Nailed!

[Peter Stahl]

Was watching a 4th season (episode 80) of Miami CSI and a Woman was killed with a cordless nail gun that had full head nails in it. It was Orange so I thought it was a Paslode but being that it had full head nails I'm baffled now. Anyone see this episode? I'm guessing the nail was changed to make finding the right nail gun more difficult and so a CSI could get shot in the face in a construction office trailer.

[David G Baker]

Peter,
I think my Paslode 350 compressor operated shoots full head nails or clipped heads. I would have to go out to my pole barn to check for sure and it is around midnight here in Mid Michigan. Haven't operated the cordless yet so don't know for sure about that either.

[Peter Stahl]

Peter,
I think my Paslode 350 compressor operated shoots full head nails or clipped heads. I would have to go out to my pole barn to check for sure and it is around midnight here in Mid Michigan. Haven't operated the cordless yet so don't know for sure about that either.

No this was a hose/cordless nail gun.

[Jim Sears]

Ahhhh!! CSI. Now there's a show that you can bet did their homework on what type of nailgun shoots what kind of nails. If they had determined that the nails were driven in with a hammer, they would be able to tell you that it was a 16oz. Stanley and the person who drove them in was left handed. The entire CSI series is a joke. I refuse to watch it.

[David G Baker]

Peter,
Now it makes sense. I watch all of the CSI shows just in case I ever want to pursue a life of crime and get away with it by fooling the local evidence experts.

[Mark Rios]

Paslode originally used clipped heads (among a couple other reasons) to be able to get more nails in the nail strip. They found a way to use round heads by off-setting the head on the nail so that the full heads now are code compliant in all locales. For awhile you could choose between full head or clipped, probably until all of the clipped head stock ran out, but now all I can find are the off-set full (round) head nails.

I've seen a couple of movies/shows that have used the Paslode cordless as a weapon. In all of them it makes it look like it would be really easy to shoot someone or something. In reality it's very difficult fire the gun in a way that it wasn't designed for. Without fully pushing the nose/contact piece against a solid surface you would have to pull/hold the contact piece back, all the way back, with your hand. The contact piece has to travel ALL the way back to make contact with a micro switch built into the back of the cylinder housing. If you are able to hold the contact piece back and succeed in getting it to fire, the nail starts to tumble pretty much right away after it leaves the gun. In other words, it's not really that easy to shoot someone with a Paslode cordless (Impulse), let alone actually get a nail to penetrate......except in the movies of course.

hth

[Peter Stahl]

Paslode originally used clipped heads (among a couple other reasons) to be able to get more nails in the nail strip. They found a way to use round heads by off-setting the head on the nail so that the full heads now are code compliant in all locales. For awhile you could choose between full head or clipped, probably until all of the clipped head stock ran out, but now all I can find are the off-set full (round) head nails.

I've seen a couple of movies/shows that have used the Paslode cordless as a weapon. In all of them it makes it look like it would be really easy to shoot someone or something. In reality it's very difficult fire the gun in a way that it wasn't designed for. Without fully pushing the nose/contact piece against a solid surface you would have to pull/hold the contact piece back, all the way back, with your hand. The contact piece has to travel ALL the way back to make contact with a micro switch built into the back of the cylinder housing. If you are able to hold the contact piece back and succeed in getting it to fire, the nail starts to tumble pretty much right away after it leaves the gun. In other words, it's not really that easy to shoot someone with a Paslode cordless (Impulse), let alone actually get a nail to penetrate......except in the movies of course.

hth

Mark,

That's probably what it is then and of course the Paslode had a stuck safety and the nails flew like a dart perfectly straight. The air hose type nailer they thought was the one used might have been a Paslode, I don't remember if it was or not but the nails were the exact same size and shape. They compared the nail gun hammer indentation on the nail head to find out which nail gun it was. As far penetration, one it a major artery in Her shoulder and she bled out.

thanks, Pete

[Peter Stahl]

Thanks everyone for your help solving the mystery. Looks like it probably was a Paslode Impule. Next time it comes around I'll record it so I can see exactly what one it is.