Tannerite is a brand of binary explosive targets used for firearms practice and sold in kit form.[1][2] The targets comprise a combination of oxidizers and a fuel, primarily aluminium powder, that is supplied as two separate components that are mixed by the user. The combination is relatively stable when subjected to forces less severe than a high-velocity bullet impact. A hammer blow, the product being dropped, or impact from a low-velocity bullet or shotgun blast will not initiate a reaction. It is also designed to be non-flammable[3] (the reaction cannot be triggered by a burning fuse or electricity), although its explosion can ignite flammable material.
Because it is sold as separate components which are not themselves explosive, it is not regulated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF),[4] and can be transported and sold in many places without the legal restrictions that apply to explosives; however, a number of U.S. states have restricted its use. The term Tannerite is often used to refer to the mixture itself, and other reactive targets and combination explosives are often generically referred to as Tannerite.[2][4][5]
Uses
Tannerite brand targets explode when shot by a high-velocity bullet. Low-velocity bullets and shotgun ammunition will not initiate a reaction.[1]
The explosive reaction, once initiated, occurs at a very high velocity, producing a large vapor cloud and a loud report. It is marketed as a target designation that is useful for long-range target practice: the shooter does not need to walk down-range to see if the target has been hit, as the target will react and serve as a highly visible indicator.
Binary explosives like Tannerite are also used in some business applications, including commercial blasting, product testing, and special effects.[6] Tannerite offers a "boom box" kit which includes colored powder for gender reveal parties.[7][8]
For safety reasons, Tannerite Sports recommends using no more than 1 pound (450g) of the mixed composition at once, and will sell its largest targets with a size of 2 pounds (910g) to professionals only.[9]
Target composition and sale
Tannerite targets are sold in pre-sized quantities. The package includes two containers. An oxidizer composition is contained within one of the containers and a catalyst composition is contained within the other.
The product, developed by Daniel Jeremy Tanner, and initially formulated in 1996,[3] consists of two components: a fuel mixed with a catalyst or sensitizer, and a bulk material or oxidizer. The fuel/catalyst mixture is 90% 600-mesh dark flake aluminium powder, combined with the catalyst that is a mixture of 5% 325-mesh titanium sponge and 5% 200-mesh zirconium hydride[1] (with another patent document[10] listing 5% zirconium hydroxide). The oxidizer is a mixture of 85% 200-mesh ammonium nitrate and 15% ammonium perchlorate.[1] The patents on these formulations were applied for on August 20, 2001.[1][10]
As Tannerite is supplied as components, not themselves explosive, combining the components to constitute an explosive is typically regulated by laws on manufacturing explosives, or in some instances the laws governing fireworks.[4]
In 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an intelligence bulletin that said “The FBI assesses with high confidence recreationally used exploding targets (ETs), commonly referred to as tannerite, or reactive targets, can be used as an explosive for illicit purposes by criminals and extremists and explosive precursor chemicals (EPCs) present in ETs can be combined with other materials to manufacture explosives for use in improvised explosive devices (IEDs).”[5]
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives advises: "Persons manufacturing explosives for their own personal, non-business use only (e.g., personal target practice) are not required to have a Federal explosives license or permit."[6] However, "persons falling into certain categories are prohibited from possessing explosive materials".[6] Those prohibited from possessing explosives include most non-citizens, unlawful drug users and addicts, those convicted or indicted for serious crimes, fugitives, and those who have been officially declared mentally defective or have been committed to a mental institution.[6] There are also restrictions at state and local level.[6] What follows is a sample of those restrictions:
In 2012, Maryland became the first state to regulate exploding targets, requiring users to be licensed.[4]
The United States Forest Service in 2013 banned explosive targets on its property in five different states (Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas) due to the targets igniting 16 fires on Forest Service lands, which cost more than $33 million in order to extinguish the fires.[4]
Louisiana enacted legislation in 2014 to add binary exploding targets to the state's definition of explosives. The vote was unanimous in both the House of Representatives (95-0) and the State Senate (33-0), and the bill was signed by the Governor.[11][12]
In New York State, a 2020 law included binary explosives, including Tannerite, in the definition of "explosives" that require a permit for their purchase, ownership, possession, transportation, or use within the state.[13][14]
In Ohio, the act of mixing the components of explosive targets, including "products sold under the name 'Tannerite'," without a permit, can be a 2nd degree felony.[15]
In 2015, Tennessee declared exploding targets including Tannerite to be illegal in the state.[16] However, TN law has a clear exception to the law under Tenn. Code Ann. 39-17-1302(e)(2) stating that "(e) Subsection (a) shall not apply to the possession, manufacture, transportation, repair, or sale of an explosive if: (2) The possession, manufacture, transport, repair, or sale was incident to creating or using an exploding target for lawful sporting activity, as solely intended by the commercial manufacturer."[17]
Under Vermont law, exploding targets were found to meet the definition of fireworks (which includes a "combination of substances") and so, in Vermont, a person must have to have a fireworks permit to use Tannerite.[18]
Select jurisdictions in California have interpreted state law to restrict use of these products.[4]
Various regulations also govern the storage of unmixed explosives. As oxidizers and combustibles, there are some restrictions in the United States on shipping of the unmixed components.[19][20]
Notable incidents
A Minnesota man was fined $2,583 and sentenced to three years' probation[21] on charges of detonating an explosive device and unlawful possession of components for explosives after he detonated 100lb (45kg) of Tannerite inside the bed of a dump truck by shooting it with a rifle chambered in .50 BMG from 300 yards (270m) away on January 14, 2008, in Red Wing, Minnesota. The man was on probation when he mixed and shot the Tannerite and was not allowed to possess firearms or explosives.[22][23]
A 20-year-old man in Busti, New York, shot 18lb (8kg) of Tannerite on January 13, 2013, that sent a particularly "loud boom" through much of southern Chautauqua County, New York, and extending as far south as Pennsylvania, at least 3 miles (5km) away. Multiple other sounds of explosions were also reported in the incident. The explosive noise caused numerous phone calls to the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, the New York State Police, and other law enforcement in the area.[24]
An unnamed person suffered "injuries typical of blast injury, such as tympanic membrane rupture, globe injury, and severe burns" due to "close proximity exposure to detonation of the mixed Tannerite blend".[27]
On April 23, 2017, Dennis Dickey, an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent, shot a Tannerite target in a gender reveal celebration on state trust land south of Tucson, Arizona, which accidentally ignited the nearby dry brush and started a 46,000-acre (19,000ha) fire known as the Sawmill Fire. At the time, winds were gusting up to 40 miles per hour (60km/h) and the National Weather Service had issued a fire watch in the area. By the time the wildfire was mostly contained one week later, it had jumped over the Santa Rita Mountains and crossed State Route 83, spreading into the historic Empire Ranch and the surrounding 42,000-acre (17,000ha)Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. The estimated damage caused by the blaze was $8.19 million.[28] Dickey pleaded guilty in September 2018 to a misdemeanor violation of U.S. Forest Service regulations and was sentenced to five years' probation. He also was ordered to pay restitution, with an initial payment of $100,000 (taken from his retirement fund) and monthly payments of $500 per month thereafter for 20 years unless his income changes significantly.[29] The payments will total $220,000 over the 20 years, after which the case will return to a judge to make a decision about future restitution.[30] The eventual restitution payments could hypothetically be up to $8,188,069.[29][30]
On April 23, 2021, another gender reveal party involved 80 pounds (36kg) of Tannerite detonated at the bottom of a quarry in Kingston, New Hampshire, rattling homes in not just New Hampshire but also parts of north-eastern Massachusetts.[31][32] Although no one was injured, some homes experienced damaged foundations and water from the faucet briefly turned brown. The person who purchased and detonated the Tannerite turned himself in to Kingston police.[33]
Related Research Articles
An explosive is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may either be composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two substances.
A detonator is a device used to make an explosive or explosive device explode. Detonators come in a variety of types, depending on how they are initiated and details of their inner working, which often involve several stages. Types of detonators include non-electric and electric. Non-electric detonators are typically stab or pyrotechnic while electric are typically "hot wire", exploding bridge wire or explosive foil.
ANFO ( AN-foh) (or AN/FO, for ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) is a widely used bulk industrial high explosive. It consists of 94% porous prilled ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) (AN), which acts as the oxidizing agent and absorbent for the fuel, and 6% number 2 fuel oil (FO). The use of ANFO originated in the 1950s.
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechanism. IEDs are commonly used as roadside bombs, or homemade bombs.
Potassium chlorate is the inorganic compound with the molecular formula KClO3. In its pure form, it is a white solid. After sodium chlorate, it is the second most common chlorate in industrial use. It is a strong oxidizing agent and its most important application is in safety matches. In other applications it is mostly obsolete and has been replaced by safer alternatives in recent decades. It has been used
Detonation is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with speeds about 1 km/sec and differ from deflagrations which have subsonic flame speeds about 1 m/sec. Detonation is an explosion of fuel-air mixture. Compared to deflagration, detonation doesn't need to have an external oxidizer. Oxidizers and fuel mix when deflagration occurs. Detonation is more destructive than deflagrations. In detonation, the flame front travels through the air-fuel faster than sound; while in deflagration, the flame front travels through the air-fuel slower than sound.
A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. A shell can hold a tracer.
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Ammonal is an explosive made up of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder. TNT is added to create T-ammonal which improves properties such as brisance. The mixture is often referred to as Tannerite, which is a brand of ammonal.
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Armstrong's mixture is a highly shock and friction sensitive explosive. Formulations vary, but one consists of 67% potassium chlorate, 27% red phosphorus, 3% sulfur, and 3% calcium carbonate. It is named for Sir William Armstrong, who invented it sometime prior to 1872 for use in explosive shells.
Shock sensitivity is a comparative measure of the sensitivity to sudden compression of an explosive chemical compound. Determination of the shock sensitivity of a material intended for practical use is one important aspect of safety testing of explosives. A variety of tests and indices are in use, of which one of the more common is the Rotter Impact Test with results expressed as FoI At least four other impact tests are in common use, while various "gap tests" are used to measure sensitivity to blast shock.
Astrolite is the trade name of a family of explosives, invented by chemist Gerald Hurst in the 1960s during his employment with the Atlas Powder Company. The Astrolite family consists of two compounds, Astrolite G and Astrolite A. Both are two-part liquid-state high explosive mixtures, composed of ammonium nitrate oxidizer and hydrazine rocket fuel. The explosives were extensively studied, manufactured, and used in many countries because of their advantages of high energy, excellent performance, and wide application. They still find some use in commercial and civil blasting applications, but have mostly been superseded by cheaper and safer compounds, largely due to the expense and exceptionally poisonous nature of the hydrazine component.
A binary explosive or two-component explosive is an explosive consisting of two components, neither of which is explosive by itself, which have to be mixed in order to become explosive. Examples of common binary explosives include Oxyliquit, ANFO, Kinestik, Tannerite and ammonal, and FIXOR.
Ammunition is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons and the component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target.
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The Benton fireworks disaster was an industrial disaster that occurred on May 27, 1983, on a farm near Benton, Tennessee. A powerful explosion at an unlicensed fireworks factory producing illegal fireworks killed eleven and injured one, revealing the existence of the factory for the first time to law enforcement and the public. The initial explosion was heard more than 20 mi (32 km) away.
The Sawmill Fire was a wildfire that burned 46,991 acres (190 km2) in the U.S. state of Arizona in April 2017. The fire was caused by the detonation of a target packed with Tannerite at a gender reveal party in the Coronado National Forest. No injuries or fatalities resulted from the fire, nor were any buildings destroyed, though the fire did come close to the historic Empire Ranch, a National Register of Historic Places property. Over 800 personnel from various federal, state, and local agencies and organizations worked to contain and then extinguish the Sawmill Fire at a cost of $8.2 million.
References
1 2 3 4 5 United Statesactive USRE45440E1,Daniel Jeremy Tanner,"Binary exploding target, package process and product",published March 31, 2015,issued March 31, 2015, assigned to TANNERITE SPORTS LLC
↑ Rebowe, Ryan E.; Harbour, Patrick; Carter, Jeffrey E.; Molnar, Joseph Andrew (2016). "A case of Tannerite target mixture causing severe blast injury". Burns. 42 (4). Elsevier BV: e47–e50. doi:10.1016/j.burns.2016.01.020. ISSN0305-4179. PMID26906669.
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