Just saw The Grey, question about 'bang stick'

[The Lone Haranguer]

During a part in the movie, Liam Neeson's character makes a spear and tapes a shotgun shell around the end and says it is basically like a bang stick, and upon impact, it will trigger the shotgun primer and explode, killing the wolf.

Coming soon to one of the CSI:___ shows.

In reality, I doubt if the primer could be struck hard enough to fire the shell.

 

[cambeul41]

Post 3

As a matter of fact I once heard of a Darwin award by a guy who was driving his car home - a fuse blew and so he stuck a .22 bullet in the fuse box to complete the circuit. It got hot enough that the powder ignited and the bullet lodged in his "manly parts", rendering him sterile. That had to be at least a foot or two away, so a shell at point blank probably has enough "oomph" to kill.

"Incorrectly attributed to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 25 July 1996. The Gazette issued a decisive statement denouncing this story as a hoax on October 17, 1997."

http://www.darwinawards.com/legends/legends1998-04.html

 

[ObsidianOne]

Awesome movie, but I too was wondering about this, especially about the "point" of the stuck setting off the firing pin, not to mention actually keeping the shotgun shell attached to the stick.
Kinda reminds me of that video of the shotgun without a barrel attached being fired in slo-mo.

 

[rcmodel]

even if that didn't kill the wolf it would make it go away.

A real wolf it would.

A movie wolf?
No way!

rc

 

[Certaindeaf]

I just like saying bangstick and boomstick. Sue me.

 

[akodo]

I agree with what a lot of you guys are saying here. A critical piece of how a bangstick works is that the shell is in what amounts to a chamber and a really really really short barrel.

Without a chamber around the shotgun shell, the easiest way for the pressure to escape is to rupture the plastic hull and vent.

Same thing as ammo that ignites from catching on fire.

 

[bobmcd]

I also just watched the movie, and if I remember it right, the bang sticks did not work. They only used them in one fight, and ended up killing the wolf in question by clubbing it.

Different point -- yes he had a rifle that broke in the crash, but he found someone else's box of shotgun shells in the wreckage.

 

[hang fire]

When free diving in the 1960s (real men did not use bubble machines back then) we made our own 12 and 20 ga power heads and attached them to Hawaiian slings.

 

[JackTheRipper]

free diving is aweeesoooomeeeee! I took a class with Martin Stepanek...

and I'm pretty sure the bang stick did work, I'm pretty sure I heard at least 1 shot! I could be wrong though!

 

[KodiakBeer]

Even if it just made an ugly surface wound it would surely deter an aggressive canine.

 

[hogshead]

Its Hollywood of course it worked. My question is why didn't they just make spears and stab the wolves. Why would you leave the wreckage where at least you had some shelter. Why would you jump out on a 100 foot tree with a bunch of rags tied to you. Why Why Why. Why do dogs go crazy when you blow in their ears but when you take them in a car they stick their head out the window. WHY

 

[bobmcd]

Agree fully with the why's. In fact, while the movie had some great thought provoking dialog, it would make an excellent training movie on how NOT to survive in the arctic.

 

[we are not amused]

I once remember taping ball bearings to shotgun shells and tossing them off the roof of a building onto a cement sidewalk, we only had one go off, and it just blew out the side of the casing. I have also had a house fire, where a .50 caliber live round cooked off. It too, just blew out the side of the casing, the bullet being found within inches of where the shell had lain, and the shell casing being halfway across the room.

 

[Dan Forrester]

I set off a 12ga shell with a nail, a mouse trap, and a long string somewhere in my teenage years. It made a little pop like firing a .22 short. When I went up to the shell the brass portion was fully intact but the plastic portion was ruptured out the side with half the shot and un-burnt powder still in the shell. It was very unimpressive. I really think I probably could have set the thing off in my hand without it causing any damage.

Dan

 

[ms6852]

It's Hollywood anything can and will happen...looks like a project for the box of truth, or mythbusters.

 

[Jim NE]

My question is why didn't they just make spears and stab the wolves. Why would you leave the wreckage where at least you had some shelter.

[SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!]

I asked myself the same questions when I saw the movie. For thousands of years before they had firearms, humans gained superiority over wolves and over large or viscious animals with spears. And the one survival "expert" in the movie couldn't come up with THAT? Also, it looked to me like the STOCK of his gun had broken in half, not the receiver (action). If that was in fact the case, the gun still could've been usable.

I'm not sure what the point of "The Grey" was. It wasn't really a movie about people surviving in the wilderness. It was more about people DYING in the wilderness. Maybe the idea was that they were doing all these things wrong, and that's why they were dying.

It was a psychological movie, not a story of triumph over incredible odds. My personal theory is that the people who wrote the story and directed the film were incredibly depressed. It was the most depressing movie I've ever seen.

Acting was good, editing was great - a well made movie, but I kept asking myself " Why would anyone make a movie like this?" I was expecting something quite different. WAY too much foul language, too.

 

[Wangmuf]

So was there really something after the credits? I was so angry after the ending, considering the last frame of the movie is what I was most looking forward to when I paid almost $45 to see it with my date, that we got up and left as soon as they started rolling and there were no photos.


Edit: Googled it, sounds like it was exactly what I told the guy who asked me what I thought happened as I as walking out.

 

[lemaymiami]

Many years ago as a mate on charter boats here in south Florida, killing sharks with a Pompanette 12ga. bang stick was daily fare (we killed them for the taxidermist, glad that's not very popular any more...). The animals we killed ranged from seven up to over ten feet long and the bangstick made the same exact wound you'd expect from a contact wound with a shotgun... We only used low brass rounds with any kind of shot since the gas, shot, and wadding all went directly into the animal... Funny thing, as a practical matter the shark was quiet for about a minute or so, then began thrashing and snapping for a while - even with a killing head shot. You had to wrestle the animal into the boat pretty quickly while it was still stunned from the shot... Glad I'm not doing that any more (these days I carefully release even the biggest sharks by hand - and usually get the hook back as well...). The one time the bangstick jammed and wouldn't fire we still had to wrestle the shark into the boat (it was a substantial part of our pay...). That incident wasn't any fun at all... after that I made a point of dis-assembling the head (the entire head on the Pomapanette bang stick was brass..) and verfying that the head floated properly onto the firing pin (anything around saltwater tends to corrode without constant maintenance..). That head had a cotter type pin as a safety once you loaded a round - you removed the pin just before using it. Those bangsticks came with a two piece aluminum pole. Most of us just used one section, making it about four feet long with the head at the end...

 

[Ryanxia]

We were debating the whole shotgun boomstick thing too.

And yes there was something after the credits. A theater employee told us after we walked out, we didn't bother to go back in but he told us what it was.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

There was one more scene with the main character leaning over the body of the big Alpha wolf. Not really clear who was victorious, you can probably find the scene on youtube or somewhere.