Blowguns

barrabas74

barrabas74

Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
8,161
I ordered a CS bigbore blowgun 5" today. And I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them, or any blowguns for that matter?

I know its not a "knife" topic but wasnt sure where to post
 
First, don't inhale thru the tube! :eek: :D

My only experience is with a toy blowgun someone gave me as a joke. Surprisingly, even with only about a one foot tube, I could launch the suction cup darts hard enough to knock dust off a lamp shade from across the room.

Best way I found to launch the dart was to :

1) inhale deeply, and again, not thru the tube,
2) hold your breath and then, using your diaphragm, start squeezing the air in your lungs.
3) once you've achieved max squeeze, release the air thru the tube, in a manner similar to spitting a watermelon seed as far as you can.

The results should be astonishing.
 
Hey barrabass..

This gonna end up in G&G for sure..

However..

Yaa they can be alot of fun, and are pretty accurate once you play with them...

A few years back I shot a mouse through the stomach with one, as he ate the bait out of a trap..Pretty cool...

Ahh yes,, and before I forget...

Blowguns and patio doors,, do Not,, and I repeat,, Do Not mix very well...
Long story,,and in front of company to boot!

Have fun and shoot it outdoors!!

ttyle

Eric....
 
Thanks for the info guys, if it gets moved thats ok first time I have ever posted about a topic like this.
 
I have the CS 5' blowgun. Its a lot of fun. I just shoot at a target i drew on couple layers of cardboard. I like the bamboo darts best. The all steel ones (can't remember what they are called) often go through the card board and the plastic piece at the and of them goes flying, and is a annoying to have to pick up all the parts and stick them back together.
 
I also have a CS blowgun and most of the different darts they sell. Be careful! These things are definitely not toys! You'll be amazed how with very little effort you can stick a dart in a tree so deeply that you have a hard time pulling it out. Even the bamboo ones will stick into trees. I like the bamboo best too, and if you mess up the tip you can just replace the bamboo with one of the wooden skewers that you buy in the grocery store. They seem to be the same thing. Have fun.
 
I want to become proficient with them to the point of taking care of critters in my garden(lil peter cottontail). I have a shed that they breed under as well as the local ones that come in and taking them with my beeman isnt really a challege. HOWEVER I dont want to use it on them if its not effective and humane course everyone misses. This isnt the motive behind getting it I always wanted a blowgun since I was a lil kid and this just kinda gives me a secondary excuse for my gf. Even if I dont hunt with it, it sounds like it'll be lots of fun.
 
They're pretty cool, but hard to aim with, and nowhere near in stopping power of a slingshot.
 
I shot a squirrel with one of the bamboo darts last year. The dart went completely through his side and up to the plastic cone on the end. The squirrel ran off through the trees. I assume it died, but it certainly didn't kill it on the spot. One of the metal darts might have worked better, but they don't shoot as far.
 
I have two fo them, but not Cold Steel. They are fun, and they sell paint balls for them too !!
 
The guys in the Wilderness & Survival forum aren't interested in blowguns so I'll move this to Gadgets & Gear. Seems the expert verdict is they can be fun to play with but are not effective weapons (not without poison darts, anyway).

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I don't know if I'd recommend a blow gun for pest control, unless you are coating the darts with some kind of fast acting poison, but that probably wouldn't be worth the risk.

I had a nice blow gun when I was younger and used it on a Starling (bird) that got into our wood stove. I figured I'd take it out quick with the blow gun. I think I fired 2 or 3 darts into it with no effect, other than a suffering bird. I had to go get the pellet gun to finish the job.

The darts are just to thin and don't deliver a lot of impact, so unless you get lucky and strike a vital organ, like the heart, you're just going to stick a metal wire in a living creature and it might take off and live for some time, if not completely recover from the wound with a metal dart hanging out of it.
 
barrabas74 said:
I want to become proficient with them to the point of taking care of critters in my garden(lil peter cottontail).
Click to expand...

Again, just to make this clear, using a blow gun on a rabbit is not a good idea unless your goal is to be sick and twisted and abuse animals. If your goal is for a quick and clean kill stick with your Beeman, or a .22.

Stick to target shooting with the blow gun, they are lots of fun.

Once we took my friend's Crossman pump up BB gun and used that as the air source. I think we also tried using CO2 powered guns. Just dicharging the air only into the blow gun (no BB or pellet) it propelled the dart with a lot of force. The darts would stick through 3/4" pine and the darts would get all bent out of shape, etc. :)
 
Once you get the blowgun, try the various darts on different types of targets and that should give you a better idea of which ( if any ) will work on the wabbitt. I would guess either the zytel or steel broadhead but regardless these are addictive and being so quiet are easier to take travelling for plinking. You might also check out the book ( and now video ) Blowguns: The Breath of Death by Michael Janitch, entertaining and informative.
 
I have a 6' blowgun that I had as a kid. I still have it down in the basement, but with no darts. The original darts I had came in the form of 12" lengths of heavy duty wire and a string of clear plastic beads - like mardi gras beads. You were supposed to cut lengths of wire, heat them up with a flame and push them into the plastic bead. Made for some wickedly strong darts. (I had to use pliars to pull them out of fences and trees - they would go right through a bedroom door, too).

Any idea where I could buy replacement darts like this?

Thanks!
 
I've been playing around with blowgun stuff since my uncle showed me the paper cone dart thing. :D

Here's my gun it's just a 3.5' lenth of 1/2" EMT. I was going to paint the muzzle end orange but never had so white it was.
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A grouping from about six yards. Could have been better but I haven't been shooting lately, I was planning to go hiking tomorrow so I whipped up this batch of darts. The target is a an old boogie board.
woodies.jpg



Penetration useing a wire dart.
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Just a few different dart styles that I'm liking.
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Sorry for the bad pictures....
 
I've made a number of them over the years, usually using PVC tubing. There are as many dart designs as you can shake a stick at. (yours look pretty cool, Underaged!) Last bunch was coat-hanger wire sharpened with a Dremel and using paper cones for "fletching".

Back when I was doing a lot of fly-tying, I'd use squirell-tail or similar fur.

Aiming is very instinctive, and I know one guy that used to shoot mice at his apartment with a commercial job.
 
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