What is the Stupidest Thing You Have Done with Firecrackers?

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gatorhazard

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 26, 2020
114
426
We used to have bottle rocket wars as kids. Dumbest thing we ever did though was to take a big rocket and at about midnight we went to the expressway overpass and lit it off on its side. Sure enough a car comes driving and the rocket went right at it like a guided missile. Hitting the windshield of the car. Car jerked and recovered. We ran all the way home, realizing we could have killed someone.

We are in FL where you can buy some pretty good stuff and the mortars they sell are no joke. I one time had a mortar go off while I was near it enough to feel the whomp through my body when a friend was helping me light them one year. We still buy them and set them off for the kids but only I light the big stuff.
 
May 2, 2020
4,664
23,771
Louisiana
I’ve always had a healthy appreciation for the dangers of fireworks, but when I was in college, a classmate threw caution to the wind (perhaps the same wind that he was three sheets to) at a pretty wild party.
His first mistake was thinking that he wasn’t too inebriated to mess with fireworks. His second mistake was thinking a rolled up poster board was a suitable launch tube for the mortar type fireworks. He came to class a few days later sans thumb. ?
 

TheDesertPiper

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 5, 2021
137
538
Arizona
Had a whole bunch of black cats and m80s, neighbor had a whole box of free lemons in their front yard. My friend and I decided it would probably be a good idea to put black cats and m80s in lemons light them and throw them into the street. Its amazing nobody called the police.
 
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We used to have bottle rocket wars that evolved into “ANY” fireworks wars. Surprisingly, no one was ever seriously hurt, just a few hardcore burns the size of cigars on our torsos.
When we would go to the beach, we could buy M80’s everywhere, for like $0.15 a piece, and we would spend evenings throwing bombs into the ocean. The waterproof fuses proved for a spectacular water explosion. The idea of -10-12 year olds running around with actual 1/4 sticks of dynamite doesn’t set well with me nowadays. Ha ha.
I haven’t encountered anything sold today labelled M80 to be anything like what we used to play with, maybe for good cause.
 
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Charlie718

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 25, 2021
955
8,666
35
Bronx, New York
Wrapping 500 shot belts around parking meters. Then tapping M-80s to them, lighting them and running like hell so we can get the change out. Tried to double fire a motor and set the whole thing a blaze, I made the mad dash to save the stash then we could all extinguish the motor tube with our “fire hoses”. As a young kid shooting fireworks at the beach I stood behind a DUMB girl who held the Roman candle backwards, I put the block up over my face and took the little sticky ball of fire to the back of my hand. Instead of running to the water my initial reaction was to run my hand in the sand, cleaning that burn out was real fun lmao.
 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,159
21,433
77
Olathe, Kansas
Friend and I took Cherry Bombs into high school one day. The school was shaped like and H. We set one of them off immediately after the bell rang in side of one end of the H. Man, kids came pouring out of the place like it was on fire. Incredibly dumb thing to do and would be insane to do today. Remember this was 1963 or thereabouts.
 

ksman75

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 23, 2016
168
447
67
Lancaster, California
Not really a firework but wacking a roll of caps with a hammer.
Found a couple hundred primers. There was a housing development a block over that had just started construction. All dirt streets, but curbs and sidewalks had been poured. A friend and I got our dad's hammers and were banging the primers until someone called the cops saying we were playing with firecrackers, illegal in our town and state. Cops showed up, saw it wasn't firecrackers, decided we weren't doing anything illegal, told us to be careful, and went after some real bad guys
 
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brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,604
14,671
We weren’t the safest growing up but we all did and started our own families. I wonder how today’s generations will grow up and not need anti-anxiety meds because there’s a line in Starbucks... wait they already do lolView attachment 87210
 

Rockyrepose

Lifer
Oct 16, 2019
1,324
13,238
Wyoming USA
When I was a kid one of my school friend's father was a game warden so we had access to M80's and 12 gauge game control rounds. The latter was exceptionally cool to teenagers and the water spouts on ponds were spectacular. Remember the plastic film canisters? Black powder and athletic tape with wax fuse, 'nuf said.

My cousin, Bill and myself lit my uncles neighbors field afire with bottle rockets one year when I was 15. Everyone in the area came out to fight it and we got it out but only after several aches had gone up, we were sure we were dead meat. The owner was the coolest guy ever and stated that he'd been thinking of doing a controlled burn of the property, he could taste the fear in us. After it was all said and done and we were sitting there later in the day we looked at each other...WTF. So lucky.
 

SoddenJack

Can't Leave
Apr 19, 2020
431
1,285
West Texas
My buddy Greg and I would shoot bottle rockets by sticking them into the eyelets of our sneakers. One time a bottle rocket was wedeged a bit too tight in my sneaker so it didn’t take off. It burned a hole through my sock and gave me a pretty decent burn. Still have the scar on my ankle
 

Jaylotw

Lifer
Mar 13, 2020
1,062
4,063
NE Ohio
I love fireworks. Love them. They are, beyond doubt, my favorite thing.

Stupid things?

We used to launch bottle rockets into the bass player’s upright bass all the time to piss him off. Light ‘er up and drop it in. Delightful. We extracted all the sticks from inside the bass once, it was like 27 I think.
I used to keep a couple packs of firecrackers with me at all times and would toss them into campfires, or light them at random just to watch everyone scatter. It was so amusing back then and dammit it still is now. We used to get the 5000 shot rolls and wrap them around a rake, and run around waving it about. M80s, quarter sticks etc taped to laptops, traffic cones, action figures…whatever. Kablooey.

The larger mortar shells are too dangerous to mess around with, but I handfired over 200 on the night of the 3rd this year for our annual “Don’t Blow Your Hands Off Unless it’s for America” festival, along with 50 cakes. It was soul affirming.

God I love fireworks.
 
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