Exploding targets for handguns?

[msmp5]

Does anyone know where you can order small exploding targets for handgun use, like these? I recently discovered a box of these in a dusty long ignored storage bin in my garage, where they have likely been sitting untouched for over 30 years. The targets are about 1.5" square and about a half inch think, with an orange dot in the center. So I took them to the range and they still went boom just fine! I would like to order some more, if I could find where they are sold. (I can only find the larger jars filled with Tannerite, that are marketed as exploding rifle targets; not really interested in those.)

 

[ChanceMcCall]

We had lots of them back in the day and loved shooting them. To the best of my knowledge, they do not make them anymore for legal reasons.

Of course, you could make your own.

 

[Klint Beastwood]

I think to make your own for most handgun velocities you need to add a per chlorite as a sensitizer. I’ve handled plenty of explosives, including tatp...and I probably wouldn’t mess with per chlorite just for funzies.
Plus I’d feel you’d have to be fairly close to the danger area with a handgun...so there’s that as well, depending on the quantity you are playing with

 

[cp1969]

Green walnuts more or less explode with a direct hit.

Cheap, too.

 

[ChanceMcCall]

I think to make your own for most handgun velocities you need to add a per chlorite as a sensitizer. I’ve handled plenty of explosives, including tatp...and I probably wouldn’t mess with per chlorite just for funzies.
Plus I’d feel you’d have to be fairly close to the danger area with a handgun...so there’s that as well, depending on the quantity you are playing with

I don't want to be the one telling someone how to make these over the internet. That said, NI3 in small and very fresh (still moist) batches added to .... will work even with .22 shorts out of a NA Arms.

 

[Klint Beastwood]

I don't want to be the one telling someone how to make these over the internet. That said, NI3 in small and very fresh (still moist) batches added to .... will work even with .22 shorts out of a NA Arms.

To sensitize nh4no3al?

 

[Mn Fats]

I thought that exploding rimfire targets worked with handguns. I.e. White Lightning. Could be wrong.

 

[JeffG]

Rule with explosives of any kind: If you are in the line of sight, unbroken by cover, you are in danger. I don't shoot at Tannerite either.

 

[RETG]

And don't use exploding targets in Federal forests or BLM lands in the west. Not only is it illegal, but they do start fires and we don't need anymore fire starters out here.

 

[ChanceMcCall]

I thought that exploding rimfire targets worked with handguns. I.e. White Lightning. Could be wrong.

Some do and some don't. In order for them to work with .22 ammo the manufacturers use 3-5 times the amount of the fuel in the mix, or they go to a more expensive oxidizer. Most of those manufacturers make two versions because of cost considerations, one for rimfire and one for centerfire. It all has to do with the force of impact of the bullet and conflagration potential.

If it were not a violation of federal law (you would need a license to manufacture) many people could make their own targets much cheaper that would function even better that the brands currently being sold. For those of you really old - remember torpedoes at the fireworks stands? Some of them had as much power as a cherry bomb but the force of impact was no more than even a puny kid could muster when throwing them against a hard surface. State laws banned them in all but a few states by the mid 1950s and federal laws really did them in in the early 1960s.