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It was in the afternoon and most of my deerhunting partners(almost all ex Vietnam vets) had come in after going and filling their feeders with corn and molasses. Well before everyone had taken off to their stands my Nam buddy asked if he could borrow some of my camo paint. So I give him the paint and think nothing of it as the cans where almost empty(that is not to say I would not give this man the shirt off my back) So we are all sitting around the campfire and having a chat gettting ready for opening day.Well here comes my Nam buddy I had gave the paint too and he tosses a brown paper sack into the fire... We start to hear a hiss.....and KABOOM! The paint can explodes blowing 3 guys back out of their chairs and erupting into a huge fireball. After the explosion I start to tend to the wounded! Faces were burned, hands and the awful smell of hair. After I got them patched up as best as I could with my first aid kit, 2 of the guys that were injured are both NAM vets and one of them told me "That blew me all the way back to 1968!" Just thought I would share this story as most of you know NOT to do this. But you would be amazed at the power of a paint can in a firepit.

I was 13 when I went to Colorado Mule deer hunting with my dad. Many moons ago.

The last day of camp, my dad's friend takes his wine and liquor bottles and throws them into the fire. Being the nerd I am, I looked at them and said "those are goint to explode." My dad and he laughed at me as I walked away.

About 10 seconds after I moved 50 feet away, BOOM. No injuries, but I did get some kid points for being smarter. It took until I was 30 to realize how smart my dad was on MOST other subjects.

texasag

1992- On det to some far away sandy land. We are flying out of a field guarded by Pakistani's. One day while burning some documents in the burn barrel, basically a 55 gallon drum, One of our corrosion control guys chucks a half full can of spray paint into the drum. A few seconds later, Faboom! Rolling fireball heading skyward. One of the other guys says "That was cool". Sure enough, he chucks in a can....a full one...FABOOM! Second fireball. A couple minutes later, hear come the Pakastani's in their Jeep thingy with sirens blaring. They jump out with their AK's and start screaming.."Who's playing with Grenades"

Our Det OIC was not impressed!

Yep, when I was a kid we used to burn our trash in a barrel as there was no trash pickup. One of my chores was to take out and burn the trash.

I had consolidated all of the trash into one larger can and emptied it into the barrel and lit it on fire. Little did I know my sister had out a empty hair-spray can in the trash. I went back make sure the fire was burring properly and when i looked over the side of the barrel, the can exploded. It came flying out of the barrel and knocked me backward. I remember seeing a mushroom cloud of ash over the barrel. Still have a scar above my right eye as a reminder to NOT throw aerosol cans in fires!

One of the guys that goes with us to Colorado Elk hunting likes to toss stuff like that into the fire.. One yr we were having trouble getting a fire to start, everything was covered in snow.. So he see's a coffee can laying by a tree, he grabs a gas can, fills the coffee can up with gas, picks it up and walks over to the fire pit.. Lites a match, tosses it in the pit, pours a little gas in, and poof, we had fire.. Little did he know, the coffee can had about 15 holes drilled in the bottom. Well 1/4 full gas can was sitting right where the coffee can was, and a very fast string of fire heading right towards it. There were also 4 brand new ATV's parked there. I was about 12 yrs old, so I sure wasn't going to stick my neck out and run for the can, I ducked behind a tree My dad managed to get the can out of the way right when the fire hit it... We dont let that guy start fires anymore.. Though 4 yrs ago he was cleaning the trash out of his coat pocket. Not paying attention, there was a 300 win mag shell mixed in with the trash I managed to see it right before it hit the fire and we all ran for cover.. A shell exploding is dangerous, but has no ballistics, still has a short lethal range. That guy scares me, I just try and make sure there is a tree close by at all times

Like Keith B, one of my family jobs was also to burn our trash. I didn't use a barrel, I just burned it in a pit that I had dug in our side yard. When I was about 13 years old I took a 30caliber ammo can and put about a pint of gasoline inside, and sealed it up. Then I got the fire roaring real strong, and I tossed the ammo can into the middle of the fire, and ran as fast as I could to get away.

Well, nothing happened. The fire was going strong as I sat there watching the flames engulfing the ammo can. After about 10 minutes a seal finally broke on the ammo can and a jet of fire shot out sideways about 10 feet. The jet of fire continued for several minutes until the fuel was finally exhausted.

Pretty exciting, and it demonstrates how rugged and air-tight those ammo cans are!

Keith B wrote:Yep, when I was a kid we used to burn our trash in a barrel as there was no trash pickup. One of my chores was to take out and burn the trash.

I had consolidated all of the trash into one larger can and emptied it into the barrel and lit it on fire. Little did I know my sister had out a empty hair-spray can in the trash. I went back make sure the fire was burring properly and when i looked over the side of the barrel, the can exploded. It came flying out of the barrel and knocked me backward. I remember seeing a mushroom cloud of ash over the barrel. Still have a scar above my right eye as a reminder to NOT throw aerosol cans in fires!

You were very, very lucky.