Blowgun Dart Question

3

36Strategies

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Sep 24, 2006
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I am trying to make a cotton ball work on the back of a bamboo dart shaft old school style. The trouble comes in the fact that I don't know how to tie it down.
Any help on how to do this or where I can buy some cones from?

I am using bamboo skewers (100 for $1), they happen to be the same size as the big bore blowgun darts :D

I own the Cold Steel Big Bore Blowgun so that's what I'm working with.
 
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I have not seen those for sale without the piano wire darts. But here is a nice way to make a dart and gun. Cheap too.

You can make an awesome blow dart gun out of a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" conduit. Use 16 penny nails sharpened on a grinder for darts. Use duct tape wrapped in a cone shape on the head end of the nail.

After you wrap the tape on the nail set it doun in the conduit and trim it to the size of the hole.

When I was stationed in Tucson we used these on lizards and small chipmunks. They work really well and actually shoot a fair distance for such a heavy dart.
 
36Strategies said:
I am trying to make a cotton ball work on the back of a bamboo dart shaft old school style. The trouble comes in the fact that I don't know how to tie it down.
Any help on how to do this or where I can buy some cones from?

I am using bamboo skewers (100 for $1), they happen to be the same size as the big bore blowgun darts :D

I own the Cold Steel Big Bore Blowgun so that's what I'm working with.
Click to expand...

I use to play with one years ago. Ordered it from the back of a comic book. You know the one with the guy holding the anteater that he killed with it. You could string out the cotton ball, spray some glue on the shaft and start to wrap the cotton around the end of the wooden dart. Or put a small split in it to secure a portion of the cotton to begin the wrap. Could wrap it with a thread
 
I have also made a blowgun out of copper pipe, cut some coat hangers for darts and used some masking tape to made the seal on the end.
 
I made some darts with whittled down chop sticks for grins one time. I nicked little barbs around the base of the stick and pushed it through (point first) the cotton ball tuft. The barbs got the initial grip on the cotton ball and then I wrapped thread around the top of the cotton, kind of like arrow fletching.

They worked OK, but were a little too light. Needed a little weight up front to fly better. I suppose you could go all out and make little broadheads out of a hacksaw blade, or tin snips on a soup can.
 
I too, had a Jivaro blowgun. Never killed a 35# anteater like the guy in the picture though. Good grief, the wait after I sent in a money order was interminable. All the magazine ads said "please wait 6-8 weeks for shipping" and they meant it. I'm spoiled with Amazon.com and internet shopping now; I get a little impatient if I wait 3 or 4 days!

Also, when I was in high school, I got in a bunch of trouble making and selling small blowguns. 12" pieces of aluminum arrow shafts and one hole scientific stoppers for the mouth piece. Push pins with the plastic ball and some scotch tape would make quick and easy darts (dip in flour to keep the tape from sticking together after you wrap the cone). They sold for $7 (don't know how I came up with that price) with about $1 per for cost of manufacture. Sold a couple of dozen before I got caught. For a week, there were little darts in the backs of students legs and all over the acoustical ceiling tiles.
 
if you are looking to tie it down you can use dental floss... If you are really looking to go trad... go with plant dander and yucca or dogwood fibers.
 
bamboo skewer shafts, put a drop of superglue on the end, pierce a cotton ball, then wrapp with very light thread, and superglue the wraps.

 
i was reading an article in a magazine about home made blowguns. the guy who wrote the article used a metal plumb bob that he heated up with a torch to melt milk carton cones which he cut out with a piece of pipe for his darts.

he then poked drywall nails through the cone and put some silicone sealer behind the nailhead to hold it in place. i think you had to experiment with the length of time you held the torch on the plumb bob so you wouldnt melt your way through the plastic. he also rounded the end so it wouldnt poke through.
 
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