At any rate, we'd suffered far more than our share of aggravation from the fridge; and this weekend, it was time for payback.
We began with some detailed research into the effect of large projectiles on the structural integrity of refrigerators:
The large holes here are 12 gauge slugs fired from approximately 35 yards. The smaller holes were some sighters from adjusting my new scope at 50 yards (the riser rail was loose and I had to start over); eventually hitting the 2 in one hole groups you can see on the left side.Next, we decided to demonstrate once again, that birdshot is NOT a useful self defense load at more than a few feet away. This is what happens when you shoot a fridge with four #7 shot shells from 15 feet away:
You can see it LOOKS really nasty; but in fact none of the pellets actually penetrated.Remember this is from 5 yards away, on extremely thin sheet metal (most cheap discount appliance store fridges are made with 24ga steel - 1/40th" thick - , and even the best home fridges are only 18ga steel. Commerical coolers are 14 or even 12ga - 1/12th to 1/9th" thick).
Yes, it's turned the surface into an orange peel; and it's messy; but it's shallow. The effect on a human being isn't much different. Most people wouldnt consider .22, .25acp, or .32acp to be adequate for self defense, and they ALL penetrate both sides of the fridge wall; but birdshot doesn't even penetrate the outer skin.
Next we decided to conduct experiments in penetration of pistols at long range:
That is a sealed compressor unit, which is made of 14ga steel. Excepting the holes directly on the reinforcing band, and the one in the angle iron (which were from JohnOCs .308 lever gun) those 16 holes are from my 10mm 1911 at 50 yards, rapid fire.Yes, a rapid fire pistol at 50 yards.
That copper residue on the holes is from Remington 180gr FMJ at 1150fps; a mild load for 10mm (in fact only a bit more powerful than +p .45; and about 250fps below a max load in this weight), but obviously an excellent penetrator. Never doubt the power of the ten.
Next, we conducted applied experiments in the generation of happiness in the american male.
We' discovered that a small explosive target produced a notable, but mild state of happiness in the test subject:
Testing with significantly larger boomers however proved beyond the capacity of our insturmentation to measure:
The technical term for the expression on the subjects face is I believe a BOSEG (Big'Ol Shit Eatin Grin); though it is sometimes referred to as a BFG (Big Fuckin Grin).Said "big boomer" is 3.5 lbs of tannerite; 7 times the size of a normal reactive target; and of a size sufficient to create a 30 foot diameter blast in free air.
Finally, we decided to attempt to correlate our happiness experiments with further tests on the structural integrity of refrigerators:
We screwed down and braced the main door; and cut a hole in the side of the fridge using a reciprocating saw, to give us a target window for our boomer.We then backed off to 100 yards, and set up the shooting position:
Heres a couple of views down range:
Finally, we prepared to conclude the experiment; and Mel was given the honor, as the offending appliance had caused her the most trouble of any of us (warning, the first pic is a link to a large video, the second to a VERY large picture strip of the same event):
YOu may want to try it from YouTube instead:
We had figured we'd be trucking out a fair bit of waste from this little experiment; but we'd underestimated the power of the Tannerite drastically... or rather, we KNEW the power of the Tanerite, but overestimated the strength of the fridge... there just wasn't very much left.
This was the largest piece left:
Thats the back plate of the fridge; which is also the thickest steel in the piece, excepting the compressor.
And this; the freezer door, which we hadn't secured;was the largest piece we found relatively intact... actually, the only piece we found intact:
This piece, about 18 inches by 24 inches was thrown over 60 yards, and stayed aloft for more than 5 seconds. I had actually put the camera down, not realizing the piece was still in the air, so I didn't get a shot of it coming down:
We never found the compressor or any heavier parts, though we looked for 15 minutes.
Oh and a fun note: Mel got the boomer in one shot; at 100 yards, on only her second time shooting an AR... or any other centerfire rifle not in a pistol caliber for that matter.
Yes, this was as fun as it looks.
