Entertainment for free at Wally World

[gamestalker]

Some of the stuff you hear from the mouths of the ignorant, you know, those who think everyone is an idiot or dumb enough to swallow their BS. And it doesn't help that so many will believe much of what they see on TV.

So I heard one yesterday in Walley world over in the sporting goods dept about how a hollow point filled with mercury will produce a massive explosion upon impact, most of us has seen this one in movies. This guy was going on about how he filled a 45 ACP projectile with mercury and shot it at a large tree stump. His claim that the stump was blown into many small pieces, actually it was blown into near saw dust, as he put it. He couldn't help but hear me laugh, any more than I could avoid hearing his over embelished story. He looked up at me and simply said " what, you've never heard of putting mercury in the tips of bullets to build an exploding bullet"? I said sure, in the movies. But I couldn't help but offer him some education and explained to him very politely that pure mercury will desolve lead, thus converting it into a past like substance, and that it certainly won't explode, but it will allow the now pasty core to be blown out of the jacket, thus leaving the jacket in the barrel or brass. And even if you used an all copper projectile, it still isn't going to produce an explosion of any type. Again he reiterated, well it happened both times I've tried it, how do you explain that? I gave up and just told him he must have discovered some new and exciting exploding bullet, and then just walked away smiling.
I guess I should have also told him to not drink the bong water any more.

GS

 

[hueyville]

Been there, done that. On all sides of the equation. Or, we are all 15 years old once.and some of us had our first reloading rig then. So in high school chemistry we had a quart glass bottle of mercury. Since I was in the special class and the chemistry teacher liked me, he gave me about half a pint for personal use. Same teacher hooked me up with a piece.of sodium metal the size of a baseball and let me make 3 liters of chlorine gas and react it in a violent manner.

I took the mercury home believing I now had the technology to take over the world. Already having a few experiments go a bit awry I felt working up slowly would be the wise idea. Thus I started with standard velocity 22lr copper plated hollow points.I had already discovered to get concentric holes in bullets, chuck the bullet in th jaws of the drill and use a drill bit fixed and lower the bullet onto the stationary drill bit. I drilled cavity I thought would need and used a syringe to fill my inventions with even amounts then put some fast dry epoxy to seal them. Soon as my five minute epoxy hardened I went out to.where I.had over a dozen coke cans filled with water and three sealed with warm coke in them. I had my mercury bombs, the same hollow point that was their parents and some CCI stingers. I grabbed my brothers .22 Glenfield as did not want to ruin mine. Results were the mercury versions made their host bullets look anemic. The singers came.I'm a.close second but still not a match for the mercury. I saved a few to.take to.school the next day. Ny science class I.discovered the mercury ate my lead. Total bummer.

Next day hqs to try again with stingers. Same result as before, improved expansion to point of total defragmemtation. I had become a soda cans worse nightmare. The extra stingers had turned to goo by middle of next day. Chemistry teacher and I ran the reaction of lead and mercury on paper and saw I had a serious flaw. I figured out.lead would not dissolve copper so I ordered a box of copper jackets for swaging. While I waited on the mail to run I melted the lead out of a.158 grain JHP. I filled the.empty jacket and discovered it was just too heavy. I found some copper tube that fit in the jacket and cut a few dozen. My jackets arrived, I put my tubes in, ran them through a.swaging die adding a gas.check to the rear to beef up the rear of the bullet. Poured in mercury and sealed with epoxy. Let them sit for two days and no leakage. Loaded them up with best guess on powder. Set up some reaction targets and let fly. All this work gave me a load.with explosive impact, blowing a crater the size of a grapefruit but very little penetration. Basically the same results when I loaded 88 grain 9mm HP and pushed them way too fast. Blowing up tree stumps? Darn, I need his tricks cause I would work up a few of those this evening.

 

[vtail]

He was obviously talking about mercury fulminate and not pure mercury.

You could make some if you combined the mercury with nitric acid, but I sure wouldn't want to be around when you blew your hands off.

Did you notice if he had all of his fingers?

 

[gamestalker]

No, in fact he was specifically referring to pure mercury, thus my comment as to how mercury disolves lead. And yes, mercury fulminate is a different story entirely.

GS

 

[GCBurner]

The "mercury filled hollowpoint" originated in the novel "Day of the Jackal", by Frederick Forsythe, as far as I can tell. I've never heard where the author got the idea, originally.

 

[greenlion]

Does that mean the old thermometers I have can be used as sticks of dynamite?

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I think the EPA might be interested in talking to you guys...... it was okay for us to mess with "Quicksilver" when I was a kid but now any mention of "mercury" will bring out the pollution police. Heck, milk is now even considered a "Hazardous Substance" when spilled in a cornfield by a traffic accident!

 

[cougar1717]

That is totally unfair to the guy at WM. Don't let "knowlege" get in the way of a good story

If you excuse me, I need get some range time with my polymer/ceramic Glock that I bought in the alley behind the SHOT show. The guy told me it will pass right through a metal detector without setting it off...

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I guess the guy in the OP played with a lot of mercury when he was a kid. That might explain a few things! LOL

 

[MtnCreek]

Come on Archangel, don’t try to tell us you never chased mercury around in the carpet with your finger. I did and I turned out just fine. :-/

Depending on time and who's around, sometimes I'll play along with these type folks. I just keep upping the stakes and they'll just keep on agreeing.

 

[Grumulkin]

Back in my very much younger days, I drilled out the tip of some 38 Special bullets & seated a primer there in. The bullet did make a little pop when it hit but nothing spectacular.

Regarding mercury, I had about a pint when I was a kid for awhile that I played with. During the last few years, a couple of times there was an "emergency" at a couple of schools on two different occasions in which a mercury thermometer was broken. The hazmat team was called. The schools were evacuated. Students went to the ER in droves sure they were experienceing mercury poisoning.

 

[splattergun]

Don't forget, Ladies and Gentlemen, if you break a fluorescent lamp on the carpet, you are supposed to follow hazmat procedures to dispose of the carpet because of that tiny drop of Hg contained therein. Of course, that is MUCH cleaner than burning a 60 watt incandescent bulb.

Now, as for greenlion's thermostats, not dynamite, but actuators.

 

[hueyville]

Funny how a few nut jobs ruined the fun of experimentation for generations to come. Back in the late '60's early 70's when I was a kid such actions were just a sign of curiosity. Could walk in the hardware store, buy a bunch of galvanized pipe fittings and a couple cans of ffffg with no worries about jail even though everyone knew what you were doing. Now kids that make such are labelled domestic terrorists due to the few misadjusted individuals that actually intend and follow through with harming others. We could even buy dynamite with our parents picking it up. Don't remember a single instance of anyone harming someone except themselves by accident in those days. Why the change? What has wired kids so.different than we were?

 

[sota]

hueyville:
pot smoking hippies that raised their kids as their "friends" and who failed to pass on intelligent parenting skills. we have had at least 2 generations/iterations now of KIDS who have the "here hold my beer, I have an idea..." mentality without the alcoholic inducement.

 

[hueyville]

This is what stopped me from shopping at Wallyworld. Went in one night.to buy a couple rattle cans of spray paint and they had to see i.d. I was livid but their reasoning.was to stop kids from huffing paint. My.suggestion was to send them all to my business and I would hook them up with three cans of lacquer and a paper bag. If they are that dumb let them remove.themselves from the gene pool. Next issue was getting i.d. request for a grill lighter. Kids can use them to light cigarettes. Let em smoke. Then it was showing an i.d. for freon. We definitely want those kids to get all they want before they get old enough to breed. Last straw was being asked to prove age to buy a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil. Left it on counter and never been back. Why can't the kids actually buy a bag of weed? Has to be safer than huffing spray paint or freon. Just can't follow that lack of logic.

 

[dagger dog]

hueyville,

You must look very young for your age !

 

[orionengnr]

...and I always wondered how our fellow gun enthusiasts get a bad rep.

Wait...was that "gun nuts", or "numb nuts"?

 

[Walkalong]

Off topic.