Back when we had cool/dangerous toys

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We all grew up in the countryside and had plenty of places to get in trouble. When drink cans were made of stouter stuff we would cut the tops and bottoms out of about five and duct tape them together. Sort of an early spud gun. Then we took one more and punched holes in the bottom and taped it in. Then we squirted lighter fluid into it, shook it up, stuck a tennis ball in the top and put a lit match at the bottom. We lost quite a few tennis balls but no fingers and never got caught. We also shot a few thousand bb’s into the pond and most are probably still there. If kids tried that stuff now I think a SWAT team would probably show up.

Rick H.
 
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Peashooter said:
BTW speaking of German firecrackers, they are called böller down there. ( German ö and Danish ø pronounce the same )
Boller in Danish however is buns / balls, also one of the many - many names we have for the scrotum here.

In Poland they have some really nasty böllers

M 8000+

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I can see why you’d want a looong fuse for that. 😂
 
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ba49 said:
Back in the 60s I had a sidewalk rocket that you put a cap pistol cap in and threw it down on the sidewalk and it would fly up in the air. Well me being a genius at 10yrs old put 5 caps in it and threw it down. It came back up and hit me in the right eye and nearly blinded me with a detached retina and no lasers to reattach it. spent a month in the hospital with my head in sandbags to prevent me from moving my head to let it heal. I eventually regain most of my sight in that eye. My parents tried to sue the manufacturer but the judge through it out say he does reward stupid lol. The courts were much smarter then.
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This forum sure brings back forgotten memories...... I remember them as Cap Rockets!

Good times!
 
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steve123 said:
I tried M-80's later on, and they're no where near the power of those 1/4 sticks.
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I was in high school in the 60's and someone I knew flushed a M 80 ( the fuse was waterproofed ) down a john in the 3rd floor boy's room. It blew that big porcelain john off the wall and shattered it. George, the maintenance man, was pissed. They never caught that sumbitch.
steve123 said:
I tried M-80's later on, and they're no where near the power of those 1/4 sticks.
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Yes mixing a readily available oxidizer with a readily available fule is frowned upon, and several people have also almost gotten cut in half by flying stuff due to excessive use, it seem like just cuz you can set it off remotely by shooting it, some people think no need to mix a small batch.

In the 60 - 70ties small firecrackers was allowed here but was soon banned, then later when a fireworks warehouse intelligently placed in the middle of a residential / light industry area blew up here a few decades ago, well the powder charge in fireworks was drastically reduced, so now a rocket can only have 70 grams of powder in it, back then 250 - 400 grams was not unheard of in rockets that would set off car alarms all over the place.

That be quality fireworks,, not the Chinese garbage you can only get now.
iu


BTW: who ever allowed for a fireworks warehouse with tonnes of powder in a residential area, well no one was ever blamed or fired on that account, had i been in charge at least 5 people would have been fired and probably dragged before a judge on charges of criminal negligence, and if needed i would have whipped up a stupid law to throw at them.

Actually me never had any aspirations to be anything,,,, aside for fireworks maker, but back then there was only 1 place making the stuff here, and it was in the cess pool that is the capitol.
So ! I became a lot of other things by accident, not like i ever wanted to be a machinist / tool maker / painter / sailor / engineer, actually in school everyone thought i would amount to nothing.
 
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3 boys growing up together, our dad passed when we were all young kids. I can remember great books we could get as kids, the carbon arc torch I built at ten years old was quite impressive. Mom always wondered why she could not find a D battery in the house...a kid must get his carbon rods where ever he can. The salt water rheostat was a touch dangerous 110 volts to lead fishing sinkers in a bowl of salt water. Damn wonder I did not fry my eyes.
We made "ammo" for our BB guns out of the old school "icicles" from the Xmas tree, back then they were strips of lead, not plastic. Rolled up they made a mean BB that would leave a heck of a welt. Those same books had formulas for gunpowder in them. The local druggist sold us the Saltpeter, our powder did not work so good, but sugar sure does!
 
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airgunutty said:
That seems like a great way to become acquainted with your local Alphabet org agents. Wow
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Reminds me of the gangbangers that film themselves committing felonies and then post them on social media. Not to equate the two acts, but sometimes it's best to just fly under the radar and not bring attention to yourself.
 
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Peashooter said:
Did any of you guys get chemistry kits ?

I got that as a kid, and made all kinds og beguine stuff / experiments with it, so i was not even a teen before i / we made things that i can not mention as it will set off that black cube in Maryland, and waste the boy’s there time.
That one solely to blame on illicit literature imported from the USA 😁

Also CUZ i saw someone do it on TV and it was fairly easy, well i distilled / extracted a substance from a particular nut,,,,,, very nasty stuff.
also stuff that would make the boys in that Maryland cube waste their time, maybe even land me on a no fly list.

My friend is / have always been on a no fly list, since way - way before 9 - 11, apparently " creative " use of military grade explosives put you on a perpetual naughty list, even if you just destroy a ATM with the damn stuff,,,,,, not anything of that weird modern stuff some people will do.

Those spinning things, we had one of those on pour playground, a HUGE one with like at least 8 rows of benches on it, i assume 14 - 16 foot in diameter.
Also up under the canopy there was bars you could hang in.

And if you did that, as it was in a corner of the place near dense bushes and trees ASO, the big boys would sneak up on you, and jump out and make the damn thing spin so you was horizontal, and when your finally lost the grip, you would go flying into said bushes and trees, and your gyro being messed up would be the last of your problems.
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I had one too, a Gilbert I think. I can't believe some of the chemicals they had in there for young kids to mess with. I think my parents ended up throwing mine out.
 
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ba49 said:
Back in the 60s I had a sidewalk rocket that you put a cap pistol cap in and threw it down on the sidewalk and it would fly up in the air. Well me being a genius at 10yrs old put 5 caps in it and threw it down. It came back up and hit me in the right eye and nearly blinded me with a detached retina and no lasers to reattach it. spent a month in the hospital with my head in sandbags to prevent me from moving my head to let it heal. I eventually regain most of my sight in that eye. My parents tried to sue the manufacturer but the judge through it out saying he does not reward stupid lol. The courts were much smarter then.
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Ahhh the good ol days:)
 
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Patrick F. McManus used to write stories for Field n Stream and Outdoor Life magazines. There are several books of his stories growing up in Sand Point Idaho. His short stories had me laughing so hard my body would shake and no sound came out.
One story comes to mind about he and his buddy shooing a bowling ball out of a culvert pipe.
If you haven't read his books, it's a must read for folks like us.
 
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Motorhead said:
View attachment 534279
One of these !!!! Air Pulse pistol. I remember well having one of these. Altered it adding a gift wrapping cardboard tube on it and shooting ping-pong balls at my sisters .... Ah those were the dayz :ROFLMAO:
WHAM-O Air Blaster
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I had one of those. It was a seriously cool toy and I still find it amazing how it could shoot a pulse of air 20 feet or more.
 
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BGarney said:
Patrick F. McManus used to write stories for Field n Stream and Outdoor Life magazines. There are several books of his stories growing up in Sand Point Idaho. His short stories had me laughing so hard my body would shake and no sound came out.
One story comes to mind about he and his buddy shooing a bowling ball out of a culvert pipe.
If you haven't read his books, it's a must read for folks like us.
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BGarney beat me too it. Very funny books by McManus. You will laugh out loud. McManus passed a few years back.
 
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