Man Loses Leg While Blowing Up Stuff With Tannerite, Which Is Apparently A Thing

In this fuzzy photo, the guy holding the gun is about to lose
one of his legs by shooting a lawm mower packed
with Tannerite. Shrapnel sheared off one of his legs
below the knee.  

Today, we're on the "Hold my beer, Watch This!" beat, in which people, almost always guys do something stupid, usually involving guns, explosions, beer, bad planning or some combination of the above.

This time we go to Georgia, where we learn a 32 year old guy lost one of his legs below the knee in an accident. Frankly, a dopey accident, though I still feel bad the guy was injured so badly.

Apparently, something called Tannerite is a thing. It's perfectly legal to buy. It's made up of a couple chemicals that are fairly safe, except when you fire a high speed object into it, like a bullet.

Then it explodes dramatically. Good Ole boys seem to like to fire guns into objects loaded up with tannerite, because they make fun explosions. Dangerous ones, too.

So it was in Walton County, Georgia recently when some guys decided it would be fun to shoot a riding mower loaded with three pounds of Tannerite.

The inevitable happened. David Thomas Presley, 32, shot the mower, it exploded, and a piece of shrapnel blased off the lower half of one of his legs, says the Athens (Georgia) Banner-Herald.

The Walton County Sheriff's office felt compelled to put the following message on their Facebook page. The sheriff's office was being Captain Obvious, but I guess you have to be nowadays.

Here's the Facebook message about Tannerite:

"Yes, it is legal and no, we can't make people stop doing it. But why folks, just why?.....Please adhere to the warnings and use this dangerous material with caution or maybe consider other less dangerous hobbies."

Fat chance of that. YouTube is full of videos of yeehaws blowing up things with Tannerite. And as noted in the Athens Banner-Herald, a Michigan man  blew something up with Tannerite and shrapnel tore off his leg, too.

I'm sure history will keep repeating itself with this stuff, too.

Here's a USA Today video report on the Georgia incident. A couple brief moments in the video aren't for the faint of heart.