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I remember the army teaching me about the dangers of blanks, in fact we were lectured about it frequently. We were taught never to fire blanks at people at clo
by hilbert42 5y ago
I remember the army teaching me about the dangers of blanks, in fact we were lectured about it frequently. We were taught never to fire blanks at people at close range, especially so their faces.
Right, I never did that, but yours truly had to experiment anyway so at an inconspicuous moment I fired at point blank range into a large tree and I was showered with bark fragments which cut me quite badly. In hindsight, if the bark had hit my eyes I might have been blinded.
The wading that stops the charge from leaking out is actually quite substantial and it's this rather than the hot gasses that do the damage.
- seastonATccs 5y agoA cleaning rod into a pine tree at Ft. Huachucha. At least I had a Private's sense to stand back 20 feet. It sunk into the tree a good 4 inches.
- hilbert42 5y agoYeah, 'tis amazing most of us survive. Thinking back and leaving the military aside, I never cease to be amazed that I've survived so long (nowadays I shiver a bit just thinking about it). Nearly bitten by a snake, trapped in a waterfall at cliff's top, blowing rocks up in mines and more. These incidents weren't out of gung ho bravado. I reckon I'm a reasonably timid person and they somehow snuck up on me unexpectedly. BTW, I had a bullet whizz past me on a 50-yd mini range after it ricocheted, it left a lead trail on the concrete several inches from where I was lying. I'm still completely mystified how this could have happened. How could one of us have been so off-target when instructors were standing behind us and carefully watching what we did?