Thread: Reactive targets - keeping it fun for the kids

mix iodine crystals into concentrated ammonia till no more crystals can be absorbed (saturated solution) while its still in its wet state go paint it on your targets and place your targets before it dries out.
the stuff is so sensitive when dry a blowfly landing on it will set it off.

Yep seemed like good fun at the time. After that one we did another and put a rubbish bin over the top of it (cut steel drum). The only damage was to our hearing and a dent in the rubbish bin and the fun stopped before anyone got hurt. Now that I am older and wiser........ ish I can see it may not have been the smartest idea.

Here's the little vid of the testing this morning, gave them 40 pumps with the little bike pump, about 60-70 psi (could probably go a bit higher but chickened out after reading the exploding bottle stories on this thread) The sound of the bottle exploding was much louder than the suppressed 22 with subs.

https://youtu.be/GdrHM_l-eDI

Originally Posted by berg243

a bit like making a bolt bomb and throwing into a disused cow shed after seeing the shrapnel damage deciding not such a good idea.

@berg243

Yep, I still remember vividly how the nut got uncurled, looked like a spring washer. No eye protection. And like you I didn't repeat that experiment.

Would have been safer to have dad take us through the experiments in a safe way rather than do them ourselves. But the secrecy was really half the fun.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

mix iodine crystals into concentrated ammonia till no more crystals can be absorbed (saturated solution) while its still in its wet state go paint it on your targets and place your targets before it dries out.
the stuff is so sensitive when dry a blowfly landing on it will set it off.

And when it blows up early any wounds are sterilized by the iodine.

In my teens we would fill up 4 litre spray or oil bottles with oxy/acyt and fire 22 tracers through them. The first time we were standing a bit close (prob 25m) and it knocked both me and my brother on our arses. Learnt after that to stand back a bit further and to take them further up the farm away from the house sos not to freak out mum.

Actually I take that back. It was when we jumped from the 4 litre bottle to the 20 litre drench canister that we got sat on our arses. Didn't really think about the 5x increase in explosive energy.

If it's for kids try Bunch o Balloons. They're like $10-$15 for 100 balloons, it hooks up to a hose and you fill all 100 and automatically ties themselves of in under a minute.

if you want to play with oxy/acet make sure your well grounded/earthed as well as remember that the mixture can detonate at atmospheric pressure if confined.