playing with fire

[Comshaw]

A lot of the inspiration for my stories comes from personal experience. But some come from those around me. I was a welder fabricator for many years and learned the trick in the video a long time ago. Use an oxy/acetylene torch and fill a garbage bag with a 50/50 mix of gas. Put a fuse on it, light it and get the hell away from it. As you can see it makes a big bang and a huge fireball. I've even done it a couple of times. But I was way too cautious to do it more than twice.

A friend of mine though would do this every New Years, Fourth of July and on other celebration days. The problem was he always wanted a bigger and bigger bang, so began to fill the garbage bag with more and more gas. And instead of a long fuse, he used an M80 firecracker. He tried it one too many times. As he lit the firecracker the bag ignited in his hand. When he got to the hospital his hand was burned so badly his fingers were fused together. He spent a year recuperating and luckily they saved his hand and he can even use it, though it is scarred. He never did that again. Many times good judgement comes from bad decisions we survive.

Comshaw

 

[AwkwardlySet]

People risk so much for a moment of fun. I wonder if your friend truly learned the lesson. I mean, he is unlikely to do this particular trick again, but unless he changed his mindset, he might do something equally risky in some different way.

 

[Duleigh]

I remember watching folks on the flight line playing with liquid oxygen. They would have a small blob of lox sitting in the palm of their leather gloved hand then they'd just clap the other hand down on it and there was a tremendous bang from that, and I have no doubt there's been some injuries from playing with LOX like that.

 

[Duleigh]

I was explosives and weapons in the military, I fully understand the urge to play. To throw off the shackles of common sense, professionalism, and safety and go out and blow some shit up. Live Fast! Play Hard! And leave a smoking hole. I used to wear a T-Shirt on the flight line that said

Trust me, I'm Weapons. If I suddenly start to run, try to keep up

My dogs hate the Fourth of July, they know their ears are going to be ringing for weeks.

 

[MillieDynamite]

My dad said he and a friend were out target shooting back in the day. And his friend was shooting at a plastic milk jug filled with water with a handgun. They were a good 75 yards away, and his friend wasn't the best of shots, so the bullets were hitting the stand and not the jug. His friend was reloading his 38, and Dad pulled his 308 from the trunk. Standing parallel to his friend, he watched out of the corner of his eye. When Rick sighted, Dad looked through his scope and fried. The milk jug exploded, and his friend looked at his gun with amazement.

Then realized Dad shot the jug and said, "Now I'll never know if I hit the target."

"Trust me, you didn't," Dad said.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Back in my days in the infantry, we all (well, almost all) had a good laugh over the story which occurred in our unit.

A Platoon Leader (young officer) and his Platoon Sargeant (older, experienced) were making the rounds, checking on their men in the foxholes. When they came upon two guys cutting open an artillery simulator (a large, cardboard cylinder type of firework used in training for a very large BANG), the guys were pouring out the flash powder and planning to set it afire with a match.

The Platoon Sargeant took the device from the guys and angrily said "You should know better than to do that!"

The Platoon Leader took the cut open device from the Sargeant, saying "I'll handle this." Then looking back at the guys he said, "I'll show you why these are so dangerous." He finished pouring out the flash powder, then stood back striking matches to throw at the pile of gray powder. After a few tries, the powder didn't light, so he leaned down with a lit match in hand and touched it to the edge of the powder. The sudden ensuing flash singed the hair on the side of his arm and face.

The Platoon Sargeant had to control his laughter as he turned to the two guys saying "See! That's why you don't do that!" Then he turned to his Leader saying, "Sir, I think you'd better go to the hospital."

After the story spread, we'd later saw the Platoon Leader with his arm bandaged, we'd all ask in surprise "Sir? What happened to your arm?"

His response soon turned into "Just shut up!" as he'd angrily walk away.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Now that's leading by example!

 

[Duleigh]

My dad said he and a friend were out target shooting back in the day. And his friend was shooting at a plastic milk jug filled with water with a handgun. They were a good 75 yards away, and his friend wasn't the best of shots, so the bullets were hitting the stand and not the jug. His friend was reloading his 38, and Dad pulled his 308 from the trunk. Standing parallel to his friend, he watched out of the corner of his eye. When Rick sighted, Dad looked through his scope and fried. The milk jug exploded, and his friend looked at his gun with amazement.

Then realized Dad shot the jug and said, "Now I'll never know if I hit the target."

"Trust me, you didn't," Dad said.

My Best Shot Ever

We were out plinking one day and my friend was trying to sight the scope on his .300 magnum rifle at about 300 yards and he was shooting at an old radio we set on the railroad embankment and he's shooting all around it and getting more and more angry with every shot.

Meanwhile I'm playing with his .357 magnum and shooting .38 specials at the same target. I wasn't getting close but I was watching the dust puffs on the prairie as the bullets hit the ground short. With each hit I'd aim a little higher and get a little closer. An artillery man would say that I was "Walking them in" I was pointing up at a 45 degree angle and my last shot was a .357 round and it went off, scared the hell out of me (I loaded it with out realizing it) that radio exploded. I hit what I was "aiming at" from 300 yards away with a pistol!

After my friend with the rifle vented his anger I handed him his pistol and said, "Use this one, I verified it for you."

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Indirect fire with a handgun? Well, now I've heard everything.

(I've never been into guns, but I sure am into gun stories.)

 

[Duleigh]

Just a little arcing shot

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Ah, fair, I guess you were your own spotter on that one.

 

[Constories]

Indirect fire with a handgun? Well, now I've heard everything.

(I've never been into guns, but I sure am into gun stories.)

I've got a funny gun story. I was at a shooting range with a friend from college and a guy from Romania (or Bulgaria or Ukraine... one of those countries) who had basically never handled guns before.

Anyway my college friend brought a civilian model AK-47 and tried to shoot it. The sights were off or something, because my friend couldn't hit the target and neither could I (both of us shoot on occasion, and we're decent at it, ordinary).

Anyway, we tell the Romanian guy that he might as well shoot it, just so he can feel what it's like. He hit the target on his first try.

My friend says, "Of course HE can hit the target. He's got that Warsaw Pact blood running through his veins."

Haha

 

[MillieDynamite]

I once blasted the hell out of the man-sized target, hitting five in the bullseye at 100 yards with my 40 SW cal Beretta first try. We'd already done our qualifying shots, and this was just for funzies. They called me Deadeye Dynamite that day.

My Best Shot Ever

We were out plinking one day and my friend was trying to sight the scope on his .300 magnum rifle at about 300 yards and he was shooting at an old radio we set on the railroad embankment and he's shooting all around it and getting more and more angry with every shot.

Meanwhile I'm playing with his .357 magnum and shooting .38 specials at the same target. I wasn't getting close but I was watching the dust puffs on the prairie as the bullets hit the ground short. With each hit I'd aim a little higher and get a little closer. An artillery man would say that I was "Walking them in" I was pointing up at a 45 degree angle and my last shot was a .357 round and it went off, scared the hell out of me (I loaded it with out realizing it) that radio exploded. I hit what I was "aiming at" from 300 yards away with a pistol!

After my friend with the rifle vented his anger I handed him his pistol and said, "Use this one, I verified it for you."

 

[Duleigh]

My Second Best Shot

While qualifying for a baretta 9mm (I was used to the 1911 .45) a couple of air crew members from my squadron were playing quick draw before the range went hot. Grouchy ol Sgt Duleigh said something like "Puleeeeze? Don't we get enough shit in the 429th for your flying?"

"Oh, you think you can do better sarge, we're down here shooting every 90 days while you're sipping your coffee"

I told the senior of the two, "I will qualify marksman AND I will put two rounds through your target." We were friends. Any how we completed the different stances and I was doing great, he was sucking horrible, and I said "Here's yours" and fired off two within the 9 ring. If I hadn't done that he wouldn't have qualified and wouldn't have made the deployment.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I once blasted the hell out of the man-sized target, hitting five in the bullseye at 100 yards with my 40 SW cal Beretta first try. We'd already done our qualifying shots, and this was just for funzies. They called me Deadeye Dynamite that day.

I also have a gun chambered in .40 SW. We got it because the other hand gun we have is chambered in .45 ACP (1911), and the hope was that smaller caliber would be easier to handle.

WRONG. My new gun is a compact... so even with the lower caliber, there is more felt recoil. It is not a comfortable gun for a woman with small hands to shoot. Or maybe I'm just a lil' bitch. But I pick the former.

 

[Duleigh]

I also have a gun chambered in .40 SW. We got it because the other hand gun we have is chambered in .45 ACP (1911), and the hope was that smaller caliber would be easier to handle.

WRONG. My new gun is a compact... so even with the lower caliber, there is more felt recoil. It is not a comfortable gun for a woman with small hands to shoot. Or maybe I'm just a lil' bitch. But I pick the former.

a .25 and a steady hand should do everything you need

 

[MediocreAuthor]

a .25 and a steady hand should do everything you need

Lowest I'll go is .380. Take it or leave it

(I've read that the low recoil in .25 can give you cycling issues... Although, I suppose I could mitigate that with a revolver )

 

[Comshaw]

A long time ago in a country over to the west I was involved in a little conflict as part of the U.S. Army. I was an artillery (45L20)/tank turret (45K20)/small arms (45B20/fire control (41C20) repairman. Our primary mission was support of the 1/83rd. Field Artillery which was comprised of three batteries of M110 (self-propelled 8" howitzers) and 107's (self-propelled 175mm guns). I'd get called out to the firebases a lot to repair hydraulic systems or equilibrators, or any number of things. Many times I'd get stuck on the firebase for a few days because of enemy activity in the area or because every ground vehicle was required to move in a convoy and they didn't have one headed back to the main base.

Needless to say I got to be good friends with a lot of the gun crews. So not wanting to sit around with my finger up my posterior orifice I'd help out. They had several different categories of fire missions. Close support: shooting artillery rounds close to and in support of our combat troops. Fire for effect: that usually meant shooting at a target like an enemy vehicle or ammo dump. And harassment fire. Those were done sometimes at night and the crews were just lobbing shells out into the A Shau hoping to disrupt traffic along the trail or get lucky by hitting something important. Because of that the crews weren't all that careful about or really cared if the shots were accurate.

Now you take a bunch of young men and put them into a situation like that they are going to figure out how to entertain themselves. And since we didn't have to worry about killing some of our own with an errant round we did things to amuse ourselves. The 175mm cannon has a barrel 32' long and the 175 lb. round has a muzzle velocity of 3250 feet per second. The powder to get that done weighs 98 lbs.

I was helping a gun crew one night fire a harassment mission. The total called for was 150 rounds. we had fired 30 or 40 rounds when one of the guys bringing out the powder dipped the bag into an open can of diesel before handing it up to the loader. I didn't think anything about it until the gun went off. Usually when the gun went off there was a small fireball that would show in front of the muzzle. When this one went off with the added diesel the fireball that was formed was big enough to encompass the entire gun! Everyone had a good laugh. We fired another 10 or 20 rounds and they did it again. And again the fireball was as big as the entire gun.

Except a few seconds after we fired mortar rounds started falling around us. It seems our opponents out in the jungle used that fireball as a fix for their mortar! Luckily no one got hit, but all of us learned another object lesson in why you don't do certain things.

My dad use to tell me "don't fuck with the bull or you'll get the horns". It took me a few years of my life to learn the wisdom behind that statement.

Comshaw

 

[Comshaw]

Lowest I'll go is .380. Take it or leave it

(I've read that the low recoil in .25 can give you cycling issues... Although, I suppose I could mitigate that with a revolver )

You're better off with a .22 WMR or even a .22 LR than a .25 auto. Of course, there is a proviso there. a .25 auto is much better than a rock or nothing at all. As MA noted try a .380 or a .38 special in something like the Ruger LCR. Lightweight and still packs enough punch to do what needs doing. Me I carry an AMT Backup chambered in .38 Super.

Comshaw

 

[ronde]

a .25 and a steady hand should do everything you need

I agree that the .25 is probably enough for most situations, but it gets expensive if you practice much. I love my 1911, but my 9mm's are really fun too. My wife carries a .380.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Actually, if memory serves, the 40 sw auto shell has better ballistics than the 45. So with more bark, and a slightly smaller diameter, it backs as big a wallop. Buy a muzzle brake and have it installed. It will vent gasses to the side and reduce the recoil. Also, you can have vents cut into the barrel, but my muzzle break worked well.

I also have a gun chambered in .40 SW. We got it because the other hand gun we have is chambered in .45 ACP (1911), and the hope was that smaller caliber would be easier to handle.

WRONG. My new gun is a compact... so even with the lower caliber, there is more felt recoil. It is not a comfortable gun for a woman with small hands to shoot. Or maybe I'm just a lil' bitch. But I pick the former.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Actually, if memory serves, the 40 sw auto shell has better ballistics than the 45. So with more bark, and a slightly smaller diameter, it backs as big a wallop. Buy a muzzle brake and have it installed. It will vent gasses to the side and reduce the recoil. Also, you can have vents cut into the barrel, but my muzzle break worked well.

Allow me to emphasize what a bitch I must be, because mine already has some vent cuts I think.

 

[Comshaw]

Actually, if memory serves, the 40 sw auto shell has better ballistics than the 45. So with more bark, and a slightly smaller diameter, it backs as big a wallop. Buy a muzzle brake and have it installed. It will vent gasses to the side and reduce the recoil. Also, you can have vents cut into the barrel, but my muzzle break worked well.

Yes, the standard .40 round has better ballistics and energy than the standard .45 acp. But if you step up to the +p round for the .45 that reverses.
Buffalo Bore .40 SW +p, 155 grain JHP, muzzle velocity: 1300 fps, muzzle energy: 582 foot pounds
Buffalo Bore .45 acp +p, 185 grain JHP, muzzle velocity 1400 fps, muzzle energy 805 foot pounds.

The thing is that the advice of "if you can't hit the target more power isn't going to help" applies. A person needs to use whatever caliber they can handle and allows them to consistently hit the target.

Comshaw

 

[MillieDynamite]

Ah, didn't account for the pussy factor. But that's why I love you so much. I play the pussy in Jo and I's relationship, not but only to her.

Allow me to emphasize what a bitch I must be, because mine already has some vent cuts I think.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Ah, didn't account for the pussy factor. But that's why I love you so much. I play the pussy in Jo and I's relationship, not only to her.

Don't get the wrong idea, mind you. I can use the gun, and I can hit the target consistently... but the recoil is worse than I prefer. I wish I had a 9mm instead.