Word to the Wise don't shoot the insulators on the high-voltage powerlines

[Txboy]

 I did a test today. The other day I had some guys replacing some high-voltage powerlines out by my house. I asked if they where getting rid of the polls. I offered to take them off their hands if they weren't going to reuse them. I ended up with eight of them (which by the way is going to make a really nice poll barn when I get around to it.) Well one of the polls still had the insulators on it so I decided to shoot one to see if it would break. Well guess what to my surprise it broke. 

Ive always shied away from shooting birds on top of them in fear of this happening. So if you have ever wondered if they would break they will so don't shoot them. I shot the insulator with my .25 Fx Impact with the 35grain pellet at 50 yards. 

 

[Fullquiver]

I knew kids who were dumb enough to do that kind of stiff when I was young. If I even thought about something like that when I was young my dad would have beat my hind end so as I couldn't have sat down for a week... I now have a son who is a lineman and you would be surprised at what people do to poles and lines not knowing how they or others could be injured from their stupidity..

 

[broekzwans]

the insulators are commonly made of ceramic materials, there's not much energy needed to crush that, especially when they're cold.. Fixing the impacts of bullets/pellets are a very common repare job on powerlines in the Netherlands. Apparently people like to shoot at it?!?

 

[ztirffritz]

My dad told me about a time my grandfather accidentally knocked out power to a large chunk of Pittsburgh by accident. He was shooting his rifle across a valley at a deer. His scope was focused on the deer so the thin power line wasn't visible. He pulled the trigger and all of McKees Rocks, PA went dark. Oops. He missed the deer too. 

 

[Dan25]

And be sure of your back stop. Around 23 years or so ago a fellow out west shot upward at a deer or elk on a ridge, missed, and found his mark on a man downrange. And a word to the Black Lives Matter group. Don't shoot at Cops as they will shoot back.

 

[Alan]

Be careful what you ask for. When XCEL replace an old 7,200 line with a 14,400, a friend asked the same question. They dumped near 100 of them in his property. Actually, they make fairly good drive way liners.

 

[ozone08]

nice catch on the timber bring on the saw dust and man sweat