Made a magnum blowgun tonight

[hillbilly]

I made a magnum blowgun tonight.

Last week I got to use a friend's homemade blowgun which was made using instructions from this page.

http://www.geocities.com/blowgunhunter/

At 9 yards, that blowgun shot its darts all the way through an empty soda can, up to the paper cone on the the dart.

I got my own piece of 1/2 inch electrical conduit, some 1/8 inch dowel rods, and a PVC reducing coupler that fit the conduit okay. All the parts were in the same store, so it was easy to find a coupler that was smooth on the inside that fit the conduit okay.

I used one layer of duct tape on the conduit to make the PVC coupler fit snugly.

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow of the blowgun, the darts, and its performance from 10 yards away.

I've yet to make broadhead darts yet, so I'm just using "field points" for target practice. In other words, just dowel rods sharpened with a pocket knife.

My total cost is right at $6.50, and I've got 8 darts so far. And 48 inches of 1/8 inch dowel rod costs about .49 cents.

Compare to the "magnum blowgun" sold by Cold Steel for quite a bit more.

www.coldsteel.com/blowguns.html

Although, I did measure the bore of my blowgun with my reloading calipers, and it measures .62 inches. So I wonder if those Cold Steel .625 darts might not fit pretty well??????

A new way to hunt squirrels!

hillbilly

 

[hillbilly]

Following will be some photos I took of the blowgun.

The shooting distance is 10 yards on my back porch.

 

[hillbilly]

View from 10 yards

 

[hillbilly]

First group fired from 10 yards. The target sheet is 7 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide.

I have two types of darts. There are 12 inch darts, and 20 inch darts. At the time of this shooting, I had only two of the 20s and five of the 12 inchers, as I had lost one the night before.

However, I did recover that lost dart this afternoon.

hillbilly

 

[hillbilly]

This shot shows the penetration from 10 yards. I am pinching the dart at the point where it came out of the hay bale. You can see it's gone at least six inches deep.

And this is with no metal point at all....just a pointy end done with a pocket knife.

hillbilly

 

[hillbilly]

And this shows the second group I shot.

 

[goon]

We hooked up an peice of electrical conduit to an air compressor once.
We shot spitwads about sixty yards.

 

[hillbilly]

Air compressor?!?!?!?!?!

Hmmm................Now that could be COOL!

hillbilly

 

[carpettbaggerr]

Watching "Love and Bullets" again, hmmm? Did you make it with an old floor lamp??

 

[JShirley]

Very interesting. It looks well crafted.

I have mentioned what is possible with a blowgun a few times. Good job.

John

 

[Harry Tuttle]

it starts with a blow gun
and eventually winds up here:

http://www.spudtech.com/

 

[cslinger]

Did you know you could launch an Idaho potato through a piece of 1/4 inch plywood?

Well I've heard you can anyway

Ahhhh spud guns and compressed air launchers...........fading youth.

 

[Sunray]

Up here, blow guns are illegal. Have been for over 20 years. Too many Pygmies holding up liquor stores I guess. Most of our laws are made after some idiot politician sees something in a movie. However, I suspect blows guns are evil after one of 'em read a comic book.

 

[hillbilly]

Actually, I've been a spud cannon owner for many many years.

My interest in blowguns is a mere infant compared to the spud cannon shooting.

hillbilly

 

[Bruz]

Too many Pygmies holding up liquor stores I guess




hillbilly, nice shooting, and nice gun! On a side note, your porch looks exactly like my old porch on an old Victorian I owned a few years ago...only difference is I had a 2 X 12 (a real 2 X 12, rough cut center heart redwood) "seat" running in between the lateral supports. Is your home a Victorian?

 

[hillbilly]

House is definitely not Victorian. It was buily by original owner in 1996 or so.

It's got two porches like that, front and back. And vinyl siding. But not Victorian.

hillbilly