Are blank rounds harmless? What do they do?
In: Technology
They are super dangerous to eyes at closer range.
Basically they have a powder charge just like a normal round; but instead of a projectile they have a – usually plastic – cover to keep the charge contained and dry. Some blanks have a body made entirely out of plastic, and just the rim and primer are metallic parts.
When you fire a blank round, there is a lot of hot junk coming out of the muzzle. Burned powder in the form of hot gases, carbon black particles coming from powder or the plastic parts of the round, melted or burned pieces of plastic, anything that was in the barrel before firing. You don’t want that in your eye.
If you block the muzzle with something, like a person, the pressure built by the powder charge will almost invariably injure, sometimes kill, that person; as if it’s the same amount of powder as in a live round, there is also the same energy that needs to go somewhere. That energy dissipates quickly with range, usually you can assume that blank rounds are somewhat safe beyond 5 metres (15 feet), but I would advise against experimenting with this.
Blank Firing Adaptors are devices that can be put onto the muzzle of (semi-) automatic guns using gas pressure or recoil to cycle. They disperse the hot jet of junk making the whole thing a bit safer; and they somewhat block the muzzle, so the resulting back pressure allows the gun to cycle. Sometimes that’s not enough especially for recoil actions, then also the bolt needs to be swapped out of a lighter version. Many Blank Firing Adaptors are of bright colours (dayglow yellow or orange) to immediately show that the weapon is much more harmless than a live weapon.
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