Anyone shoot at tannerite for fun?

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TRguy

New member
I have enjoyed shooting at tannerite for years. Always fun to have something go boom when you are shooting.

I have bought targets from ebay before and always fun,

http://compare.ebay.com/like/280393...fcb1128&itemid=280393505206&ff4=263602_309572

I started mixing some small targets, here is my recipe I have used....Do you guys that use it use another process or something different?

~WARNING.. If you blow yourself up it is not my fault!~

Tannerite is no great secret. It's a simple binary explosive, kind of like kinepak...

TOTALLY HARMLESS WHEN IT IS SEPERATED

1 part dark aluminum flake to 19 parts ammonium nitrate.

Mix 5% aluminum powder with 95% Amonium Nitrate.

A good source of aluminum powder is Aluma-Seal, a radiator stop-leak, is aluminum powder.
http://www.amazon.com/AlumAseal-ASBPI12-Radiator-Powder-Blister/dp/B000FW61M4

Amonium Nitrate, get it from United Nuclear
http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=87&products_id=92

Get a cheap kitchen scale too.

DO NOT MIX THIS AT YOUR HOUSE, MIX IT AT THE RANGE, USE IT AT THE RANGE AND DO NOT TAKE ANY HOME WITH YOU

Start with the following to make sure it works:

100g AN mixed with 5g AL IN a 20-ounce bottle with screw on top.

Pour the 100g AN mixed with 5g AL into the container and shake them up until they are mixed.

Formula for mixing:

X * 0.05 = Y
X = Weight of AN
Y = Weight of AL to mix with that amount of AN

50 pounds of AN = 22,679.6185 grams

so using the above formula

22679.6185 * 0.05 = 1,133.980925

1133.980925 grams = 2.5 pounds of AL

So for every 50lb of AN you purchase you will need around 2.5lb of AL.

But I doubt you could get 50lbs of AN without the BATFE & OR DHS banging on your front door...

Happy shooting, be safe and keep it at a distance.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
Yep, friend and I had a lot of fun with it the past couple of summers on his Mother's farm.

Had some issues with the neighbors, though.
 
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spacecoast

New member
1 part dark aluminum flake to 9 parts ammonium nitrate.

Mix 5% aluminum powder with 95% Amonium Nitrate.
Click to expand...

First you say 1 to 9 but your detailed formulae say 1 to 19 or 1 to 20. Which is it?
 
T

TRguy

New member
sorry typo 5% AL Powder

so it would be 1 part AL Powder and 19 parts AN

I revised my OP

Thanks, sorry for the confusion
 
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Skans

Active member
I've always been curious about how Tannerite is legal, but any other explosive will get you in hot doodoo with BATFE? This is not meant to be a snarky comment - really just genuine curiosity.
 
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TRguy

New member
Farmers cannot grow the amount of food we do without Ammonium Nitrate (#1 Fertilizer used in the world) and we would not have many automotive products, household paints, metal finishing agents without the basic aluminum powder

If you combined aluminum powder with iron oxide you get Thermite.....lite it with a sparkler and it will burn slap through an engine block
 
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hartlock

Moderator
Yeah, I was thinking that the Federal government had put the smack-down
anyone buyin ammonium nitrate, since the bombing in Oklahoma City?
How do you go about buying it, now?
 
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mrgoodwrench76

New member
$13 for half a pound is kinda high considering you can buy premade 1/2lb targets at cabella's for around 10 bucks. Am I missing something? Once you figure in the price of the aluminum powder, the pre made targets are cheaper. Now if you buy 50lb bags of nitrate from the feed store for 20 bucks, then you got some cheap fun.
 
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chris in va

New member
What about the ammonium perchlorate? Is your AN prilled?

Ironically I can no longer shoot Tannerite as Knob Creek doesn't allow it. Yet more irony, they set of a crapload of explosives during their MG shoot.

Now if you buy 50lb bags of nitrate from the feed store for 20 bucks, then you got some cheap fun.
Click to expand...

Can't do that anymore.
 
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mrgoodwrench76

New member
Now if you buy 50lb bags of nitrate from the feed store for 20 bucks, then you got some cheap fun.

Can't do that anymore.

Why not? Are there restrictions in the area you live in? I just bought a 50lb bag at the local feed store for less than 20 bucks, prill form AN. Works great. I've also used cold compress packs. The ones you squeeze and they get cold. They contain AN in prill form with a small packet of water in them. Local drug store has about 1/2 pound for 3bucks. I guess thats still cheaper than buying AN online.
 
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UniversalFrost

New member
had a lot of fun with it on several shoots...

every time we do shoot it the darn border patrol helicopter always shows up and shortly afterewards a couple BP trucks.... helps that half of the folks I shoot with are BP or LEO, so that easily difuses the situation and last time out the BP folks wanted to try out our class 3 toys (my reising, a buddy's original 1927A1, and another buddy who is a class 3 dealer with a SOT has several post 86 samples we "op's check" including a couple real M4's and 2 MP5's)


if you do shoot it , just make sure to have the tannerite paperwork with you to show to leo types that might show up due to the loub booms.
 
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mec

New member
I shot a quarter pound bottle of the mixture with a 458 Lott from about 25 yards and was enveloped by the sound wave to the extend that I didn't feel the recoil. The next time, I missed and that rifle really does kick. Just a little bit of tannerite goes a long way.
 

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chris in va

New member
Why not? Are there restrictions in the area you live in?
Click to expand...

When I lived in Virgina, the local feed/farm supply stores all told me I have to show proof of being a farmer or somesuch to purchase more than a pound of AN. Same went for a place I stopped at in WV. Haven't bothered with it here in KY, no place to shoot it anyway.
 
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