down and stuck right through the hood of his Chevy pickup. The arrow-head lodged into the air cleaner over his carburetor. Since we all had a good buzz on drinking around the camp fire, we all thought it was funny as hell.

Needless to say, none of us got a deer that year.

HollowPoint

[MBTcustom]

When I say its a miracle I still have use of my hands and eyes I mean an honest to God miracle. My brother and I found some of my dads shot-shell reloads and like dumb kids do, we started prying open the tips of them and dumping the shot into a bowl (dont ask me why it was so entertaining to destroy perfectly good shot-shells, but I honestly didn't know what they were at the time.) Well, we demilled about ten of them and at that point I came across one that was different. I know now that it was a remington high brass 3 inch no. 8 express. Well, I tried to open up the petals like we did the previous ones, but remington melted them together on those shells so I decided to go in from the back. I turned the shell nose down on the concrete floor, wrapped both hands around it, and told my brother to pound the small screwdriver in with a hammer so we could pry that brass thingy out. The shell went off leaving a 4inch black spot, and a crack in the concrete, my brother says he remembers seeing sparks flying every where and I remember my hands feeling numb and a ringing in my ears. Let me say again that I had my hands wrapped around that shot-shell! I was facing my brother with the shot-shell in between us when it went off but neither of us got a scratch. I still wonder how that could happen but I have come to know Jesus as my personal savior and I figure he wanted me to have my hands.
So that's my story of adolescent stupidity. You can bet money that I am going to keep better track of my stuff/teach my kids about gun safety, earlier than my dad did me!!!!

[man.electric]

Arrows in the air, check. Lawn darts, check. BB gun wars, check. Cherry bombs inside of any rotting animal I found, check. The worst was when I discovered how to make blasting caps at twelve years old.

1. Take a shotgun shell and pry open the top
2. Remove all of the innards
3. Take small drill bit and drill hole through primer and insert model rocket igniter(epoxy in place).
4. Fill hull to top with the black powder, crimp shell and epoxy shut.
5. BOOM!

Shortly after learning the art of blasting caps I was taught how to thread pipe down in our shop and the BOOMs got BIG. I somehow survived all of this without ending up in prison and am better for it I am sure.

[Canuck Bob]

In a more domestic setting I once whispered a very foul curse word toward my mother as a big for my britches 15 year old. I didn't know my father was standing right behind me. I found out Dad was much better with his fists than I ever imagined. He gave me fair warning and a fair fight behind the barn but kicked my butt with some serious intent. He learned to fight at 15 building the Alaska Highway during the war I later found out. I deserved worse.

To this day I can't abide children who disrespect their Mother.

My arrow landed in my tent and it rained all that night.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I did the arrow thing also. What fun that was! I can't believe someone else wondered what would happen if you took a punch and hit the primer on a 12 ga. shell. (no powder). Couldn't hear beans for awhile and as it went off, I heard all kinds of stuff buzzing by my head. It sure sent that punch flying. Bottle rocket wars were about the most dangerous thing we did.

[WILCO]

bb-gun wars...

Yep. Done that.

[nanuk]

somewhere, about 25 -30 MPH north of 120, I drove over an intersection on the old paved road that was about 15 feet higher than the main road (can you say Ramp?)

the guy I was racing said he saw me go well above the farm lights in the distance. It was dark and he believe I was at least 30 feet above the road surface.

I came down square with a Gawdawful bang, but didn't lose control. we stopped. I had to shake the **** out of my pants and his girlfriend, a friend of mine was crying pretty much uncontrollably. She thought I had died when the car went out of sight ahead of them as I came down beyond the Ramp.

[3006guns]

I found out that a 12 gauge shell would slip fit in a 3/4" steel pipe nipple. I put a shell in a nipple I stole from Dad's stuff in the garage and taped it on the end of my BB gun. Boy, I didn't expect it to do THAT!!

Jim........you're scaring me....

Had a high school classmate back in the sixties that was constantly messing with shotgun powders, cartridges, etc...I avoided him and still have all my fingers as a result.

So, one fine day he decides to go duck hunting......out of season, on a preserve and no license. He tossed a 12 ga. pump in his dad's new Buick and drives out on a levee, gets out and creeps up on some birds in the water. Just then, he notices the game warden's truck approaching about 1/2 mile away. In a panic he runs back to the car and tosses the shotgun in, muzzle first. Gun discharges. The game warden pulled up to find him with the hood open, distributor and most of the carburetor gone...not to mention a large hole in the firewall. When he explains that it's his dad's car, the warden busted out laughing and drove off yelling back "No citation......you've got enough problems!"

[Lizard333]

This has got to be one of the best posts to laugh your butt off in a long time!! Twice now I have burst into tears from laughing so hard. Keep em up!! They are great!

[BruceB]

At a time when I was old enough, and SHOULD have known better....

Took a single-engine Otter (BIG bush-plane) on floats to bring a generator out of a closed-down diamond-drill camp. Had two pals along to supply some muscle.

On arrival, we found thirteen cases of "weeping" nitro dynamite, meaning: we ain't gonna put THIS stuff on that airplane! Liquid nitroglycerin was soaking the cases.

I scattered a box of blasting caps inside one case, and piled the other cases around it. Then we tried to touch off the whole pile by firing into the capped case, first with a .30-06 and then with a .44 Ruger pistol (from a hundred yards 'distance). No go, but you want to see a flinch? Expecting six hundred pounds of 'powder' to detonate on every shot....THAT will give anyone a flinch!

I gave up on shooting the stuff, and put a fused cap in one case. We lowered it into six feet of water at the pot-hole's edge, and then placed the other cases on and around it. Lighting the 10-foot fuse, we retired to watch the results.

A column of water and "loonsh--" went about four hundred feet in the air, and then came down ALL OVER THE AIRPLANE. We then had to wash the Otter with a bucket and broom, because dirty wings don't lift worth a damn. The pilot was not amused....

[evan price]

I got my old 73 Chevy Cheyenne Super pickup stuck in a little muddy low spot coming from my friend's barn to his driveway. Couldn't get it out. So my friend's brother gets their Kubota tractor to pull me out. I hooked the chain up to the truck and then noticed that the tow-hook would fit between two pins in the drawbar but when I put the pins back in the hook would not pull between the pins. Cool! So we are trying to jerk the truck out and my friend gets in the back of the truck and starts bouncing up and down to get some traction on the rear wheels while the brother starts yanking and slamming on that tow chain with the tractor. Suddenly with a loud BANG! the tow hook (still attached to the chain) is embedded in the side of the truck a mere couple inches from my friend in the back of the truck, who has fallen down. Seems the tow hook was hard, the tractor pins were soft, and the hook carved divots out of the pins and then snapped backwards with enough force that the free end of the chain lashed my friend in the truck bed across the shoulder (and his right arm went numb) and then embedded itself into the steel truck bed barely missing his head.

We were MUCH more careful about how we hooked up the chain to pull it out.


A former job, we had an old Leach rear-load trash truck that I kept running because the owner was too cheap to replace it. One morning after replacing a hydraulic hose I was testing the packer when my cell phone fell out of my shirt pocket into the rear tailgate of the truck (where you put the trash....it was empty). The packer was cycling, starting to come down. I started reaching for it- because there's a safety interlock, when the packer blade hits a certain part of its travel it automatically shuts itself off and stops moving until you throw the handle the other way. I knew it would stop with lots of room before hitting me and crushing me to death.

Well, for some reason (I like to think wisdom and sanity) I pulled my arm back and did not lean into the trash packer and just decided to wait until the packer stopped and then reverse it back up. Well, the blade just kept going and the limit arm hopped over the detent on the lever shaft and the packer blade never stopped. It was the one and only time I ever saw that happen with that packer unit. It taught me a very valuable lesson right there. And my cell phone survived.

[Bullwolf]

I guess I fit right in here too, because I also would do the shoot an arrow straight up in the air thing when I was a kid. I would often find arrows in the strangest places years later.

Same with the BB gun wars, and as an added bonus we would press 12 gauge shells into the dirt and then would try to shoot the primer to get it to pop.

I remember Lawn Darts, it was practically Mumblety-peg for kids! That probably helps explains why that particular game was so popular with us in our teen years using a pocket knife.

I guess I had too much time on my hands when I was a kid because I would also tape model rocket engines to sticks to make my own redneck home made bottle rockets. Although the scale was a tad bit larger.

One of the dumbest things I ever did was to attach a model rocket engine, a short bit of twine, and a small rock all together.

I am not quite sure just exactly what I was expecting to happen at the time, but I had ran out of conveniently sized sticks. I guess that I sort of expected the rock tied to the model rocket engine to somehow magically stabilize itself while in flight, sort of dragging along the rock behind the rocket engine. Much like the rocket engine taped to a stick would do.

Instead, it made an incredibly dangerous and insanely fast cycling set of loop the loops (around head height) and closely resembled a Bolo on nitrous oxide. Somehow I managed to survive it intact, but the memory, and a little bit of the terror, still remains.

M-80's, Silver Salutes, Cherry Bombs with the fuses lit from a cigarette hanging out of your mouth, and shot out of slingshots or wrist rockets. Also placed in metal cans, or toilets, and all the other fun stuff done. Anything that would go "bang". The 4th of July was my all time favorite holiday as a child. I still love the smell of burning powder to this day. Is it really any wonder that I enjoy shooting and reloading?

There is still nothing like that first whiff of burning powder when you get to the range.

Looking back, it's somewhat surprising that I managed to make it to a healthy adulthood with all my fingers and toes intact.

I am a lot more careful these days, now that I am all grown up and have learned that I am not invulnerable. But I wouldn't trade most of those memories for anything.


- Bullwolf

[nicholst55]

Arrows fired straight up - check; BB guns - check; model rockets - check; cherry bombs stuck inside bricks - check; dismantling shotshells for the powder - check; homemade firecrackers - check (try that with powder salvaged from grenade simulators sometime - that's great fun!); fire - check (burned down part of a neighbor's fence once); using CO2 capsules to launch pointed arc welding elecrodes - check; tennis ball cannons - check; homemade cannons - check.

And then I joined the Army at 17 and things got really dangerous! However, I survived and still have all my digits and both eyes; probably not my fault when you look back on it.

[Longwood]

I guess I fit right in here too, because I also would do the shoot an arrow straight up in the air thing when I was a kid. I would often find arrows in the strangest places years later.

Same with the BB gun wars, and as an added bonus we would press 12 gauge shells into the dirt and then would try to shoot the primer to get it to pop.

I remember Lawn Darts, it was practically Mumblety-peg for kids! That probably helps explains why that particular game was so popular with us in our teen years using a pocket knife.

I guess I had too much time on my hands when I was a kid because I would also tape model rocket engines to sticks to make my own redneck home made bottle rockets. Although the scale was a tad bit larger.

One of the dumbest things I ever did was to attach a model rocket engine, a short bit of twine, and a small rock all together.

I am not quite sure just exactly what I was expecting to happen at the time, but I had ran out of conveniently sized sticks. I guess that I sort of expected the rock tied to the model rocket engine to somehow magically stabilize itself while in flight, sort of dragging along the rock behind the rocket engine. Much like the rocket engine taped to a stick would do.

Instead, it made an incredibly dangerous and insanely fast cycling set of loop the loops (around head height) and closely resembled a Bolo on nitrous oxide. Somehow I managed to survive it intact, but the memory, and a little bit of the terror, still remains.

M-80's, Silver Salutes, Cherry Bombs with the fuses lit from a cigarette hanging out of your mouth, and shot out of slingshots or wrist rockets. Also placed in metal cans, or toilets, and all the other fun stuff done. Anything that would go "bang". The 4th of July was my all time favorite holiday as a child. I still love the smell of burning powder to this day. Is it really any wonder that I enjoy shooting and reloading?

There is still nothing like that first whiff of burning powder when you get to the range.

Looking back, it's somewhat surprising that I managed to make it to a healthy adulthood with all my fingers and toes intact.

I am a lot more careful these days, now that I am all grown up and have learned that I am not invulnerable. But I wouldn't trade most of those memories for anything.


- Bullwolf

I did all of that and worse. Fireworks were illegal and unavailable soooo,,, match head rockets, home made black powder, shotgun I found in a burned out cabin. YeeGads! Should I go on?
Last summer we put a bit, OK,,, a lot, of powder in the finger hole of a bowling ball and stuck in a cut off shotgun shell, then it was 22 time. Never again,,, a big chunk landed behind us, narrowly missing my buddies truck.
I get rid of my old powder by poking a little bit of baggie down into a soda or other strong plastic bottle then poke a hole in the lid for some firecracker fuse.
Loud and much fun! As fun as the dry ice bombs that the kids now do but much quicker.
I am 69 now and plan on growing up,,,, someday.

[Longwood]

I did the arrow thing also. What fun that was! I can't believe someone else wondered what would happen if you took a punch and hit the primer on a 12 ga. shell. (no powder). .

I got the biggest blood blisters I ever had doing the exact same thing.:(
Them shotshell primers are powerful ain't they.

[3006guns]

O.K........one more, then I'll shut up.

Anyone ever fool with calcium carbide? You know, those lovely magical little gray "rocks" that produce acetyline when they contact water? We had some in the original Union tin can, a left over from my grandfather's cap lamp.

One of my not so bright but enthusiastic friends excitedly told me that if I punched a small hole in a steel coffee can, added some water, tossed in a few "rocks", replaced the lid.....then waited a few seconds, it could be ignited with a match near the hole and make a nice "boom". Of course, you had to place one foot on the can to keep it from rolling around.......

It made a "boom" all right. There was enough oxygen mixed with that gas for excellent results......windows rattled, dogs ran and I was standing there with ringing ears and a flattened can under my foot.

I avoided that kid from then on.

[Longwood]

O.K........one more, then I'll shut up.

Anyone ever fool with calcium carbide? You know, those lovely magical little gray "rocks" that produce acetyline when they contact water? We had some in the original Union tin can, a left over from my grandfather's cap lamp.

One of my not so bright but enthusiastic friends excitedly told me that if I punched a small hole in a steel coffee can, added some water, tossed in a few "rocks", replaced the lid.....then waited a few seconds, it could be ignited with a match near the hole and make a nice "boom". Of course, you had to place one foot on the can to keep it from rolling around.......

It made a "boom" all right. There was enough oxygen mixed with that gas for excellent results......windows rattled, dogs ran and I was standing there with ringing ears and a flattened can under my foot.

I avoided that kid from then on.

Oh yeah, and later in life Acetylene in baggies or balloons.
We also did the natural gas in a dry cleaner bag but stopped it soon after we upgraded to a acetylene bomb at the end.
A friends mom owned a dry cleaners and he could make the bags any length he wanted. We would make them up to 20 feet long, tie the ends into knots then light the tail. They were best at night. They would reach altitude while flickering and burning - which of course attracted attention - then suddenly do a big flash with a loud bang [smilie=w: that soon got the cops called.
Exploding UFO's ????
We made the San Bernardino, CA newspaper.


If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room!

[Wayne Smith]

We were dumb enough to be disappointed that we couldn't seem to fire an arrow straight up! Made my own black powder - not granulated - at 13 years old. Blew up cinder blocks with firecrackers (bombs) made with used shotgun hulls and strapping tape. Cannon fuse in one primer hole. Gutter downspout, M-80's and empty beer cans = mortar. Awful glad I grew up on farms!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Wholly krap,
I hope the BATFE isn't reading this.
I have never done anything like this,
I have never been around anyone doing anything like this.
that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Good bye,
Jon

[bearcove]

6th grade found out if you shoot 22lr shells out of a sling shot at brick wall, about half of them go bang.

[OutHuntn84]

Ya know I was never foolish enough to shoot an arrow straight up in the air in the day time, cant see em. So I waited until it got dark snuck down to the pond and tied an alcohol soaked rag to it so I could see it coming. I had a lot of explaining to do when my dad noticed little balls of fire shooting up from the pond.

When I was little every kid on the street had a bike as their primary means of transportation. So every year on the 4th we would turn our inocent bikes into assault vehicles by taping roman candles, satarn missles, bottle rockets and any other type of projectile to our bikes and have wars. We were smart enough to wear 2 pairs of pants and gloves to avoid being burnt by fuses.

When I was about ten I had a stroke of genius. I had a wrist rocket and a good sharp pocket knife. Great tools seperatley so combining them was a no brainer! I took my time to get the knife in the sling just right. Then pulled the thing back as far as I could....boy this was going to be cool. I still have the scar on the knuckle of my thumb where the knife lodged into bone.

When I first learned to read I noticed my dad's desposible lighter was out of fluid and I had found some lighter fluid. 1+1=2 right! So Im on the front pourch squirting lighter fluid all over this lighter and I think I got some in there! So flick flick and what do ya know I got a flame. Problem was it was my hand! Momma was not amused to see her baby boy running around the yard playing with fire.

A few years later I learned rubbing alcohol really got a fire going. So one day as I was getting the grill ready for dad to cook up some burgers and was getting it good and ready with some alcohol when the flame shot up into the bottle and shot off like a rocket. I stood there for a minute scared to look at my now numb hand fearing it had been blown off.

Lord knows how I survived myself

[Southern Son]

OK, how dumb were my mates and I? We "aquired" some smokeless powder and some magnesium tape. We had been punching holes in the side of 6mm Rem cartriges after removing the bullet, toppin them up with more smokeless, crushing and folding over the necks and then sticking the magnesium tape in the hole in the side for a fuse. We were performing "experiments" by putting these small pipe bombs in and old ammo tin we had found with various items like plastic soldiers, match box cars, etc. The ammo tin was strong enough to contain the explosion and we could check out what the boom did to the toys. We then found an old section of bicycle seat pole. We were smart enough to know that if the little ones were good, then the bicycles seat pole would be GREAT. We were not smart enough to know that the pipe bomb would be just a little too much for the ammo tin. We filled it with smokeless powder and some BB to fill up the remaining air space. The moment it went BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!! I knew it was too much (we were in an urban back yard, not out in the bush). I started running for the shed. As I was running to the shed, I saw the lid of the ammo tin falling out of the sky, trailing smoke. My mates that I had been with had seen it go up and they thought it went about 100 feet up. As I sat in the shed, shaking with fear, the next door neighbour put his head in the window of the shed and said something like "Well that was smart, wasn't it." I looked at him with my most innocent face and said "What?" I am fairly well convinced that the neighbour thought I was retarded, that was the look on his face, anyway. Anyway, I thought things couldn't get worse, untill I looked up the driveway and saw my mum walking down towards me. My house was about 4 doors away and apparently the BOOOOOOM was big enough that it rattled the windows in our house. Now just to recap, the explosion was heard about 1 km away (my dad was at the club having a few drinks and he heard it over the juke box), the back yard was full of smoke and fragmented ammo can, the next door neighbour had seen what we did and all the other neighbours in the area were out in the street saying that they had heard stuff falling on their roof, and I thought that I might still be able to get out of this by playing innocent and denying everthing. Damn I was stupid.

[Harter66]

Just east of Fallon Nv is a sand dune about 900 ft high . A 60' Buik hood and a little bit of snow ,2" was about all we ever got. 2 friends and I dragged that hood about 150 yd up the down wind side . That was a rush right up untill we saw the snow ending and the sand starting,we were still going 20mph when it dug in. The only smart thing we did was limp home . We went off the high side , the hood cartwheeled 50-60ft past where we stopped.

Id forgotten all about that 1 .

[nicholst55]

A few years later I learned rubbing alcohol really got a fire going. So one day as I was getting the grill ready for dad to cook up some burgers and was getting it good and ready with some alcohol when the flame shot up into the bottle and shot off like a rocket. I stood there for a minute scared to look at my now numb hand fearing it had been blown off.

Lord knows how I survived myself

Amateur! Try that with acetone sometime! Gasoline (and alcohol) is flammable; acetone is (very) highly flammable! AMHIK.

[mebe007]

whos never enjoyed a good ol roman candle war on the night of july 4th. i mean who needs eyebrows

[selmerfan]

Hmm, let's see, fireworks...6 gross of bottle rockets fits into the mouth of a wide-mouth 1 qt. mason jar. With the central fuse from a 2000 pack of Black Cats and 2" of gasoline in the bottom of the quart jar you can ignite 6 gross of bottle rockets almost simultaneously. Sparklers are also a lovely source of entertainment, take about 4 packs of them, leaving ONE, ONLY ONE, up the center for a fuse. Wrap as tightly as humanly possible with black electrical tape. Light the central fuse and stand back. It's a heck of a bang. If one fuse is good, two is better, right? NO. With two sparklers as a fuse the heat overcomes the retardant and the two burn each other out in less that half a second and the whole thing goes off right next to your leg. Ask me how I know.

[imashooter2]

My brother and I would put an arrow on Mom's clothes line and both hang off it. Then we'd let it go and that arrow would really fly. It all came to an end one breezy day when we stuck the broad head in one of the neighbor's roof. Dad was less than pleased and provided a life lesson that is vividly remembered to this day.

That patch was still on their roof when I got married and moved out of the house...

[BoolitSchuuter]

Assorted arrow stunts - check, Rocket motors used for anything other than their intended purpose - check, Assorted misuse of shotgun shells and 22's - check.
A buddy of mine and I got hold of his dad's 410 Mossberg and a couple of shells. We took the pellets out and substituted a de-fletched arrow. Hung a target on the side of his garage and backed off 20 or so yards. That arrow went thru a 2x4 and out the other side of the garage. We had no idea where that arrow went and no, we didn't hit the target.

[OBIII]

Let's see: BB gun wars--Check Bottle rocket wars--Check Fireworks (rockets, firecrackers, etc)--Check
Lye crystals, water, aluminum foil, large glass coke bottle, balloons & string. Drop lye crystals into water, swirl to mix. toss in a few chunks of aluminum foil, seat balloon over bottle mouth. When balloon is inflated, tie string around base, light bottom, let balloon go. Up, Up, POP with flame. Ain't hydrogen wonderful?
Another time, we were accosted by FAA agents. Seems we were flying our kites so high (in Arlington, Virginia), that we were actually into the landing path of pilots coming in to National Airport in Washington, DC..
Made a bunch of homemade black powder once, about 1/2 a large coffee can worth. On my way out one early Sunday morning to deliver papers, I decided to set it off outside the apartment building. I thought it would be a brief bright flash, boy was I wrong. Burned slowly, smoked ungodly, and I just knew that someone had seen me.
The things you learn when you are a kid.

:holysheep

[Longwood]

Bicycle spoke guns, home made brass cannon with home made black powder, steel cannon that fired one inch ball bearings using that orange surplus powder with 1946 written on the keg, C02 cartridge rockets and bombs, some using dynamite we found, shooting at dynamite with a 22, Molotov cocktails, flaming arrows, jumping into the river off of the railroad bridge, riding a home made go-cart, (with the old extremely flimsy wire spoke baby buggy wheels), down a long rough and curvy hill with no brakes, swinging out over a cliff (no water but plenty of altitude) on a piece of old and rotting fire hose tied up into a tree.
What can I say, we were wild and crazy country kids with great imaginations but no money.
Then there are the "really" stupid things (some accidental others not) I have done as an adult.

[Suo Gan]

How about working all summer with a rag tag tractor with a rag tag flail mower and an exposed PTO connection. I worked around that open PTO with an untucked shirt for the better part of the month when grandpa came over to supervise my farming enterprise and told me to be very careful around that PTO. The realization of how close I came to being wrapped around a PTO going about 200 RPM was very sobering to me, call me Einstein. Probably not my most stupid moment either 8). Lighting canvas on fire in the forest and then getting scared and going home, holding black cats to see how tough I was, getting into a fist fight with the biggest, meanest kid in school, trading rookie baseball cards that are priceless for a couple of dollars (Dad got pretty hot), fishing in my crazy, murderous neighbors 15 acre bass pond here he would shoot at me every time and almost got me a few times, catching a flock of wild turkeys and storing them in the garage, where they busted the windows out and escaped...mom will never know, just **** all over her car and everything in sight, catching a bobcat (which was the easy part) and putting it into a suitcase for a prank on the south side of town (which was the funniest thing I have ever seen, this can clear out a Buick full of young black men right now!! Twirling my daddys old Colt on my finger and having it go off into mommas new white carpet at my sisters feet, swimming across ice cold rivers in the middle of winter to get to the good fishing spots, and on and on.

[dudley2112]

Ya know I was never foolish enough to shoot an arrow straight up in the air in the day time, cant see em. So I waited until it got dark snuck down to the pond and tied an alcohol soaked rag to it so I could see it coming. I had a lot of explaining to do when my dad noticed little balls of fire shooting up from the pond.

When I was little every kid on the street had a bike as their primary means of transportation. So every year on the 4th we would turn our inocent bikes into assault vehicles by taping roman candles, satarn missles, bottle rockets and any other type of projectile to our bikes and have wars. We were smart enough to wear 2 pairs of pants and gloves to avoid being burnt by fuses.

When I was about ten I had a stroke of genius. I had a wrist rocket and a good sharp pocket knife. Great tools seperatley so combining them was a no brainer! I took my time to get the knife in the sling just right. Then pulled the thing back as far as I could....boy this was going to be cool. I still have the scar on the knuckle of my thumb where the knife lodged into bone.

When I first learned to read I noticed my dad's desposible lighter was out of fluid and I had found some lighter fluid. 1+1=2 right! So Im on the front pourch squirting lighter fluid all over this lighter and I think I got some in there! So flick flick and what do ya know I got a flame. Problem was it was my hand! Momma was not amused to see her baby boy running around the yard playing with fire.

A few years later I learned rubbing alcohol really got a fire going. So one day as I was getting the grill ready for dad to cook up some burgers and was getting it good and ready with some alcohol when the flame shot up into the bottle and shot off like a rocket. I stood there for a minute scared to look at my now numb hand fearing it had been blown off.

Lord knows how I survived myself

i did the same thing but with and pencil i had spent sharpening into the perfect projectile.. still have the lead imbedded in my hand

[Longwood]

i did the same thing but with and pencil i had spent sharpening into the perfect projectile.. still have the lead imbedded in my hand

Ahhh,,,. Another memory jog.
Pencil + tinfoil wrapped around it + match heads + lighter = rocket.
In 7th grade class, during school yet!

[dudley2112]

Ahhh,,,. Another memory jog.
Pencil + tinfoil wrapped around it + match heads + lighter = rocket.
In 7th grade class, during school yet!

haha i did the same thing but used a straw instead of a pencil :mrgreen:

[kbstenberg]

This is the funniest thread yet.
I must have lead the most sheltered life ever.
S.S. I never laughed so hard.
Kevin

[Southern Son]

Kevin, we were so stupid, that even when we decided to "do the right thing", we ended up doing something stupid. After blowing up the ammo box (and having the whole neighbourhood start looking at us like were from the special education class, you know, the one where you were not trusted with pencils or scissors, you could only have crayons and non-toxic paste), we decided to get rid of the last of the smokeless powder.

The last of the powder had been stored in an old air rifle pellet tin, about one inch deep and 3 inches round. We took the tin and a cigarette lighter down the back yard. Now we were smart enough to know that if the powder was not contained when we lit it, then there would be no BOOM, so my mate took the top off the tin, put it on the ground and crouched down to light it. He started out leaning away from the tin while he held the cigarette lighter flame on the powder, but it took a while for the powder to ignite. During that time, he had leaned over, more towards the tin. Just when we thought that the powder was not going to ignite, it did.

As it burned, it sent a jet of flame and smoke straight up. My mate has seen it comming and started to leap to his feet but he ended up stumbling and falling backwards, landing on his butt. Obviously, this sudden and unexpected turn of events had shocked both of us. I was about to ask him if he was alright, but he beat me to it and blurted out "My face, is it burnt?" As he has said that, a heap of smoke has come out of his mouth (he must have inhailed it as he was trying to out run the jet of flame and smoke), like when a smoker takes a deep drag, and then starts talking. To me, this looked hilarious, and I started to laugh. My mate has then coughed and smoke has shot out of his nostrils and mouth and that was it, I fell to the ground laughing uncontrolablely. For some reason, my mate thought that I was being insensitive and got a little stroppy. So he starts yelling "Is my face burnt, what's happened to my face?" But all I could do was laugh, I was rolling around on the grass laughing so hard that I couldn't breath. Eventually I recovered enough of my senses to tell him that he still had eyebrows, but to this day, when ever we catch up and have a talk, if I bring the incident up, he gets stroppy with me. I think some people just have no sense of humour.

Even after nearly blowing up the back yard and nearly burning my mates face off, we still hadn't learned. A few weeks after this incident, we discovered the difference between the gas that comes out of the LPG bottle and the gas that comes out of the oxy acetalene tanks.

[HollowPoint]

I guess we never really grow up. We just get older; and hopefully wiser but, probably not.

As recently as three and a half years ago, just before the economy went south, I was still working at a local Cadillac dealership. (Hey, was over fifty years old at the time)

Our body shop was on the other side of a large partition/wall that separated it from our work area.

Periodically they'd bring in cars in need of body work and the techs would remove the existing AIR-BAG units and replace them with new ones in order to mitigate any further liability issues.

Those take-off AIR-BAG units would generally go in the trash; UNLESS we got hold of them; and WE got hold of them on several occasions.

Back behind our dealership was a stack of used tires that were put there awaiting disposal.

On one particular occasion, we took a couple of those AIR-BAG units and put them under a stack of junk tires then ran a length of wire to an old battery back far enough to where we thought it would be safe distance.

None of us really realized that those AIR-BAG units contained as much power as they did.

From ground-zero, it rained used tires to about 9 or 10 yard diameter; then those old tires would roll a ways further.

It would be an understatement to say that management was not pleased.

I think were were lucky to have kept our jobs. It was kind of hard to gauge just how displeased they actually were at the time. Some of them had looks on their faces that made us come to grips with our impending termination while a couple of the others were clearly fighting to keep from laughing out loud.

When they asked us "W T F" we thought we were trying to accomplish by this childish behavior all we could come up with on the spur-of-the-moment was some BS rationale like: "Well, these AIR-BAG are like live ordinance. We didn't want to take the chance of throwing them in the trash and having them somehow go off and hurt someone."

That was our story and we stuck to it. That line of Bull-Shi!! reasoning had just enough plausible logic to allow us to keep out jobs.

We found out later that management went back to their front offices and just laughed their asses off.

Learn from this children!!!

We never really grow up. We just get older. It's a wonder any of us are still alive.

HollowPoint

[man.electric]

HollowPoint, about ten years ago I picked up a box full of air bag units for a great price at a car show and we had similar fun. We took a sheet of plywood and put the air bag units underneath and took turns launching each other into the air and failing back down on the plywood.

[littlejack]

OK, here I go. Now don't laugh.
Make two, so you can shoot at each other with them.
Take four parts of 3/4" water pipe.
One 6" nipple. Barrell
One 90* elbow. Frame
One 3" nipple. Grip
One 3/4" pipe cap.
Make the L shape.
Drill a 1/8" hole in the cap.
Put a black cat OR equivelant fire cracker in the cap with the fuse sticking down in the hole.
An empty 12 guage shell will just slide in the end of the 6" nipple(muzzle) up to the rim.
Stand about 50 yards apart. Light the fuses. When your opponants shell comes at you,
STEP ASIDE.
And yes, you can see'em commin.
Jack

[littlejack]

I was a steel fabricator/welder for my career.
Early on, (about 18 or so years old) I made a cannon out of Shelby tubing.
It had a 1 1/4" bore, 5/8" walls, and about 2' long.
The projectiles were 1 3/16" shaft, cut 1 1/2" long, and patched.
We, my brother, myself and "another" well known demolition EXPERT, comensed to shoot.
We butted the back of the cannon against a concrete block, and elevated with firewood.
This was high "techknowledgy" at it's best.
We lived in the country on eleven acres, with the closest house being across the hiway
about a block.
Everything was going well with the black powder. Then we ran out.
We wasn't ready for that.
The demolition EXPERT I mentioned eariler, seen the can of Bullseye on the reloading bench.
Well, it was powder. RIGHT?
We measured it right out of the can into the bore.
That's about right, RIGHT? YEeeeeaaaaA, looks good to me.
We made a looooooooooong fuse. Thank you Lord. We lit it, and ran like hell.
We hid in a shed behind the grenade.
It blowed the tubing (what we could find) in strips about 1" wide and 4" long.
It blowed a hole in the hard clay groung, about 2' across and 8" deep.
That would have surly killed us all had we stood there. Don't every tell me there isn't a God.
He is my savior and keeper forever. Amen.
Jack

[waksupi]

Those air bag igniters are blasting caps. That is what the car bombers use to set off their explosives. Who knows, some day you may want to have some around to ignite other things?

[Tom W.]

My buddy cut down several single shot 12 ga shotguns to look like an old pirate pistol, and They knew that if I deemed it safe, I'd shoot it. Which I did, but I asked for the rest of the barrel.

I took the barrel to the local Iron Works, where another friend threaded the "breech", put a hex head plug into it and welded it shut, then drilled a hole for a fuse. We then took a scrap piece of 4" channel iron and welded a L shaped piece to the end as a brace for the cannon.We used a piece of the stuff that is used to strap down conduit to hold the cannon in place, and we were set.
I'd put 100 grains of black powder followed by a wad of paper towels, a small handful of 1/4 inch aluminum balls that were used to plug air lines, and some more paper towels. A rather long piece of CVA cannon fuse and we'd light it. This did good for a while, lots of smoke, destroyed brush, and constant stomping out small fires due to the burning wadding. Until one day when we decided 150 grains would be better. When it went off, it broke the L shaped bracket, the barrel slid out from the confines of the clamp, and embedded itself several feet into a bank that was a few yards behind us..

Sooo... I decided that some 7mm Mag brass, some powder, both black, smokeless and perhaps some Pyrodex and a black cat would disrupt some fire ant beds. Put in as much as it would hold and still accept a black cat, squeeze the case mouth with pliers so that the fuse is sticking out , poke it into an ant bed, light and run.
That was one year that the fuses on the firecrackers were mighty fast... but I still have all of my fingers. And was covered by ants more than once.

[DrB]

+1 lawn darts. :holysheep Surprised there weren't more impalements.

Water wings. Never saw a kid around our place who didn't end up putting them on their feet and trying to stand up in them. Invariably ended up doing exactly what they were supposed to do for the wrong end of the kid.

Bottle rocket wars. Roman candles or the 100 shot saturn rocket batteries were the flamethrower of close combat in a bottle rocket war. Knew one guy who didn't give way on a bridge and lost a half dollar size patch of hair on his head.

We also used to explore the storm drains around my home town. Seemed like we ran those things for miles... lucky we didn't hit a pocket of swamp gas or a sinkhole at a break and get in real trouble.

Oh yeah -- we'd adjust an oxyacetylene welder to a nice tight blue flame, then cut the flow, then we'd fill balloons, wrap with a twist of newspaper, and put in the open end of a culvert and light. Made your ears ring.

I keep thinking of more... my scout troop used to always go on night raids and play pranks. One time we made sugar smoke charges with toilet paper tubes and 50/50 sugar/kno3. We fused them with a cigarette with the filter cut off, with firecracker strings with the fuse taped partway down the smoke charge, lit the cigarette and then snuck into a neighboring troops camp and planted them around. When those guys started bailing out of their tents from the firecrackers, their camp was already starting to fill with the billowing smoke. We thought we did a pretty good job playing innocent, though the assistant scoutmaster gave us a grilling as to why we smelled like we'd been smoking cigarettes.

Most years we also put a garbage bag over the top of the tallest flag pole on the assembly field (must of been at least 50 foot?)... think they must have figured out it was us, but they didn't figure out how we were doing it as they started greasing the flag pole.

[evan price]

We used BBQ grill lighter fluid to soak tennis balls and the nlit them on fire and threw them at each other.
We also used to jump off the 2nd story roof onto the deck, from there down the well to the basement steps. Nobody broke a leg- amazing.

I recall I got a bunch of Cherry Bombs from an out of state relative (not legal in Ohio then) and while playing hide and seek there was one guy who we couldn't find so smart ME thinks the place he might be hiding is hard to get to- let's flush him out by rolling a lit cherry bomb in there (under the steps in a sort of closet area in the crawl space) Lit the fuse, rolled the cherry bomb under the steps, heard a loud "OH SH**!!!!!!!" and then a loud BANG! (His mom made us never ever again light a cherry bomb in the house and I got sent home for the rest of the day!)

We'd wrap matches in tinfoil for rockets. Mix gasoline & naptha to try to make napalm, later we added styrafoam to it for a gel agent. Still burned well just smoked more!

[Tom W.]

One day at work the boss was complaining that there was a wasp nest inside the handle on the outside catwalk.We looked and sure enough, there it was. We got the cutting torch and opened the acetylene bottle and stuck the torch head in the other end of the handle. The Boss looked and said " I didn't know that you could kill wasps with acetylene." We just smiled and said " sure you can."
After about three minutes, we asked the boss to move, and someone got their striker and made a spark. It killed the wasps and scared the boss pretty bad...

[Longwood]

One day at work the boss was complaining that there was a wasp nest inside the handle on the outside catwalk.We looked and sure enough, there it was. We got the cutting torch and opened the acetylene bottle and stuck the torch head in the other end of the handle. The Boss looked and said " I didn't know that you could kill wasps with acetylene." We just smiled and said " sure you can."
After about three minutes, we asked the boss to move, and someone got their striker and made a spark. It killed the wasps and scared the boss pretty bad...

That reminded me of when we had a rabbit in a piece of 40 foot pipe we needed. After several failed attempts at getting it out of the pipe, we lifted the end with the crane and filled the pipe with a rosebud tip on the acetylene torch. It worked very well, we did not see where the rabbit landed. I just hope a hawk was in the flight path.:shock:

[Molly]

Ok, great reading thread. It's kinda nice to know there are OTHER idiots in the world besides me.

I used to make cannon out of short lengths of pipe, but I was savvy enough to know that they had to be proof tested before they were 'safe'. I used some home-made fuse for the job, and had one of them with it's butt up against a tree and the other end pointing at a dirt bank across a seldom used dirt road. I'd lit the fuse and it had burnt right down to the touchhole before it stopped and just sat there smoldering. I wasn't concerned because I knew it would get there eventually. That is, I wasn't concerned until I heard a car coming. It came closer and closer, and the fuze got lower and lower. And when the car came around the bend, HOLY PETE! it was a police cruiser!! Well, I shinnied up the road a short distance to where I thought I'd be safe if the cannon blew up, and stepped out to wave the cops down. The resulting conversation is still engraved on my memory as if it was ten minutes ago, and not something like 55 years ago.

The cruiser stopped, and the driver rolled his window down. "Can I help you, son?" "Yessir, I wonder if you'd mind waiting here for a few minutes." "Is there something wrong?" "Nosir, but please wait here for a few minutes." "Why?" (Deep breath) "Well, my cannon's about to go off, and I don't want you to get hurt." The driver looked at his fellow officer in the passenger seat, turned back to me, raised his finger to point at me, and had just opened his mouth to speak when the whole world turned into smoke and noise. I yelled "Thankyousir" as I dropped over the embankment and ran down that 30 degree mountain side like only a scared hillbilly kid can run. That was the only cruiser I ever saw on that road, which was almost never used except by late night lovers.

Then there was the time I got a gross of cherry bombs ... My bothers in law and I were having fun with them, when I noticed a 55 gal rain barrel. I wondered how high the water would go up if I tossed one in there. The first one wasn't so good: It just floated and splashed a little water. The next one was much better, because I wrapped it in some paper with a sizable rock to carry it well under the surface. The result wasn't much noise, and almost no splash. But that darn barrel actually jumped three feet into the air, and just thumped back down and sat there quivering. Of course, we had to do it again ... and again ... and again. But the leap was a bit less with each bomb, until it hardly jumped at all. Then we turned it over to get a look at the bottom, which was beaten down as flat as it could be, dead square with the ground, and no chime left in it at all.

Then there was the time a cop grabbed me as I was walking through the state capital building rotunda with a four and a half or five foot long rolling block over my shoulder. "Hey kid, where do you think you're going with that thing?" "Oh, this? I'm just going to show it to the museum curator." (She had a fine display of rifles, machine guns and other WW memorabilia that led to me cultivating a warm friendship with her. Sometimes, after much pleading, she'd open a display and let me handle them if there was nobody else in the museum.) "Going to the museum, eh? Well, OK, go ahead."

We had a surprise locker inspection at school one fine day. The surprise was twofold: one for the principal when he discovered that same Rolling Block, a 16 gauge double and a .38 S&W breaktop in my locker. I explained that I was returning them to the little old lady who ran an antiques/junk store not too far from school, after checking them out to be sure they were safe to shoot. He just sighed, told me to get them out of there and not to bring any more into school. That was the second surprise. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and didn't mention that I was trading guns with the school bus driver pretty regularly. (The world has changed some since those innocent days.)

I think I came by much of this honestly, because on my last visit to that museum (many years later), they had a prayer book on display that a relative had carried in his backpack during the Civil Way. It had a Minnie Ball imbedded in it, and had thus saved his life. It’s all very interesting until you reflect on where a backpack was carried: He’d had his back to the battle, thus proving that we were notable for intelligence (if not valor) even then. (Actually, I enjoy telling that version, but it proves nothing of the sort: those battles were very confused, and the ball could have come from enemy troops in any direction … or it could have even been ‘friendly fire’.)

Yeah, I made my own gunpowder, rockets and the like too. I only got into real parental displeasure once though: the time I was firing rockets out of my bedroom window, and got propellant residue (soot) stains all over the outside of the house. Dad made me repaint that side of the house. Then, when it looked so new, and the rest of the house didn't, he made me finish the whole darn house!

Well, there was one other time I guess. One of the neighbor ladies filed a formal complaint with dad that the concussion from one of my cannons had dislodged her mantle clock, which was broken by the fall to the floor. Frankly, I think that was rather thin, but that was her story, and she stuck to it. I had to buy her a new clock.

Years later, I was visiting the old home neighborhood, and got into a conversation with the lady who lived across the street. She roared with laughter as we recounted some of the things I'd gotten into, but the only one I remember was her story that every so often, the peaceful summer afternoon would be shattered by a huge blast, and each time, she could hear my mother running through our house to the back door. She'd open it and shout "Kenneth???" "Yes mam?" "OK. Just checking."

That same neighbor lady once got into a physical disagreement with her much larger husband. He went to bed without her, and when he woke up, he was surprised to find himself bound hand and foot to the bed with her clothesline, and she was sitting there in a chair with a skillet in her hand. She told him that she was going to teach him that she wasn't to be treated that way, and she did: she beat the living BLEEP out of him with that skillet. When she was done, she reached for the line and told him that she knew that when she released him that he would probably hit her again, but that if he did, he'd regret it. She cut the line, and he did exactly what she expected. Next morning, he awoke bound and she was sitting there with her skillet. This time, she put him in the hospital for a few days. Sometime later, they fell into another disagreement, and he drew his fist back to hit her. She didn't even flinch. She stared him square in the face, and said "If you do, you'll be sorry!" He stopped, lowered his hand, and to the best of my knowledge, never offered to hit her again.

Which reminds me of the time I found a small collection of butchered guns sticking out of the trash can at one of the customers on my paper route. Seems the husband of the house had gotten tired of his wife complaining about the money and time he spent at a local bar, and taught her some manners before he went back to the bar to assuage the insult to his authority. When she woke up, he wasn't to be found, but she discovered another way to make her displeasure known when her eye fell on his gun cabinet and his tool box at roughly the same time, and she worked off a good deal of her frustration by cutting them in half. Be that as it may, I quickly established salvage rights and hauled the treasure trove off to my home. A single shot .22 rifle was transformed into a bolt action pistol (long before the 1968 gun control act) that harvested many a bunny on my early morning paper route. The other end was converted into a .22 caliber muzzle loader by the simple expedient of threading the breech and plugging it with a bolt. The side was drilled and threaded to accept an automotive grease fitting, whose terminus was replaced by a proper nipple. This was attached to a 'stock' (actually, a gutted 2x4) and proofed tested to assure safety.

I was shooting it on the back hillside and was startled when my dad walked up to see what was going on. He'd heard the shooting, and noticed that none of the guns in his cabinet were missing, so he was naturally curious to see what I was up to. He looked over the results of my 'workmanship', and began reminiscing about the zip guns he'd made as a kid. He expressed an interest in shooting it, and I told him to go ahead. He did. Remember the WWII movies where a jap zero was strafing a sailor, with a double line of bullet impacts, one on either side of the sailor? That's exactly what his arm looked like when the nipple blew out of the grease fitting and strafed his arm. I thought I was dead, or about to be. But he really grew in my esteem when he just lowered the gun and said "No, you're not in any trouble. You didn't know any better. This was MY fault, because I knew better and went ahead anyhow."

Then there was the time I grew frustrated by a flock of crows who knew the limits of my .22 LR and my (low) skill level to the foot. But I read a book about an exploit of Daniel Boon (A distant relative BTW) who loaded up 'ol Betsy' with four fingers of powder to get the extra range to pick off one of the attackers of Boonsborough. The author explained that this meant that he'd filled the bore of his rifle with gunpowder for the length spanned by four fingers laid crossway at the breech. Well, if it was good enough for Dan, it was good enough for me. I pried the bullets out of enough 22 LR shells to enable me to do the same with my .22. But the results were less satisfactory for me than for Dan. Much of the rifle stock went away, some of the metal furnishings followed, and there was some significant damage to what remained. By some miracle, I was unharmed except for some granules of gunpowder embedded in my left wrist. (I REALLY have shooting in my blood!)

Not long thereafter, I discovered that one of our neighbors had a .222 Rem that could be had for only about twice it's true value, and he generously tossed in about half a box of ammo too. I thought I was in heaven. That is, until the ammo was gone, and I discovered the shocking prices of 'store-bought' centerfire ammo. But I'd read about the financial advantages of reloading, and decided that it was time to give it a try. I had plenty of .22 bullets from the LR ammo I'd robbed for powder, and the same source could also be used for gunpowder suitable for 22's (Right?). But well recalling the excitement that had accompanied my earlier experiment, I played it plenty safe, and only filled the case half full. A .22 LR bullet was crimped in place with a pair of pliers, and the reload was complete. But this time, I tied it to a tire for the first trial. The metal survived, but I had to buy a new stock.

These were just a few of the highlights of my mis-spent childhood. In my advancing years, I find that a few folks think I have some understanding of firearms and reloading, but the truth of the matter is that my limited knowledge is the only thing left after I'd committed about every idiocy in the book learning what the wrong things to do were. Not a word of this account is fictional, and yet I somehow lived through it all. My dad once shook his head over some exploit or another, and said that if he managed to get me to 21 years of age with all my fingers and no police record, he'd consider that he'd done well. (He did well.)

Well, my word processor tells me that I’ve run this into the ground, so I’ll stop here. But I’ve enjoyed reading about some of your exploits as well, and simply wanted to return the pleasure. Take care. And do not try this at home! (BG)

[Rangefinder]

Ok, great reading thread. It's kinda nice to know there are OTHER idiots in the world besides me.

Awe man, that ain't no joke. I could write a book on all the things I did growing up--each one likely a separate felony in today's world. Smoke bombs in rival scout camps---yep, we did that one too. We went further though. We circled out own camp against retaliation with tree snares and pit-falls. It's always interesting to be sitting around the fire after a successful raid snickering amongst each other and then hear "TWANG---AAAAAGGGHH!!!". Getting 'em once is good, but getting 'em twice is better. ;)

Ant Bombs... I had gopher bombs. Ya know, a 12-gram CO2 cartridge 1/2 full of FFF makes one heck of a bang for its size? Did you also know that if you take a small X-mas tree bulb, clip the tip, fill it with flash powder, drill the opening of the CO2 cartridge large enough to accept it and add in some phone line and a 9-volt battery, along with 3" of dbl-sided carpet tape and a handful of copperhead BB's then you've effectively made an electrically-detonated prairie dog claymore mine? Note to self after the first successful PD kill---use longer det-wire and lay prone. Those things sting like crazy--even more than the BB-gun war hits I was use to.

Oh, it's a comfort knowing I'm not the only crazy one that managed to survive... :D

[Harter66]

What a boring sheltered life Ive lead. Somehow long lining black bass and mud cats seems mundane. I can't think of 1 time I blew up anything. A qt of gas slowly introduced to a double ended ant colony is interesting when you don't expect the other end to flash.

[Molly]

Oh, it's a comfort knowing I'm not the only crazy one that managed to survive... :D

Isn't it though? I forgot to mention the game called (for some unknowable reason) "Simon Legree." It's similar to BB gun wars, but a bit more motivational. It consists of two (or more) escapees from a lunatic asylum who each possesses a shotgun. They agree on a path through the woods, and cut the shot from a shell. They flip a coin to decide who goes first. The first guy sets up an ambush somewhere along the path. The second guy either detects the ambush and whacks the ambusher with a shotgun wad, or gets whacked himself when he comes into range.

I've often thought that the US Army could adopt this training exercise with beneficial results.

[lurch]

"... Ya know, a 12-gram CO2 cartridge 1/2 full of FFF makes one heck of a bang for its size? Did you also know that if you take a small X-mas tree bulb, clip the tip, fill it with flash powder, drill the opening of the CO2 cartridge large enough to accept it and add in some phone line and a 9-volt battery, along with 3" of dbl-sided carpet tape and a handful of copperhead BB's then you've effectively made an electrically-detonated prairie dog claymore mine? Note to self after the first successful PD kill---use longer det-wire and lay prone. Those things sting like crazy--even more than the BB-gun war hits I was use to.

Oh, it's a comfort knowing I'm not the only crazy one that managed to survive... :D

I reckon one with bullseye in it does pretty good too.

I'd also be willing to bet that a percussion cap and a paper tail might make for some interesting adventures...

Just sayin'... :oops:

[leeggen]

Used to take 2 gal of water dump it down groundhog holes then pour 1 gal gasoline wait 2 minutes and lite with long stick. Well wind kept blowing out the stick. About 5 or 6 minutes later we finally get ignition. Do you know how mad a hairless groundhog can get. Especially after launching him about 25 feet thru the air before he hits the ground. WOW he was mad!!!
Holding blackcat firecrackers to see who was the toughest. Play in the cornfields when hunting rabbits, and get peppered by the 410 shot from your brothers long shot on a rabbit,
never liked the one. Much rather launch groundhogs. Mount a sparkplug in the tailpipe of your car then as you go thru town turn the car off and pump the excel. as fast as posible then hit the sparkplug in the tail pipe, if done right will light the whole back of your car up! oh yal the gas cap is under the lic. plate hummmm live thru that too. Isn't growing up in the country great.
CD

[MaryB]

We made cannons from steel water pipe, put a larger chamber on the bottom with adapters, top pipe was sized just right to hold a tennis ball. Fill the bottom from the oxy/acetylene torch then light it off with a spark plus. Tennis balls would launch 2-3 blocks and the bang rattled windows for 6. We got the bright idea to fill a ball with gas then launch it... that one started a brush fire on the hillside. We never did get caught though!

[WILCO]

bb-gun wars... Oh, I have no idea how we all came to see adulthood...lol

Yep. Did that and also what I called "Tree Bending". Climb to the very top of a young tree and ride it down to the ground. Let it go and enjoy the "Whoooosh" as it went back up. One tree stopped halfway down. Part of it rode with me after it snapped off. No bones broken, but man was I in pain laying there looking at the sun through the leaves.

[Wal']

My scary memory was with local neighborhood kids playing our own guerilla warfare using our single shot .22's loaded with rat shot!

We'd divide up in two teams, one would move into the bush & the other would attack, I guess the kids wearing glasses back then were the lucky ones, often came home with a few welts & bruising!

[PPGB]

We had many many BB/pellet gun wars with the neighbor boys, don't know how many of those little buggers we picked out of our arms, necks, cheeks, luckily no one was ever hit in the eye. Our most infamous stunt was making tennis ball cannons out of soda cans and using lighter fluid for propellant, didn't go over well when we shot one out of the back window of the school bus. I wonder what would happen these days if a kid showed up at school with a tennis ball cannon.

[bikerbeans]

A friend of mine's dad told us to kill all the groundhogs on a small farm he just bought. His dad then left us on the farm for a couple of weeks; 16 year olds, with beer, guns and a couple of boxes of blasting caps we found that we "forgot" to tell his dad about. We decided the best way to get the last groundhog (yeah, like there is a last groundhog) would be to make a trail of blasting caps from the ground surface down into the burrow. We then hid behind a couple of big trees and I set off the b-caps (about 50 of them) with my 12ga Winchester pump at a distance of about 10 to 12 yards. The blast knocked us both down and I couldn't hear a thing for a couple of minutes. My ears are still ringing over 40 years later.

BB

[dRok]

Used to make crackers out of poly pipe with the ends glue gun sealed and canon fuse. Use potassium chlorate and aluminum powder with a little black powder added as fuel. Those things would blow cinder blocks into little pieces. One time me and my friend had the bright idea of setting a cinder block with the holes facing up, add 'cracker to bottom of hole, and put a 1 gal milk jug on top of it filled with diesel, made a heck of a neat mushroom cloud. We ended up having a farmer chase us for a couple miles after that one, guess he wasnt impressed. Also when I was in grade school my friends dad had a large bottle of mercury we used to play with, guessing it was about a liter, but we would dump it on the floor or a table and play with it, bare handed, probably wasnt the best idea, but kids dont know anything about toxic chemicals, we just thought it was 'cool'. Shot arrows up in the air, put a hole in my neighbors roof doing that, they werent happy. Try shooting an arrow straight up with a 65lb draw compound, dang they go high! Started my parents basement on fire playing with candles, put it out with a fire extinguisher, which made a HUGE mess. Got one of my cute babysitters to take her pants off by offering her some candy... Ohh, take quart jars out in the country, fill them with gas and light the tops at night, step back and blast them with a high powered rifle, makes for some cool fireballs. My friends dad had a 'hunting' truck, when we were about 10 years old we would go out dang near all night in the winter 'spotlighting' coons and yotes and whatnot. Neither of us had drivers licenses but we grew up in a small town and knew everyone so it wasnt really an issue. We made some pretty good coin selling furs in the winter.

[10 ga]

Building ZIP guns! It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves or each other. We built 22 short RF right on up to 12 ga. It was FUN!

10 ga

[wrench man]

I did the arrow thing too!, when we got our first gas BBQ grill I put it together as per the instructions, turned on the gas and went in the house to get the matches, lit the match, bent around to stick it in the little access hole to the burner, the jet of flame that shot out of the hole and burnt all the hair off of the back of my hand was NOTHING! compared to the fire ball that traveled the length of the breezeway!, the "WOOF" and fire ball that went past the front door did get dads attention!, he stepped out the front door, I looked at him and said "I think your supposed to light the match BEFORE you turn on the gas?", all he said was "YA THINK!??" and he went back in the house.:holysheep

One summer we were bored, my brother set an old B&S 2HP edger engine on one of those two wheeled stand up kick scooters we had, about an hour later we had motor mounts welded on the frame, a pulley bolted to the back wheel, fabbed up a rocker lever with an idler pulley that you operated with one foot for the clutch, welded a gate hinge to the frame with a length of kite string for the throttle pedal that you operated with the heel of your other foot and an old "banana" seat we had in the junk topped it off!, wide open it would go about 35 mph!, it vibrated SO! bad that you couldn't see anything!, for brakes you simply stood up and skidded your feet![smilie=2:
http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx190/ramblerinternational/scooter_zps74d26acb.jpg (http://s754.photobucket.com/user/ramblerinternational/media/scooter_zps74d26acb.jpg.html)

The PINK paint on it was left over from dads car trailer!, he told us it had better be painted when he got home from work!, didn't care what color, just one solid color!!, we found about a quart of white and a little red, had a whole quart when we got done mixing it!, dad was NOT! amused.

My senior year in high school the guy at the tire shop wondered WHY!?? I wanted "H" rated (130MPH) tires on my '68 Rambler American?, I said "well I figure that's how fast it's going when the spedo needle is pointed straight down?", I was doing the "responsible" thing by putting the correct tires on it wasn't I??

We never did clock our dirt bikes when we took them out on the black top to see how fast they were?, of course we didn't have helmets on!?, still don't know?, but I'll tell you that CZ 250 was HOLLY FERK'N SCHNIT FAST!! (and I would never do that today on my YAMAHA YFS248 these days!?[smilie=1: )

Does it suck that most of my injury's come from working at an alignment shop and not from having fun??

[krag35]

We would water ski in the irrigation canals pulled by a pickup on the access road. A friend said he could catch an arrow out of the air. I dead centered him in the sternum with a rubber blunt out of a 55# recurve, that got him a trip to the Hospital. Wrist Rocket wars using Black Walnuts.

[merlin101]

I'm only going to mention one. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to "borrow" my sisters car, it was a Plymouth Sport Fury with a 383 or 440 engine and go for a ride. Did I mention I was 15? Well when I got up in town I decided that it would be fun to do a burnout around the traffic circle, that worked out so well I did another and another. It didn't take the police long to get there as the station was only a hundred yards away!
GAWD I can't believe I was that stupid!

[deadkelly]

wow far to many dumb things . don't shoot a tape measure on top of a fence post at point blank with a 22. there's like 2" of rolled up steel there . i had 2 chunks of lead in my face . hahahahaha far to many to type . lifes great . rocket arrows,spudguns & slingshots,shooting phone books in front of ya chests , wheelie bins . ufo's , plastic & glass bottle bomb fights . rocking the wogshop roof hahahaha . wallet & fishing line on the side of the road trick .