Ok, now you've awakened the little boy in me. My stepson (former Marine) gave me a couple of bottles of Tannerite as an x-mas gift a couple of years ago. I should not have been surprised by the stuff, given that he is a Marine and all, but I had seen "exploding" targets before and was not impressed. Tannerite changed that! Great stuff! Be careful that you don't attract attention that you don't want!
Now a fun story: A guy I used to work with (typical engineer) had a buddy drop by his house in a panic 12 years ago begging him to take his guns for a while because he was getting a divorce and was afraid he would lose them to his ex. Tom is a good man and he agreed. After six months or so, Tom decided he better get the firearms out of the closet and make sure they hadn't rusted. Now, Tom is a great guy, but was not as familiar with firearms as one should be. He took the scoped Rem 700 in .270 out of the case and admired it for a while. He had never touched a rifle and this one really appealed to him. He shouldered the gun, set the crosshairs on a loaf of bread that was sitting on the microwave oven, and pulled the trigger. Today he would clear the action first, but this wasn't today. The bullet passed through the top of the microwave, and on through two walls. He is still a bit rattled by that experience, and is much safer because of it.
Now, Tom didn't make his stupid mistake known at first, but he eventually told two of us. This was too good to pass up, so we plotted and planned to set Tom up when he eventually retired, and we started collecting defunct appliances. We had everything - a microwave, a bread machine, a toilet, a garbage disposal, and old printer, and cordless phone….. The list goes on an on. Well, Tom got mad at the company and retired in a huff and without a ceremony. We were hurt because we had stored all this junk for ten years intending to make a fully narrated home movie as we shot the hell out of all of this stuff. The movie would have been played at Tom's retirement ceremony. We won't forgive him for cheating us out of it, but I made it up by hosting the First Annual Invitational Appliance Shoot.
I laid down very specific rules about the code of conduct on my range and invited ten of our closest friends from work for a day of shooting. The group varied from a few who had never fired a rifle, to a couple of us who shoot competitively. They wasted thousands of rounds that day and riddled the collection of appliances. When things wound down at the end, I had a couple of the guys pile all the appliances on top of the microwave while I mixed two bottles of Tannerite. I slipped them into the microwave without anybody noticing. I called their attention and set the mess off with a 100 yard shot. One guy caught it on video and the clip has made us notorious at work. The explosion left a crater where the pile had been, and the last piece of sheet metal from the microwave hit the ground almost 11 seconds after the blast went off.
We are about to hold the Second Annual Appliance Shoot, and the only question I'm hearing this year is, "You are going to bring the Tannerite, aren't you?" The best part of all of this is that all of these guys now own firearms. Four of them who had never shot before that day joined a work sponsored pistol club and now shoot in rimfire matches. Those with kids are planning on bringing them out for this year's event, and the next generation of shooters will get a proper start. Good thing UPS will deliver the Tannerite to my door………..
