Blowpipes and Blowguns

[BOD]

Came across this link while researching fire pistons. Never realise so many cultures used blowguns.

Thought it might interest members.

http://www.alcheminc.com/blowgunhist.html

 

[drewdunnrespect]

not trying to break forums rules but when i read blowpipes and blowguns i thought u were meaning sum type of sex toy i will leave the rest up to the sick imgagination of any one who reads this post lololololol

 

[BOD]

not trying to break forums rules but when i read blowpipes and blowguns i thought u were meaning sum type of sex toy i will leave the rest up to the sick imgagination of any one who reads this post lololololol

I wonder what you thought a fire piston was then - a hot rod?

 

[h2o]

i made a blow pipe recently but then i was informed they are illegal in the uk !!!

 

[Lurch]

Bizarrely so.
Section 5 restricted weapon.
The wording technically includes peashooters!

 

[Matt.S]

Yup, and so are tazers and pepper soary, CS spray etc. A .50BMG bolt-action rifle on the other hand is a Section 1 firearm...

 

[Pict]

Section 5 restricted weapon...

I feel your pain.

When I was a kid I saw a Charles Bronson movie in which he made a blowgun out of a lamp and some wood screws with paper cones on the back. The scene of him making it was very detailed and I was in the garage before the credits finished rolling. Sho'nuff that thing was weapons grade no doubt about it.

Here in South America the blowgun is quite common. It's the poison on the dart that does all the work. Without it you only give the quarry a pinprick.

Recently on a hike I made my kids a pair of little blowguns out of Taquara (like bamboo) with little bamboo darts and sheeps wool as fluff on the darts. We had collected a big ball of wool from a barbed wire fenceline. They were harmless but my six year old was ready to strip down to a loincloth and go native. No leaf was safe. Mac

 

[Chopper]

Bizarrely so.
Section 5 restricted weapon.
The wording technically includes peashooters!

Bugger...should I wait for the next amnesty before I hand my peashooter collection in, or do you thing I might be safe to do it now ?????

 

[BOD]

Section 5 restricted weapon...

I feel your pain.

When I was a kid I saw a Charles Bronson movie in which he made a blowgun out of a lamp and some wood screws with paper cones on the back. The scene of him making it was very detailed and I was in the garage before the credits finished rolling. Sho'nuff that thing was weapons grade no doubt about it.

... Mac

Which movie?

 

[clcuckow]

Which movie?

From memory I think it was "Love and Bullets" I know it was one of the one, with his misses of the time co-staring.

I also made one with my landing net handle and I can see why they would want to ban them I was driving nails into the wooden garage door from twenty feet (from the business end of the pipe) with easy and I was only about 13/14 at the time and I was getting 3" groups.

Edit:

Just checked on IMDB and it was Love and Bullets.

 

[Pict]

Love and bullets sounds right. IIRC his wife was Jill Ireland and she was in it too. Its been a long time. In the movie he takes a guy out with a woodscrew to the head. In reality it would screw a guy up (sorry) but I doubt it would nail him down (sorry again). Mac

Come to think of it this movie is probably why they are banned in the UK... A clear call for a crackdown on lamp post / high velocity woodscrew crime.

 

[irishlostboy]

i got a go on a blowpipe there recently. bamboo body. coper pipe for the barrel through the middle. beeswax mouthseal. the darts were aprox 4inch long with plastic grommet type seals. obviously made commercially for blowpipes. the range and accuracy was astounding.
as for legalities, i cant see how it should be any more illegal than a bow and arrow. minus poison they are pretty weak for weapons. but then i am sure there is a burocratic reason of some kind.

 

[clcuckow]

i got a go on a blowpipe there recently. bamboo body. coper pipe for the barrel through the middle. beeswax mouthseal. the darts were aprox 4inch long with plastic grommet type seals. obviously made commercially for blowpipes. the range and accuracy was astounding.
as for legalities, i cant see how it should be any more illegal than a bow and arrow. minus poison they are pretty weak for weapons. but then i am sure there is a burocratic reason of some kind.

I think it because it could be considered a covert weapon and does not require a lot of skill. When you look at most of the items in that section are covert in nature.

When you thing of it a blowpipe depending on it length could look like anything from a trekking pole or a length of pipe/poll and would not attract any attention, yet it could be deployed in seconds. But a bow and arrow looks like, a bow and arrow, is not very easy to conceal, and require a far degree of skill and is completely legal to carry with good cause.

 

[irishlostboy]

I think it because it could be considered a covert weapon.....

ya, i guess. makes sense. and depending how your knowledge of poison is, it could be much more lethal than a bow and arrow too i guess. so ya, good point. (lame pun not intended)

 

[fishy1]

ya, i guess. makes sense. and depending how your knowledge of poison is, it could be much more lethal than a bow and arrow too i guess. so ya, good point. (lame pun not intended)

But to be honest, their's nothing to stop you poisoning an arrowhead either.

 

[fishy1]

Found a good video of ray mears and blowpipes on youtube, not allowed to post here though, but it looked pretty good, the dart went straght through a bird.

 

[irishlostboy]

But to be honest, their's nothing to stop you poisoning an arrowhead either.

ya, but the arrow still leaves a rather large hole in a person when used as a weapon. the pinprick of i fine dart would be less easy to find and identify i would imagine.