This Weekend I Blew Up My Birthday Present!

This weekend the Midland College Paramedic and Emergency Medical Technician Programs participated in a 'rural rescue day' on Tactical Response Resources' range. While there, I took the opportunity to shoot off something I received for a birthday present: Tannerite!

Tannerite is the trademark for a patented ammonium nitrate/aluminum powder based binary explosive used primarily as a target for firearms practice. Tannerite is unique in that it is exceptionally stable when subjected to less severe forces such as a hammer blow or being dropped. It is supplied as two powders which are combined to produce the explosive. Tannerite is intended to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm cartridge. Low-velocity shotgun, handgun or rifle ammunition will not initiate a detonation. -Wikipedia

In other words, it's a whole bunch of fun loaded into a little package!

There are hundreds, if not thousands of YouTube videos of people setting off tannerite. Here is where I give you the standard warning not to try this at home. This stuff makes a big boom and it's not to be used without adult supervision...that includes some of you adults out there. There are also laws governing it's use and transport, so know the law in your area, State, etc. Now that we've got that out of the way, if you want to have fun making stuff go BOOM!, then this will get the job done.

This bang, was accomplished with about a water bottle packed with tannerite, shot with a 5.56 round from an M4 rifle. That last sentence was all kind of awesome in itself.

Watch Spencer make Boom!

P.S.: Thanks to TJ Smith at Polestar Visual for shooing the video!