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My family just gained a new Independence Day tradition.
[+] |
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I can recall bottle rocket battles from my childhood, on
Guy Fawkes Nights. |
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I think this could also be played retro style, with muskets. Matchlocks would work well to light the blue touch-paper. |
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When we were younger my brother and I would sometimes chase and fire Roman candles at each other in the forest after it rained. Then we started making our own bottle rockets that could punch through the boards of outdoor skating rinks. |
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We were not very well supervised... and prolly shouldn't still have all of our fingers. |
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This is sort of Baked but definitely not Widely Known To Exist. |
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As a launcher, a length of stout cardbord tube, painted inside
with water based emulsion paint, or a metal pipe (never plastic,
it melts) is used like a bazooka. Competitors operate in teams of
two, aimer and loader. |
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The sticks on the rockets have to be shortened, otherwise they
work as they are meant to, moving the centre of mass rearward,
and causing the projectile to automatically turn into a vertical
trajectory. Best is to cut the stick right down, and add cardboard
fins for directional stability. This also means more rounds can
be carried. |
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Not that we'd ever participate in anything so foolish and
dangerous, you understand. We also still have all our fingers.
Sometimes we take the jar of formalin down off the shelf and
look at the detached ones. |
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When I was 13, a friend and I constructed a rocket
launcher using a carpet tube, a 6-volt lantern battery, and
a C-motor model rocket kit. It was great fun and only
caused a small, easily extinguished grass fire. Our parents,
no doubt guessing what we had in mind, intervened when
we started to build a second launcher. Years later, I
realized that we had technically manufactured and
discharged a Class-III Destructive Device without obtaining
an
ammended FFL, which is a federal felony. |
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It's times like that which made me the man I probably am
today. |
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I think we could do some of this, take pictures, and send to UnaBubba so that he can enjoy pyromania by proxy. |
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I doubt this activity is recommended in the Down-Under land at the current time. |
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Definitely not. We stopped the public buying rockets and
fireworks nearly 40 years ago... maybe more, I can't
remember. |
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I do recall using "throwdowns", small firecrackers filled
with sand, as slingshot ammunition. We used to get in a
bit of trouble if we fired them at cows, girls or the
schoolteacher's car. |
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The local youths used to have bottle-rocket wars, in which I occasionally joined. They'd all use the technique of holding the rocket by the end of the stick, lighting it, then using a swinging throw just as the fuse burned down---which gave horrible accuracy, though it looked dashing. |
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I made a launcher out of a piece of aluminum tubing about two feet long, with a cap over the back end. I'd light the fuse, shake the rocket down into the tube, and point with it held at arm's length. The accuracy was a lot better, and I loved the feel of the rocket launching. I burned a few holes in my shirts, though. |
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(I never noticed the rockets tending to turn upward, BTW.) |
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