Chicken Shit Blaster

[shooter3]

This may sound a little unusual, and I may getting joshed, but I was talking to an old timer and he swares that in the old days he used composted chicken poop and kerosene to blast rock. I don't think he meant "detonate", but blasting, as in black powder.

He said the compost was 45% nitrate, the rest was organic. To this a small amount of kerosene was added. It was shot with a cap.

The question to you farmer type guys; Has any of you heard of this? Even if it was just a rumor?

He used to quarry "Bluestone" on his land, and this concoction didn't shatter the rock. It would come of the ledge with nice straight faces.

[hereticalhermit]

During WW1 and earlier, composting manure with lots of urine over a period of a year or so was the method used to produce potassium nitrate, but I have never heard of shit piles igniting or exploding in this manner.

[Red Beret]

I've heard something similar relating to cow shit. But thats all.

What did he mean "composed of 45% nitrate"....potassium nitrate....ammonium nitrate?

What size cap, do you know?

[iHME]

Wasn't something like this in some k3Wl crap book?
I remember reading about something like this in one of the ACBees or some "terrorist manual" it was refered as the "Bird Shit Bomb"
Specified detonating ~0.5L bird shit with a detonator in a pop bottle.

[Hinckleyforpresident]

Bat guano is a legitimate example of nitrate rich poo.

However, I believe that this idea is mostly around to get kewls to collect jars of shit. Even if the crap contains 10% ammonium nitrate, do you really want to collect a kilo of crap to get 100g of nasty, impure AN?

[festergrump]

A nitrate is a nitrate is a nitrate to such a vague degree as you've related? Your detonation or deflagration will reflect the purity of the nitrate you use in this instance, therefore I feel it's possible, but with ever so varying degrees of success. Not something I'd bank on.

I can't help but wonder what he might have fed his chickens for any continuity of success in this regard, though... :eek:

How in the hell did you come up with the 45% figure I must ask?

[Cobalt.45]

Composting as mentioned in the OP could concentrate the nitrates but where the 45% came from, who knows.

Not worth starting a war over- at least not anymore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific

[Kaydon]

Sounds like something out of a crapbook, as stated.

I've lived around farmers all of my life and never heard of anything like that.