More outlawing male childhood

[makattak]

I kind of think there still is a Darwin-like effect going on here.

The ones who are smart enough to get away with it, are also likely to be the ones smart enough to not hurt themselves or someone else.

The dumb ones who draw so much attention and get caught, have a much higher likelihood of hurting themselves or someone else.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, I always assumed there'd be police and court involvement if I ever got caught with some of my "experiments", so I planned and behaved accordingly.

Alright, this is the best argument for their being charged with a felony.

Felony stupid. I can respect that.

[HankB]

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, I always assumed there'd be police and court involvement if I ever got caught with some of my "experiments", so I planned and behaved accordingly.

Same here, except with me it was the late '60s and early '70s. I got through that time with both fingers and eyebrows intact.

Upon reflection from an adult's perspective, I was living proof of the old adage that the Almighty protects fools and children . . . back then, I qualified on both counts. 

[grislyatoms]

Mmm. Yeah I was smart enough to say "Hey, man, push this button when I'm about 30 feet away."

Not really. I never subjected anyone to any of the experiments I never did.

[brimic]

I've done some really dumb things that have attracted the attention of the Po-Po, but I was usually smart enough not to get caught.

[AJ Dual]

Mmm. Yeah I was smart enough to say "Hey, man, push this button when I'm about 30 feet away."

Not really. I never subjected anyone to any of the experiments I never did.

Well, I was kind of an ahole at times.  The best example of that was when we'd been making small IED's out of empty CO2 airgun bottles and blackpowder. I had one more empty CO2 capsule than BP, so I marked it. (Instantly easy to tell it was empty by the weight as well)

I lit it, and then grabbed one of my partners in crime by his belt and screamed "LET'S WATCH IT GO OFF REAL CLOSE!" and then let out my best maniacal cackle. He pulled dodged and weaved, and when it became clear I wasn't just being a jerk and letting the fuse burn down a little more before tossing it, he began landing ever more frantic solid head and body blows in a bid to escape. I held on, because the hits were worth the "joke". 

Then I just let him go as the fuse burned down to nothing. Fortunately he had the same sick sense of humor, and was also enough of an adrenaline junky to appreciate what I'd done.

I was originally going to light the inert fake one and "accidentally" drop it under his feet while we were driving to the remote woods we used as a testing ground, but I thought that one through and figured it probably wasn't a good idea, lest it cause a crash.

[Viking]

Except it is H₂ gas being released, instead of CO₂.  This means that the proper application of fire to an MRE bomb (or the proper application of an MRE bomb to a fire) can have much more interesting results.

So...taping a sparkler to it and lighting it before adding water then?

[brimic]

The best example of that was when we'd been making small IED's out of empty CO2 airgun bottles and blackpowder.....

You guys with black powder in your homes were so lucky. We only had smokeless powder, and the best I could ever get it to do was a Pffffftttttt with a nice looking flame. Now I'm kind of glad that I never got smokeless powder to 'work.'

[AJ Dual]

You guys with black powder in your homes were so lucky. We only had smokeless powder, and the best I could ever get it to do was a Pffffftttttt with a nice looking flame. Now I'm kind of glad that I never got smokeless powder to 'work.'

Well.. I didn't have BP per-se to play with. My parents didn't own guns, and weren't into reloading, muzzle loading, or pyrotechnics. And the few sporting goods stores that had any sure weren't going to sell some to a 15 year old kid.

My method was to buy model rocket engines, unwrap them, bust off the bentonite clay caps, and then break the solid hydraulically rammed BP slug into chunks then grind them further to a very fine fffffg consistency in a lucite pepper grinder I had modified for the purpose with big 1/2" vent holes, backed up with window screen to keep the chips from falling out while I was grinding them.

The Lucite let me see what was going on inside the grinder. The slow tedious hand operation kept heat and friction down, and the window screen kept the chunks from falling out the vent holes in the sides. I figured if the worst happened, the grinder would just vent, burning my gloves, and not be able to explode, because the large hard BP chips would burn pretty slowly.

I was an extremely resourceful young man. 

[grislyatoms]

I wasn't quite that resourceful. Grandad always had several pounds of BP in the garage. If any was missing, he always assumed it was my "Dad" or one of my uncles. Neighborhood families/kids were all pro-gun, too. For the most part.
Funny thing... one kid in the hood got a BB gun...so did every one else shortly after. One kid got a wrist rocket...within two weeks, we all had one.

[HankB]

Well.. I didn't have BP per-se to play with. My parents didn't own guns, and weren't into reloading, muzzle loading, or pyrotechnics. And the few sporting goods stores that had any sure weren't going to sell some to a 15 year old kid.

I did my pyrotechnics when I was several years younger . . . once I was 15, I found other stupid stuff to do. (Survived that, too.  ) Usually we were making big noisy things out of small noisy things like M-80s. Local hobby shop WOULD sell things like potassium nitrate and potassium chlorate, sulfur was easy to get, and charcoal? Bags of it in the garage. Then there was the homebrew napalm and blue-tip wooden matches and . . .

You know, I think I'll just stop right now. 

[grampster]

You  know, if you climb up a tree with some 30.06 ammo and then throw then down at the slab on concrete under the tree, if they land just right, they go off.