Blowguns

[HPshooter]

Several years back I experimented with making blowguns. My best design, by far, was from using 1/2" copper plumbing pipe. It is about 5' long, and I've camoflaged it with camo cloth tape. 8)

Add a projectile holder. About 8 inches from the mouth end, I slide on a piece of grey or black closed cell foam pipe insulation. Beginning from the "exit" end, I wrap camo tape on the pipe just below the foam, then I spiral wrap up over the foam. I do not cover the mouth end of the foam. I leave that edge of the pipe foam exposed. Shove your darts into the foam from the exposed end. You can carry a dozen darts easily and safely this way.

At the very edge of the "mouth" end, I wrap electrical tape around the end. I space it so that just a tiny, tiny edge of the tape overlaps the end of the pipe. By pulling tension on the tape as the wraps are applied, the tape pulls in slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the pipe. This prevents a projectile from falling out or coming back out the way it went in - just in case you loose your mind and decide to inhale with your mouth while holding the blowgun to your lips! :o The tape is also easier on your lips and/or teeth than copper pipe and it doesn't get soggy or dirtly like cloth camo tape.


I've used several types of darts, but probably the most lethal was made using some necklace beads I found in a sewing store. (I took in a sample of pipe and found some that easily fit through, but were snug.) Then I heated 4" & 5" pieces of coat hanger over a candle and melted them into the hole. Then I turned the end on the SIDE of a wheel grinder till they looked like giant straight pin. (with the necklace bead being the head of the pin)

Once you learn the secret of explosive exhaleing, you can drive one through a 1/2 of plywood. ;D

I have another dart that is not as heavy but is much faster and flies with less arch. It's made by sharpening 4" or 5" of Stainless TIG welding rod and skewering half of a hearing protection ear plug. (Cut the ear plug in half so you have two round pieces. Run the dart through till about 1/2" from the end.)

A refinement of that is made by taking a small pipe fitting thread protector, splitting "the cup" in for places and skewering this such that if fits down over the earplug. The earplug causes the cup flanges to expand to better fit the barrel and catch the air pressure. With a good solid hit, not only will the rod be burried, but the pipe cap will slide forward on the shaft till it hits the target also.

Compete to see who can penetrate the most pages of a phone book ;)

I've seen commercially available blowguns, but nothing as good as this. I've seen commercialy available "broadhead" darts, also. These are easy to make. Make a dart as above with a coat hanger. Don't sharpen on a grinder. Instead take a hammer and smash the tip flat. Shape and sharpen with a metal file. Don't thin it out too much or it will be to fragile. And we all know how tough those squirrel bones are! :P

I much prefer the "needle" darts. They fly truer and the pin the squirrels to the tree better. ::)

[billy_goat_gruff]

Thanks.

Have you ever done the three or four foam disks on the back of a dart to keep the shaft centered in the gun? Some say it is more accurate.

I've only used bamboo kabob sticks and cotton balls. Was surprised when the kabob stick sunk into weathered wood about 3/8 inch coming out of a 2 foot piece of left over copper pipe. Range - about 15 feet...

The kid is getting mad at the starlings that are chasing his cardinals from the feeder during this icy period. He inheirited the left over pipe. It will be interesting to see what happens...

[HPshooter]

Hey Billy Goat Gruff, Sorry it took me so long to respond. All my darts have something to keep the rear end centered in the barrel. With some it's the beads and with others it's the pipe-cap and foam earplug combination.

I don't really understand why, at least using the beads, the rear end doesn't pass the front end. The beads are plastic so possibly they have less weight/inertia than the wire. But they are very much heavier than cotton or foam. They certainly are less aerodynamic, so maybe the combination of forward wire weight and air drag on the rear is what keeps it in line, but if I do my part right, the darts are usually very straight into the target and that is critical to good penetration.

I had considered the possibility that I might need some type of split cylinder to sleeve the wire in order to hold it straight - not unlike a saboted slug in a black powder rifle. But it has proved unnecessary, and I'm unsure what I could use that would not be so heavy that it would slow down the dart.

Before hunting season I had been experimenting with a much smaller-diameter version of blow-gun by using the shaft of an old aluminum hunting arrow. I was trying to get similar results to that of the copper pipe blow-gun by using the same wire darts, but with different bases. So far I have not found the right combination. But then it was time to go kill stuff, so that will have to wait.

My hope was to devise a blowgun that would ride in the arrow holder on my bow. It has turned out to be more than I want to deal with to carry both the full-sized blowgun, hunting pack, compound bow, and climbing stand out into the woods and up into a tree.

[farmboy]

Here's a site with blowgun making tips.

www.geocities.com/blowgunhunter/



farmboy