blowgun

[Bhold]

Here´s an interesting site I found:
http://www.geocities.com/blowgunhunter/
not traditionally built, but probably will do the trick for you squirrel hunters. And you can invite me to go along too, when you field test it (never hunted squirrels, but will be back in your country in a few months!).

 

[C_Claycomb]

Please see the following thread
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?p=18841&highlight=blowgun#post18841

The general gist was that they are illegal over here, certainly for hunting.
Where abouts are you Bhold? If you are talking about using it "back" in the US it is probably okay but better to check the local laws.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Only one comment: Don't suck!

 

[BorderReiver]

Illegal to use,own,be in the same room as,etc.

Definitely a no-go area.

 

[Wayland]

I'm not questioning the law, but I can't help wondering what the situation is with pea-shooters.

I can't remember exactly where it was but I recall there is a band festival during which it was traditional for the kids to use pea-shooters to distract the bandsmen.

Everybody knew about it and most of the bandsmen wore safety glasses as a result.

It would be a shame if such old traditions fell foul of such well meaning legislation.

 

[RovingArcher]

They are illegal to use on this side of the water. Have a traditional Cherokee blowgun that is river cane and is hollowed by fire. The darts are fashioned from cane/bamboo skewers and thistle fluff. It works very well.

I also have one of the .40 aluminum commercial blowguns with a large assortment of both target and hunting darts. Illegal to use of course.

I've tried my hand at making up a good set. I used a 2 meter piece of 5/8" metal conduit as the BG and for the darts, I used finishing nails with cotton wool as well as the inside of a cig filter fluffed up as darts. Deadly accurate!

 

[QDanT]

I'm not questioning the law, but I can't help wondering what the situation is with pea-shooters.

The last time I had anything to do with blowpipes I was stationed at RAF Tengha Singapore in the late 60's and what struck me as clever was the use of two wooden tubes one inside the other,when not in use they were leaned up to create a bend, when wanted for use the inner tube was rotared 180 degrees to make it straight, with a palm leaf frond as dart with something like Elder pith for the flight.
Just to make a point at the time you bought your shotgun certificate at the post office for 7/6d.(37.5p)It was nothing to do with the Police!How times change

 

[Lurch]

I'm not questioning the law, but I can't help wondering what the situation is with pea-shooters.

Get the wrong PC Copper/prosecutor combination and you could be looking at a Section 5 charge.
As all a blowpipe is is a length of tube this a spectacularly dumb bit of legislation, nothing new there eh?

 

[BorderReiver]

Get the wrong PC Copper/prosecutor combination and you could be looking at a Section 5 charge.
As all a blowpipe is is a length of tube this a spectacularly dumb bit of legislation, nothing new there eh?

Amen

 

[Bhold]

Please see the following thread
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?p=18841&highlight=blowgun#post18841

The general gist was that they are illegal over here, certainly for hunting.
Where abouts are you Bhold? If you are talking about using it "back" in the US it is probably okay but better to check the local laws.

I´m in Brazil. Never been "back" in the US, but will go back to Manchester soon, so I am glad you told me that before I started to shoot rabbits...

 

[Hawkeye The Noo]

Just as well I read this as ignorance is no defence, once read a book The breath of Death, about blowpipes. Made a few of various lengths from copper piping and golf tees with piano wire. better get rid of them now.

Jamie

 

[Pappa]

One of the traditional South American methods for creating a blowgun was to entomb a grub in the pith of a long branch, completely sealing the end. It's only means of escape is to eat its way through the full length of pith and thence to freedom. The darts were/are made from slivers of bamboo with fluffy plant fibres (remarkably similar to cottom wool) wrapped around the blunt end to act as the air-seal. The business end of the dart was/is repeatedly dipped in a poison made from the exudate of the inner bark of various trees of the Virola genus. The poison doesn't kill the prey, but temporarily stupifies it.

Also, in the UK, they are only illegal to manufacture, sell, hire, give away, expose or possess for the purpose of selling or hiring. That does not include simple posession. It would of course be illegal to use one for hunting (as it's illegal to use most things which aren't a rifle, shotgun or air rifle for hunting the appropriate quarry).

Section 1.(k) - http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1988/Uksi_19882019_en_2.htm

So I suppose if you owned one before 1988, you can keep it at home. Although I'm not entirely sure what "expose" means. Would that include showing a friend or family member in your own home? Anyway, it hardly matters as I doubt many of us just happen to have a blowpipe that's been hanging around the house for the past 18 years.

You are however free to buy, sell, posess and expose antique blowpipes, assuming you could find one.

Pappa

 

[Martyn]

You are however free to buy, sell, posess and expose antique blowpipes, assuming you could find one.

Pappa

Yes, but the act defines antique as...

2. For the purposes of this Schedule, a weapon is an antique if it was manufactured more than 100 years before the date of any offence alleged to have been committed in respect of that weapon under subsection (1) of the said section 141 or section 50(2) or (3) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979[2] (improper importation).

The noteworthy phrase being....

"before the date of any offence alleged to have been committed in respect of that weapon"

So to get your "date" you first have to find out when the first known offence alleged (note, only alleged) to have been commited, then subtract your 100 years.

You could well end up looking for an item several hundred years old.

 

[bushtuckerman]

These natural fibres are probably kapok, as used in pillows.

hmm...never really thought about the law as regards blowpipes, living as i do right out in the sticks, i mean i've got a recurve bow and that is much more dangerous and perfectly legal...as far as i know. so i better disassemble the 9ft fake bamboo one i made a few years back then. I used bamboo slivers a foot long with fire-hardened tips, made round and polished with sunflower oil, with cotton wool wrapped round for the plug. the maximum trajectory was about 150 yards....but that's all in the past of course. i'll have to grow some runner beans with it now...

 

[Pappa]

These natural fibres are probably kapok, as used in pillows.

That's right, I remember now reading that it's Kapok. Around that time, I was also reading the book, "The Great Kapok Tree" to my son, so it stuck in my head (although it obviously didn't stick that well ).

As has been mentioned, where exactly do pea-shooters lie in relation to all this? As we know, flint knives are all technically illegal to manufacture, posess, sell and import. Do you think pea-shooters are also at least technically illegal?

As for the antique blowpipe thing, it would be 100 years before the time you were arrested for commiting an offence (possession, sale, etc.) with it, not 100 before the time an offence was first commited with it. Besides, if the offence was commited before 1988, it wouldn't be an offence anyway.

Pappa

 

[longshot]

it's illegal to make flint knives? so you can't make sharp rocks in the UK but you can sharpen steel into a knife?

I don't get it.


dean

breaking rocks in Canada

 

[Martyn]

As we know, flint knives are all technically illegal to manufacture, posess, sell and import.

Eh?

Are you sure you dont mean flick knives?

 

[Graham_S]

if you want to get silly, a skipping rope is an illegal weapon as it matches the description of a japanese martial arts weapon called a suruchin (sp)
i.e. a length of rope with a weight (the handle) at each end.

 

[Martyn]

Ahhh, I've just twigged. I think Pappa must be referring to the banning of stealth knives. Knives made to be invisible to metal detectors.

 

[Toddy]

.............

So I suppose if you owned one before 1988, you can keep it at home. Although I'm not entirely sure what "expose" means. Would that include showing a friend or family member in your own home? Anyway, it hardly matters as I doubt many of us just happen to have a blowpipe that's been hanging around the house for the past 18 years.................

Pappa

Hmmm, needle darts and all.
I didn't know about this. I knew it was illegal to hunt with them but I didn't know it wasn't on to own them for target shooting.
My brother brought it back from one of his tours over twenty years ago for the boys.
I'll deal with it.
Thanks folks,

Cheers,
Toddy