Tap-a-cap

[Major Tom]

Hmmm, BP sounds easier than stuffing match heads. May try that out..........someday. 8-)

[jon_norstog]

I guess I was 15. We had a big jar of black powder from our .43 Spanish dud rounds. I found a spent roman candle about a foot-and-a half long and stuffed it with that old BP. Capped it with a .45 ACP shell, primer knocked out and a fuse sticking out the hole ...

My friend Bob, the minister's son, came over as I was finishing it up. He wanted to light it up, of course. So we put it in this stone fireplace/barbecue in our back yard. I lit the fuse (something I made up from ground-up gunpowder, flour and toilet paper) and we ran away. Nothing! After a while Bob decided to go check it out ... I told him, don't go up to that bomb, but he did anyway. Just as he got next to it, it went off. With a bang and a huge cloud of fire and smoke. Last I saw of Bob he was flying backwards and then the smoke covered it all.

I thought I was in for it! After the smoke cleared and the ringing in my ears died down a bit I went up to where I thought Bob might be. there he was, dazed but alive. Fortunately he didn't remember much and I kept my mouth shut.
\
\Good thing they were Presbyterians!


jn

[Major Tom]

Kids with explosives! Ah, the good 'ol days.

[Vern Humphrey]

We used to take a tin can and punch a hole in the bottom, and put a firecracker inside with the fuze sticking through the hole. We'd slip the can on the end of a fence post, tape another firecracker to the outside, connect the fuzes and touch a match. That can would go waaaay up and BANG!

We also would drill a hole in a pipe cap, and use that for the breech of a cannon made out of pipe and shoot marbles into a wooden fence.

In Egypt, we could get "torpedoes" -- brown paper wrapped around gravel and some explosives. We'd go up on the roof of a 3-story house and throw them down at the apron of the underground garage -- the whole house would shake!

[Vern Humphrey]

My apologies for hi-jacking this thread (but others did it first.)

Go here http://22lrreloader.com/ They sell a priming mixture for reloading .22 rimfires, and that's exactly what you want for your tap-a-cap.

[PhillipM]

We used to take a tin can and punch a hole in the bottom, and put a firecracker inside with the fuze sticking through the hole. We'd slip the can on the end of a fence post, tape another firecracker to the outside, connect the fuzes and touch a match. That can would go waaaay up and BANG!

We also would drill a hole in a pipe cap, and use that for the breech of a cannon made out of pipe and shoot marbles into a wooden fence.

In Egypt, we could get "torpedoes" -- brown paper wrapped around gravel and some explosives. We'd go up on the roof of a 3-story house and throw them down at the apron of the underground garage -- the whole house would shake!

Railroads use an explosive device called a torpedo to warn of a stopped train or other hazard on the track. They go off when a train runs over them. Same thing?

[Vern Humphrey]

Railroads use an explosive device called a torpedo to warn of a stopped train or other hazard on the track. They go off when a train runs over them. Same thing?

Yep. They're made (if memory serves) of potassium chlorate, sulfur and gravel. The ones we bought were wrapped in brown paper and tied with fine wire.