Black powder and ANVILS!  
Now who do you suppose thought of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_c0B00Ax3w

and 200 feet?!?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhQ4dE_RGnQ

I must confess though, watching from a distance could be fun!

Now you see this is different, good clean fun carried out safely, a little weird yeah, but fun. :smiley:

Hmmm I have not watched the clips as I can guess what they're up to as in fact it's nothing new blowing Anvils up into the air has been done since someone with a quantity of BP was bored.

 
In fact it reminds of a little story related to me by an old Bisley hand. Bisley being the hallowed Bisley Camp where the annual Imperial Meeting is held and the Queens Prize competed for as well as such things as the Elcho Shield etc.
 
The lesser members have always been shoved round onto Bisley's Short Siberia range, a 200 yard range, where facilities were basic to non existant and until the NRA decided that they were missing out of some revenue the entrace was not even in the camp but off of Queens Road. From the firing point of the 100 yard side of the range, the left, just behind the tree line is the target sheds where the targets are made up for the main camp ranges. This is the view from the LHS 100 yard firing point:-
 

 
 

 
and looking back to the 200 yard firing point:-
 

 
 

 
The covered 100 yard FP was not provided by the NRA but by members themselves and I believe partly the reason for the change of entrance to a long track round the rear of the Firing Point of Century Range, the 600 yard range with 108 FP's, as due to the covered firing point Short Siberia is more popular now. Before it was where the NRA chappies sent those lesser shooters who shot such things and Sporting Rifles and the Military Service rifles and not proper rifles like the hallowed single shot Target rifle that they so worship. Yet it's these very shooters they look down upon who keep the ranges open by shooting all year in all weathers whilst the serious "Target shooters" hibernate until the better weather of Spring :frown .
 
The members and club who built the covered firing point also built benches for each of the 100 Yd lanes the NRA contributed nothing but thier permission and they wonder why the very shooters who actually keep the place open are mainly now not individual members of the NRA but only associate members through their clubs. The NRA's response is to stop associate members from being allowed to book range time and lanes. That now has to be done by the club secretary and some clubs who are right up the NRA's B/S refuse to do this thus forcing their memebrs to be individual members of the NRA.


 
 
Our NRA should earn it's members by supporting them and standing up for our rights but no they don't do that just try forcing us to become and stay members by neferious means and blackmail :frown .
 
Anyway this old chap who is well past retirement age told us of one fo their pranks on the Short Siberia range. It seems that one of their buddies had a cannon :) yep a real life ships cannon. It was an 4 pounder if I recall correctly which he had restored to firing condition and of course wanted to try it out so they made a system of recoil ropes and pullies and fitted them into the back of his Morris Minor van. The cannon on a specially made carriage was fitted into the van and the doors only just shut with it pushed right back against the seats in the front. He and his co-conspiritors booked the range on a winters day when they were sure it would be quiet and shot their normal rifles until they were the only ones left then pack the rifles away and carefully drove the van onto the range and backed it into position, opened the doors and ran the gun out' tightened the recoil ropes' and loaded her up. leaving the van in neutral with parking brake off, thankfully, they touched her off.
 
Well the gun roared and all was well ...................................... except they didn't quite expect such a roar ........... LOL it echoed and rolled around the campsite. Not surprising really as it had been charged with a couple of pounds of BP. The cannon ball hit the back stop behind the targets and made a huge crater something else they dind't quite expect. The van well it shot forwards with the recoil and the doors slammed shut as it did so shattering the glass in them. The shocked driver started her up and drove off before someone came to investigate leaving his buddies to cover the retreat well someone did come to investigate the range warden but by the time he arrived most of the smoke has dissipated, the last bit and smell in the air was explained by their BP rifles. Luckily as he found some bonifide shooters there he didn't look too hard at the range or he might have noticed the huge crater made by the ball hitting the sand backstop.
 
Well after he left out came the shovels and they frantically dug to find the ball and hopefully cover up the crater. They never did find the ball and they became worried that it had penetrated the whole backstop mound so they retreated before the warden came back to investigate further.

Good  story Brithunter.

That sounds like something I would be kin to. great write up. I would love to see pictures but there are probably none in existence,
 
We have never been fortunate enough to fire vintage cannon but made one out of drill stem one time. All measurements are nominal.
 
4" OD with 1" walls. Leavi8ng ~2"bore.
 
Not sure of the metal make up but the steel was very colse to stainless with its nickle content.
 
We found an orange juice concentrate can that would fit very well and made projectiles by filling as many of those as we could get with concrete. Mounted on an old set of trailer axle and wheels we laid seige to a bluff out near Mountian Home. My best recollection was the charge ranged from 1/2 lb FF to 1 lb of Cannon.
 
All pf that happened back around the early 70's when folks were not so nervous as they are today.

Seen the anvil thing on tele,  and have to say it looks fun!!!  Fieldmor,  you didn't perchance see it on Rove a couple or three months back when Hamish and Andy were doing their trip accross the US?

And Brithunter - LOVE THE STORY!!!
 
I've seen footage on a mate's cellphone where they filled a balloon with oxy-acetylene and put a fuse on it.  The one who drew the short straw got to take it out onto the street and light it.  Made one heck of a bang and a flash - but being in a balloon there was nothing to send flying.
 
No animals were harmed in the making of this explosion (sounds kind of like when I'm hunting).

A number of years ago I was working at a new chemical plant on the coast, the retaining walls were up around the storage tanks and had been colonized by rats, hundreds of rats.
We watched the rats for a while and left them alone, then they started raiding the shacks and eating our lunches, literally.
Tried several things to keep the rats away, finally took a torch tank set to the retaining wall, turned the oxygen and acetylene on full, put the nozzle in a hole up high and let it run about 4-5 minutes.
Then took a striker and popped it over the hole.
Result was about 50 blast sites, smoke and dirt went 20' or more high and we did not loose another lunch for weeks after that.

Yes J.G, thats where i saw it too, Hamish and Andy across America. I think they were in Missouri.

Love the cannon and the rat story.
Y'know the Aussie NRA aren't a great deal better.
The major sport shooting organisations should've merged years ago but it's all so parochial.
They have this attitude that they're more legitimate than anyone else because they were formed as a result of govt legislation in 1901 that promoted marksmanship amongst civilians.
The fact that the SSAA is bigger and more relevant these days seems beside the point to them.
Most people I know who are members of both reckon the executive of the Aussie NRA have their heads up their bottoms.