Iron Sight
Member
If you shoot dynamite with a firearm will it detonate?/Blow up?
Dynamite
- Thread starter Iron Sight
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firesky101
Member
Maybe if it is old and the nitroglycerin has separated from the media. Of course throwing a rock at it might have the same effect. The question really is "why do you ask?"
Jeff F
Member
It depend on the dynamite, but generally speaking yes it can. It depends on the nitro content. Most dynamite today is not manufactured with nitro, but an ammonium dynamite. Dynamite is not used much anymore, most blasters have gone on to water-gel explosives which are mostly not cap sensitive.
lloveless
Member
ChCx2744 stated: " It's not really all that stable." En contrare, if it wasn't stable it couldn't be shipped! On the other hand it is stupid to push the limits of a substance for what end? As other posters have noted, the stablilizors do deteriorate over time. If it is old call someone who deals with this type of thing the"BOMB SQUAD".
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Old Dog Man
Member
Shooting dynomite
John Wayne could do it in the air, gotta be true!!! Al
John Wayne could do it in the air, gotta be true!!! Al
FROGO207
Member
Ah the good ol days. When you could go to the hardware store and buy some to get rid of that pesky stump in the back yard.
As stated these days the stuff is being phased out for safer alternatives. Some guys got in trouble here for detonating a hillside that was soft and peppering a few neighbors houses. The new stuff would be hard to detonate with a bullet IMHO. Some of the old stuff, well these days I would stay away from it if I had the choice.
As stated these days the stuff is being phased out for safer alternatives. Some guys got in trouble here for detonating a hillside that was soft and peppering a few neighbors houses. The new stuff would be hard to detonate with a bullet IMHO. Some of the old stuff, well these days I would stay away from it if I had the choice.Gtimothy
Member
Sounds like an episode for "MythBusters" if they haven't done it already!
wally
Member
As invented by Alfred Nobel, dynamite most definitely would be set off by a rifle round which is why it saw very little actual military use and some spectacular failures when attempts were made to use it as artillery in "dynamite guns".
While dynamite was far safer than the alternatives of the time, safer explosives have been continuously developed and I don't think the dynamite made today has much resemblance to Nobel's original and is largely being replaced by more modern pumpable liquid/gel explosives
While dynamite was far safer than the alternatives of the time, safer explosives have been continuously developed and I don't think the dynamite made today has much resemblance to Nobel's original and is largely being replaced by more modern pumpable liquid/gel explosives
AlexanderA
Member
There was a documented, historical incident during the German invasion of Greece in 1941, when the retreating British had placed demolition charges (not sure if they were dynamite) on the bridge over the Corinth Canal. After the detonators failed to go off, and when the Germans were already starting to cross the bridge, a British officer took aim at the charges with a SMLE rifle and managed to set them off that way.
Black Butte
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I think Tannerite would be the safer alternative.
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
I tried it when I was 17 years old in 1961.
My dad had bought some 40% dynamite at the hardware store to remove some of those pesky stumps in the pasture.
There were two sticks left when we got done, so one thing lead to another.
We set them up on a pond dam about 100 yards away and I shot the first one to pieces with a .22RF and a .22 WMR.
It didn't go off.
I shot the second stick with a 30-06 125 grain HP varmint load.
It only survived one shot, but it didn't go off either.
We then proceeded to pick up all the remaining little pieces and put them in a bean can and I shot it again with the 30-06.
Still no boom, and there was not enough left to try it any further.
After that, I had a very hard time believing they could shoot dynamite with a Winchester 44-40 and blow the outlaws out of the woodpile like they did on TV every week or so.
rc
My dad had bought some 40% dynamite at the hardware store to remove some of those pesky stumps in the pasture.
There were two sticks left when we got done, so one thing lead to another.
We set them up on a pond dam about 100 yards away and I shot the first one to pieces with a .22RF and a .22 WMR.
It didn't go off.
I shot the second stick with a 30-06 125 grain HP varmint load.
It only survived one shot, but it didn't go off either.
We then proceeded to pick up all the remaining little pieces and put them in a bean can and I shot it again with the 30-06.
Still no boom, and there was not enough left to try it any further.
After that, I had a very hard time believing they could shoot dynamite with a Winchester 44-40 and blow the outlaws out of the woodpile like they did on TV every week or so.
rc
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jerkface11
Member
Just assume that when they do it on tv or in a movie they put a cap in it first.
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
I assume that, and I also assume it is not dynamite.
Just a theatrical charge of black powder remotely detonated electrically by the prop man.
They aren't gonna fool around with real dynamite & real blasting caps & real 44-40's on a movie set I betcha.
rc
Just a theatrical charge of black powder remotely detonated electrically by the prop man.
They aren't gonna fool around with real dynamite & real blasting caps & real 44-40's on a movie set I betcha.
rc
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rcmodel
Member in memoriam
Yep.
Old dynamite sweats nitro and is very unstable.
Dad showed me that too with some we found at an old rock quarry.
He wiped some off on his finger and flicked it on the ground and snap, crackle, and pop.
BTW: Least my dad come across as an idiot, he worked as a powder man in the lead mines in Oklahoma in the 1930's.
Then was a Navy Sea Bee in WWII and did a fair share of blasting in the Philippines.
Then oil well shoooting after the war for a while.
He did know his way around Dynamite & Nitro I guess.
At least he never got blowed up.
rc
Old dynamite sweats nitro and is very unstable.
Dad showed me that too with some we found at an old rock quarry.
He wiped some off on his finger and flicked it on the ground and snap, crackle, and pop.
BTW: Least my dad come across as an idiot, he worked as a powder man in the lead mines in Oklahoma in the 1930's.
Then was a Navy Sea Bee in WWII and did a fair share of blasting in the Philippines.
Then oil well shoooting after the war for a while.
He did know his way around Dynamite & Nitro I guess.
At least he never got blowed up.
rc
Isaac-1
Member
Like others have said old dynamite is not to be messed with, 25 or so years ago my step father came across a few sticks in an old barn he was cleaning out, I don't know how old it was, but he had bought the land the barn was on about 10 years earlier and he did not put the dynamite there. He had everyone move back a safe distance while he carefully carried it out of the barn, placed it a safe distance away then shot it with a rife to detonate it. I should probably mention that he also had experience handling dynamite, as he shot stumps for a living as a young man, afterward he admitted being very nervous carrying it, and made sure not to trip.
HankB
Member
I remember reading a newspaper story about a guy who was renovating his basement, which included taking up the old concrete floor.
Jackhammers were used.
During the excavation . . . they found dynamite below. Cases and cases of it. He and his family had unknowingly been living over it for years, and had even been in the house while the jackhammering had gone on.
Police had some questions and, once they were satisfied that the dynamite had been buried there before the current owners bought the house, they left the guy alone . . . but were supposedly going to try and track down the home's previous owners for questioning.
Stuff was referred to as "old and unstable."
Jackhammers were used.
During the excavation . . . they found dynamite below. Cases and cases of it. He and his family had unknowingly been living over it for years, and had even been in the house while the jackhammering had gone on.
Police had some questions and, once they were satisfied that the dynamite had been buried there before the current owners bought the house, they left the guy alone . . . but were supposedly going to try and track down the home's previous owners for questioning.
Stuff was referred to as "old and unstable."
JohnM
Member
The old "straight" was the unstable stuff, had to be turned regularly.
Then to a lesser extent, the glycerine type.
Ammonia dynamite was safe and stable.
That was what was generally carried in hardware stores and lumber yards.
Around here everyone usually got the 40%, it was cheap.
We could buy through the 70's and maybe even into the 80's, don't remember.
Indispensible on ranches around here.
Beavers wreak havoc on us now not being able to blow out the dams.
And during runoff we're helpless when a jam forms in the river and starts taking stuff out.
Then to a lesser extent, the glycerine type.
Ammonia dynamite was safe and stable.
That was what was generally carried in hardware stores and lumber yards.
Around here everyone usually got the 40%, it was cheap.
We could buy through the 70's and maybe even into the 80's, don't remember.
Indispensible on ranches around here.
Beavers wreak havoc on us now not being able to blow out the dams.
And during runoff we're helpless when a jam forms in the river and starts taking stuff out.
paintballdude902
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about 5 years ago some high school buddies and myself found an old case of it sitting in a barn on a piece of property one of their families owned. we carefully tried to set it off with a new blasting cap and got nothing more than the blasting cap popping. later on we found out the dynamite was so old it lost all of its nitro. the wooden crate on the otherhand went off very nicely when we burned down the building
JohnM
Member
Didn't you see the oily wood and the white whiskers all over it?
That was old straight at it's most unstable state.
Lucky it didn't detonate while you were handling it.
That can get so bad a sliver of the old wood crate can go off if you toss it.
We used to run across it in old mines, spooky stuff to get rid of if you need to move it somewhere else.
That was old straight at it's most unstable state.
Lucky it didn't detonate while you were handling it.
That can get so bad a sliver of the old wood crate can go off if you toss it.
We used to run across it in old mines, spooky stuff to get rid of if you need to move it somewhere else.
SharpsDressedMan
member
When I lived in Colorado, back in the early 1980's, a friend named Kevin (resident alien from N. Zealand) who worked for the mines in NW CO was a freelance demolition guy. Probably no longer possible, but he accumulated large quantities of explosives, mostly low grade stuff and dynamite, to the extent that a lot of it was old and "leaky" (he had one of those small construction "office" trailers stacked to the top with explosives of every kind). Being an alcoholic, and from NZ, he just laughed off the leaky dynamite (I think being brave/crazy/reckless and a heavy drinker might be some kind of competition between New Zealanders and Aussies). He did a lot of crazy things, and finally got deported for tying 1/4 - 1/2 sized sticks of dynamite in trees, and shooting at them to scare trespassers off the 7000 acres he also acted as caretaker for. When unknown persons would come near his dynamite targets, he would take a .22 rifle and strike the partial stick with a .22 bullet. Apparently, the effect was like a law rocket had hit the tree. He finally scared the crap out of someone who DID report it to the local sheriff's dept, and that was the end of that. So, yes, a high impact WILL detonate dynamite.
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jimmyraythomason
Member
When I was a kid I got into dad's dynamite box. He had the dynamite from the dug well that had to be blasted to get past the rock. The Dynamite was soft and very wet. Some were more flat than round. Immitating the cowboy shows that were on every saturday,my brother and I took several "sticks" and threw them as hard as we could,until we got tired of that game and put them back. It's true that GOD takes care of babies,drunks and fools(Gomer Pyle).
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