shotgun_grenade

I was thinking "What could a person do with CO2 capsules besides make CO2 bombs?" and thought of
this. It's derived from a patent for shotgun grenades, but that patent required an internal detonator with an
inertia firing pin and shear pin safety. While that may be ideal, it's too complicated for home
manufacture.
The grenade is made by cutting a CO2 capsule down to 1 3/8" from the round end. The cut must be
square and level. The end is smoothed with a wire brush to remove all burrs.
Then, a hole is drilled for a shotgun primer in the flat part of the rounded end and a primer inserted after
the shell is washed with solvent cleaner to remove all grease and metal debris.
You can press out a primer from a shotshell by using a small bolt or flattened nail with a vise. Drill a 1/4"
hole in a small 2x4 block. Center the shotshell primer over the hole, place the punch (bolt) over the
primer from the inside, and close the vise to press out the primer. Center the primer in the front of the
shell as shown below.

The shell looks like a regular shotgun slug and is as aerodynamic.

 shotgun_grenade

Once you have the shell made you need to fill it with the explosive. AP putty would be suitable. Use
small chunks pressed in with a wood dowel so there's no air spaces in the filler and it's all equally
compacted. When it's 1/4" - 3/8" from the end, place a very thin rubber gasket disk cut from an inner tube
on top of the explosive filler then seal the end with bondo epoxy or some other sealant that will
COMPLETELY seal the end. The seal must be absolutely tight or else the hot gases from the propellant
will set off the AP putty. It's also very important that the primer of the grenade be below the level of the
end of the shotgun hull. If the primer protrudes outside the hull it may be set off inside the gun by hitting
anouther shell, barrel, etc. See the picture below.

All measurements presented here are approximate since your available materials may vary so adjust
accordingly. Since these shells are lighter than the lead slugs they replace you don't have to adjust the
powder charge if you don't want to. But you would definitely want to start with a very low charge firing a
 shotgun_grenade

shell remotely before you risk firing them yourself.

The shotgun must have a cylinder bore with NO chokes. Any barrel obstruction would cause the grenade
to explode in the barrel. Not very healthy. The patent for the grenades said the grenade would blow a
hole through 3/8" steel plate and shrapnel through aluminum plate 1 1/2' from the point of impact. If this
hits a person they'll be blown to bloody shreds. A near miss (a wall, car, or other close object) will send
shrapnel tearing into them.
If a person wanted to test the effect of these without having to fire one they could make the shell and use
a fuse instead of a primer to set it off.
A possible improvement would be to glue a layer of steel shot to the inside of the shell before filling with
explosives.
I haven't made or fired one of these since that would be illegal and dangerous so don't do it either. This is
purely
speculation on my part.

file:///C|/zipped/file_transfers/shotgun_grenade.htm (3 of 3) [12/28/2000 9:50:24 PM]