I was reading the newspaper at my computer desk when a huge explosion rattled the window of my home office. I leaped several inches off the chair, sure that my husband, who was working on our camp trailer, had been blown to smithereens by a propane tank explosion.
I ran to the front window and was relieved to see that my husband was standing intact next to the trailer, which had not been reduced to a pile of rubble. But our mules were galloping wildly down the pasture toward the safety of a gully. Inside, one of our dogs was cowering under a table, and the other was barking furiously at the window. The cows were bawling in the corral by the barn.
The cause of all this ruckus? A neighbor’s visiting relative chose to use our rural area for a little target practice –– and decided to enhance the experience by firing a rifle at an exploding target. The resulting boom alarmed residents for miles in all directions.
At the time, I’d never heard of anybody shooting deliberately at something that was, essentially, a bomb, and didn’t know that exploding targets are available online and at many sporting goods stores. But I did a little research and found that people are using these so-called “targets” to blow up old refrigerators, trees, empty beer kegs, and televisions. Some enterprising thrill-seekers attach them to helium balloons to enjoy an aerial explosive display.
I also found out that in the drought-stricken West, exploding targets have set at least 16 major wildfires, resulting in fire-suppression costs exceeding $33 million. The U.S. Forest Service has imposed a one-year ban on detonation of such targets on national forest land and grasslands in its intermountain region. Scofflaws are subject to a fine of $5,000.
Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is considering adopting a similar ban after determining that a late-season wildfire was set by such a target. That fire received national notoriety because firefighters ordered a helicopter bucket-drop to douse a flaming log under which two tiny mountain lion cubs cowered. The cubs later made a celebrity appearance on “Late Show with David Letterman.”
A fine from the Forest Service might be the least of a perpetrator’s concerns, though. A woman in Ohio nearly lost her hand while she was making a cellphone video of a man blowing up a refrigerator over 150 feet away. Hand injuries seem to be the most common result of stunts gone wrong, but in 2013 a Minnesota man died when shrapnel severed one of his major arteries.
Each explosion apparently creates a fireball as well as shooting out debris in all directions, especially when the target is tucked inside a metal container to increase the excitement level. Ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder are mixed together to create the explosive compound. If they come into contact with a heat source prematurely, an explosion is liable to happen.
One might ask why these devices are not regulated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The reason is that the ingredients used to make the target are not explosive until they’re combined. The chemicals are packaged in separate containers, in quantities up to 50 pounds — enough to blow up a vehicle. Hazmat shipping regulations do not apply. Once the fuel and oxidizer are mixed, federal law prohibits storing or transporting the concoction. Most users explode it immediately, although one man carefully saved some of the compound to help start a fire at his campsite. (He’s now missing a hand. Don’t try this at home.)
As risk-takers keep coming up with stunts designed to go viral on the Internet, new and creative tricks featuring exploding targets are bound to multiply. It may take a catastrophic loss of life to convince authorities that it’s time to do something. Certainly everybody in my rural neighborhood, including the dogs and livestock, would be glad to see these dangerous and useless devices taken off the market.
Wendy Beye is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a column service of High Country News. She writes in Roundup, Montana.
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