This is going way back in time so details are fuzzy. At one point in my childhood we made these things call " Polish" cannons. Took beer cans ( they used to be made out of steel not aluminum ) " you would cut the tops and bottoms off of a few then punch holes on the tops and bottoms of a couple. Duct tape them all together. Load a tennis ball from the top, fill the bottom with Zippo lighter fluid and light it off from a small hole in the side of the bottom. Its all fun and games until the hair on the tennis ball starts catching fire and lands in a weed patch... I think I may still be grounded to this day over that..

We could not play with those anymore so we did the natural thing and did something even more stupid... Take a shotgun shell, tape a marble to the bottom and throw it out into the road. The resulting " bang !!! was most satisfying " This lasted all of one afternoon until my dad found out.. he started to explain just why this was so stupid... changed his mind mid sentence... and beat our asses instead.