tannerite accident

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Rifleman1776

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A local young girl was injured yesterday when she stepped on a package of Tannerite in a neighbors yard. Apparently it had been left after a shooting session earlier. Her foot was seriously injured, extent not known at this time.
I had always understood Tannerite would only go off with a hit from a high velocity bullet. e.g. a muzzle loading ball would not ignite. That concept seems to have been blown (no pun intended) aside. Handle this stuff carefully.
 
They have Tannerite that a .22 will set off. Hard to imagine it going off by being stepped on. Stomped on maybe.
 
^^^ I agree with Sam. Kinda along the same line as "I just dropped it and it went off": No, you pulled the trigger like an idiot. Or "I was just minding my own business and two guys jumped me": No, you picked a bar fight and lost.
 
I agree with Sam, also. If it doesn't explode when you shake it during mixing I can't see how it would go off when you step on it. Sounds like some stupidity was involved.
 
Hopefully, Al Norris' "stupid should hurt" applies to the person who left it out, at least financially.
 
While I can't say I know what happened, reports similar to this happen near me from time to time, it seems like every time the initial statements made by the people leave out the part where they were actually doing something unsafe. Last event, tannerite was the first suggested substance then the evidence suggested some sort of home-brew. I suspect in cases like these tannerite has already become genericized(like kleenex or qtip), for any exploding target.
 
You never know what freak thing Gould make a impact activated device or substance activate. It was a foolish by the person that left it there and liability is theirs. the type activated by 22's must be more sensitive and possibly gravel grinding together may be enough to set it in motion. Unusual unexplained accidents happen all the time. Yesterday in Florida, a youngster was playing in driveway when he ran into house crying with a fairly deep cut on his head with no explanation. Later parents discovered 3 or 4 small fragments of a meteor. Apparently one had grazed him.
I hope the girl is ok,and ever who left it there is liable whether she was jumping on it or not.
 
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I found a news story: CLICK HERE

According to the report, it was not in the yard but in the woods on a concrete block.

I guess the lesson here is to clean up after yourself.
 
Sad for the girl. I also smell a cover-up.

As I understand it, Tannerite requires a high velocity bullet to ignite. That's the chemical safety design to prevent this type of injury or unintended explosive. It's very stable. Just like C4 is very stable.

So you can't set it off by dropping it, or hitting it with a hammer, or even a handgun round.
 
There's people all the time who just make stories up to Sue someone. On ground or woods or whatever it didn't happen like that. Who knows maybe insurance company will settle out of court for $10,000.00
The bad part of it is everyone knows this and it costs us all. And when people really have a justified claim sometimes its nearly impossible just get what they got coming.
 
It may well have been some sort of exploding target, but I can virtually guarantee you that it wasn't tannerite, nor any other commercially available product.

It's inconceivable that in this day and age any company would sell a product for recreational use that is so unstable that accidentally stepping on it could cause it to explode.
 
I'm guessing it was a home made explosive, or M80 firecracker or something of the sort, wired to tannerite and left. The article says it was not a booby trap. Would not be the first time news was wrong.

Or - perhaps someone shot it as the girl was next to it?
 
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