Logging the lazy way . . .

[TexasTimbers]

I don't know, with the Ax Man stuff happening now maybe this is way too unsophisticated for the FF but hey, sometimes you got to have a little fun.

I dropped (tried to but I missed) a sycamore a few weeks ago and hung it on an oak. There was no way to winch the syc down without a great amount of trouble. And since it had been a while since I've blown anything up this was as good an excuse as any.

For those that don't want to go to youtube and read the "More Info" text I will paste it here:

Lazy Logging. Just an excuse to have a little fun really. These woods are going to be cleared soon so no innocent trees are being decimated. The sycamores will be milled for lumber, and the two oaks we blew up will be used for firewood. Much of the wood has laready been split. :-D Sierra Clubbers need not rant. The 26" oak was downed with a 3 pound charge. 2.5 pounds were a shaped charge (I just used a cheap, thin plastic welding rod canister) inserted into a bore hole in the tree. The tree was weakened with wedge cuts parallel to the long slender charge.

When the charge failed to detonate the first time, I taped a 1/2 lb. canister to the front of the bore hole to set off the shaped charge with a sympathetic explosion. I figure the failure was due to the shooter's angle of fire; the projectile could not travel down the axis of the welding canister from our firing angle, so it only caught a small portion of the charge, and was not enough to detonate it. That's my theory anyway. We did not want to relocate because the Bois D' Arc tree we were behind offered great protection, a stable firing platform, and was the right distance for where the shooter already had his scope optimized.

The smaller oak was downed with only 1.5 lbs of non-shaped charge. Tannerite was used. The projectile in both cases was a 240 grain soft point .44 magnum, shot from a lever-action Marlin rifle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vmdv0NKy0

[Radar67]

Where did you get the tannerite?

[TexasTimbers]

Where did you get the tannerite?

There are two ways to secure this particular type of binary explosive:

• Buy it from Tannerite or one of it's few distributors
• Make it yourself

Most will not tell you they have made their own. They'll just say they used Tannerite. If they are prudent.  :P

[Chico]

When all else fails you'll ll hear it "watch this" ;D
Chico

[Mr Mom]

what is tannerite??

Thanks Alot Mmr Mom

[Radar67]

I was wondering the same thing when I first read this. I did some research and found the information on Wikapedia to be accurate, compared to everything else I read. It is also all consolidated there without having to hunt up the little bits and pieces.

It is basically an explosive that detonates from a high velocity projectile hitting it.

[Phorester]

"It is basically an explosive that detonates from a high velocity projectile hitting it. "

Like grandpa did when grandma hit him with her frying pan.  ;D  And you could also feel that concussion from 300 feet.  ;D

[Corley5]

Sound ;)    I see it's even available on E-bay    Won't be too long before it's resticted  :-\

[singlejacker]

texas = logging likes  oil = water.

[Ironwood]

Fun, I could tell the crackle of yer 394 as well.

Ironwood

[okie]

Now thats cool. I've got some stumps on my place that could use that treatment. I also have a sand stone bluff on the back side of my place that has a large split in it, wonder if that stuff is potent enough to blast a trough of sorts in it. I have thought of hiring a blasting company to do that to allow easier access from the top side of my place to the bottom but if this stuff works ??? ???

[flip]

Lazy?  I would say that is the creative way to down trees!  Beautiful job!!!  Tannerite rocks.

[timberfaller390]

We used to use some stuff called kenna-pack on the cave rescue team, We called it insta-cave I bet it's the same stuff. It could be detinated with a blasting cap or a gun shot. You used to be able to get it at our local hardware store.

[TexasTimbers]

Won't be too long before it's resticted  :-\

What will get it banned is if people continue to do idiotic things with it like Minnesotan Brian Childs did a couple of years ago. He loaded an old dump truck with 100 pounds of Tannerite and set it off with a .50 cal round. I am the first to say that could be good clean fun, if you happen to have access to a section of desert that would not offer even the slightest chance of doing harm to anyone, and then clean your mess up after the fun is done.

But that's not what this idiot did. He blew it up one mile from a nuclear power plant which set the alarms in the plant off. They though they might be getting attacked by terrorists. These are the kinds of stupid acts that would turn public sentiment, already way too pro-government "give them more power" so I hate to see things like that.

texas = logging likes  oil = water.

Oil and water can be mixed, and are mixed routinely to accomplish many benefits for mankind. This is just another example of ignorance in action, repeating misinformation you have heard all your life.

I used legal chemistry, in a legal manner, to have a little fun and also solve a problem. I had copies of CFR cites and other paperwork with me to show deputies (whom I would most likely have known anyway) that what I had was legal. I doubt a single deputy in my county is unaware of it anyway. We used lookouts on walkie talkies to make sure no one was coming down the road, and both lookouts were instructed to stop any traffic until we gave an all-clear.

I was advised to use a 7 pound charge in the large oak, but my prior experience with binary explosives told me that was way too much. I had not taken down any trees with this before but I have used it before, and I decided on a 2.5 lb shaped charge. Had to tape another unshaped 1/2 lb. charge to touch it off so 3 lbs. total. When I mentioned in the video we could take down the second "in a couple of days" I was sure the Sheriff's office would dispatch a deputy to investigate the explosion because I knew chances were that someone within a mile or two was going to call it in. So I gave them time to come and trying to err on the side of caution, I allowed that if the deputy was a newbie he might ask us not to set off another charge until he "looked into it" but again I really didn't think we'd get even that request. Unlike the moron in Minnesota I put some thought into what I was doing and used good judgment.

My idea of a successful take-down, was to drop the trees with as little explosive as possible. I didn't want to throw wood a 1/4 mile just for kicks. Heck yea it would have been "fun" but not too smart. The charges turned out to be the perfect size for each tree because there were not large chunks of tree missing, yet they failed at the point I wanted. 

I won't get into the "banning" issue because it might turn the thread into another "gun rights" thread and we know how that will turn out. But a lot of cool things are still legal. How many times have you heard of a bank being robbed with a flame thrower? Well, they are still legal (check with your local and state laws) and so is Thermite.

If someone ever robs a bank with a flame thrower I am sure everyone will realize what a menace to society they are.  In the meantime the hundreds of murders happening at our southern border from the illegals and illegal drug trade, using all manner of illegal firearms, that doesn't deserve the attention of the ATF as much as our own law-abiding citizens. :