[Omni04]

I just ordered a nifty blowgun the other day online :) it comes with 4 inch darts, 6 inch darts, and stun darts (that are heavy and look like ear plugs)

well my friends and i were getting in a debate about tranq guns and blow guns. Is it possible to put some sort of chemical on normal darts (not hollow) that would put an animal to sleep? Cat sized or bigger. Plus don't you need some sort of special permit to buy tranq guns/ special darts?

First off, i am not trying to shoot cats, or people, or anything of the sort, i was just wondering if there were any chemists on the forums that might be able to teach me anything on this subject ^_^

thanks!

[Don Gwinn]

Short answer? It's certainly possible to poison small game. Whether you can get it right and "put one to sleep" (I assume that means the animal has to wake up eventually, right?) is different.

You can make a paste out of tobacco from cigarettes that will, if you concentrate it, have enough nicotine in it to kill small game like squirrels. Whether you'd want to eat that, I don't know, but apparently some people hunt that way for food.

Puts actually smoking those things in an interesting light, though, don't it?


Mmmmmmm. . . . poison . . . .

[Don Gwinn]

Just to be clear, when I say "it's different," I mean different as in "I have no idea whether that's possible or how hard it would be to do."

[Sunray]

"...need some sort of special permit..." Very likely. You'd be playing with seriously controlled drugs. And likely face cruelty to animals charges. The use of poisons for hunting is very illegal in most places. Up here, just having a blow gun will get you time as a guest of the Crown. You'd best make sure blow guns are legal in KY.

[Omni04]

once again i shall stress the fact that this is hypothetical and i don't plan on going on a blowgun shooting spree.

though firing a cigarette into somebody is kind of funny i didn't know if there were other more potent methods. Would smearing it on the tip of a dart be enopugh to actually poison something? Because if it is only enough poison to kill a mouse, the 4 inch dart would kill it before the poison does! :)

[RyanM]

IIRC, one drop of pure nicotine is enough to kill a human, if ingested instead of inhaled.

And one of my army field manual says that eating 1 to 1 1/2 cigarettes is an emergency remedy for intestinal parasites; the nicotine will kill them, or at least stun them long enough to pass them. Also says that doing that is extremely dangerous; equally dangerous as drinking kerosene (another emergency remedy).

For tranquilizing animals, you need to consider a few things:

1. Arteries and veins are way too small to hit, so whatever chemical you use needs to be intramuscular.

2. Shot placement is vital. If you hit an animal in the chest or gut, it will be exactly like stabbing them with a dart (since that's exactly what's happening), and likely to kill it from a collapsed lung or infection. You need to hit muscle--and nothing but--if you expect a tranquilizer dart to be nonlethal. Most of the times, the target is the buttock or thigh.

3. Actual tranquilizer darts are usually mini hypodermic type things, because to actually incapacitate an animal of any size, you need quite a bit of chemical, mostly because of the limited absorption intramuscular-ly.


You might want to look at this website. http://www.texasdartsupply.com/

Huh, looks like tranq darts and air-powered tranq rifles aren't restricted (at least not federally); only lists federal restrictions on cartridge-fired rifles.

[craftsman]

If the purpose is to kill for food, then you have a limited selection of poisons that will do the job without contaminating the meat for human consumption.

Additionally, many states regulate the use of substances for this purpose.

Things that work - Poison Dart Frog poison. Availability - in the US, almost impossible to obtain - and hey - do not get any on any open wounds. Curare - works by temporarily making the muscles fail. If you are on a life supporet system after getting this in yourself, you'll make it - but again - not worth using otherwise.

Your best bet - capsicin. Blair Robinson's "5 AM" Hot Sauce (10 Million Scoville units of heat) - about $185/oz. "The Source" 7 Million units - $100/oz. Pur Cap - 1/2 Million units $13/4 oz. Dip the broadhead in the sauce, let it dry. It won't kill (OK, a lethal shot to the brain, heart, or lungs with the "5 AM" might, but not due to poisoning, due to sensory overload and system shutdown) - but the critter will stop to tend to the wound, letting you get a 2nd (fatal) shot off, within your range.

Reference - Michael D. Janich's book - "Blowguns, the Breath of Death", and the National Sport Blowgun Association website - Follow the links from the main page to the FAQ's - to the legal pages - to the Wisonsin laws about hunting with chemicals.

Tranq. guns are CO2 powered for a reason. The tranq. darts are 1cc to 3cc in volume - can't get that much on a dart. The darts weigh about 1 gm - the tranq darts dry are about 2+ oz. Used in close range (caged animal), a blowgun with them is good to maybe 10 ft. (gotta penetrate the hide).

Hope this helps.

[AVDHNTR]

What would the pur cap(hot sauce ) do ? I mean if its a sensory overload wouldn't it just dash of to the next branch up or under brush ?

The nicotine poisoning would work, but for fatal wounds, boil down some redman chewing tobacco for a couple of hours take the tobacco out, then keep on concentrating what you have left, ends up being a thick syrup like solution... Just make sure you throw away EVERYTHING you used,like the guy said one drop is a guaranteed trip to the ER anything more and you get a lot no and a stone if you where nice ..(I read it in a book some where)

[electric wombat]

Like craftsman said, poison dart frog toxin will work. But then you'd have to go down to south america catch some then try to smuggle them back into the country. The poison dart frogs you can buy at the pet shop have been bread to where their toxins produced are not very poisonous.

I like the hot sauce idea. I can see how that can work. I had my own bout with some near deadly hot sauce. I can't remember the actual brand but my friends & I call it gold cap (obviously because it has a gold colored cap). Produced by a small company in New Orleans. It's 17 million scoville. My moronic @$$ trying to be mainly took a little swig of it. It literally almost put me in the hospital. I can laugh now but at the time it wasn't funny. Long story short It took several hours for me to sweat everything out & by the end of the experience i was naked in a tub of ice water trying to cool myself down.

[PA Freedom]

I learned a few things reading this thread. I always thought of blowguns as toys, but it looks like they can be deadly in the right hands. Id like to learn more. Can anyone recommend a website I can check out?

[TimboKhan]

Back in the early 80's/late 70's, my dad order he and I some blowguns out of the back of a gun magazine. You may remember the ad: Some dude was holding up a great big rabbit he slayed.

I won't give out the instructions as I remember them for fear of encouraging potentially criminal behavior, but Don pretty much hit it on the head. I can assure you, it works on cat-sized game, and pretty quickly too.

Blowguns are fun and fairly easy to get accurate with, but they always sort of lose their luster with me for one reason or another.