# Anyone here use a blowgun?



## cutlerylover (Jan 28, 2007)

I use to have a blowgun back in the day...I had alot of fun playign with it in the backyard with foam targets and cardboard targets...Anyway I recently saw cold steels blowguns in a demo video and I was thinking about getting back into it...You can buy the shorter 18-24" ones now and days for under $10 and the darts and targets are cheap too...I was just wondering who has them and if you use them or not? I remember shooting all kinds of stuff with my old one! It was my 1st cool dangerous toy...I had a slingshot when I was about 10 years old but it was a cheap one and it broke..then when I was 12 I had the blowgun, but then a year passed and I got my 1st pellet gun so the blowgun kind of just collected dust, then one day I just gave it to a friend who thought it was cool...but like I said I miss it a bit and I think I am gloing to buy a new one soon...I was just wondering who does it for fun or maybe even small game hunting? I don't hunt myself but I know that there are people out there who hunt small rodents or birds with these blowguns...So if you have a cool blowgun experience or if I just made you remember you had one let me know, Thanks!


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## Sharpdogs (Jan 28, 2007)

I have a couple including the Cold Steel model. There are three calibers, .40, .50 and .68. The Cold Steel model is the .68. All three are extremely accurate and you should be able to hit a softball size target at 30 feet after a little practice. For hunting I would only use the .68 caliber for a humane kill. The others are best suited for target shooting. I also recommend the .50 cal as your first blowgun. You need to develop some lung power to start using the .68. Plus the .50 is very cheap. You will be surpirsed how accurate these primitive weapons can be. Remember these are not toys, they can inflict serious injury.

Here's some links for you.

http://www.network54.com/Index/40904

http://www.echigo.ne.jp/~dhiguchi/index_e.html

http://groups.msn.com/BlowgunsNorthwestPlayersGroup/_messageboard.msnw

http://www.blowgunsnw.com/


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## gadget_lover (Jan 28, 2007)

My dad was an engineer. One day he brough home some blue-prints that had been rolled real tight. They were taped along the length. We were blown away when he casually loaded a glass-tack into it and nailed a coffee can on the other end of the garage. He and his co-workers were making these on their lunch hour and having competitions.

Needless to say, we started a wave of blowgun competition among the kids in the neighborhood. I can't count the number of times I ended hit with a dart. The point was only 3/8 inch, but MAN did that hurt.

I have some thin wall 1/4 inch aluminum tubing in the garage. Hmmmmmm. 

Daniel


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## Strauss (Jan 28, 2007)

Those look really cool! And cheap enough to pick one up for the heck of it....hmmm


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## cutlerylover (Jan 28, 2007)

Thanks guys for the replies...and thanks sharpdogs for the links...I know these are fun, but I also understand the danger aspect as well, these are weapons and can inflict alot of pain and serious injury...Anyway they can be alot of fun! I have always shopped at smokey mountain knife works for little items and some cheap knife stuff and I saw they have a decent selection on some blowgun stuff...This is the same place I got my 1st one wayback when...If anyone is interested here is a link...

http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...hText=blowgun&list=10&range=1&order=PriceDesc


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## bobisculous (Jan 28, 2007)

When I hit the glass on the screen door, shattering it, the second time, my mom took it from me. 

-C


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## mtbkndad (Jan 28, 2007)

I think blow guns would be a blast, but they are illegal to own in CA :hairpull: .

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:


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## gorn (Jan 28, 2007)

We used to make blowguns when I was in junior high out of bic pens, pins, yarn, and thread. As I got older I bought a couple of the production types. They are a ton of fun and amazingly accurate. To bad as with a lot of fun things they are now illegal in the peoples republik of kalifornia.


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## cutlerylover (Jan 28, 2007)

Yeah that stinks...Pellet guns and slingshots as well as blowguns I believe were all illegal in Jersey where I lived most of my life, but it didn't stop me from using them, infact one day the police drove by and saw me shooting my pellet gun and I was soooo scared that I was going to get into trouble, but he told me to paint the tip of it orange so that other cops and other people will know its not a real gun, I was amazed I didn't get into trouble...The only thign that ever got me into trouble was my little moped I made...it was loud and an old couple complained about the noise so the cops stopped by and told me I couldn't drive it around my house...but I could understand that...


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## Norm (Jan 28, 2007)

Sharpdogs said:


> For hunting I would only use the .68 caliber for a human kill.


:shakehead


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## gorn (Jan 28, 2007)

Norm said:


> :shakehead



I agree with you on that one Norm.

If i'm not mistaken the cultures that actually use blowguns generally also use poison to kill the target animal. Using one of these things on a human, even .68 cal is just stupid. They are short range and have no knockdown power. Your shoot someone with a blowgun and you may get a .68 cal suppository.


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## cutlerylover (Jan 28, 2007)

LOL, human? I thought that was humane spelled wrong...I thought he was saying a humane kill like a quick kill to the animal so it doesn't suffer...lol, am I wrong? 

By the way I agree witht he poison statement...I saw a special on tribes who live in the rain forest who rub the tips of their darts on tree frogs and the poison kills animals instantly!


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## turbodog (Jan 29, 2007)

You mean like this?

I made the same thing. We had much better luck with masking tape to hold it together. Many times I would hear a pffft and then I would be clawing for a dart that would be stuck in my back somewhere!

I kept these to show my kids. To show them what NOT to do in school. They are quite old, ~20+ years.





gorn said:


> We used to make blowguns when I was in junior high out of bic pens, pins, yarn, and thread. As I got older I bought a couple of the production types. They are a ton of fun and amazingly accurate. To bad as with a lot of fun things they are now illegal in the peoples republik of kalifornia.


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## cutlerylover (Jan 29, 2007)

cool, thanks for sharing! I remember when I was in grade school...4th grade or so...we use to take out pens apart and shoot the ink tube/metal tip of the pen with mini homeade bow and arrows we made by using a large paparclip unfolding it, and attaching a rubber band! We had about 30 stuck into the ceiling of our cafeteria before a teacher finally saw them and we all got into trouble...we had to help mop the floors that day after school...god, the good ol' days huh...


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## lukus (Jan 29, 2007)

When I was 12 or 13 I ordered a blowgun from the back of a comic book. The 6' Jivaro...."so powerful this man killed a 35lb. anteater". I was never sure why someone would want to kill an anteater but I had to have it. Several weeks later I was outside when the UPS truck pulled up and the driver pulled out a 6' long box. I vaulted over a retaining wall and a chaise lounge to get to that truck. That started my love affair with UPS drivers, AKA "brown santas". 

That blowgun was a hoot. Had to make my own darts by boiling a string of plastic beads to pull them off the string, cut the needle wires to length, heat the tip of the needle with a propane torch and melt it into the bead. You young uns with your fancy schmancy pre made darts don't know how easy you have it. 

The first time I showed one of my friends the blowgun we were shooting it at my phone book target across the living room and down the hallway. He didn't think there could really be any power because of how easy it was. I told him I could shoot it through a 1/2" piece of plywood and he just wouldn't believe it. I walked to the target and retrieved the darts. I had just turned back around when he shot me in the thigh. It didn't really hurt, but I could tell it was deep. "Jeez Larry, what are you doing? I yelled. A conversation ensued with Larry saying it didn't really hurt and me trying to convince him it was in my leg pretty deep. I couldn't really walk because it had pinned my bluejeans to my leg. Larry wouldn't come over to look because he was now sure I would grab the blowgun and shoot him. I finally took a partial step towards him and he jumped back and shot me in the leg again - this time about an inch higher than the first. This time I told him if he didn't put the blowgun down and come over to look, I was going to pull the darts out and kick his ***. He came over and watched, wide-eyed while I pinched the dart and pulled 2" of needle out of my leg. The second one was also in about 2", he felt pretty bad and apologized with the excuse that he didn't blow very hard.

I've had several through the years since then, but that one was the best. My others were a 2 piece, a 3' and a 2'. Get the longest. It's awkward, but the difference in power is enormous, and it's much easier to shoot with accuracy. 

Post Script: A few years ago for Chistmas, I got several of my nephews the little 24" blowguns with the all plastic "safe" darts (no needle at all). They ran wildly around the house shooting each other and hollering maniacally. When they finally had enough they sat around comparing welts. That cemented my reputation as the cool uncle.


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## Kevin Tan (Jan 29, 2007)

Cool gift idea, lukus!!


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## Sharpdogs (Jan 29, 2007)

I definitely meant humane kill for hunting small game. This is the price I pay for being dependent on spellcheck.


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## cutlerylover (Jan 29, 2007)

Sharpdogs said:


> I definitely meant humane kill for hunting small game. This is the price I pay for being dependent on spellcheck.


 
lol, ok, thats what I thought! Don't worry about it, I for one never use spellcheck and my fingers are faster than my brain so I always have little errors...but most of the time you can understand what Im saying, lol, but in your case that one mistake took the statement to whole other level, lol...


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## Nomad (May 1, 2007)

I actually just started up a Yahoo! Group for blowgunners...the URL (not too surprisingly) is *http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blowguns/*Feel free to stop on by. It's all lonely at the moment. I posted pictures of some darts I'm working on in the photos section. Right now I'm down to a 62.5 caliber Cold Steel Big Bore (6', I semi-permanently attatched the 2' extension) and a little 3' 40 caliber. I had a half dozen of the things, but my niece in Vegas has two of them (a little 25 caliber that I made to shoot needle darts, and a commercial 40 caliber in purple with a bunch of stun darts, she's only 10 after all), and my nephews in CA have a couple (before I learned that those nazis in CA made them illegal). Thinking of picking up a 50 caliber but since I make my own darts I like them to be interchangeable... bad enough I already have a 40 and a 62.5!


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## Eskimonio (May 1, 2007)

lukus said:


> That blowgun was a hoot. Had to make my own darts by boiling a string of plastic beads to pull them off the string, cut the needle wires to length, heat the tip of the needle with a propane torch and melt it into the bead. You young uns with your fancy schmancy pre made darts don't know how easy you have it.


 
I think I had the SAME one...if I recall correctly, the beads were translucent Orange, the kind you'd see in some '70s shag-pad hanging down in place of a bedroom door.

I also remember you had to heat the wire if you wanted to attach the 'broadheads', or you could cut the wire at a steep angle as opposed to straight across, so your darts had a better point.


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## eebowler (May 1, 2007)

Never had an actual 'blowgun' but came up with my own version in the early teen years. I got hold of a length of 1/2 in PVC pipe and initially used plumb seeds as the projectiles. That worked good but the dry seeds were light and they often were a bit too small and rattled arround in the pipe on their way out. 

Eventually, I discovered that a balled up sheet of wet toilet paper worked perfectly. They wern't intended to do damage but just to reach far. My brother and I used to shoot wasps nests, and the cats with them and eventually upgraded to 'shooting' people as they drove by in cars.... :sick2: (Forgive me, we were bored kids.) The fun stopped for a while when I hit a man in his face. He stopped, got out and spoke to my father..... It completely stopped when I aimed the pipe at my brother and he blocked his face by pushing away the pipe. I had the pipe in my mouth and ended up with a chipped tooth... Bad teeth with a chipped front tooth isn't a good combo...lol


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## Nomad (May 1, 2007)

Eskimonio said:


> I think I had the SAME one...if I recall correctly, the beads were translucent Orange, the kind you'd see in some '70s shag-pad hanging down in place of a bedroom door.
> 
> I also remember you had to heat the wire if you wanted to attach the 'broadheads', or you could cut the wire at a steep angle as opposed to straight across, so your darts had a better point.


 
I had that same blowgun with the beads and all! Actually I'd like to find some 10mm beads for my little 40 cal. blowgun.  Anyway this was back in the early 80s I'm sure of it! Used to hunt grasshoppers...they were always eating the veggies in my garden...

...now I'm hunting rabbits 'cause they're eating the veggies in my garden. 

Damn I'm still a kid. LOL


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## FRANKVZ (May 1, 2007)

mtbkndad said:


> I think blow guns would be a blast, but they are illegal to own in CA :hairpull: .
> 
> Take Care,
> mtbkndad :wave:



It seems almost everything is illegal to own in the country of California. I heard there's a proposal to make registering your flashlights mandatory.


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## CLHC (May 1, 2007)

mtbkndad said:


> I think blow guns would be a blast, but they are illegal to own in CA :hairpull: .
> 
> Take Care,
> mtbkndad :wave:


I have to agree with that and sadly so. . .Anyhou, I've seen a lot (and I mean A LOT) of these blowguns at the local markets when I visited the Philippines as a little boy and always wanted one, but no chance! Sure would like to try one out as I've never had the opportunity.

Thought I saw a Crawford made multi tool version of this, but don't remember.

Enjoy!


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## Nomad (May 2, 2007)

I was actually just looking at the Crawford survival staff thingamajig. To tell the truth I'd rather just make a blowgun out of 1/2" nominal conduit. It's so cheap! That'll give you approx. .625" ID in reality, the same as those "Big Bore" Cold Steel brand blowguns. The one I used to use shot very nicely, I used 3 1/2" nails with a long tapering paper cone superglued to the end for target darts. 

http://f9g.yahoofs.com/groups/g_20146959/d31c/__sr_/bddb.jpg?grA9KOGBCxlUKERr These are some of the darts I've made lately, assuming that shows up. 

Another project I'm interested in is adding a mount for a small LED light to a blowgun for shooting at night. I need something small and cheap with good throw...and LED. Yup I'm a wishful thinker, huh?

By the way, what the heck can you do with a dead rabbit?


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## Mike Painter (May 2, 2007)

gorn said:


> I agree with you on that one Norm.
> 
> If i'm not mistaken the cultures that actually use blowguns generally also use poison to kill the target animal. Using one of these things on a human, even .68 cal is just stupid. They are short range and have no knockdown power. Your shoot someone with a blowgun and you may get a .68 cal suppository.



My first blow gun experience was at a party. It was a six foot piece of 1/2 inch (50 cal) electrical conduit, a four inch sharpened nail and a piece of paper stuck on the end. The target was the telephone pole on the other side of the road. Cute, I thought, until he hit it hard enough to make it hard to pull the nail out.
On a human at short range, say 20 or less feet, they can penetrate the head from the side, the neck and almost any other area of the body with ease and in a very short time you could hit a heart sized object at that distance. They may not have "knock down" power, but then nothing you can fire from the hand except rockets will actually knock anything down.

Officer: How did the man die?

Suspect: Well we were fooling around with a blow gun and I shot him. I thought it was just for fun but he got really mad and while I was reloading he took it from me and shoved it up my rear. He asked how I liked a .68 cal supos..., and then I farted.


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## Nanook (May 3, 2007)

Nomad said:


> I had that same blowgun with the beads and all! Actually I'd like to find some 10mm beads for my little 40 cal. blowgun.  Anyway this was back in the early 80s I'm sure of it!


Wow, I bet mine is still in the closet at my Dad's house in VT. I remember if you wanted to go "deluxe" they sold these yellow cones to use in place of the beads.

Good thing I haven't thought of it in years. I may have brought it out to CA and that would be bad. I wouldn't want to be in violation of the law...


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## Nomad (May 3, 2007)

Those 1/2" electrical conduit blowguns can work really well. I'm not sure how to go about polishing the inside for better performance but you can get two 5' guns out of a single $2 piece of conduit, that's a pretty darn good deal. My current gun that I use the most is a 6' long cold steel model (4' with the 2' exention more or less permanently stuck there, it'd take a lot of work to get it off but it's much more stable than if it was easily removable!). I also used to have one of those old Jivaro models that came with the beads. I think I was 10 or 11 or somewhere about that. LOL Take down a 35 lbs anteater indeed...those little needle type darts were lucky to take down a grasshopper. Accurate as heck though, I upgraded and went for the cones 'cause I kept cracking the beads. 


On another note, I always wondered about those anti-blowgun laws. Was there a rash of ninja style killings? (thpt, thump, damn poison) How about the laws against throwing stars? Damn ninjas ruined it for everyone. I say protest by everyone moving out of the states with those laws. ;-)


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## crossliner67 (Jul 4, 2010)

Ohh blowguns!:huh: Can we revive this thread? Hehe! The last post is 3 years old.


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## crossliner67 (Jul 4, 2010)

Nomad said:


> I was actually just looking at the Crawford survival staff thingamajig. To tell the truth I'd rather just make a blowgun out of 1/2" nominal conduit. It's so cheap! That'll give you approx. .625" ID in reality, the same as those "Big Bore" Cold Steel brand blowguns. The one I used to use shot very nicely, I used 3 1/2" nails with a long tapering paper cone superglued to the end for target darts.
> 
> http://f9g.yahoofs.com/groups/g_20146959/d31c/__sr_/bddb.jpg?grA9KOGBCxlUKERr These are some of the darts I've made lately, assuming that shows up.
> 
> ...


I have just this. I mean a blowgun w/ a light.:laughing:


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## cave dave (Jul 4, 2010)

I have heard the two part ones don't work as well as a single shorter one. Any added power from the length is lost to the joint. I am sure this is hotly debated on some blowgun forum somewhere.

I had a 4 footer that I traded with a gerber LST for a small compound bow. The bow was too small so I wished I had kept the Blowgun.


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## crossliner67 (Jul 4, 2010)

Yes a single section is better than a breakdown model. I use blowguns to hunt rats btw. Used to do birds but I don't anymore.:wave:


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## crossliner67 (Sep 28, 2010)

I love blowguns too gents. I use them to hunt vermin. Hitting a cig butt at 10 meters w/ a limit of 3 darts is not a problem for me. I can launch a dart to almost 200 feet and my velocity readings so far hit the 265 fps mark depending on the dart.


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## funkychateau (Sep 28, 2010)

As a teenage kid, I made blowguns from extruded aluminum pipe from a metal warehouse in Memphis. I took a plastic golf tee to the warehouse, and the salesman walked me around until I found the correct size pipe to provide a perfect slip fit. At home, I'd clip the points off the golf tees and heat music-wire shafts to melt into the tees for darts. I made a "mouthpiece" from a rubber furniture caster. Having something to press your lips against makes it much easier to get a seal when you exhale hard. Plus, it keeps you from accidentally ramming the gun down your throat if you walk the end into a tree 

Years later, I and a few co-workers also bought from the "Jivaro" ad in a Popular Mechanics magazine. This was back in the early '80s.

I remember that ad as the most complex piece of paste-up I'd ever seen in my entire life, and reduced to a size that almost required reading glasses to see. And the options were endless - the more "guns" you ordered, the more free stuff you got. After canvassing every guy in the lab that might be remotely interested, I think our final order was netting us about 15 blowguns, thousands of darts, free quivers, slings, targets, everthing you could imagine.

We fully expected an order of this size to arrive in multiple trucks. Imagine our shock when we received a single seven-foot-long box about a foot wide! Upon opening, we initially felt we'd been gypped ... a big roll of plastic beads on a string, 3-foot-long bundles of wire stuffed inside the blowgun tubes, etc. The "quivers" (wads of foam rubber) and "slings" (plastic straping) were almost thrown away as packing material. 

But, we diligently followed the instructions, assembling the guns, clipping the wires into short pieces, pulling beads off the strings, etc. When it was all done, we were impressed and happy again.

"35-lb anteater, killed without poison". Must have been a terribly slow torture, if it was by having holes poked in him with the slender music-wire darts. Hopefully the guy had mercy and beat the thing to death with the aluminum tube.


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## funkychateau (Sep 28, 2010)

Crossliner, how do you make the dart shown in your picture? Or, if purchased, where?


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## crossliner67 (Sep 28, 2010)

funkychateau said:


> Crossliner, how do you make the dart shown in your picture? Or, if purchased, where?


They are home brewed Funkychateu. I have custom made punches for disk making. This type of dart is unbelievably accurate and fast. Sorry but I will just get back to you later. Good morning.:wave:


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## crossliner67 (Sep 29, 2010)

Hello again FC. If you still have the Jivaro you could procure .38 caliber cone darts for it from Target Zone or Blowguns Northwest but I would opt for the former as they have myriad selections. Incidentally the Jivaro is considered a collector's item by aficinados albeit their pecuniary value is not really astounding.
The featured dart is a .50 caliber multi size disk hunting disk dart sporting a stainless 1/16 x 5" rod. I utilize carbon fiber shaft in lieu of its steel cousin for my target darts. A machinist friend of mine made a set of customized punches in various calibers to suit my needs. He also did all the tooling on my blowgun embellishments and although I use my somewhat modernized primitive airguns for my unholy hour rat hunts they are still devoid of scratches or dings.
I am now close to 1,500 ratkills:thumbsup:


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## crossliner67 (Oct 1, 2010)

Nomad said:


> Those 1/2" electrical conduit blowguns can work really well. I'm not sure how to go about polishing the inside for better performance but you can get two 5' guns out of a single $2 piece of conduit, that's a pretty darn good deal. My current gun that I use the most is a 6' long cold steel model (4' with the 2' exention more or less permanently stuck there, it'd take a lot of work to get it off but it's much more stable than if it was easily removable!). I also used to have one of those old Jivaro models that came with the beads. I think I was 10 or 11 or somewhere about that. LOL Take down a 35 lbs anteater indeed...those little needle type darts were lucky to take down a grasshopper. Accurate as heck though, I upgraded and went for the cones 'cause I kept cracking the beads.
> 
> 
> On another note, I always wondered about those anti-blowgun laws. Was there a rash of ninja style killings? (thpt, thump, damn poison) How about the laws against throwing stars? Damn ninjas ruined it for everyone. I say protest by everyone moving out of the states with those laws. ;-)


I polished my bg bores by using an electric drill w/ a long and solid carbon fiber in place of a drill bit. I secured a cotton cloth swabbed w/ AUTOSOL polishing compound and let it whir. They now shine like a mirror and my velocity readings has increased dramatically






. My blowgun buddies can only do less than 150 fps. I also lube my bore w/ virgin coco oil to avoid toxic issues. A teflon based lube is the best there is but I would not recommend it. These chrono readings were from my .55 caliber x 4' (yes a mere 4 footer) using 1.87 gram vinyl cone w/ carbon fiber dart weighing 1.87 grams. It was at 6:30 in the morning. My hunting blowgun is also a .55 caliber but longer by 1 foot. I think I can do almost 300 fps using my 5 footer. Sorry about the crappy target face. I just taped it there to act as a dart stopper.


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## Gnosses (Oct 6, 2010)

So simple to make and deadly accurate with a little practice. Maybe upgrade to a power supply and integrate laser...


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## crossliner67 (Oct 9, 2010)

Gnosses said:


> So simple to make and deadly accurate with a little practice. Maybe upgrade to a power supply and integrate laser...


Some buddies of mine do use laser but it is only good for 30-35 feet. Makes you dependent w/c actually does not help if you want to hone your skill as a blowgunner. Also it ceases to be a blowgun if you are going to attach an air power source to it. I used to hunt birds but not anymore as I pity them. Good evening Gnosses...My dog Barney's eyes is in moon mode gents hehe.


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## BigMHoff (Nov 1, 2010)

So for rat killing behind a firehouse, what home made darts would go best with 1/2" conduit??


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