That whole incident with the water buffalo and the ninja spider was highly exaggerated. For one thing, I've never used a wrench on a spider in assault mode--a simple *flick* of the index finger and he becomes HALO qualified.
If you use a wrench, you can't see the look on his face when he hits the slipstream.
And if I'd inadvertently plunked down in the immediate proximity of a water buffalo, I'd at least have had the presence of mind to use today's "Okay--WTF is that?" on him.
The dummy 20mm round is just there to provide a sense of scale--these doohickies were hand-operated. When they worked at all, they worked well, but they *did* have a reliability problem, especially the MkI, pictured at center--you had to remove the protective knurled sleeve, then arm it with a counterclockwise quarter-turn; if you didn't turn it far enough, it wouldn't function at all, and if you turned it too far, it became just as hazardous to you as to the target. If your fingers were wet, you were up the creek.
They solved that problem in the MkII by adding a small function bar with a mechanical stop. It also ameliorated the reliability problem, somewhat, but it was just as dangerous if you panicked and pushed it past the stop.
And no, these aren't live. The initiating mechanisms are intact, but the *boom* stuff...ummmmmm--*went away*--a long time back.
ROFASix and Outlaw 13 probably know what they are (I know V29 does--heh!), and some of the older Special Ops guys might have had a chance to play with the MkII. It took me about three minutes to Google a pic of the MkI (and it was for sale, too. Some people have no sense of historical significance...)
I figure it should take all of fifteen minutes for *somebody* to hit it. I owed you guys an easy one after the water gauge...
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It's been a loooooong fifteen minutes, guys, so here's a hint:
Check my comment to Bloodspite. The HEEDS is a cylinder containing a compressed gas (air)--that's the track that needs further exploration.
John: The link to the MkI is still there--the guy bills it as "Rare" and wants $39.95 for it. Only reason it's "rare" is because the WTFs that survived Vietnam got sent to the National Guard (part of the usual Army hand-me-downs played up in the Army Times as *modernizing* the Guard), from whence they were transferred to the nearest dumpster when the Life Support techs found out how unreliable they were--and the reason!
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