JMA375HH Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 (edited) Hello everyone here in my great state of Alaska winters are extremely long. I was watching a show on the Discovery channel and they had some people shooting at exploding targets. It looks like allot of good winter fun so I purchased their E Book that explains the process and ingredients. They have a total of three recipes the first one being the safest Ammonia nitrate and Indian alum powder. that are mixed together and then sealed in a paper or plastic container and then used as the target shot at 100 yards. when hit with a high velocity bullet they explode, big bang and smoke. So my question is just how safe is it really providing that one follows all instructions and mixing measurements. I have no experience in any of this area what so ever. But if this can be done safely I would like to try this in a very small way so I can have some winter fun on the ranch. You can see what I am talking about on you tube just type in exploding targets. You can purchase these on line however there pretty expensive and I can't afford that kind of fun. But if I can Safely make my own with out hurting or killing my self and save some money that would be great. any info would be great I would not try this with out knowing what I was really dealing with, so that's why I am asking you guys for your input. Thanks you Again. JMA375HH Edited March 31, 2009 by JMA375HH
shagaKahn Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 This is undoubtedly the safest binary target mixture you can experiment with. As Daniel Tanner's videographer (he is the patent holder of Tannerite) I've had some exposure to binary exploding target mixtures--and for his instructional video we demonstrate how safe this mixture is. You can burn it, stick a fuse in it, drop it, shoot at it with LPR rounds and nothing happens. It literally takes a supersonic impact from an HPR round to detonate it. (Blasting caps work, too). But anyway what this means is that unlike flash mixtures--which will surely detonate on impact from a rifle bullet--this stuff won't detonate due to shock or friction. You can easily blow yourself away playing with flash mixtures--but black aluminum/ammonium nitrate mixtures are fairly safe. The one recommendation I'd make is that you keep your oxidizer sealed up as dry as possible since it's fairly hygroscopic--and that you not mix your batch till the day you're ready to shoot it--and use it all up the same day. (Made the mistake of mixing more than I could shoot one time and stowed the mixed container--this was tannerite, the genuine article--in my garage for several weeks. It soaked up sufficient moisture from the air to become useless).
Swede Posted March 31, 2009 Posted March 31, 2009 Agree with all Kahn mentioned. I'd further like to add that these targets have been popular for a long time, which sometimes causes an inevitable familiarity and guys tend to not treat it with the respect it deserves. The most obvious issue is packing something like an old washing machine or refrigerator with these things, and the result is sheet metal flying 100+ yards towards the firing line. Don't put them INSIDE something, or BEHIND something. The safest way is to hang them from a tree limb with string. Be careful, and have fun.
qwezxc12 Posted April 1, 2009 Posted April 1, 2009 (edited) Lots 'o info in this link...click me ...both on AN or Ammonium Perc/Al mixes and CuO/Al thermite Be safe and above all, be smart! Binary mixes are perfectly legal in the eyes of the Feds when used appropriatly, but that won't stop Gomer the Deputy from confiscating all your shit and giving you a pile of legal headaches 'for the children' if he finds you blowing crap up. Edited April 1, 2009 by qwezxc12
JMA375HH Posted April 1, 2009 Author Posted April 1, 2009 Thanks for the Info I'll read through some of the other threads.
hst45 Posted April 1, 2009 Posted April 1, 2009 Wasn't there a guy in Minnesota who popped something like 100 lbs. of Tannerite and was busted for, basically, being dangerously dangerous? Lesson being: too much of a good thing is a BAD thing. Small interactive targets are a hoot. Placed one in the X-ring of a target and you will dispel all the arguments of the "I think I hit it" nature.
RocketNut Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 Wasn't there a guy in Minnesota who popped something like 100 lbs. of Tannerite and was busted for, basically, being dangerously dangerous? Lesson being: too much of a good thing is a BAD thing. Small interactive targets are a hoot. Placed one in the X-ring of a target and you will dispel all the arguments of the "I think I hit it" nature.He got in trouble for shooting 100 lbs of it off less than a mile away from a nuke power plant. They said it set off the safety mechanism and shut the plant down. Man that guy was a moron!
TheSidewinder Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 LOL... "moron" is a gross understatement. Yes, it was the Monticello Plant. And if I remember right, that guy's troubles aren't over yet.
WarezWally Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 (edited) I thought he dumped it all in an old bus or truck and then started popping off rounds at it If you are going to do something like that, do it in the sticks from behind some sandbags Edited April 2, 2009 by WarezWally
TheSidewinder Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 Yup, he put it in the bed of some type of dump truck out in a field, then shot at it until it went boom. A pity that Darwin wasn't watching, mmm?
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