# Bullet hit effect



## BNEL (Mar 21, 2012)

Hey everyone

I am looking for a simple and cheap effect. We will be firing blanks on stage but we would like to be able to simulate a bullet hitting a target with a puff of smoke. I just need something simple. I am coming up empty.

Thanks


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## shiben (Mar 21, 2012)

BNEL said:


> Hey everyone
> 
> I am looking for a simple and cheap effect. We will be firing blanks on stage but we would like to be able to simulate a bullet hitting a target with a puff of smoke. I just need something simple. I am coming up empty.
> 
> Thanks



Bullets dont really make puffs of smoke when they hit things in real life unless you are using explosive bullets, to the human eye it is really just a hole appears and some stuff moves around. Bullets making sparks and smoke when they hit things are primarily in movies. Is this what you are going for? I feel like on mythbusters i saw them packing paintballs with this special powder that would spark when they shot it at stuff, and they had a guy next to the shooter firing and making the sparks for the bullet hit. I dont think I would use something like this on stage, mainly because that sounds really dangerous. However, thats pretty much the only thing I can come up with is a pyro in a paintball sort of deal.


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## BNEL (Mar 21, 2012)

I understand that in the real world that a bullet does not make any visual puffs I should as I have shot plenty. I am looking more of a theatrical effect to represent a bullet hitting the bullseyes of a target so the audience can "see" it. That is non pyro in nature.


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## shiben (Mar 21, 2012)

BNEL said:


> I understand that in the real world that a bullet does not make any visual puffs I should as I have shot plenty. I am looking more of a theatrical effect to represent a bullet hitting the bullseyes of a target so the audience can "see" it. That is non pyro in nature.



What is the target made of? If its glass or ceramic or something you can build fake whatevers out of weak plaster and have a pin shatter them from behind, if its paper same sort of idea? Now what you could do, it occurs to me, is take a mouse trap or something, fit it with a pin, and have that pop off something like a small pile of powder in a tube, which would spray out, if it was fine enough it might be what you are looking for? I suppose a high-velocity servo might work as well?


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## Van (Mar 21, 2012)

Bullets, when striking stone, drywall or many other surfaces most assuredly DO give off, what appears to be, a puff of smoke. If you''ve ever seen a Vulcan fired at a concrete bunker you can observe this effect quite easily.

In, " The Lt. of Inishmore" last year, I used a series of polypropylene hoses routed under the stage floor and then up through several 'Rocks' and the 'Dirt Path' that was the down stage playing area. the hoses ran backstage to a CO2 tank with a regulator and a 4 way electrically operated solenoid and manifold setup. It's actually quite easy. I might suggest looking at AllScare.com for the solenoid/manifold setups. I say this because they sell the whole assembly for less than you can buy the solenoid alone from Grainger. The hose was standard 3/16" hard poly, like you'd use to plumb an ice machine or coffee maker. I used one of these assemblys to achieve the "Padric shoots the cell phone" effect and the effect of the girl shooting at the boy with the BB gun. the ends of the hoses came to just under the surface of the carved styro rocks. Pre-show a PA would load about an 1/8th of a teaspoon of rye flour into the end of the hose.this was enough that the audience would get the effect of a ricochet off a rock without actually having to use balloon cutters. Hope that helps a little.


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## NickVon (Mar 21, 2012)

Van said:


> Bullets, when striking stone, drywall or many other surfaces most assuredly DO give off, what appears to be, a puff of smoke. If you''ve ever seen a Vulcan fired at a concrete bunker you can observe this effect quite easily.
> 
> In, " The Lt. of Inishmore" last year, I used a series of polypropylene hoses routed under the stage floor and then up through several 'Rocks' and the 'Dirt Path' that was the down stage playing area. the hoses ran backstage to a CO2 tank with a regulator and a 4 way electrically operated solenoid and manifold setup. It's actually quite easy. I might suggest looking at AllScare.com for the solenoid/manifold setups. I say this because they sell the whole assembly for less than you can buy the solenoid alone from Grainger. The hose was standard 3/16" hard poly, like you'd use to plumb an ice machine or coffee maker. I used one of these assemblys to achieve the "Padric shoots the cell phone" effect and the effect of the girl shooting at the boy with the BB gun. the ends of the hoses came to just under the surface of the carved styro rocks. Pre-show a PA would load about an 1/8th of a teaspoon of rye flour into the end of the hose.this was enough that the audience would get the effect of a ricochet off a rock without actually having to use balloon cutters. Hope that helps a little.



VAN there is a mistake in your post. Namely it is lacking a YouTube video of a Vulcan firing at a bunker


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## Van (Mar 21, 2012)

NickVon said:


> VAN there is a mistake in your post. Namely it is lacking a YouTube video of a Vulcan firing at a bunker



Yeah, I looked, but all I could find was dweebs with Airsoft guns...... Don't get me wrong I think Airsoft is fun but there is simply nothing like watching a real mini-gun take apart a concrete bunker, in person. Doesn't sound like a gun so much as a real loud buzz. Then a line of "puffs of smoke" walking straight towards the bunker then a giant cloud of Concrete dust. Scary, very, very scary.


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## Dover (Mar 21, 2012)

This is close. It's not the M61 Vulcan and a bunker. This video is the A-10 Warthog and it's 30mm GAU-8, but the effect is about the same


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## shiben (Mar 21, 2012)

Van said:


> Yeah, I looked, but all I could find was dweebs with Airsoft guns...... Don't get me wrong I think Airsoft is fun but there is simply nothing like watching a real mini-gun take apart a concrete bunker, in person. Doesn't sound like a gun so much as a real loud buzz. Then a line of "puffs of smoke" walking straight towards the bunker then a giant cloud of Concrete dust. Scary, very, very scary.



This is very true. I guess I was thinking a handgun or something, and since pretty much all my shooting is at a range of some sort, not tons of concrete walls to hit. Altho when I got to use a machine gun, there were little puffs of debris flying around...


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