Container for 20lbs of Tannerite?

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Skarekrow88

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My brother and I are trying to get rid of a beaver dam that is blocking water flow into a small lake on our property. We used 14lbs of tannerite several months ago and it nearly did the job. We're going to try 20lbs this time but need a suitable container for it. I was thinking a 5 gallon bucket with a lid might be what we need. Anybody done this or something similar before? I'm pretty sure a 5 gallon bucket will hold it all but there might be a considerable amount of space left in the bucket. Will the amount of space left in the container determine whether it will detonate or not? Definitely don't want to waste all that tannerite
 
I know that a 5-gallon bucket will hold about 30 pounds of hen-scratch grain. You'd likely have room to fill the rest of the bucket with dirt, packed tightly.

Dig into the dam and set the bucket in as far as you can. The more you contain the blast, the more effective it will be.

Think "100 yards away" and "shoot from behind a large tree". :)

Me, having a backhoe...

Truly a novel hunting method. :D
 
I don't know anything about tannerite and I have no advice.

I was just listening to the radio about a 78 yr old Veteran who is being held in Federal prison in Colorado.

It seems he got permission from the State of Montana to build a pond on his property.

The EPA says they pretty much own every drop of water in the USA,and he had to get rid of the pond.He did not comply.They put him in federal prison.

I don't know how it works to post on the internet you are going to use 25 lbs of tannerite to alter a stream flow.

I'm not saying good,bad,right wrong.

I'm just saying I don't know how that works.

I'm not sure how much its about guns or shooting,other than shooting it to set it off.
 
FME, no amount of Tannerite is going to solve your problem until you get rid of the beavers. If your pond is downstream, you also need to consider what the consequences of releasing all that water above it at once, may be. My advice would be to get rid of the beavers legally, and then remove the dam a bit at a time to release the water above it slowly.
 
The man in Montana was convicted for building ponds on PUBLIC land after years of being asked not to.

As stated above, do as you please but maybe not advertise it on the web.
 
I know that a 5-gallon bucket will hold about 30 pounds of hen-scratch grain. You'd likely have room to fill the rest of the bucket with dirt, packed tightly.

Dig into the dam and set the bucket in as far as you can. The more you contain the blast, the more effective it will be.

Think "100 yards away" and "shoot from behind a large tree".

Me, having a backhoe...

Truly a novel hunting method.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I ended up getting a 20 pound jug of cat litter. The consistency of the tannerite and the litter seem to be fairly close so I'm hoping it will do the job. We are actively hunting and trapping the beavers legally so that they won't just rebuild what we get rid of. This is also all on our privately owned property.
 
Chainsaw,maybe we are talking two different Old Men.
This guy is 78 with health problems.His sentence will likely be a life sentence.
The ponds are on his private land .The argument is the mud he made could pollute the Jefferson R, 60 miles away.
Since then the EPA itself caused the Gold King mine spill in Colorado.Nobody went to jail.I don't think anybody got fired.
It may end up a superfund site.
Anyway,thats all beside the point.
Blow that dam and send muddy water down the creek you may be in BIG trouble.
But I'm not telling anyone how to live,just a heads up.
The EPA and water are nothing to fool with.
http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_b4ae4404-8c4d-52f7-a4be-c88a0f693662.html
 
From experience I can tell you pack that tannerite into as tight a package as possible. The tighter it is packed the bigger the boom. I understand the beaver problem also...won't tell you how we got rid of them, but remember that I said from experience ;)
 
Just a suggestion.
Mix the tannerite in batches(to promote better mixing) and put it in the biggest ziplock bags you can find as you mix. Once all is mixed and bagged, use stretch wrap(like you get at the home improvement stores)to wrap the bags TIGHTLY together into a 20# package. You can put this in another container but the multiple wrapped bags will be water tight for quite a while. Bury the package into whatever feature you want excavated but make sure you can still place a bullet into it close to center.
Be advised, tannerite is a low yield type product so don't expect a great expulsion of material like a true "explosive" would produce. On the other hand, 20# is a lot of stuff so be careful and maintain an adequate safety zone.
I did ditching using dynamite back in the old days and on a few occasions might have been a wee bit close to the action so to speak.
 
I second the advice about getting rid of the beavers first. I trap them legally in season or with a nuisance depredation permit from the DNR. I use a Conibear 330 (or equivalent).

Once the beavers are all gone, I remove enough material from the downstream side to get the water flowing normally. Blowing up beaver dams might sound like fun but really has no practical purpose. By the time you've dug in enough to set the charge, you might as well have breached the dam.
 
I think I'd rather just spend 4 hours shooting the damn, than blowing it up.
(Wouldn't be the first time. ;))

It may even be better, as far as pollution goes.
And it would certainly be better from a water release standpoint.
 
Just gotta' ask,
How big is this dam anyway?
And how much water is it holding back.
When you do this, can we watch?
How about doing a youtube video?
 
I have seen the DNR put a drain under the dam to control the water level. I have seen where a guy blue the dam and ruined some great duck hunting area.

I have seen where a 100 Year old earthen dam let loose and wiped out every thing including all timber , soil and bridges for 40 miles. Luckily no one was killed. My Son just happened to be headed for that valley that Sunday and turned back. I thank God for that. The core of engineers were assigned to remove the debris from Marquette Harbor so the fraters could resume shipping iron ore through the Great lakes for our Country. :eek:

Watch out for the snow ball effect.
 
"...consistency of the tannerite and the litter seem to be..." 20 pounds is 20 pounds. Isn't a volume thing. As in, 20 pounds of feathers weighs the same as 20 pounds of cement but takes up a great deal more space.
Anyway if you can put 5 gallons of water in your bucket, it weighs ~ 50 pounds. A gallon of water weighs 10 pounds.
As mentioned, beavers will just replace themselves and the dam. Keeps 'em busy. snicker.
Suggest you look into the legalities too. Even if you've done it before. That doesn't make it legal. Especially with the down stream liability issue.
"...Nobody went to jail..." Unelected civil servants, who make their own rules, cannot and do not make mistakes. It's in their contract. snicker.
 
Think "100 yards away" and "shoot from behind a large tree"
Click to expand...

The good folks at tannerite suggest a minimum of 100 yards for a pound of their product. Me thinks 100 yards yards would be far too close for 20 lbs of it.

20 lbs is an amount that would have a very good chance of getting somebody hurt very badly by the debris blasted into the air which is going to fly long distances (hundreds of yards) in a variety of directions.

It is my opinion based on the occasional news articles where people get hurt, maimed, killed, or cause unreasonable property damage that this is a very BAD IDEA, especially since you apparently have no idea just how big of an explosion 20 lbs will create or have any means to control how the debris will be thrown.

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2016...uber-severs-leg-shooting-lawnmower-tannerite/
http://www.burnsjournal.com/article/S0305-4179(16)00045-0/abstract?cc=y=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDiYnEJYH0 (language warning)
http://upnorthlive.com/news/local/man-severely-injured-in-target-practice-explosion
http://lacrossetribune.com/news/loc...cle_fab52c9e-d7c8-11e2-baa7-0019bb2963f4.html
 
I've been considering using a little Tannerite on some stubborn hogs that don't seem to want to get in a trap. I have a little bunch of about 20 of them that gladly gobble up all the corn I leave out on the ground in one area, and I think I can get them to gather within a 15-20 yd area. I was thinking more like 8 or 10 lbs in a bucket....I think that should create some pork debris.
 
The 20lbs cat litter jug was perfect. Filled to the brim with every ounce of tannerite we had. My brother filmed as I shot and it worked great. Left a considerable crater.

The water level has been low for quite some time due to a drought but once we get some rain the creek will be flowing into the lake once again. Forgot to mention that initially, it wasn't currently blocking water flow but it does when the creek isn't dry.

We were about 50-75yds away behind our vehicles and only some very small debris reached our trucks. I knew we'd be fine since we were even further away when using the 14lbs from before and we were completely safe then. The first 14lbs got rid of most of the larger debris that would pose the most danger.

Theres usually someone down there doing work and keeping the beavers and other vermin dancing 3-4 days a week and they never got a chance to rebuild the damn in between the time we used the 14lbs and this 20lbs so I'm confident if we keep it up with hunting and trapping we will eventually be rid of them.

I haven't used youtube in a good while so standby on the video.
 
I'm a bit curious as to how much you have invested in the 34 pounds of Tannerite, and if the reason you decided to use it was just to blow something up or if other non-aggressive methods of removing the dam did not or would not work. Over the years I've dealt with beavers and their dam on several occasions. Never was there much to removing enough of their dams to restore normal water flow. Many times once the beavers were removed, lack of maintenance from the beavers or normal high water levels took care of the dam. Other times it was just a a matter of a pick-ax and a pair of waders.

Not trying to chastise, being a normal guy, I understand the thrill of blowing things up. Just curious.
 
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