July 4th Darwin Award winner

[Sportcat]

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/12054244.htm

Goose Creek man killed by shrapnel from homemade bomb

Associated Press

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. - A 30-year-old man has been killed after a piece of shrapnel from a bomb he made struck him in the chest, police say.

The man died less than an hour after setting off the pipe bomb around 7:30 p.m. Monday, Berkeley County Deputy Coroner Bill Salisbury said. His name has not been released.

The man filled a pipe with gunpowder and set up a battery charger to ignite the bomb as part of his Independence Day celebration, Goose Creek Police Cpl. J.S. Crafton said.

A woman standing several hundred yards away was struck in the wrist by a piece of shrapnel and taken to the hospital, Crafton said. No one else was injured.

It is illegal in South Carolina to make a homemade explosive or fireworks and others that were with the man before he set off the bomb could be charged if investigators find they helped him build the device, Crafton said.

 

[Mongo the Mutterer]

I guess my cousin and I were about 10 or 11 when we found some old Japanese ammunition in the basement of my Grandmother's home.

Cut the neck off a CO2 cartridge, filled it with gunpowder, inserted a plastic fuse from a cherry bomb, waxed off the top and off we went.

Put it on the side of the house where there were few windows and a walkway, and lit it.

We were standing there, and we both looked at each other and said "shrapnel!" and ran.

Bottom line, no shrapnel, but the thing took off like a rocket and careened off of two houses, one directly across the street, and then on the Other side! Luckily it hit the bricks, not a window.

Point is ... we were 11 years old and knew the danger from shrapnel. We stayed in the gene pool.

 

[The_Antibubba]

Somewhere, one hopes, he is observing his soul's independance from his body.

 

[Rickstir]

Stupid is as stupid does.

 

[R.H. Lee]

Bet he said "Hey y'all, watch this".......just before he set it off.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Bet he said "Hey y'all, watch this".......just before he set it off.

I'd guess it was probably more along the lines of: "Hold my beer. Y'all watch this!"

 

[dhoomonyou]

"Hold my beer and watch this"

 

[MilsurpShooter]

a woman standing 700 yards away

 

[Smoke]

There was another thread about this running around here somewhere....claimed it was a cannon. Said he had fired it before.

Probably a very thin line between cannon and pipe bomb with the homegrown variety.

Smoke

 

[Randy in Arizona]

Probably a very thin line between cannon and pipe bomb

Yup! You only cap one end of a pipe cannon. Biggest problem I had as a teenage potential urban terrorist was keeping the pipe cannon from going almost as fast in the opposite direction as the projectile was going in the direction it was pointed.

 

[Third_Rail]

Define homemade in terms of cannon... Cannons properly made are quite nice, homemade or bought. Same deal goes for display cannons which should never be shot - doesn't matter if you made it or a company did, you shouldn't fire it.


For some real neat homemade cannons, check out GrayBeard forums, BP cannon section.

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewforum.php?f=88

 

[Farnham]

Biggest problem I had as a teenage potential urban terrorist was keeping the pipe cannon from going almost as fast in the opposite direction as the projectile was going in the direction it was pointed.

That's why you need a heap of sand!

S/F

Farnham

PS: An old tractor tire worked well, too, come to think of it.

 

[PaladinVC]

Years and years ago, my Dad and I made a cork-firing, firecracker-powered pipe cannon from an old chunk of 3/4" pipe. Boy, that was a fun little toy. We had about a 10% recovery rate on corks, which meant we never got to play with it long enough to seriously offend neighbors. I wanted to make one this year, but local PD is cracking down on firecrackers. C'est la vie.

As a teen, I detonated my share of IEDs. Even scored some Aluminum powder and tried to make some home-grown thermite. Never got it to work right. It gave me a lot of questions to ask my chemistry teacher, though. I guess if kids asked those questions today they'd get less Mr. Wizard and more Mr. Security Guard as a result. Brave new world...

 

[Cesiumsponge]

It is illegal in South Carolina to make a homemade explosive

Mmm sure stopped him

As a teen, I detonated my share of IEDs. Even scored some Aluminum powder and tried to make some home-grown thermite. Never got it to work right. It gave me a lot of questions to ask my chemistry teacher

I convinced my high school chemistry instructor to let me do thermite as a demo for my final project. I did...and it set the grass on fire Didn't negatively affect my grade.

Done a few goofy things before, but I've always confined it on my own property (or a friends if we were working together). I made a bolt-action pneumatic air cannon. I used to pour a glass of water in it and pulled the trigger, which resulted in kicking like a mule and raising the local humidity levels to 100%. I carefully setup a backstop and shot entire 50BMG dummy rounds (case and all) in PVC sabotted jackets in the garage. The thing would put holes in 3 sheets of 3/4" plywood before coming at rest. Sometimes we'd shoot those tiny 2" long glowsticks into the air at night.

Never did a pipebomb or anything overly dangerous though, had more common sense than that!

 

[cracked butt]

Even scored some Aluminum powder and tried to make some home-grown thermite.

Your thermite mixture can be really difficult to ignite, unless you happen upon a piece of magnesium ribbon.

 

[chopinbloc]

too much fun. i tried that bit with the co2 cartridge when i was a kid too. used shotgun powder. ours blew up every time, even when we tried to make it a rocket by using only a fraction of the charge.

 

[Combat-wombat]

Today, with the internet, backyard chemists have all they need. Oh, how I love technology. (thinks of smoke cloud engulfing my neighborhood earlier this afternoon)

 

[DarthBubba]

Really old black powder+long fuse+golf course practice putting hole= huge column of fire and smoke and two kids running for cover an fast as the could.
I think most of us have done really stupid stuff in our wilder youth live and learn right?, well in this guys case not so much live.

DarthBubba

 

[TheOtherOne]

too much fun. i tried that bit with the co2 cartridge when i was a kid too. used shotgun powder. ours blew up every time, even when we tried to make it a rocket by using only a fraction of the charge.

Wow, flashback! I can't remember how many shotgun shells I cut open to extract their powder. Good thing my dad had pretty much gave up hunting and never missed them.

Duct taping a co2 cartridge bomb to the top of a two-stage estes rocket engine with balsa wood fins glued on made for some very interesting "bottle rockets".

Of course, I won't be doing anything quite that stupid these days.