Blank Ammunition

What exactly are going to use the blanks for? That will determine if my loads will be of any use to you. Used to load blanks for the western gun-fights at the Stampede.
 
There is no such thing as a SAFE blank, especially when you have actors shooting at other actors. Always use EXTREME caution.

Brass and primers would be normal as sized and primed.

You will need a wad. We used a punch and hammer to cut out the wads. The wads were about 0.040 to 0.050 oversized i.e. for a .45 LC the wad diameter would be 0.50 inch. Our punches were custom made.

The wad material needs to disintegrate with the bang. Tide detergent or cereal boxes did work; also some pressed paper drink coaster (like you would get at a lounge). Find something that cuts cleanly, has enough tension to keep the gunpowder inside the brass and pressed against the primer until fired, and then disintegrates.

A blank with some flash and some noise can be made with small charge of fast smokeless powder say 5-7 gr of WW 231 or Bullseye. Size the case. prime, add the measured powder, use a wooden dowel to press the wad on top of the powder; and then you will probably want to add a roll crimp not the hold the powder but so you can feed the blank into the chamber.

A very load blank with lots of flash and bang can be made by adding Black Powder (FFF) on top of the smokeless. More realistic; and much more dangerous. A blank with black powder will easily blow a hole completely through the Yellow Pages of a large sized city. This can also seriously injure or kill someone close to the fired blank.

A blank used to signal or make noise is somewhat safe because it is fired into the air or a safe direction. Any blank used for theatrical or movie is DANGEROUS because it is aimed in the general direction of other people. Don't forget there is unburned powder, wad material that did not fully disintegrate, and secondary projectiles (dirt and stuff that is picked up by the blast). When we did our shows we did not actually aim at each but rather off to the side.
 
Blanks aren't always as safe as some people make them out to be for pointing at each other for movie purposes. Be careful.


brandonfag.jpg
 
REMEMBER!

even with blank rounds, you still cannot discharge them out of a restricted firearm unless you are at an approved range, yada yada yada...

also, if you are at a range discharging restricted's...not sure the other members will approve of you shooting real guns at other people regardless of the ammo used. one live round and a moment of inattention is a deadly combo.
 
Great information and concerns, i will NOT be even aiming at a person regardless if i have blank ammunition, all about the camera angles to make things 'realistic', real low budget short.

I thought that blank firing guns were not accessible even if you have your restricted and non restricted? As they are classified as replica...any insight?
 
thewolfeofdeath said:
Great information and concerns, i will NOT be even aiming at a person regardless if i have blank ammunition, all about the camera angles to make things 'realistic', real low budget short.

I thought that blank firing guns were not accessible even if you have your restricted and non restricted? As they are classified as replica...any insight?
Click to expand...

They are a "non gun" no license required. Think of it as a expensive cap gun.
 
ralphs said:
There is no such thing as a SAFE blank, especially when you have actors shooting at other actors. Always use EXTREME caution.

Brass and primers would be normal as sized and primed.

You will need a wad. We used a punch and hammer to cut out the wads. The wads were about 0.040 to 0.050 oversized i.e. for a .45 LC the wad diameter would be 0.50 inch. Our punches were custom made.

The wad material needs to disintegrate with the bang. Tide detergent or cereal boxes did work; also some pressed paper drink coaster (like you would get at a lounge). Find something that cuts cleanly, has enough tension to keep the gunpowder inside the brass and pressed against the primer until fired, and then disintegrates.

A blank with some flash and some noise can be made with small charge of fast smokeless powder say 5-7 gr of WW 231 or Bullseye. Size the case. prime, add the measured powder, use a wooden dowel to press the wad on top of the powder; and then you will probably want to add a roll crimp not the hold the powder but so you can feed the blank into the chamber.

A very load blank with lots of flash and bang can be made by adding Black Powder (FFF) on top of the smokeless. More realistic; and much more dangerous. A blank with black powder will easily blow a hole completely through the Yellow Pages of a large sized city. This can also seriously injure or kill someone close to the fired blank.

A blank used to signal or make noise is somewhat safe because it is fired into the air or a safe direction. Any blank used for theatrical or movie is DANGEROUS because it is aimed in the general direction of other people. Don't forget there is unburned powder, wad material that did not fully disintegrate, and secondary projectiles (dirt and stuff that is picked up by the blast). When we did our shows we did not actually aim at each but rather off to the side.
Click to expand...

Anyone worth his salt would not allow any actor, or otherwise, to point AT another actor, whether the actor doesn't mind or not.Wads are a bad idea as they have a tendancy to NOT disintigrate all the time.Especially cardboard cutout disks that fly in crazy directions like a frisbee.Do NOT mix powders.Use blanks with a crimped end only.What are you shooting this in?Film,digital or HD?Chances are you're probably not going to catch the flash anyways so I wouldn't mess around doing this.Too many dangerous factors that you might not realize.
 
"...They are a "non gun" no license required..." Starter's pistols don't require permits. Movies companies require special licences for 'blanks only' real looking firearms. And experienced firearms handling techies.
 
it was a bullet that still killed brandon lee, if the firearms handler on the set followed the proper steps this accident would have never happend. and if the prop handelers were trained properly and knew something about firearms, this may have never happend

still not says its okay to use blank guns in this way,
 
pats said:
it was a bullet that still killed brandon lee, if the firearms handler on the set followed the proper steps this accident would have never happend. and if the prop handelers were trained properly and knew something about firearms, this may have never happend

still not says its okay to use blank guns in this way,
Click to expand...

Not entirely correct here is the snopes article.

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/brandonlee.asp
 
Actually in this case snopes is incorrect.When I did I,Robot a lot of the crew were the same ones that did The Crow including the director.I got to know one fellow who was there when it happened and we had many long conversations about the subject because the director was pretty paranoid about the gunfire we were doing.They actually used my friend in the scene where Brandon was on the boardroom table becasue he was kind of a scraggly looking dude.The armourer had been sent home for the day so there was no one qualified there to supervise.The scene that caused the problem was one of Funboy loading his revolver.I was told .44mag.They had no inert dummy rounds for it so a props guy who carried one in his glove compartment went and retrieved his.They pulled the bullets and dumped the powder.Supposedly because struck primers would look wrong they put the bullets back on and somehow during the chaos someone pulled the trigger which caused a head to lodge in the barrel.When they took the dummies out the props guy failed to check the bore and didn't notice the missing head.At another time in another scene, blanks(which generally have more powder than a live round to get the desired flash) were loaded into the revolver.The actor was handed the pistol and he aimed at Brandon and fired.Basically what it boils down to is that he was shot with what would be equal to a +P+ .44 mag.He died as a result.
Many other people have been killed and injured because of movie guns and people operating them who don't know what they are doing.
 
That's the story I had heard too. There was an actor from that show "Knotts Landing" I think it was that put a revolver loaded with blanks to his head and was going to pretend to make it look like he was going to blow his brains out. His last words were "Hey watch this."
 
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