Exploding Targets Disturbed the Neighbors, But Were Legal

A nearby explosion prompted a concerned Winder man to call the sheriff’s office to report what he heard.

The man told a Barrow County deputy that the explosion came from behind his property on Highway 82 and that it disturbed his wife, who recently had surgery and was trying to get some rest.

Turns out the explosion was completely legal.

A neighboring man was target shooting — at exploding targets with a substance called “Tannerite,” which is legal to purchase and use, according to the Barrow Sheriff’s Office incident report. Tannerite targets explode when contacted by a bullet.

“[He] was contacted near the back of their property, where he had targets set up near a pond,” the officer wrote of the target shooter in the incident report. “The targets were in a safe location far away from the main road. The targets were not in close proximity to any residential areas.”

The deputy told the target shooter about the man and his wife’s concerns about the noise. The target shooter said he was about to wrap it up for the day.