Fake bullets

I discovered a good last-minute substitute for bullets that needed to be handled on stage. IMAG2990.jpgFemale stage pin brass looked pretty good, even up close, and has just the right clink when jostled together.

The festival in my venue is sharing a firearm and blank ammunition. One show needed both but not to load or fire - a character just needed to show she "stole all your bullets!" I wasn't comfortable with actors manhandling a heaping pile of live rounds on stage - nobody even counted how many.

The slightly skeptical producer asked me to explain why it was a bad idea to use the real thing as just a hand prop. I said they were each little explosive devices that could go off and cause injury if stepped on or dropped - as I accidentally dropped one from my handful of stage pins. "Just like that."

The director liked the idea, and producer agreed, and the show went on. Maybe nothing would have happened, and everything would have been returned nightly without going off or going missing. It just didn't sit right.

I would love to see any other ideas for safe substitutions I could turn to in the future.
 
You could find a guy that does his own reloading. They could make them without primers or powder, so you knew for certain that they were harmless.
 
As a kid I worked rifle matches at our local army base, I got a ton of spent shell casings and the rounds down range in the berm and just pieced things back together. Easy to do and only took a few minutes to get a bucket of both just rooting around in the dirt. Maybe that would be more difficult these days, but any shooting range or national guard base might let you pick around if you're friendly enough. Just a thought.



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The other part about this that is awesome, bobcatarts, is that you stood up for safety (in what sounds like a reasonable and mature manner, so hey- bonus!) and even got the folks who originally had a bad idea to come over to your really good idea. Good on ya!
 

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