Grenades of that type (M24s) had basically no fragmentation. The warheads were thin bodied metal, and didn’t by default have a fragmentation sleeve. The effects of blast were short ranged.
The throw was shorter than I’d personally feel comfortable with if I didn’t absolutely have to be in that range, but he was likely just fine.
Very broadly generalizing, there are two ranges to take into account in a grenade. The effective kill radius and the danger radius. The latter being far greater than the former. The kill radius is calculated from how far most of the shrapnel still has enough energy to kill reliably. The danger radius is how far some bigger, denser debris that could result from the grenade or what is near the grenade when it goes off can still seriously injure or kill someone but cannot be relied upon for a predictable effect. For reference, the kill radius of a modern M67 grenade is 5-15m, while the danger radius is 230-300m, depending what reference you look at.
Just because you are outside of the kill radius doesn’t mean that it is safe. Even if the Steinhandgranate 's ranges were only half of the M67’s, you still wouldn’t be able to throw it far enough to be safe while standing in direct line of sight with the explosion. The guy didn’t even have eye protection for crying out loud. Mind you, people had a whole different mindset about safety back then.
As I said, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it outside of an emergency, but the odds are that he was just fine. Comments in this thread are acting like this is certain instant death, when it more like unwise, unneeded risk that something bad might happen.
FWIW I’ve had bigger net explosive weight go off in line of sight, inside of the dangerous distance and it was fine. Would I do it just for a video? No. And I wouldn’t recommend it, but I’m not going to wither and faint that a guy (who is probably so caviler about it because he just went through WW2 and is numb to it) did it 70 years ago.
There is in fairness, not “no shrapnel”, there is a small- but actual chance of harmful secondary fragmentation hitting you. It isn’t that high, but it is higher than 0%, which is why I personally wouldn’t do it for just a photo op. But to say the person in the video has “no idea what he is doing” is to me, rubbish. He handles the grenade with practiced ease. I would guess this isn’t the first time he’s handled one of these grenades, which would also feed into why he isn’t afraid of the blast. It may technically be within a harmful range, but I’d guess that based on his past experience rather than his ignorance he is willing to do this.
It does indeed rupture, but with the light weight it doesn’t have much force behind it. You get possibly one or two pieces of metal detaching, rather than a fanned out fragmentation spread, with a large surface area but lightweight piece rather than small dense pieces that will go further and faster. Hence words like “minimal” rather than “none”.
Grenades of that type (M24s) had basically no fragmentation. The warheads were thin bodied metal, and didn’t by default have a fragmentation sleeve. The effects of blast were short ranged.
The throw was shorter than I’d personally feel comfortable with if I didn’t absolutely have to be in that range, but he was likely just fine.
Very broadly generalizing, there are two ranges to take into account in a grenade. The effective kill radius and the danger radius. The latter being far greater than the former. The kill radius is calculated from how far most of the shrapnel still has enough energy to kill reliably. The danger radius is how far some bigger, denser debris that could result from the grenade or what is near the grenade when it goes off can still seriously injure or kill someone but cannot be relied upon for a predictable effect. For reference, the kill radius of a modern M67 grenade is 5-15m, while the danger radius is 230-300m, depending what reference you look at.
Just because you are outside of the kill radius doesn’t mean that it is safe. Even if the Steinhandgranate 's ranges were only half of the M67’s, you still wouldn’t be able to throw it far enough to be safe while standing in direct line of sight with the explosion. The guy didn’t even have eye protection for crying out loud. Mind you, people had a whole different mindset about safety back then.
As I said, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it outside of an emergency, but the odds are that he was just fine. Comments in this thread are acting like this is certain instant death, when it more like unwise, unneeded risk that something bad might happen.
FWIW I’ve had bigger net explosive weight go off in line of sight, inside of the dangerous distance and it was fine. Would I do it just for a video? No. And I wouldn’t recommend it, but I’m not going to wither and faint that a guy (who is probably so caviler about it because he just went through WW2 and is numb to it) did it 70 years ago.
C’mon, think about the views you’d get!
Hmmm, actually let me rephrase: I wouldn’t do it for a video anymore.
says there’s no shrapnel and explains
🧐 Mmm yess but the shrapnel, you see 🧐
has to explain again
Oh, Reddit and Lemmy. Sometimes like brothers, you seem.
There is in fairness, not “no shrapnel”, there is a small- but actual chance of harmful secondary fragmentation hitting you. It isn’t that high, but it is higher than 0%, which is why I personally wouldn’t do it for just a photo op. But to say the person in the video has “no idea what he is doing” is to me, rubbish. He handles the grenade with practiced ease. I would guess this isn’t the first time he’s handled one of these grenades, which would also feed into why he isn’t afraid of the blast. It may technically be within a harmful range, but I’d guess that based on his past experience rather than his ignorance he is willing to do this.
And where, exactly, does that “thin bodied metal” go when it explodes?
It does indeed rupture, but with the light weight it doesn’t have much force behind it. You get possibly one or two pieces of metal detaching, rather than a fanned out fragmentation spread, with a large surface area but lightweight piece rather than small dense pieces that will go further and faster. Hence words like “minimal” rather than “none”.