A grenade pin is tight, but if people can open beer bottles with their teeth they definitely can pull the pin on a grenade.
They’re probably referring to the confidence clip. We used to tape the spoon to the grenade because if the pin got caught on your jacket, you’d have a really bad day. There’s actually an extra step before you pull the pin where you sweep your thumb across the spoon to allow the pin to be pulled out. If you just grabbed a grenade and tried to rip the pin out with your teeth, without removing the confidence clip, you’d rip your teeth out.
You wouldn’t have remembered if it was 20 years ago. That clip was introduced recently, I remember where I was the first time I saw one and that would’ve been like 2015.
Ok, I know nothing about grenades but from what I’ve seen I imagine there’s a spring mechanism and that is clamping the pin down. So wouldn’t pressing down on the clamp make pulling the pin easy/easier?
Ya, most grenades have a lever called a “spoon” that you press down that relieves some of the tension on the pin, and when you pull the pin and throw the grenade the spoon flies off and ignites the fuse.
MYTH: It looks cool to spoon two grenades at once and watch the pieces fly off in slow motion.
TRUTH: It looks very cool.