Home made exploding ammo

[jason_iowa]

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.

 

[mete]

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 .

 

[armoredman]

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.

 

[DPris]

Can't detonate in the chamber, why would you think they would? Not dangerous, just silly.
Denis

 

[Tom Matiska]

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... .

 

[PawPaw]

Bad idea, on a whole bunch of different levels. Not necessarily dangerous, just a bad idea.

 

[Ricklin]

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.

 

[Old Grump]

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.

 

[Bob Wright]

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.

Bob Wright

 

[sgms]

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)

 

[Hawg]

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.

 

[dayman]

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.

 

[357 Python]

IIRC John Hinkley used Devastators in the 22 he used to shoot President Reagan. They were very effective weren't they?

 

[Tom Servo]

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.)

 

[Redhawk5.5+P+]

Juat ask the ATF, they can help you.

 

[Redhawk5.5+P+]

armoredman
Senior Member


Join Date: May 22, 2007
Location: Arizona
Posts: 3,260

"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

 

[Mike Irwin]

"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.

 

[armoredman]

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.

 

[Old Grump]

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.

 

[Tactical Jackalope]

That sounds too careless..Not going to lie though, I want to see it done.