Little strange maybe, but blowgun poisons?

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SkaerE

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are there any locally grown (as in, in the US) plants or animals that could be used as poisons on blowgun darts?

i've taken many a squirrel with the longer 6'' spear head type darts, just wondering if theres anything to make them even more reliable (even though I've never had a squirrel get away - i'm very careful, and yes i eat them all)

if not locally found poisons, how about something you can buy at a store (that wouldnt taint the meat)

thanks!
 
Hi interesting question, I dont have any positive answers for you. I know that the indians in south america use incredibly complex poisons that modern us doctors dont understand. But the japanese used poisons too for thier blowguns, Ninjutsu teaches the recipe at a very high level. There is a video by Ron Hood that talks about poison for hunting. But if your prey is squirrel do you know about cold steels big bore blowguns? They do a fantastic job, I hit an eastern wood chuck in the back of the skull with one, and it put it right down.
 
Poisons, eh? We've been getting a lot of questions about that lately.

Anything can be a poison, if you use enough of it.

However, you're talking about a very tiny amount--in order to fit on a blowdart.

And there are very few fast-acting poisons that will fit on a blowdart. Even snake venoms won't be enough: you need curare or some other exotic poision to make it work--something that can react instantly with the bloodstream like an expensively concentrated hemotoxin.

So what are you shooting these darts at?

Blowguns are really intended for small game--as you've realized shooting squirrel, and as Stickbobby points out, if you can't kill it with the dart, you won't kill it with the poison.

I'd write off the use of poisons as impractical and a little more Hollywood than useful.

My opinion only.
 
you have a good point. and i never figured anyone could take anything larger than a racoon with a blowgun (and even that would be pushing it i think) i was just wondering.

have to look into one of those cold steel 62 cal blowguns though definitly, hell that 5 foot one could double as a walking stick ;)
 
Hi there guys its my first time posting but been lurking around for a while now. I dont know if i should talk about poison on here or not. But have any of you ever think about tobocoo???? Yes that stuff that people love to smoke. It makes good poison too. Ever wonder why so many people die from it. If you do smoke it just might make you want to stop....Let me know if i should post it on here on how to make it...........


Sasha
 
Yeah just shoot several hundred thousand cigarettes at them and then play the waiting game as they die of arm cancer...

I know nicotine is a poison but its not going to kill you in the concentrations its in cigarettes I don't think.
 
You need to actualy make it concentrated ..... have any of you looked what RAID is using to kill bugs??? O.k My Q is .... is it o.k to post on here how to make it???? after all it is a public forum.... If the answer is yes then i will.

sasha
 
Well, I'll chime in. I knew a guy who used to put snuff (Copenhagen type) in a pan of water and simmer it like a tea until it was extremely strong. Once he'd extracted as much "tea" as he could from the snuff he would strain the tobacco out of the mix. This tea he would then simmer down, much like reducing maple sap to syrup, until all that was left was a thick, nearly dried out sludge. He let the mess dry for a while until it was a block. Then he would grind the block into a powder of highly concentrated nicotine. (I would use caution here not to inhale or ingest any powder by accident.) He claimed to use it for rat poison saying it took only the tiniest amount in a bait to do the job.

If I recall, there was/is enough nicotine in a pack of cigarettes that if ingested all at at once it would kill a person. I'm working off a bit of memory though so can't be 100% sure about that.
 
Nicotine is increadibly dangereous stuff. It's a natural pesticide. Don't fool around with it. It can be absorbed through the skin and in concentrated form is quite deadly to humans. You don't have to injest it or inhale it. Just touching it can kill you. Manufacturing nicotine concentrate in your kitchen is like making bombs. One mistake and your dead. Unless you have experience handling deadly chemicals and have the proper equipment, please don't mess around with nicotine concentrate.
 
+1 to "DON'T MESS WITH POISON" sticking yourself with a dart is on the list of dumb ways to die. Mac
 
Chris Janowsky, WSI. www.wildernesssurvival.com

The poison method he teaches is for use in arrow tips or spears/traps.

He recommends two plants because they are fairly readily available in North America. The first is Water Hemlock and the other is Monk's Hood.
(you look it up!:p )
In a survival situation you would use the root (highest concentration of toxins) and rub it in the tip of the medium. Chris recommends use of a glove and if none is available, use a bunch of leaves or moss or some such to be between your hand and the poisinous plant. NEVER TOUCH A POISINOUS PLANT WITH YOUR BARE SKIN!!!
To make up some to carry with you, it would be made at home much the same way Amos Iron Wolf describes the making of nicotine poison.
REMEMBER, with these things you want to wear disposible gloves and use a pan/pot and storage container that WILL NEVER BE USED FOR FOOD!!!
The end resulting paste like substance can be stored in a small glass jar (think cosmetics or medications) or something of the like. This jar/container can be carried with you at all times and when needed applied to the medium (Spear/arrow).
Janowsky claims that this concoction will drop deer or elk or any other large game more assuredly than a .300 Weatherby Magnum... Your mileage may vary!
His recommendation is to not eat the meat within the immediate 5-6 inches of where the poison has made penetration.

NOW MY QUESTION; If the poison spreads throughout the body and kills the animal, won't that poison also damage YOU when you eat it???:confused:
 
buckg said:
Nicotine is increadibly dangereous stuff. It's a natural pesticide. Don't fool around with it. It can be absorbed through the skin and in concentrated form is quite deadly to humans. You don't have to injest it or inhale it. Just touching it can kill you. Manufacturing nicotine concentrate in your kitchen is like making bombs. One mistake and your dead. Unless you have experience handling deadly chemicals and have the proper equipment, please don't mess around with nicotine concentrate.
Click to expand...

I would emphasis what Buckg just said. The post was for info only. Concentrated nicotine is just too dangerous to mess with at home. Then again, most of the improvised, Saxon type stuff is as much if not more of a danger to the maker than anything you might use it on.

I figure if you can't kill it cleanly with a large caliber blowgun without poison then don't try to kill it with a blowgun period. I don't like the idea of getting an accidental prick with a poison dart. Plus, if I'm going to eat something I'm not sure I want to eat something I just poisoned.

Again, the post was informational only. Please recognize messing with concentrated anything is pretty dangerous. The concentrated syrups used for soft drinks have hazmat labels declaring them as corrosive. Concentrated nicotine is a deadly poison.
 
sasha said:
You need to actualy make it concentrated ..... have any of you looked what RAID is using to kill bugs??? O.k My Q is .... is it o.k to post on here how to make it???? after all it is a public forum.... If the answer is yes then i will.

sasha
Click to expand...
The chemical you're attempting to refer to is Nicotine sulphate
( C10H14N2 )2 H2SO4
Try some of the orchid growers suppliers.It's legal.
It's a neurotoxin, to be sure, but it'd take a mammalian biologist to determine dosage mg/kg and speed of effect.
I suppose if it took the booger an hour or two to die that'd be fine in a survival situation... You'd hear the " thump " when he fell out of his tree.

LSD type drugs would probably work too.
Maybe the plant Datura or Brugmansia boiled into a tea and then highly concentrated.
You'd probably get stoned or die by eating him... :eek:

Fish can be anesthatized with common clove oil ( eugenol) at a rate of 10 drops per gallon
You could cloud a small stream with it if you could guesstimate it passing by some known ( seen trout) trout laying in a pocket of current like they do..
It takes 7 minutes in a tank.I use it a lot for microscope examinations of fish.
. Probably take allot longer in a stream but could slow them enough to hand catch them.

Rotenone, a crabgrass killer, will do the same but kills the fish where eugenol allows them to recover with fresh, clean water... This would be illegal to place in a stream since it's TOXIC and not anesthetic.

I hear Google getting hit hard any minute ;) :D

A GREAT book is survival poaching by Ragnar Benson. I havent seen it in 25 years and mine went away long ago.
 
Again, as Paracelsus reminded us centuries ago, *anything* can be a poison if concentrated. Even water will kill you if you get enough into your body: it will act as a toxin for your cells.

The question wasn't about what *are* effective poisions in general (there are too many to list), but which ones work best with blowguns. Many of the items mentioned above will not work unless ingested.

There are four primary methods of poisoning:

- Inhalation. You need to breathe it in. Generally, this is as risky to the trap-setter as it is the the vermin, unless you're dealing with ants or termites.

- Ingestion. You eat it or drink it. This is the most successful way, and the concentrated nicotine/home-made rat poisions all work this way. This is slow, but sure.

- Injection. It needs to be put into the bloodstream. This is the least effective way, really, because you need a lot to get into the bloodstream. Most people survive scorpions and snake bites, and many without treatments. There are very few fast-acting poions easily available for this method. Very few.

- Osmosis or absorption. This is passing poions through the skin into the bloodstream. This takes a long time, unless an accelerant like DMSO is used.

I probably left out a couple of methods, but my toxicology is badly rusty.

Last comment on the use of tree frogs: unless I'm mistaken, those are used by arrow hunters, not blowgunners. There aren't too many blowgun hunter communities left--the Guarani come to mind, and maybe Pict can comment on them, but I'm not sure which poison they use, if any.

Also, yes: killing your meal with poison puts you at risk. In some cases, careful food preparation will eliminate the poisons, but as with anything, if you eat enough of it over a long period of time, it has serious health effects.
 
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