I once destroyed a Christmas decoration when I was a kid by running outside to show my dad something, then turning to run back into the house – without realizing that someone had closed the glass door behind me since they didn’t realize I would be back inside quickly. Yeah, that was pretty funny looking back on it. Fortunately, my dad pulled out the super glue and fixed up the horse for me. I still have it today.
Alan Sailer, on the other hand, destroys his Christmas decorations with an air rifle. There’s no gluing these things back together.
What I find most interesting about his hobby is how creative he gets with the shots. Consider the set up for this photo:
Pay attention now.
Rifle fires pellet at razor blade. Blade splits pellet in two. Two halves of pellet wing their way towards a pair of gelatin filled Christmas bulbs.
And timing is set just a little two early.
Although if you look very closely, you can see tiny cracks staring in the light brown bulb as the half pellet just touches the glass surface.
He frequently fills the ornaments with materials that include chapstick, sour cream, colored sand, red jello, honey, plain water, sugar balls, aloe gel, sand mixed with alcohol, and even Play Doh.
I don’t think he likes Frosty. He also doesn’t limit his artistic destruction to air rifle, but incorporates a ping pong ball cannon for a little diversity.
Neat! Well, actually rather messy… But still, Neat!
we use foam filled plastic ornaments as reactive targets for kids to shoot at with pellet guns at our club. Makes their useful life that much longer, and they bounce around a bit too.