In the course of a long life I never had opportunity to personally use a “powder-actuated driver”* before yesterday.
I’ve seen them before, of course, even seen them used. But I never loaded and whacked one. Now, through a serendipitous accident of the ‘people throw away the darndest things – and often at the perfect time’ variety, I own one. And I used it a dozen times to anchor a wall frame to a new concrete pad and it sure turned a long job into a short one. I didn’t look forward with any pleasure to measuring and drilling for bolts and anchors.
What impressed me was how much a .22 Short blank cartridge can do in a very confined space. It’s supposed to drive a 2 1/2″ common nail through a 2X4 and then into an inch of concrete, and I was skeptical. Figured I’d end up finishing the nails off with my framing hammer. But I used it a dozen times and never once lifted the hammer, so that worked.
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*Reviews at the link suggest there may be some long-standing quality issues with this particular version of the tool, so let the buyer beware. But mine works fine.
I wonder what that would do to a wandering cow? Not that I’m advocating procuring free meat in such a fashion; that would not be neighborly. These thoughts are my penance for reading your posts in reverse order.
Winchester’s new .17 rimfire magnum round, designed to be “more bigger” than the 17HMR (necked down 22 mag) is based on a nail gun cartridge case. Some of those 22 short looking cartridges pack a lot more punch than a 22 short!
They come in a variety of sizes and strengths, too. I’ve used them with the black loads to nail pieces of 2x material to structural steel, or steel studs to same. Bear in mind that they need regular cleaning, just like a commonly used firearm, and they’ll last a good long while, but I’ve seen them break drive pins. The drive pins are very hard (which makes good sense) but it can lead to them being brittle. Something to be aware of.