A couple of months ago my cousin told me about his Memorial weekend camping trip. Some guys at the nieghboring campsite were driving flaming golf balls into the lake.
Of course, our question was, “How’d they do that?”
It has to be something easy and (relatively :D) safe enough for a bunch of drunken teenagers to pull off. Nothing was tied to the golf balls, and the balls stayed flaming til they hit the water (so lighter fluid ain’t it - trust me, we tried). We did think of that solid Sterno stuff but didn’t have any around to test, so we don’t know if it would stick to balls long enough to last for a 200 yard drive.
Anyone out there done this, or have any idea what was used?
Well, the good news is: We didn’t get arrested for launching flaming tennis balls into Lake Winona.
The reason we didn’t get arrested is because chipping a flaming tennis ball across the front yard and into the neighbor’s hostas (yes, we put the flames out quickly ) is NOT the same as using a driver to launch said tennis ball 75 yards. We achieved the same results as we did with golf balls and lighter fluid: the flames go out on the upswing.
We are currently trying to talk the aunt into throwing another shindig next year we can research this problem further. Any assistance with said research will be greatly appreciated
Regular golf balls. Get the hollow practice ones that look like miniature wiffle balls. Carefully cut them almost in half so that they look like some sort of mutant clamshell. Set them aside.
Now for the messy part. [remainder of post deleted for safety reasons]
Speaker for the Dead is right it sounds like all handandahalf suggested was homemade napalm. That might work pretty well. It is sticky and doesn’t go out easy for anything.
Guys, did it occur to you that this is really, really dangerous, not to say stupid? Like, if you fill a hollow ball with napalm and hit it with a golf club, you’re likely to splatter flaming napalm all over yourself, the area around the golf ball, and your friends.
And even if you manage to get some material that is absolutely guaranteed not to come off the ball, what if you miss the ball and chip it 20 yards off into the grass, or the neighbor’s yard, or whatever?
I was as big a pyro as anyone when I was a kid. And I might even have tried something as stupid as this. I’m smarter now.
A good rule of thumb: Try to picture your reaction if you saw a Darwin award for a kid who burned himself to death after trying to smash a hollow ball full of napalm with a golf club. If you’d chortle and laugh over the idiocy of the stunt, try to figure out exactly why you’re smarter.
If you want to have pyromaniacal fun that’s much safer, try building a lighter-fluid shotgun. Get a bunch of tin cans, and cut the top and bottom off of them. Duct tape them all together, making a metal ‘barrel’ about 3 feet long. Take a final can, and punch five or six holes in the end with a can opener. In the other end, punch a hole in the center with a nail. Now duct tape this to the end of the others, with the nail hole on the back of the last can. Squirt a little lighter fluid into this hole, and swing the whole thing around over your head to vaporize the fluid. Hold a match over the hole, and plug your ears.
But never, ever go the extra step and try to shoot something out of this contraption. You’re just as likely to have the thing blow apart in your hands. Luckily, the duct tape should give way first preventing flying shrapnel, but you never know. So be careful.
A friend of mine saw some guys hitting flaming golf balls at a weekend long concert/party/campout once. I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve either napalm or plastic practice balls. He described the balls sailing quite a ways into the lake. A practice ball, even filled with napalm, wouldn’t travel as well as he described.
My first thought is that perhaps some masking tape or something is wrapped around the ball to soak up lighter fluid or something.
) is NOT the same as using a driver to launch said tennis ball 75 yards. We achieved the same results as we did with golf balls and lighter fluid: the flames go out on the upswing. 