tonker Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 I just read through the thread on legalities of these. Started me thinking of all the daft things we must have done in our lives, and thought it may be fun to find out a few. So I'll kick off. 1) When I was a lad I fired a .410 cartridge in a pipe clamped in a vice with hammer and nail. Lived to tell the tail but my **** didn't when got grassed on. 2) used to open .410 cartridges, and make my own solid slugs and wax them back in, same result. (stopped when told it was illegal ) Lastly. We had a rope swing on the very steep banks of a road called Bridge Valley, near the Clifton suspension bridge. The trees used to overhang the road about 40ft up. On the bottom of the rope was a bit of 3x2 as a seat. So imagine the scene. we used to wait for a double decker bus to come down the hill, and time our swing, so that we would appear just in front of the upstairs front seat passengers and make them jump. our swing took us farther out as the bus carried on down, and then we swung back in again. I got it drastically wrong one day being cocky, timed my swing to early, bus was going slower than I thought. My swing came back whilst the bus was still there, hit the far side of the bus and as the bus went slowly down the hill, I sort of rolled down the side (safe on my bit of 3x2) but lost my momentum, and couldn't get back to the bank. Driver stopped and got out and shouted up at me calling me a silly young *****r, my mates disappeared from the bank. I was to high for him to reach me luckily, and it was way before mobiles. Luckily my mates came back with a long stick that I could just reach to be pulled back in before any official in blue arrived. just after that they took the bank away and pinned the rock with steel nets and bolts, the trees came down as well, I think it was because the rock was dangerous, not our swing though. Makes you wonder how any of us reach old age doesn't it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Used to play a game called 'Dicing with death' which involved getting as close to the side of a double decker bus as it thundered (??) up the Romford Rd by Hainault Forest between Chigwell Row and Hog Hill. Points were given for closeness and artistic merit. Another was Gemimas (from the rag doll on PlaySchool), which involved running of the edge of a deep sand quarry at Fairlop and dumbling like a rag doll down the side amongst a sand avalanche. Fairlop was also the venue for that other wonderful event know as 'Running round the stick'; a stick that stuck upright in one of the quarry wash pits. The event involved running (crawling, swimming) out through deep cloying wet mud, round the stick and back again. Ah, Birch bending. Climb to the top of a whippy silver birch and start swaying, increasing the sway until you fell out. Hilarious! All of the above and many more, all known under the collective banner as 'Stunting'. Surprised none of us got permanently stunted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mighty Prawn Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Similar to birch bending but with Evergreens was jumping off my mates garage into the Leylandii and if you grabbed the right number of branches it lowered you gently to the floor - too few and you landed hard, too many and you were stuck in a tree! Also my brother once got hold of an entire box of hundreds of those bangers that looked like tiny dynamite, we spent hours blowing things up until I had the idea of dropping one in a milk bottle of petrol - the plan being the bottle would smash and a huge fireball would be cool, what actually happened was the bottle didnt smash as apparently they were made of adamantium, but did launch a column of burning petrol up into the trees where all the dying leaves caught fire and dropped into the grass where they spread the fire as fast as we could stamp it out. In many respects thats why every time I see a young person doing something stupid and I'm tempted to criticise the youth of today I have to remember I was equally/possibly more of a fool than anything they do know - we had access to lots more naughty things then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShootingEgg Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Tonker that sounds like a good crack on the rope swinf, its a shame they did have to pin the bank... As id be there now if I wasnt in the centre of bristol sat at my desk... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
955i Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 One that sticks in my mind was coming across a group of youngsters in a park woodland on bonfire night who had built their fire and were busy trying to drag one of the big red BOC gas bottles onto it so they could see what happened!! God knows what the result would have been if we hadn't of stopped them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShootingEgg Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 One that sticks in my mind was coming across a group of youngsters in a park woodland on bonfire night who had built their fire and were busy trying to drag one of the big red BOC gas bottles onto it so they could see what happened!! God knows what the result would have been if we hadn't of stopped them BOOOOOOOOM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arjimlad Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 I just read through the thread on legalities of these. Started me thinking of all the daft things we must have done in our lives, and thought it may be fun to find out a few. So I'll kick off. 1) When I was a lad I fired a .410 cartridge in a pipe clamped in a vice with hammer and nail. Lived to tell the tail but my **** didn't when got grassed on. 2) used to open .410 cartridges, and make my own solid slugs and wax them back in, same result. (stopped when told it was illegal ) Lastly. We had a rope swing on the very steep banks of a road called Bridge Valley, near the Clifton suspension bridge. The trees used to overhang the road about 40ft up. On the bottom of the rope was a bit of 3x2 as a seat. So imagine the scene. we used to wait for a double decker bus to come down the hill, and time our swing, so that we would appear just in front of the upstairs front seat passengers and make them jump. our swing took us farther out as the bus carried on down, and then we swung back in again. I got it drastically wrong one day being cocky, timed my swing to early, bus was going slower than I thought. My swing came back whilst the bus was still there, hit the far side of the bus and as the bus went slowly down the hill, I sort of rolled down the side (safe on my bit of 3x2) but lost my momentum, and couldn't get back to the bank. Driver stopped and got out and shouted up at me calling me a silly young *****r, my mates disappeared from the bank. I was to high for him to reach me luckily, and it was way before mobiles. Luckily my mates came back with a long stick that I could just reach to be pulled back in before any official in blue arrived. just after that they took the bank away and pinned the rock with steel nets and bolts, the trees came down as well, I think it was because the rock was dangerous, not our swing though. Makes you wonder how any of us reach old age doesn't it. Awesome. Hats off. I know that road and well, you had balls of steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFC Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 I had a No3 bolt action garden gun. I'd empty out two cartridges. Stick the cap of one cartridge up the breech and close the bolt. Muzzle load two lots of powder, a thin paper wad, one lot of shot then a thick paper wad. When it fired the powder would flash past the thin wad and ball the surface of the shot together making a 9mm slug. Couldn't hit anything with it but still fun. A chip of phosphorous in the back of an air pellet made a great tracer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnythefox70 Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 A 12g cartridge taped to the end of a bsa meteor with gaff tape so when the pellet hit the primer...boom (god knows where the pellets used to go!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decoyman Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 A .303 military round in a webley .410 bolt action to see if it worked. Chambered ok and went bang, Didn't blow up and bullet exited, Don't know where but guess case size let gas escape past and not service pressure otherwise ouch!.,Only had the one round. Don't tell anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Some great reading so far. I look back on my youth in horror at times at some of the ridiculous things that I did, but I mostly managed to avoid dying or killing anybody else, so it's all good. Most of my misadventures either revolved around doing something on the water or bonfires and airguns. One of our favourite games when away camping with friends was to play a game of bravery that involved a can of something on the bonfire, usually a catering sized tins of baked beans, and a broom handle or other suitable stick. The game was to put the can right in amongst the embers then each taking a turn to whack the can as it got hotter and expanded, the loser was the one that got covered in scalding hot beans and boiling bean juice. The effects of bean napalm was obviously not dangerous enough so we then had to up the ante and used to put the camping gaz cartridges on the bonfire and take pot shots at the canister with an airgun, fortunately we were never stupid enough to whack those with a stick. Sometimes we managed to shoot the canister with spectacular effect and other times it blew up before any of us managed to hit it. The most extraordinary thing was seeing a bonfire just disappear, to be replaced with hundreds of tiny bonfires scattered all over. I was fortunate to live right on the beach and there was an old bitumen works up the coast and we would often find big lumps of tar that had escaped the process washed up on the beach, so they were put on top of bonfires on the beach and would duly melt and go on fire, so we used to dig little trenches away from the fire so we could have little flaming rivulets of fire, that was proper napalm. It would stink to high heaven and of course left that tell tale odour on clothes, skin and hair, but I was always stupid enough to try and deny it when back home and questioned by my mum; many a cuffed lug was the result of that. It was my dads fault for showing me what he did as a kid. Plenty raft building, making treehouse, go carts (pilers in the local vernacular), rope swings and other stuff, it was just good boys fun. It is a huge shame that an awful lot of the fun that we had seems to be denied to kids now, I know that I am hugely better off for my days of youthful (mis)adventure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryman Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Me and my mate took the gun powder out of some of his dads cartridges, i wont say on here what we made but we tested it in an old pig sty on the Farm, imagine the look on our faces when it took the tin roof off, lucky there was no Pigs in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a303 Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Can remember a few things I did as a lad which I shouldn't probably air on an open forum.... Given that I'm only in my very late 20s. Let's just say I'm very lucky to still be here. The most fun was to be had with bangers and air bomb fireworks. Mixed with a crimped copper pipe and a battery and wire as a detonator........... How did we all survive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoot and be safe Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm loving this thread, bake bean napalm I still do the same with Old aerosols, just throw one in to a bonfire and retreat to a safe distance. Did it once with a full tin of "gap gun" expanding foam. If you thought the sugar rockets were impressive, gap gun was superior with a 10 foot flame behind. Oh the joys. In my younger days, I had a few of my pals from the air cadets camping on one of the fields. During the day we built a reasonably sized bonfire When we came to light it later in the evening, we found out that freshly felled trees don't burn to well and are a nightmare to light. Bright spark me, recalled a container holding the go go juice for the ride on mower in one of the sheds. A little splash around the pile of the proposed evenings warmth, duly lit with the flick of a naughty "Benson and Hedges" (not mine, I've never smoked) and we had warmth. Unfortunately this was short lived, as I was a little short with the initial priming of the fire. Bright spark, me again, decides to re-prime the fire once more with the "go go" juice. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have decanted the petrol into a smaller receptacle (pot noodle tub is ideal) rather than just splash it around the fire, thought to be completely out at this point. Somewhere there was a small glowing ember that was sufficient enough to ignite it petrol which flashed up causing a distinct amount of excitement, commonly known as panic, which was then made worse by the fact I was then holding a gallon can of petrol which was now on fire. Attempting to throw the petrol from the can to try and stop it going bang didn't work very well, especially when one of my pals was standing in the way and received a burning shower of petrol over his legs. Luckily for him, the rest of the lads took great pleasure in kicking the flames out for him as I ran with the burning can of petrol across the field, still trying to throw the flames away, in the direction of a small stream. on reaching the stream, I held the can under water until the flames subsided. Petrol is lighter than water, so the initial flames flowed gently away, until the stream water floated the remaining petrol from the can After I composed myself and turned around to walk back, I was faced with what could only be described as a scene from one of the "Die Hard" movies (the one when the plane crashed), and my pals being the heroes for extinguishing my burning mate. Luckily no one was burnt or suffered any injuries, but a valuable lesson was learnt use a pot noodle tub in future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortune Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 A .303 military round in a webley .410 bolt action to see if it worked. Chambered ok and went bang, Didn't blow up and bullet exited, Don't know where but guess case size let gas escape past and not service pressure otherwise ouch!.,Only had the one round. Don't tell anyone. When I was a kid at school there was a mate whose dad had tons of x home guard stuff still laying about. My mate supplied us with a metal box of live 303 some of which we broke down ( Tip in vice snapped round to remove tip) and gain access to the sticks of cordite inside which we used as fuses to ignite other explosives to blow other stuff up with.. the 303 fire formed the 303 cases into brass 410's but being berdan primed were no use to us. I wonder where the tips went to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 SABS I am so going to have to try tins of expanding foam Petrol is a scary scary thing and one thing you must never try is to empty the water from a fire extinguisher and replace with petrol, then discharge the 'fire extinguisher' (now known as a flame thrower that would strike fear in the devil himself) over a fire. It doesn't just turn into a big liquified tongue of flame, as I thought it might, but the petrol expands massively into a cloud and burns on the outside, so actually causes a really big fireball that will roll along the ground propelled by t's own wind. It is amazing how quickly a wave of awestruck fiery euphoria turns into absolute dread and horror. Nobody was hurt, but my pants never recovered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoot and be safe Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 SABS I am so going to have to try tins of expanding foam Petrol is a scary scary thing and one thing you must never try is to empty the water from a fire extinguisher and replace with petrol, then discharge the 'fire extinguisher' (now known as a flame thrower that would strike fear in the devil himself) over a fire. It doesn't just turn into a big liquified tongue of flame, as I thought it might, but the petrol expands massively into a cloud and burns on the outside, so actually causes a really big fireball that will roll along the ground propelled by t's own wind. It is amazing how quickly a wave of awestruck fiery euphoria turns into absolute dread and horror. Nobody was hurt, but my pants never recovered The expanding foam doesn't always go to plan, if you do try it make sure you are well clear as it is a nightmare to get off your hands when using it as intended. A exploding tin full is a lot worse I had heard urban myths about the petrol extinguisher We used to do a similar flame throwing thing, all be it on a smaller scale, with tins of deodorant How did we survive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 (edited) Using WD40 is good as it stays alight for a little while so you can write big flaming letters on a wall. I am sure the petrol extinguisher has been done many times, but frightened the bejesus out of me. Maybe trying the foam would be a bad idea, I no longer have the excuse of being a foolish young lad and being a foolish 40 something is much less forgivable and i don't fancy rocking up at casualty having to explain the results away. Edited May 22, 2015 by grrclark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loriusgarrulus Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Remember being sent to visit an elderly Aunty in Wellow village of the famous maypole. Was wearing a posh satin frock and lacy pants and best red sandals with crepe soles. Got to my Aunts fine. On the way home there was a tall dead pine tree I had had my eye on for a while with lots of short sticky out branches. Up I went quite a way before one of the branches snapped. I landed in an elder bush near its base. The satin dress survived with a few green stains, but the lacy pants were a write off. So was my bum when Mum saw the state of me when I got home. Dad got blamed for teaching me how to climb trees in the first place. I got a lecture from Dad about not climbing dead pine trees. Another time my sister and I were using two planks to run up and down some concrete circles that Dad used as planters sometimes. These were stacked up at the bottom of the garden that year. One of the planks shifted as In ran up it and I went head first onto the other side of the concrete. Up to the local Doctors for three stitches with no anaesthetic. I still have the scar on my forhead. Repeated the head splitting playing bull fighting, again with sister. This time went through the blanket/cloak as my sister shouted holay, straight into a brick wall. That scar is above the hairline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoot and be safe Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 (edited) Maybe trying the foam would be a bad idea, I no longer have the excuse of being a foolish young lad and being a foolish 40 something is much less forgivable and i don't fancy rocking up at casualty having to explain the results away. Just remember safe backstop and shot fall out and you'll be reasonably safe oh and no other possible third parties around including glass windows Edited May 22, 2015 by shoot and be safe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonker Posted May 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 (edited) All this talk of petrol, a couple more spring to mind. A few years ago we had a lot of wasp nests about, one was in the ground alongside the rhyne. So I decided to burn it out. poured petrol down the hole and left a little trail. Then got some matches and lit some paper to toss at the trail. Hurrummph. the side of the bank lifted and about 6 foot of it fell into the water. The second nest was in a wood pile at my brother in laws. we were there for a BBQ, and later that night after a few beers and letting all the wasps back in, we decide to have a go at that one as well. Me being what I am (overkill) poured a gallon on the woodpile, because as we know wasp nest material doesn't burn, we thought we'd give it a chance. I hadn't had enough beer to be absolutely drunk but getting there. I then realized I had no matches, so had to go and get some. Brother in law told me to put a lit rag on a pitch fork to light it with, I'm glad he did, because the length of time it had taken me to get the matches the fumes had spread (even at my age I didn't realize this would happen this much) As I approached with said pitch fork everything lit up, I was a good 4ft away still, The wood pile erupted and there were burning wooden incendiary missiles flying everywhere, it must of gone 10ft up. I was on my @ss with no hair left on my arms or eyebrows. The fumes had crept down the bank and spread over the pond, it looked as if the water was on fire, the grass had caught up, and it looked as if the little copse we were in was in danger, but luckily we put the fires out before they got hold. Petrol needs more respect, especially after a few beers!!! Still it did for the wasps nest, we laughed about that evening for weeks Edited May 22, 2015 by tonker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 Your tale of the rope swing Tonker made me think of a more recent bit of painful misadventure, My sister and brother in law had a big chestnut tree that was over hanging their back garden and my nephew had tied a rope over one of the big limbs to make a rope swing, but he had left a long tail of rope on the ground. We were along for drinks for my sisters birthday and i was using the long tail of rope to pull my nephew back and get him swinging high in the air and he was loving it. I was running the length of the garden pulling the rope and letting him go, but in, what turned out to be, the last swing i looked down after letting him go to realise that my foot was in a loop of rope on the ground. In what can only be a fraction of a second I went from thinking "oh ****" to flying horizontally dragged by an ankle half the length of the garden. The end result was two broken wrists. Only time I have broken a bone and it happened when i was 35 and not even on the bloody swing. Madame Artois insulated me from the immediate effects, but the next day was a bit ugly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norfolk dumpling Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 Made our own gunpowder ( and gun) but set fire to a small wood as we were drying out our raw ingredients. Fire brigade arrived but we were long gone. Fired air bombs at our local bobbies house on 5th Nov - hated this guy. Got up to all sorts of things which today would probably warranted a page in the Red Tops; set fire to our school bus, smashed same bus window trying to get 20 kids on back seat, half our class jumped out of classroom window when new teacher in charge. The list is endless - we had fun as kids but still became good citizens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaymo Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 (edited) Just in case they decide to repeal the Statute of Limitations I shall refrain from this topic... Suffice to say, A bit of youthful merriment does not a career criminal/arsonist make :-) Ps, in reality, I'm sure what we thought was 'Naughty' in those days would be considered to be of no consequence to the knife carrying/ thieving/ drug taking youths that abound today Pps. Long live the 'Jobbie F*rt Club' Edited May 23, 2015 by Jaymo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.