What is this strange exploding stick being used by a Russian SWAT team

reply to post by davespanners


That was freakin' sweet. I would totally never be that dude, but sweet none the less.
It makes sense to me that it is probably a stick (like a lacrosse stick) with a concussion explosive on\in it. The bus was likely bare bones and somewhat hollowed out to make it seem bigger than it was in case they wanted to put it on TV. Just a guess.

Originally posted by LunchBocks
They used a similar device in WW2, I wanna say it was called a bangoleer but its been a long time since I saw it on history channel.

You may be thinking of the Bangalore Torpedo. They're usually used by "engineer" units for clearing wire obstacles. I couldn't find any decent video of it (they all show only the explosion itself, usually from a great distance). Anyway, the idea behind the Bangalore Torpedo is to fit the explosive head to a length of... I don't know... "pipe," or whatever it is, and then another length, and another, and so on, continually sliding it forward until it reaches the obstacle. THEN kaboom!

But, as far as the video in question: I'm with the Youtube commentor who said he'd rather be held by the Chechnyan rebels than rescued by these guys. What appears to some to be survivors on the bus is in fact, I think, the rescuers entering from the other side of the bus. It was BLOWN up. I don't think there would have been any survivors. Which kinda seems like working at cross-purposes. But seriously, that thing was DE-stroyed!

By looking at the footage I have a hypothesis that the bus was filled with an explosive gas, propane, or hydrogen, mixed with the right amount of oxygen. One touch with a flame source of some kind would instantly blow up the bus exactly as shone if it were filled with explosive gas and oxygen.

Originally posted by wiredamerican
By looking at the footage I have a hypothesis that the bus was filled with an explosive gas, propane, or hydrogen, mixed with the right amount of oxygen. One touch with a flame source of some kind would instantly blow up the bus exactly as shone if it were filled with explosive gas and oxygen.

edit on 31-5-2011 by wiredamerican because: adding stuff

I could be wrong on this but I don't believe there was enough visible fire for it to be that. Also there would be no need to swing the stick as he did, in a wide momentum building arc.

reply to post by wiredamerican


If they are doing a training demonstration, and the bus is their "enemy", why would they demonstrate that the enemy might fill their bus with flammable gas? No enemy is going to fill their own bus with flammable gas. That makes no sense..

reply to post by QuantumPhysicist


It is a training exercise .. A bus filled with explosive gas and ignited would simulate an RPG, IED, or another explosive device.

Surely they would not use a RPG, IED, or heavy explosive devices in a live exercise where training is taking place.

So I must disagree, it makes perfect sense.

This is just a hypothesis though as stated before I have nothing concrete to back it up.

reply to post by wiredamerican


I see your point, that it's a demonstration so they wouldn't use the actual explosives.
But I just don't think they filled it with flammable gas. Never heard of such an exercise and I'm used to hearing a bunch of military stories from my father in law (In the military)
It's always good to theorize though. Who knows. It could be

How about the helmet with built in goggles.
Wierd helmet. at 1:11 in the video.

Those old explosives do become temperamental.

It looks like the delay was broken on this device - or our genius tripped it on his way to the bus.

reply to post by davespanners


not a clue, but i want one!

Originally posted by sonofliberty1776
Looks like a bangstick to me. Used to carry one like it in case of sharks or other bad swimmers

Sorry to be the one to drop the bomb but you are BSing.

I was a professional diver, that is nothing at all like a bangstick.

A bangstick is a simple cylinder on the end of a pole that when depressed
against the side of a shark, or whatever, fires a shotgun shell into the target.

It fires directly forward, in line with the handle, and does not explode like the
device in the video.

Maybe you've been scuba diving but you've never used a bangstick.

Watching the video, I got the impression that the guy was attempting to use the stick to breach a window, which is about the time when somebody on the bus detonated an explosive in response to being swarmed by SWAT (I wouldn't doubt such realistically dangerous training tactics for the Russians).

Yup, watched it again and it looks like the explosion occurs under the bumper, probably to minimalize actual damage during the training. To me, it appears to be the bad guys blowing themselves up before SWAT could take them (probably to prepare SWAT for a worse case scenerio).

I honestly think it's just a stick with a concussion grenade set to go off on impact on the end of it...

The bus had all its windows closed which would make it a pressurized container...any sort of small explosive would push all that air Outwards and create a more devastating effect...that is what I'm thinking as a concussion grenade unlike a HE grenade still has a good bang but isn't really going to hurt as much as it is going to stun and disorient the people near it...