when gas was cheap( less then a buck) we use to take gallon milk jugs, fill then with gas, put a candle behind them, then try to hit them with a M1 at 200-400 yds at night.
Back then Melanie and I used to drive out into the desert and shoot. I would get these 5 gallon metal grease pails, (the kind with the metal tabs on the lid you would bend over to seal.), from work. We would bring them along with a couple of jerry cans of gasoline and fill them to the brim and seal the tabs. I would set them out at 250 yards or so and place a candle on each side about 2 feet from the can itself.
When dusk came I would drive a .458 dia. 510 grain Hornady Soft Point into them with a max load out of my .460 Weatherby. The resulting fireball was huge, and the lid of the can went straight up over 100 feet. It was better to mix half and half gasoline with Kerosene because the fireball would last longer and give off a unbelievable cloud of think black smoke. Kerosene is getting expensive and hard to find, and they are building farther and farther out into the desert these days so it isn't worth the trouble. Now that I have the my .50 BMG I would love to try it with a round of API, but as I said it has all been reduced to a memory because of more people and more building. Bill T.