exploding targets

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Tannerite is by far the best known. If you are shooting it at a club, be sure your club expressly allows it. More than one person has been thrown out of a club around here for using exploding targets.
 
Tannerite; what a ton of fun. Local GS sells Star Targets. I put most of a watermelon into low earth orbit with a 1/2 lb'er and .308. Packs a pretty good wallop. I bought a 2-1/2 lb charge recently; going to split it up amongst some tennis balls and disperse evenly in a field, or hang from tree limbs. Should be fun at various ranges.
 
My LGS sells Star Exploding Targets. They sell one called "The Earth Shaker". It's 4 lbs and claims to be the loudest exploding target on earth!
 
Kick a@@ exploding target from reloaderssupply.net ...put it on a solid concrete block...turned it into a thousand small rocks....i make my own..15 pound target of the homemade stuff aluminum powder and fertilizer will mangle a car and its a fraction of the cost to make your own just google how to do it 95% fertilizer 5% aluminum powder...u have to grind up the fertilzer but i dont know the exact fertilizer and 300 mesh or finer aluminum powder...if u want to get a real explosion strap it to some gasoline but dont do it when tbe groun d is dry it is a fire hazard once u had a flamable substance
 
Tannerite isn't so much a fireball as a pressure wave. It's a more stable form of black powder. While there is a little bit of visible flame at the very center of the explosion, it's immediately extinguished by the blast wave. I have seen this combined with gasoline and a road flare to create an actual fireball, though (that's what they do at Boomershoot). I do NOT recommend doing this, though. It's very dangerous and can easily cause an uncontrollable fire.
 
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The folks in my community are pretty understanding of my shooting. I doubt they would be as understanding if I did something like that. :eek:
 
I have seen several different brands of exploding targets commercially available. Has anybody used several that can give a comparison? I have used Tannerite before. I bought the cheaper Star product and it would not go off. I have seen a product marketed with the Red Jacket name on it and just saw one called Sonic Boom targets. Compare and contrast
 
I have seen several different brands of exploding targets commercially available. Has anybody used several that can give a comparison? I have used Tannerite before. I bought the cheaper Star product and it would not go off. I have seen a product marketed with the Red Jacket name on it and just saw one called Sonic Boom targets. Compare and contrast
H2 Targets are what most gun shows and stores around here are selling.

Tannerite manufacturer specifically states it is not a fire hazard.
So does H2. From their FAQ page;
Q: Will these targets start fires?
A: No, they will not even start fires when shot in dry grass.
 
Tanerite with powdered coffee creamer behind it and a road flare behind that. The coffee creamer is flammable when it's sent into the air/spread out. :)

Another thing my buddy does is drill a hole in the center of a .50 caliber muzzleloader bullet and pour in fireworks powder and seal it. Shoots it at a steel target :)
 
My personal favorites are fruit and veggies from the discount grocer. Potatoes for the 22, and melons for the 243/308 are a great combination, and permitted at essentially every outdoor range. ;)
 
Tannerite isn't so much a fireball as a pressure wave. It's a more stable form of black powder.

Tannerite has nothing in common with black powder. Black powder is saltpeter (potassium nitrate) sulfur and charcoal (carbon). The Tannerite mixes are ammonium nitrate (in fertilizers) and aluminum powder. Purity of the ammonium nitrate and fineness of the aluminum powder are very important to the sensitivity and the "boom".

If it sits after mixing it starts to lose sensitivity as the aluminum power slowly oxidizes.
 
Tannerite manufacturer specifically states it is not a fire hazard.

Tannerite manufacturer is lying. Exploding targets of several types , including Tannerite, have started several fires in western forests. That is why the Forest Service has made them illegal. At least they did in the forest I live in. I've talked to law enforcement about it. They have shot super slow motion video of them blowing up, and there is a flame. While it is a small, and a very fast flash of flame, they can ignite a fire given the drought conditions in many western forests.

Just pointing out that there is false advertising going on. Now if you live in an eastern part of America or in a wet region, and grass is still green by you, you are probably safe.

It gets so dry where I live sometimes, that even a spark generated from a bad shot has started grass fires. I didn't get to go shooting all last summer. The nice part is I had a lot of ammo stored up when the shortage hit.
 
Tannerite manufacturer is lying. Exploding targets of several types , including Tannerite, have started several fires in western forests. That is why the Forest Service has made them illegal. At least they did in the forest I live in. I've talked to law enforcement about it. They have shot super slow motion video of them blowing up, and there is a flame. While it is a small, and a very fast flash of flame, they can ignite a fire given the drought conditions in many western forests.

Plausible deniability. I wager 99% of the "fires started by Tannerite" were people mixing it with flammable materials, just as everyone has seemed to mention in this thread.

"I swear officer, it was the Tannerite that said it was safe!" (Not mentioning the three gallons of diesel fuel that was strapped to)

I've set off close to thirty pounds' worth of Tannerite (1 lb increments or so) in BLM and have YET to see anything as so much as smoke from the surroundings. Call me ignorant, but I'll believe it when I see it myself.


*****EDIT***** This guy beat me to it. Shooting a pound of Tannerite underneath a gallon of gasoline. If this was Diesel, we all know what THAT makes (ANFO), which IS flammable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXyDW0hbJ9Y
 
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Call me ignorant, but I'll believe it when I see it myself.

I'm wishing I had taken video of my recent Tannerite use. I just tried Tannerite for the first time early this summer when I bought a package of their rimfire targets and a few pounds of the original pound jars. If you're not familiar, the rimfire or small calliber versions are just little cardboard targets with just a couple tablespoons worth of Tannerite in a baggy glued behind the bull.

Anyway, I had two or three of the targets burn instead of explode. Either the round didn't hit dead center, or something was off with a portion of the mix, but they definitely burned slowly enough to ignite a fire if I hadn't placed them properly. I would say one burned for about a minute before all the powder was gone.

The full-pound original version hit with a .223 Rem exploded great.
 
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