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Old January 1, 2013, 10:24 AM   #1
jason_iowa
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Home made exploding ammo

I was talking to a guy at a party last night who swears up and down that he jams primers in hollow points to make his own explosive ammo. I told him I thought this seemed absurdly dangerous and while I don't know I would assume that they would go off in the chamber.

Where do people come up with this? I always wonder when I see pictures of guns that people have blown up how they ever did it. I'm not into reloading yet but I can guarantee ya I'm not taking any chances of blowing up a thousand dollar gun for a few extra fps.
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Old January 1, 2013, 11:06 AM   #2
mete
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They don't do much .Don't blow up a gun , don't make the bullet much more effective .Just get the bullet you want and load that .
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Old January 1, 2013, 12:24 PM   #3
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Used to be sold in the 80s as Devastators. Sometimes they had a small charge of powder in the hollow point as well. Gimmick rounds, ineffective.
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Old January 1, 2013, 01:56 PM   #4
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Can't detonate in the chamber, why would you think they would? Not dangerous, just silly.
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Old January 1, 2013, 02:19 PM   #5
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I wouldn't want to roll the dice too many times in magum revolver where flashover can happen... or in a tube magazine where something bad can happen if the primer in the tip comes loose. not amateur stuff... .
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Old January 1, 2013, 02:28 PM   #6
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Bad idea, on a whole bunch of different levels. Not necessarily dangerous, just a bad idea.
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Old January 1, 2013, 02:30 PM   #7
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Kinda silly

Rather silly but not necessarily dangerous. I remember when we were kids and came across a box of primers. We thought it would be fun to go down to the school and shoot them at the brick wall with our wrist rocket slingshots.

As I remember about one in five actually went bang when they hit the wall.

One could get quite creative with exploding ammo, sounds like fun for 13 year old kids.
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Old January 1, 2013, 02:33 PM   #8
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Quote:
I was talking to a guy at a party last night who swears up and down that he jams primers in hollow points to make his own explosive ammo. I told him I thought this seemed absurdly dangerous and while I don't know I would assume that they would go off in the chamber.
Old idea, it didn't do much 50 years ago when I first heard of it and probably didn't do much better when the idea was first thought up way back in the civil war days. Let the guy play all he wants, someday he will shoot the cat or the wife's jewelry box and lose his toys but it won't blow him up.
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Old January 1, 2013, 04:05 PM   #9
Bob Wright
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Collectors frequently come across .44 and .45 caliber cartridges with a .22 R.F. blank inserted backwards into the nose of a hollow point bullet. The problem is that the target has to be hard enough to detonate the explosive, and usually there is not enough blast ot be effective.

During WW II the Army Ordnance determined that a projectile had to be a minimun of .60 caliber to have an effective explosive charge.

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Old January 1, 2013, 05:58 PM   #10
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For those not familiar with the .60 caliber Mr Wright is talking about please see picture. The attached picture shows a comparison of the standard M-2 .50 cal. ball round(far right), a .50 cal. high velocity test ball (center), and the .60 cal. ball round.(far left)
(for size each large square on background is 1 inch)
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File Type: jpg phpQJKFaRPM.jpg (110.0 KB, 242 views)

Last edited by sgms; January 1, 2013 at 11:08 PM.
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Old January 1, 2013, 06:38 PM   #11
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I used to drill .58 minies, fill part of the void with bp and put a .22 short case into the nose. Made a hella hole when it hit wood but then the .58 minie isn't too shabby by itself.
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Old January 1, 2013, 07:06 PM   #12
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Quote:
Collectors frequently come across .44 and .45 caliber cartridges with a .22 R.F. blank inserted backwards into the nose of a hollow point bullet. The problem is that the target has to be hard enough to detonate the explosive, and usually there is not enough blast ot be effective.
And my understanding is for really hard targets you want a bullet that penetrates more rather than expands more. So, best case scenario you'd wind up with a round that behaves like a HP against hard targets and like FMJ against soft ones? It sounds less than ideal.
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Old January 1, 2013, 07:40 PM   #13
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IIRC John Hinkley used Devastators in the 22 he used to shoot President Reagan. They were very effective weren't they?
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Old January 1, 2013, 08:03 PM   #14
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Is it doable? Yep.

Is it wise? Nope.

Using those in self-defense is a good way to ensure that the user comes under some very unpleasant scrutiny from a grand jury.

(Incidentally, I seem to recall that the Devastators plugged the hollow point with Vaseline, not primers.)
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Old January 2, 2013, 09:38 AM   #15
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Juat ask the ATF, they can help you.
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Old January 2, 2013, 09:41 AM   #16
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Quote:
"Used to be" sold in the 80s as Devastators. Sometimes they had a small charge of powder in the hollow point as well. Gimmick rounds, ineffective.
www.HITECHAMMOTOGO.COM
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Old January 2, 2013, 09:42 AM   #17
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"Collectors frequently come across .44 and .45 caliber cartridges with a .22 R.F. blank inserted backwards into the nose of a hollow point bullet. The problem is that the target has to be hard enough to detonate the explosive, and usually there is not enough blast ot be effective."

One of the earliest versions of those was the Hoxie bullets, made at the tail end of the black powder era. Apparently the most common version used a steel ball inserted in the tip, but some apparently used primers, and others used .22 short blanks.

On the steel ball... In the 1970s and 1980s Winchester made .25 ACP ammo with a steel ball in the tip to promote expansion.



All of that said...

Please note that putting a primer in the nose of a hollow point may very well be against the law in your area.

If you decide to try this (and I can't imagine why you would), you're on your own legally.
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Old January 2, 2013, 10:17 AM   #18
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Redhawk, perhaps I should have been more specific - used to be sold in my area by one shop only back in the '80s, then they disappeared from the scene. This was, of course, prior to the internet. Still think they are a bad idea.
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Old January 2, 2013, 02:42 PM   #19
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Quote:
357 Python

IIRC John Hinkley used Devastators in the 22 he used to shoot President Reagan. They were very effective weren't they?
No they did not work, if they had President Reagan may very have died right there but the damage nearly killed him anyway just because of the path the bullet took after it entered his body. If he had used a different gun and the bullets had the right velocity they could have detonated but they didn't.

In fact Hinkley missed with all 6 shots from nearly point blank range hitting windows, secret service guards and secretary Brady instead. The bullet that hit President Reagan was a ricochet off the car.
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Old January 2, 2013, 02:50 PM   #20
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That sounds too careless..Not going to lie though, I want to see it done.
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Old January 2, 2013, 04:44 PM   #21
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Quote:
IIRC John Hinkley used Devastators in the 22 he used to shoot President Reagan. They were very effective weren't they?

Needed a longer barrel for them to work right, hinckly was an idiot.

Now why would anyone want a bullet to blow up? get some tannerite and have a fun time..
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Old January 2, 2013, 05:06 PM   #22
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I remember an article in some gunrag (maybe Gun Digest) I saw as a kid where the writer and his family inserted primers into the hollowpoints of .45-70 rounds. The idea was that they made a little flash when they hit a hard target quite a ways off, so they could tell who was hitting and who was missing during informal competitions.
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Old January 2, 2013, 07:18 PM   #23
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A pistol primer is not going to increase the damage if put on a pistol hollow point bullet. Mabey for shooting at metal gongs you will get some kicks and giggles.
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Old January 2, 2013, 07:52 PM   #24
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+1 on the Tannerite. Thought it was a silly waste of money .... until my father-in-law bought some!
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Old January 3, 2013, 02:53 AM   #25
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Redhawk, perhaps I should have been more specific - used to be sold in my area by one shop only back in the '80s, then they disappeared from the scene. This was, of course, prior to the internet. Still think they are a bad idea.
They're in Vegas were I live. I ran into the vendor at a gun show, he didn't have any on hand, TBS, I would have bought some just for the heck of it. I still would like to get some just to waste some of my million's.
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