Preacherman
Member
Especially because you would then be charged with a-salt and battery...
Really Stupid Ideas
- Thread starter Keith
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CGofMP
Member
This little "trick" was shown in a movie called "The Exterminator" which was released in 1980. It is a movie about a Vietnam Vet who has had 'enough' and the results are pretty easy to guess. I saw The Exterminator when it first came out, and I was nto all that impressed. It did show a lot of step-by-step things that you would be best not doing... rememebr the gasoline in the lightbulb scene?
Anyway.... The protagonist does the mercury thing using melted solder to seal the tip of the bullet. I always wondered how the hot solder wouldnt expand the mercury to a point it would just overflow...
In any event, I never tried this and sure as H do not advocate anyone doing so as Mercury can be bad Ju Ju.... not to mention I bet you run afoul of several laws.
But this is where *I* first heard of it.
Anyway.... The protagonist does the mercury thing using melted solder to seal the tip of the bullet. I always wondered how the hot solder wouldnt expand the mercury to a point it would just overflow...
In any event, I never tried this and sure as H do not advocate anyone doing so as Mercury can be bad Ju Ju.... not to mention I bet you run afoul of several laws.
But this is where *I* first heard of it.
I usedta know some farmers who loaded 12 ga shells with rock salt when they were having trouble with predators (2 legged and four legged both) getting into the henhouse...
They'd go out at any sounds, and if they saw a fox or somesuch, he'd get the right barrel (loaded with lead), but if they saw a man, or somebody's dog, he'd get the left one... It worked wonders!
They'd go out at any sounds, and if they saw a fox or somesuch, he'd get the right barrel (loaded with lead), but if they saw a man, or somebody's dog, he'd get the left one... It worked wonders!
Don Gwinn
Moderator Emeritus
Great-grandpa stopped a chicken robbery in progress with rock salt one night when dad was a young boy (woulda been the late 1950s, I think.) Next day he went to the doctor's office. The doc admitted to treating a nasty buttocks wound but absolutely refused to give up the identity of the would-be thief. He said the man, in the process of extracting a promise not to reveal his identity to Pawpaw, gave him a message to pass along: he would never, ever, ever again attempt to steal from the Costa house!
The family has always been convinced it must have been someone who knew Pawpaw, but nobody ever really had a guess as to whom.
The family has always been convinced it must have been someone who knew Pawpaw, but nobody ever really had a guess as to whom.
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
So Keith, can your buddy explain how it is that the mercury is going to make the lead molten, hence making it a super frangible round? If the mercury softens or dissolves the lead as claimed on the thread at TFL, just what is the shelf life of mercury filled hollowpoints before the mercury compromises the integrity of the bullet such that it won't perform properly?
In the movie "Jaws," the cop loaded up hollowpoint ammo with something like cyanide and capped the liquid in the poin with wax.
As noted, the mercury could spin out via the centrif. force. It will no doubt spin out as the wax is not going to be strong enough to handle the acceleration, spin, and heat.
In the movie "Jaws," the cop loaded up hollowpoint ammo with something like cyanide and capped the liquid in the poin with wax.
As noted, the mercury could spin out via the centrif. force. It will no doubt spin out as the wax is not going to be strong enough to handle the acceleration, spin, and heat.
It doesn't make it molten, it dissolves it. I've played with mercury and .22 pellets just to see it happen after reading about it. (Thet wuz back aways.) It's what the dentist does to get the silver into your teeth - he mixes sliver with mercury (and traces of some other stuff, IIRC) and then he can press the mixture (called an amalgam) into the cavity. It has a working time, like concrete, so I'm not sure what would actually happen to a bullet filled with mercury. The ratios of the two also plays into this. Enough mercury and you can dissolve the lead completely.
BerettaNut92
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What about poisonous tadpoles in a shotshell?
Hand_Rifle_Guy
Member
My theory on a mercury-filled hollowpoint is this:
Hollowpoints have a bugaboo: they're unreliable expanders. Regardless of the design, hollowpoints expand because of hydraulic action. Hydrashocks and Eldorado starfires use fancy internal configurations to distribute the hydraul;ic action to improve functional expansion.
Hydraulic principles work on the premise of "Liquids cannot compress". Hollowpoints driven into flesh rarely look like the perfect mushrooms from gelatin tests because flesh is not entirely a liquid, and makes for an inconsistent hydraulic medium. Additionally, hollowpoints can become clogged with cloth or other non-liquid materials on their way into a target, which prevents hydraulic influence on the bullet's interior construction, preventing expansion.
However, if one were to pre-fill a hollowpoint cavity with some sort of liquid, it would lessen the chance of clogging, and assist in the expansion of the bullet merely from forward impact.
Mercury's a lousy choice, for it's lead-disolving tendencies, as noted above. Wax would probably work ok.
Also, you can't fire paintballs from rifled barrels, as the liquid contents act as a fluid damper on the rotation, and quickly destabilize the ball, removing the accurrizing benefits. I would think that .filling a hollowpoint with something that remains a liquid would act to destabilize a bullet, considering the level of forces involved with the high RPM achieved in rifled bullets.
As for poisoning targets, as if shooting them isn't lethal enough, a drop or two of bore cleaner on any exposed lead would guarantee swift lead poisoning, as that changes the lead into a readily soluble form, as opposed to bullets, which are routinely left in people's bodies when they're in difficult to remove or non-threatening locations with no ill affects. Lead in mettalic form is reasonably inert. So is mercury, for that matter. Either, however, in vaporised form, or as a soluble compound, can be virulently toxic.
Hollowpoints have a bugaboo: they're unreliable expanders. Regardless of the design, hollowpoints expand because of hydraulic action. Hydrashocks and Eldorado starfires use fancy internal configurations to distribute the hydraul;ic action to improve functional expansion.
Hydraulic principles work on the premise of "Liquids cannot compress". Hollowpoints driven into flesh rarely look like the perfect mushrooms from gelatin tests because flesh is not entirely a liquid, and makes for an inconsistent hydraulic medium. Additionally, hollowpoints can become clogged with cloth or other non-liquid materials on their way into a target, which prevents hydraulic influence on the bullet's interior construction, preventing expansion.
However, if one were to pre-fill a hollowpoint cavity with some sort of liquid, it would lessen the chance of clogging, and assist in the expansion of the bullet merely from forward impact.
Mercury's a lousy choice, for it's lead-disolving tendencies, as noted above. Wax would probably work ok.
Also, you can't fire paintballs from rifled barrels, as the liquid contents act as a fluid damper on the rotation, and quickly destabilize the ball, removing the accurrizing benefits. I would think that .filling a hollowpoint with something that remains a liquid would act to destabilize a bullet, considering the level of forces involved with the high RPM achieved in rifled bullets.
As for poisoning targets, as if shooting them isn't lethal enough, a drop or two of bore cleaner on any exposed lead would guarantee swift lead poisoning, as that changes the lead into a readily soluble form, as opposed to bullets, which are routinely left in people's bodies when they're in difficult to remove or non-threatening locations with no ill affects. Lead in mettalic form is reasonably inert. So is mercury, for that matter. Either, however, in vaporised form, or as a soluble compound, can be virulently toxic.
son of a gun
member
I read that the military has even 7.62x51 bullets made from depleted uranium, I thought they used them only for large anti-tank rounds only.
MuzzleBlast
Member
To whom?
Yup. Somewhere in a back issue of the National Geographic Magazine is a photo of a miner in a mercury mine. He's fully clothed, floating in a pool of mercury. Hmm. More like ON a pool of merury - the stuff is pretty dense. They spent time each day in a sauna to sweat the mercury out of their pores. If it were all that poisonous, doncha tink somebuddy would have noticed the miners dropping like flies?
That was in the '60s or '70s, so it's not like we're talking about some ancient times where nobody knew or cared about such things.
Keith
Member
This is all very educational, but I was really hoping to see some other dumb gun ideas we've heard about or seen demonstrated.
What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen?
Keith
What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen?
Keith
Abominable No-Man
Member
This is one of those things that someone thought would be cool to do in a movie. Then, of course, someone watched that movie and said "Hey, that would be cool to do in real life."
Kind of like all the little gangsta wannabes trying to shoot holding their pistols sideways, or watching a car explode when it gets hit in the engine by a bullet.
:banghead:
ing frustrating.
ANM
Kind of like all the little gangsta wannabes trying to shoot holding their pistols sideways, or watching a car explode when it gets hit in the engine by a bullet.
:banghead:
ing frustrating.ANM
bogie
Member
Back around 1980, there was a frat boy at the University of Kentucky who was at a party, and ducked into the yard next door to take a whiz.
Well, the home owner was an old boy who had grown VERY tired of the frat rats waterin' his daisies. Junior got hit in the butt and back of his legs with a load of rock salt. He was on crutches for a LONG time... I think the ol' boy was also charged and sued.
At closer range, a load of rock salt will go right through a man.
Well, the home owner was an old boy who had grown VERY tired of the frat rats waterin' his daisies. Junior got hit in the butt and back of his legs with a load of rock salt. He was on crutches for a LONG time... I think the ol' boy was also charged and sued.
At closer range, a load of rock salt will go right through a man.
WvaBill
Member
I did think that Mercury was not a good idea in a HP, but a friend (LEO at the time) was hunting with an LEO friend. When they got in the SUV he checked the safety by carressing the trigger
. I wasn't there, but that was the explanation both gave for the holes in the floorboardand tire. Plus a cast aluminum wheel permanently out of balance. If that was not the truth, what could have been a worse scenario?
. I wasn't there, but that was the explanation both gave for the holes in the floorboardand tire. Plus a cast aluminum wheel permanently out of balance. If that was not the truth, what could have been a worse scenario?jimpeel
Member
If one fills a shotshell with mercury the resulting wound would be devastating. The material would be impossible to remove completely and the resultant poisoning would likely take out the victim regardless of where they were hit. We are, of course, speaking of an extremely short range round.
AUTIGER04
member
A guy at work told me that he dips the HPs in "Mercury". He claims a bullet wound with Mercury will not heal. He claims to have learned this in the Military.
He claims to have learned this in the Military.jimpeel
Member
The thought for the day is ...
centrifugal force!
The heavy mercury would be thrown against the sides of the cavity he drilled by the force of the spinning bullet. The consequence thereof would be the mercury being thrown out of the round before it had traveled more than about three feet. The wax would not hold the mercury from being expelled with great force in a lateral spray. Perhaps he could put out the eye of a bystander standing to the side of the muzzle.
Fed168
Member
I recovered some rounds that were crosshatched by the person possessing them- he thought that they would expand better and cause death defying wounds.
Saw it on TV.
Saw it on TV.
jimpeel
Member
Okay. Let's get this thing settled.
Mercury in its liquid form is not particularly poisonous. Most of it will pass unabsorbed through the digestive tract. It will not go through the skin readily and handling liquid mercury with the bare hands is not particularly dangerous. It is when it is converted into salts or vapor that it becomes so. Mercuric Chloride and other mercuric compounds are readily absorbed both in the digestive tract and through the skin.
If one ingests liquid mercury the effects will be nil. Most mercuric poisonings occur from things like mercury based glaze on pottery that has been inadequately fired. When the pottery is used to eat or drink from, the residual mercury is leached into the food. It is at this time that the mercury is poisonous. Foods which are high in acidity, such as tomatoes or citric juices, are the worst. A plate of spaghetti, eaten from a misfired plate, will cause more serious poisoning than the ingestion of the entire contents of a mercury thermometer.
Mercury is an accumulative poison wherein the body retains the compound. The more you take in, the more poisoned you get. This is true with most heavy metal poisoning.
Since mercury poisoning mimics autism http://www.whale.to/a/autism7.html , doctors have to be aware of the differences in children. Chart
Mercury in its liquid form is not particularly poisonous. Most of it will pass unabsorbed through the digestive tract. It will not go through the skin readily and handling liquid mercury with the bare hands is not particularly dangerous. It is when it is converted into salts or vapor that it becomes so. Mercuric Chloride and other mercuric compounds are readily absorbed both in the digestive tract and through the skin.
If one ingests liquid mercury the effects will be nil. Most mercuric poisonings occur from things like mercury based glaze on pottery that has been inadequately fired. When the pottery is used to eat or drink from, the residual mercury is leached into the food. It is at this time that the mercury is poisonous. Foods which are high in acidity, such as tomatoes or citric juices, are the worst. A plate of spaghetti, eaten from a misfired plate, will cause more serious poisoning than the ingestion of the entire contents of a mercury thermometer.
Mercury is an accumulative poison wherein the body retains the compound. The more you take in, the more poisoned you get. This is true with most heavy metal poisoning.
Since mercury poisoning mimics autism http://www.whale.to/a/autism7.html , doctors have to be aware of the differences in children. Chart
Zach S
Member
Ok, first i think theyre called "potter's wheels" but I wont swear to it.
But the point is that if it were centered, or close to it, it would stay. Nothing would happen, just a glass spinning on a potters wheel with water in it. Boring. However, move it towards the outside of the wheel and it gets unstable, things can get a little more exciting, but not much.
Taking the gaurd off of a fan can be fun but want at first. After sitting a marble in the middle, i was like "OK, that suucks" Dropping a mable in the center was just as boring, but with more effort. Throwing marbles into the blades was fun, but beside the point. Taping a good sized marble to the outside edge of a blade resulted in a "dancing fan" (since the balance was off), a broken window in the front door (the tape gave after a few seconds), as well as a broken weindow in a dodge something...
/me also has a misspent youth.
A friend of mine, during the misspent youth portion, actually did the mercury load in his .357. At the quarry where we shot stuff he tried a few out. A regular hollowpoint would penetrate one side of a 55 gal. drum and make a nice dent in the other side. The mercury fills would pentrate both sides leaving a more impressive hole in the back. I don't recall being sprayed with mercury as he fired them. (of course, I don't recall where my keys are now, so what does that prove.) They were pretty inaccurate and were pretty fragile too. He decided that they, along with his crosshatched hollowpoints and his homemade tumbler bullets [YIKES!], were useless and would get him put in prison if he used them.
I, luckily, used a semi-auto and couldn't try exotic rounds.
We used to be young and stupid. Now we're no longer young.
zastros
I, luckily, used a semi-auto and couldn't try exotic rounds.
We used to be young and stupid. Now we're no longer young.
zastros
zastros -
Bingo. And don't try this at home, kiddies! You might wind up spending 8 days in the VA hospital... Don't ask how I know. Something about a teapot from Mexico...
Okay, we've beaten the mercury thing to death here. How about some more dumb ideas?
There's no end of stupid things that have been loaded into shotshells. Rusty ball bearings "to make it hurt more" is one I've heard. Same idiot liked a dull knife for the same reason.
Maybe NOT so dumb is square shot. It's called "Dispersante" and the idea is to have it spread more than standard shot for use in crowd control.
Bingo. And don't try this at home, kiddies! You might wind up spending 8 days in the VA hospital... Don't ask how I know. Something about a teapot from Mexico...
Okay, we've beaten the mercury thing to death here. How about some more dumb ideas?
There's no end of stupid things that have been loaded into shotshells. Rusty ball bearings "to make it hurt more" is one I've heard. Same idiot liked a dull knife for the same reason.
Maybe NOT so dumb is square shot. It's called "Dispersante" and the idea is to have it spread more than standard shot for use in crowd control.
Keith
Member
Please!!!!
Keith
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