How many of us did something stupid with bottle rockets?

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18436572_V8@reddit

Is it even possible to do something smart with them?

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sick2880@reddit

Bottlerocket wars... Who our age didnt do that?

Make a barrel out of PVC pipe, and a handle and shoot away.

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thirtyone-charlie@reddit

I think I did something stupid with everything. It was a natural course of action with fireworks. I wish we still had the old Black Cats

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I was driving around with friends shooting them out of my car. My buddy handed one to me that I held out the window (while I was driving the car of course) and when I let go of it, it flew back into the car, wedged itself between the dashboard and the windshield (this was a whistling bottle rocket!) and then exploded and shattered the windshield. When I told my mom she just looked at me and said “You’re an idiot.” My dad was more understanding and just glad nobody was hurt.

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Woodythdog@reddit

I was arrested by CN tower security on the outdoor observation deck , does that count ?

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Euphoric_Homework307@reddit

They were made illegal in Victoria when I was very young. I didn’t get much of a chance to do anything stupid with them!!

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Hta68@reddit

They were made illegal in MD too, didn’t stop not a one of us …

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Dead_Is_Better@reddit

We had massive bottle rocket fights in the street, best for skipping the rocket, and one year I was wearing a cast up to my elbow so I could line a bunch of rockets up, loosely of course, where my fingers came out of the cast and just blast away at the other side. Big fun and nobody ever got seriously hurt.

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SmokedLimburger@reddit

How many of us intend to do more stupid things with bottle rockets? I’m sure I will!

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ChiliSama@reddit

Facts

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SmokedLimburger@reddit

Just remember, if you’re going to light them while in a moving car, open the window first.

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Ok_Industry3016@reddit

Lol one off my friends shot one out of his ass. Couldn't sit for hours with an ice pack on his ass.

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dbrmn73@reddit

Taped a metal pipe to each side of the cross bar of my bike and had dual "rocket launchers" Had to use one of those lighting sticks to light them off.

Bottle rocket wars in the street.

Tape a bunch of them together twist the fuses together and launch giant bottle rockets.

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PinkyLeopard2922@reddit

Had a guy visiting in South Carolina from Denmark one July 4th in the early aughts. He thought being able to buy fireworks was the BEST thing ever and my husband and friends were happy to lead him down the path of pyro destruction.. We wives sat in lawn chairs in the yard observing the alcohol induced poor decisions and tom foolery with 911 already programmed in and ready to hit call. Amazingly no emergency services were required but those idiots were shooting them off out of their hands, shooting them at each other, and also doing stupid shit with roman candles. These guys were all in their 30s.

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TemperReformanda@reddit

Yeah SC is great for that. Grew up here. Spent many 4ths and NYE up until 4 am shooting fireworks.

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bkcrypto8629@reddit

All of us…… all of us.

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RooIsHome@reddit

Totally read, butthole rockets at first glance.

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TemperReformanda@reddit

That has been done.

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TemperReformanda@reddit

As often as I possibly could. I lived in a state that didn't outlaw these for a very, very long time so I shot them all they way into adulthood.

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Ok_Needleworker_6017@reddit

We’d tape BBs to them, light them, pitch them up into the air, and then watch them take off when the fuse hit.

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worstpartyever@reddit

Bottle rocket wars: shoot them at each other on a long residential street.
Wire a sparkler to the rocket, watch it shoot into the air, then land on the neighbor’s wood-shingle roof among some dried pine needles during a drought.

Good times.

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Azerafael@reddit

One afternoon, 2 of my friends were visiting me and my parents left to meet their friends.

My friends and i took the opportunity to grab the rockets, go outside, light them while holding them and throwing them at each other. We were running around like it was a warzone with rockets flying everywhere.

It's a miracle that we survived without our eyes or limbs blown off hahaha.

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ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit

We had bottle rocket wars in an old WWII bunker. Watching these come at you out of the dark concrete hallways was crazy. We did stupid shit 😁

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fridayimatwork@reddit

We shot them from the shitty college apartment window right before moving out. One flew into the sorority house behind us but luckily was a dud

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Appropriate-Weird492@reddit

Shot one off using a less than optimal support. It flipped over, crashed through the screen door, lodged under a bookcase, and set a small fire. Cats refused to come into that room for weeks.

Rocketry was far safer.

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JJQuantum@reddit

I mean we shot them at each other, if yiu consider that stupid. We also blew one up in a toilet and accidentally caught a bush on fire outside my dorm. Ok yeah, we did.

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Lost_Taste_8181@reddit

There was a sale at Pedro’s South of the Border, “buy one gross, get one gross free.” Think I paid less than $10 for 288 of those bad boys. That was a fun summer.

Ironically, I hate fireworks now.

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No-Effective-1996@reddit

All of us.

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yanknga@reddit

OPs post uses the verb “did” - past tense. If I (61M) get some bottle rockets I’ll do something stupid with them no doubt about it. That part of me never matured to sensible adult.

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Jimmyjamz73@reddit

“Did”? You’re assuming I stopped.

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ColdKickin72@reddit

Steve O shot them out of his ass

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CrankyUrbanHermit@reddit

We would stand in a circle with arms linked.

Rip the stick off of one, light it and toss it into the middle of the circle.

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Appropriate_Cow94@reddit

Yeah this was fine until go caught in some girls very teased up hair and caught fire. Can't remember her name any more. I do remember the term/phrase we called said device. It would get me canceled on Reddit now days.

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worrymon@reddit

Doing something stupid with bottle rockets?

Why would we do that when we had perfectly good roman candles to do something stupid with?

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gosluggogo@reddit

Why not both?

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Fuddle@reddit

Bottle rockets were just a gateway drug to model rocket engines, now that’s when the fun started, and by fun I mean “how did i survive the 80s”

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Top-Nose2659@reddit

On the the grip side of a wiffle ball bat at the bottom, there is a small hole, we used to make it a little bigger and then we would slide the stick in there, light it and aim it like a gun and shoot them at each other

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Antique-Ant5557@reddit

Stupid ........or genius!!?

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Mockchoi1@reddit

When I was 12 my buddy John and I were off by some railroad tracks shooting bottle rockets not really bothering anyone. A cop came by, took us in, put us in a jail cell and brought my parents in a few hours later to take me home.

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Ray_The_Engineer@reddit

Oh yeah, when you're 12, a bottle rocket + PVC pipe = RPG. Good times.

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jahshwa314@reddit

I loved them, used to just go around and launch them whereever

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baconcheeseburgarian@reddit

I was a bottle rocket scientist.

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CandyStomp@reddit

gif

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brandrikr@reddit

Did? Are you implying that we should’ve stopped at some point?

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adashiel@reddit

I developed an understanding of my own mortality early. So, no, I never did anything crazy with bottle rockets. I had no problem letting my friends do it, though. I would stand back and watch while they lit and tried to hold an entire box worth in their hands. Or they’d play hot potato with an M80. Or pour a can of gasoline across a rarely used dirt road, light it and jump through the flames. Years later they told me I was the only sane one, but they sure as shit didn’t feel that way at the time.

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kivsemaj@reddit

I used to cut fireworks open at my desk at home to make even better fireworks and my parents treated it as normal. I used to make napalm and got away with it. Times were so different

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Potential-Yoghurt245@reddit

I used to do this, my dad showed me how to dismantle them using non static tools (wooden knifes and a paper bowl.

We used to make rockets and what my dad called tnt but was three bangers disassembled into a toilet roll tube and reassembled.

Under parental supervision I never lost a finger 😄

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Sweet-Situation-8224@reddit

Made paper boats, floated said boats in water, lit the bottle rockets, tossed them in like torpedoes.

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National_Sea2948@reddit

The Great Bottle Rocket Battle of FM 1015

Circa mid 1970s

Our parents sent us to visit our grandparents in South Texas (Rio Grande Valley).

My 2 brothers (14M, 11M) and I (9F) saved up all year for fireworks season.

We each were able to get grosses of bottle rockets. Also got Roman candles and black cats.

We were popping black cats with our cousins on our abuelo’s ranch off of FM 1015. My aunt had a tent with hollow but sturdy tent poles. So we’d put a black cat firework at the end of the tent pole and lite it. We pretended we were minute men fighting the British.

The neighborhood kids from across the road shot some bottle rockets at us. We told them to cut it out but they kept doing it. One of their bottle rocket landed in my eldest brothers boot and burned his leg badly when it went off.

Well, that meant war, of course.

So my 2 brothers, 5 cousins and myself lined up along the fence line facing the neighbors. We fired return volleys of bottle rockets. We’d load, light, and fire in unison until we drove them back into their house. One neighbor kid opened their screen door to peek outside just as my bottle rocket streaked toward them. It landed in their house. We could see the flash from their windows.

Thus ended The Great Bottle Rocket Battle of FM 1015.

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Content-Actuary630@reddit

We used horses to pack inflatable rafts to our favorite camping spot (13 miles in) and used bottle rockets for naval warfare.

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SkintagK@reddit

How many of our parents provided those for us? Fireworks were and still are illegal in my state, but my dad was in the national guard and 2 weeks a year in June he had to go play soldier as he called it...but the the next state over where fireworks aren't illegal, of course my Pops stopped and brought back "the good stuff " and never thought twice that at age 8 years old i would be responsible enough not too hurt myself by doing something incredibly stupid , which my friends and I did often but none of us lost a finger or an eye...thankfully...I miss my dad

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NoAbbreviations290@reddit

We used to cut the ends off ski poles and use them to shot at each other. Most of us survived.

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ManuteBol_Rocks@reddit (OP)

That is one of the more epic uses of ski poles that I’ve heard of. And then, if you missed with the rocket, you could impale the person.

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Clembert-Hamlamp@reddit

We flipped 10 speed handles upwards pointing out and twisted the brakes to face front. Then removed the plastic caps on the ends of the handle tube. Reload was a bitch. You really didn't want to take a bike missile broadside no handed.

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HistoricalTowel1127@reddit

Stupid? I think you may be mixing up stupid with totally awesome.

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Stigger32@reddit

Nah those were boring.

Now THESE:

Double happys and Tom thumbs - Now they were the yearly mischief makers for all New Zealand kids in the 70’s and 80’s!

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speed_of_chill@reddit

Bottle rockets and Roman candles were made specifically for stupid shenanigans, and you can’t tell me otherwise.

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Scuba_Steve_500@reddit

His shenanigans are cruel and tragic

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RonPossible@reddit

Guys in my dorm freshman year liked to shoot them under the gap in the door. At night. While you were sleeping. Lucky nobody lost an eardrum.

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Automatic-House-4011@reddit

Scout troop. 2 teams, a couple of star pickets for launchers, war in a sand quarry. Good times, surprisingly no injuries.

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Ok_Fig7692@reddit

You shoot grandma in the ass with a bottle rocket ONE TIME and you never hear the end of it.

Seriously, though - never did anything dumb with them. Just fire them off on the 4th, good times had by all. Don't aim towards dry grassy fields, fuel dumps or the cat and you're fine.

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birdpix@reddit

We were in Detroit with family in Daytona, which meant multiple trips between the two. That meant we passed the fireworks stores in TN where my dad would buy an impressive amount of fireworks. He bought hundreds at a time and enjoyed putting on "shows" in the street for our blue collar neighbors, letting kids light rockets with sprinklers.

I used to steal the bottle rockets, firecrackers, and smoke bombs to play with my friends in the nearby woods. From our hidden "hideout"among the bushes, we could hold a bottle and launch rockets by hand The city police car was moving by when I stupidly aimed a rocket at it and it fired right into the back window! The cop screeched to a stop and all is kids split in different directions and we got away with it, barely! Stupid youth.

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Redfour5@reddit

Dad showed me. Get two tin cans one barely slides onto the other. Take ends off.

Fill bigger one up with an inch of water. Too much doesnt work right... just the right amount...

Drill or punch hole in the the top of the smaller one so you can barely stuff a firecracker in with just a little bit showing out of the hole. Light get back about 10 feet and it will shoot the smaller can about 100 feet up. Regular firecracker is best.

Use bigger charge can collapse your inner can. Too big. Shrapnel.

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052-NVA@reddit

That packaging, or something similar, is how I learned the word Gross as a unit of measurement

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thatstwatshesays@reddit

We still get these every new year in Germany. They’ll probably be illegal soon enough, but as of this year, between Dec 27-31, you can buy as many fireworks you can find. And then only on Dec 31 (from midnight until ???) is it legal to use them.

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Armadillo-Overall@reddit

Tape a bunch of straws to the bridge over the freeway and...

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UsedWelcome5903@reddit

If you’re Gen X then everyone did

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East-Garden-4557@reddit

No we didn't. I'm Australian, my state banned private sales of fireworks in 1974 because people are idiots and can't be trusted with the necessary safety behaviour

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Redfour5@reddit

Exactly and why it's so much fun.

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sgtedrock@reddit

Well this thread definitely proves that idea wro…. Ok, never mind. 😂

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UsedWelcome5903@reddit

Wow. In the land where everything can and will kill you given the opportunity ie; insects, animals. And yes we’ve heard about your baby napping dingoes too!

In that place they banned fireworks next thing you know they’ll take your guns

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thedarkforest_theory@reddit

We would have bottle rocket fights. Hand light and chase each other around the park.

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Key_Ad191@reddit

Whistling Moontravelers with report ❤️

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Redfour5@reddit

Somebody was in artillery...

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Amazing_Factor2974@reddit

Roman candles and bottle rockets at 14 nearly got me taken in ..for shooting at boats in the marina ..and the people on the dock!! I walked away just before the cops showed up and every one was in a major bottle rocket war ..that I started. After that ...I realized how lucky and how much of an idiot I was. So never spent money on fireworks again..instead to go see them ..and w friends and enjoy the festivities w drink and food.

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Redfour5@reddit

Hold bottle rocket by stick light watch fuze then throw straight up and gives it extra reach. I don't recommend.

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virtualglassblowing@reddit

Ohhh my gosh so one time I had setup some Saturn missiles diagonally so that they would shoot at this warehouse across the street, well the first few immediately flipped the box backwards so that it was facing us in the driveway. So we were all running for cover i remember feeling so bad and standing between them and my granny while we ran to the garage.

God what a dumb ass

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Bottle rocket fights.

2ft piece of PVC pipe with an end cap, and a Bic lighter. Pretty accurate for what it was.

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voytek707@reddit

We had one every year at the local elementary school asphalt playground. Jesus how did I come out of childhood intact?

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Repulsive_Client_325@reddit

Replaced my uncle’s candle in his birthday cake with a fjre cracker. Mom it unknowingly. I got shit for that one!

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space_wiener@reddit

Not bottle rockets but stupid things. We used to light firecrackers in our closed fists to see who could keep their fists closed.

Nothing bad ever happened and there is no chance I’d ever dare to do that now. I don’t know even know is that’s dangerous. Seems like it would be.

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charliefoxtrot9@reddit

At or near 💯

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Famous_Attention5861@reddit

Shot them into a pool - depth charges.

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rolleverything@reddit

We fired them out the window of the school bus. That was pretty stupid. No one ratted on us though. Haha

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CptBronzeBalls@reddit

Bottle rocket fights that involved holding them in our bare hand to shoot at each other. Burned my friend’s yard to ashes. When we were older and got cars, we’d chase each other and try to shoot them in each other’s car. Burned some upholstery.

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ChatnNaked@reddit

The shit we did Piccolo Pete’s!!! Let alone we were able to buy gun powder for “hobby cannons” was so crazy as a 15yo…

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EggForTryingThymes@reddit

Stupid never. Hella cool shit every time.

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ottis1guy@reddit

Me and my crew same. Every fucking time.

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tattedj42069@reddit

We would light them and throw them on to the roof of one our friend's house and then dodge them as they went off. Also my stepbro had a toy bow and arrow set and we would tape them to the arrows and I would light them as he pulled the bow string back and then shoot the arrow.

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Thin-Telephone2240@reddit

Found a wood plank and it gave us boys an idea. We duct-taped empty Coke bottles to the plank and placed two bottle rockets in each. Used a couple of rocks to steady the plank. Then using our dad's Zippo lighter we rushed along lighting the fuses all in a row. But at the end the first bottle rock shot off already, startling us the plank got bumped and tilted toward the house instead of straight up. At least a dozen bottle rockets hit the window on the upstairs bathroom. Busted glass and bits of the flowers in our mother's flower box outside that window rained down from above.

We did even cooler stupid shit with fireworks as kids. But that's the only one about bottle rockets.

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