I’ve done that, too. Lots of bullet-related foolishness in my family.
When I was a teenager, I convinced my dad’s addled girlfriend that I’d modified an air-rifle to fire live ammunition – by wedging a .22 cartridge into a tree trunk and taking careful aim at it with the air rifle. Doesn’t seem all that clever to me, in hindsight.
It must be genetic, though – because my dad used to regularly scare the bejeezus out of us by putting rounds in a tin can on the sly and casually placing them in the campfire – when we were a 45 minute hike and hours of driving away from any sort of medical care. :eek:
I did something vaguely similar at a previous job, but got off even easier. We had a flood in our (first-floor) office due to heavy rains backing up in the storm sewer. There was at least a few inches of water (and rising) by the time I arrived, and my thought was to save anything valuable/important that might be in the water or nearly so. I walked through the water, moving paperwork up away from it, then checked out a power strip that had a computer plugged into it. Yes, I reached into the water with my hand to grab the cord and fish it out, and was rewarded with only a strong tingle in my hand and forearm. Note that this didn’t stop me from removing a couple more power strips and a plugged-in, submerged dictaphone, just not with my bare hand. I continued to wade through that water for a couple hours or so, removing submerged stuff (not electrical this time) and answering the very lively phone until being informed that the water I was wading in was “dirty” - not dirt like I’d expected, but also most likely containing sewage runoff. I told the main office I was going, went home, threw out my shoes and (not kidding) bleached my feet.
With respect to the 1911, what do you need the cartridge for? I’ve stripped these things in the dark without any tools; it’s a really smart design, although I’d take the Browning or SIG over it for ease of takedown.
As for the SKS–it’s an East Bloc design (although most found for sale are actually Chinese made), and yeah, some of the recommended disassembly techinques allow for the use of a cartridge or other unconventional tools, but it’s not generally the best idea. It’s not that the cartridge is likely to detonate, but you might push the bullet back into the case or wedge it to the side, possibly causing an overpressure or feed jam, especially since the chambers are often slightly oversized anyway. Do yourself a favor and get a couple of difference size brass punches.
And make sure you clean all of the cosmoline out of the rifle, especially the trigger group and the firing pin channel; there’s nothing more exciting than an unintentional auto-slam-fire emptying your magazine 'cause the firing pin sticks.
