[Fiveshooter]

Hi folks this is my first post here as I'm trying to help my son make some decisions. We recently picked up a pair of Cold Steel .625 caliber Tim Wells signature series blowguns.

My son wants the impossible to find 5' one piece professional model.

He's already acclimated to the 5' length. He knows if he gets a one piece professional model he will have to settle on a 4' model so here are my (his) questions for anyone that has both lengths.

Is there any appreciable velocity loss from a 4' model compared to the 5' model?

Is there any appreciable accuracy loss from a 4' model compared to the 5' model?

I do appreciate any answers I can get from anyone that has both lengths.

We will both be getting 4' one piece blowguns in .40 caliber as that's the caliber we both shot several years ago. At that time .40 caliber was about the only thing we could get commercially.

I do remember a rather drastic velocity difference between a 4' and 3' in .40 caliber. I would not say I had much if any decrease in accuracy at short range but the 3' model simply did not have the range of the 4 foot model.

I expect we will both be getting a .50 caliber in 5' as well once we decide on which model to get. I will probably be happier using the middle of the road caliber as long as there is a good choice of available dart types.

Any models for .50 caliber recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[treefork]

I have a couple of five foot standard wall and one 4 foot Professional . I prefer the standard 5 foot 2 piece. Most likely because I have shot it more .The Pofessional model uses heavier wall tubing .The lighter blowgun is is easier to carry and shoot . The heavy walled professional seems unnecessary . The claim is you can use it as a walking stick and club like weapon . I don't feel their is a big difference in accuracy or power in the 12 inch difference between the four and five footer . It does feel weird when going to a four foot after shooting a five footer . Probably because your aiming reference is 12 inches closer . There is a brand of 50 cal guys on here rave about . Don't remember the name . If you search it will come up. IMO . The 62 cal 5 foot is the best commercial blow gun . Very accurate with power also .

 

[Fiveshooter]

Thanks treefork. I'm with you on the lighter blowgun being better as as far as I can tell a standard 1.5mm wall in a tube that big would be plenty stiff and not easily bent. I think the ones we bought have 1.7mm thick walls. He certainly would not use any blowgun as a walking stick but thinks the 2.5mm walls would be much harder to get accidentally bent. There has to be a reason they discontinued the 5 foot heavy wall model and my guess would be lack of sales which would speak for itself. He thinks it needs to be one piece but i think the Cold Steel barrel threaded piece keeps them as straight as a one piece. They are a far cry better than the older plastic connection parts and perhaps he is thinking back to how crappy those really were.

I'll get him the 4' heavy wall and let him decide for himself which one he prefers.

 

[spinnervin]

Hi Fiveshooter:

I have been shooting all sizes of blowguns scene the 1980's. I started with making them out of 1/2 EMT electrical conduit, six feet long using big nails and paper cones. The darts would hit like a freight train. I have a few 40 cal blowguns in 4 and 5 ft. They are good for target practice very accurate but I would never hunt with them.

I made a 6ft. 62.cal blowgun from aluminium conduit it is heavy like the CS professional model but very accurate and with noticeably more powerful than a 4ft and even 5ft.

I also own the 4.ft Cold Steel blowgun both the standard 1.7 mm and the Professional model which is 3.mm thick. Side by side you can feel the weight difference, which according to Cold Steel is 45% heaver. Both are good but I like the mouth piece on the pro better. As for a walking stick for a man of average height 4ft. works well I am only 5'9. A five foot is so so a six foot is too big. If you are doing a lot of walking through heavy brush a 6 foot blowgun is going to get caught up in everything. But if not the added length will help if you have the lung power.

I also have 3 of the Cold Steel Professional model's in the 5.ft length. For some reason Cold Steel stopped making this model ( I emailed them and called them and they would not give me a straight answer as to why). My guess is they did not sell as well and cost more to ship. The added weight at 5 ft. would make long shooting sessions hard for young shooters and some women. My boys are almost 10 and the five foot pro is very hard for them to shoot. They both do well with the standard 4.ft model and the 4 ft. pro. They both like the 4 ft. pro better. They will be getting them for Christmas. Also like I said have 3 of the five foot pro model. One is mine and the other two I found online to buy them for my boys when they get bigger I got them for 29.99 I lucked out.

Talking about the Tim Wells model they use a similar mouthpiece as the professional model and a fore grip added as well. But as you know being a two piece model it is the thinner 1.7mm which is still very stiff and strong. The funny thing is if you watch Tim Wells on YouTube he has never done a video killing anything with his own Slock Master model. The last video he did back in July killing a black bear he used the standard Cold Steel 5 ft. two piece blowgun. Why would he not push his own model, he sells them on his website:

I know I kind of jumped around a bit here. The advantages of the standard 4 ft. model, is one it is lighter, great for extended shooting if you shoot less than 15 yards you should be fine. The other thing you can do is add the two ft. extension Cold Steel sells for the standard model only (not the pro model) to give you a 6 foot blowgun if you are shooting stationary. It gives you the best of both worlds. For a walking stick I would go for the 4ft. pro. But hey these are cheap Midwayusa sell the 4 ft. standard for 23.99 and the 4 ft. pro for 27.99 on sale now. Buy both. Any questions let me know.

I am working on making replacement dart cones that are indestructible if enough people want them. As well as a better mouthpiece. You can't buy just the cones from Cold Steel like the 40 and 50 cal blowguns. Oh and the 50 cal. model every one is raving about is the all american made Extreme Precision CT (STANDS FOR CLOSE TOLERANCE) made and sold by www.blowgun.com.

Any questions let me know.

Regards,

SpinnerVin

 

[Fiveshooter]

Thanks for all the answers. My son's 4' pro arrived today. He hasn't shot it yet. He is upset they dropped the 5' model but he's not going to do anything at over 10 yards with any of them. I would have liked to get a 5' pro model myself but I would be fine with the 4' model. We both used to enjoy the early .40 caliber ones in 4' but neither of us has owned one for years until we saw the bear kill video. That got us both thinking about them again. He got a 4' .40 caliber yesterday and I will get one to but just for target shooting. We also both want a 5' .50 caliber and will buy those soon. The only 5' model I find is by Commando. I have no idea of the quality but if we want 5' in .50 caliber I have not found any other choices.

You happen to know anything about that model?

I do really appreciate all the information. I am liking this again already. We have a big flock of pigeons that roost about a block from the house. We are going to put small piles of bird food at intervals and a huge pile in the back yard. If we can lure them here to feed daily I'll be having pigeon for dinner a couple of night a week

Do you know if they make the Extreme Precision CT in .50 at 5'? I only see it in 4' model.

Best Wishes,

Billy

 

[spinnervin]

Hi Billy:

I have talked to the owner of blowguns.net (supper nice guy BTW) who makes the Extreme Precision CT. I asked him why he does not make these in the 5ft. length. He said it is too expensive to ship. So the longest they make is 4.ft. I think if we could get enough people to sign an online request for Cold Steel to make the 5.ft pro model again we may have a shot at making that happens.

One thing I noticed on all the blowguns now coming out of Cold Steel which was not the case with them a few years back, is all the ends of the bore have not been crowned like my older models. If you run your finger nail on the inside of the bore you will feel a sharp lip that will shave your nail. This lip will catch the end of the dart cone as it leaves the blowgun and affect accuracy and velocity. I let Cold Steel know this and they did not seem to care. The end of the bores on both ends are cut and not tapered. I will show a photo. What I did at my shop was use a de-burning tool to take the lip off. If you want to go the extra step to protect the bare aluminum is get some cold aluminum gun bluing touch up and coat the area.

See photos below the nice boar is my Pro 5.ft model the other is the pro 4.ft model which looks like they cut the end off with a saw and never bothered to sand the end smooth. It's not as bad on the regular models because the wall thickness. Still looks crappy.

As for your son's quest for a 5.ft blowgun heavy duty you could buy a 5 ft. length of aircraft grade seamless aluminum tubing online in the I.D. .62 size. ( I am working on making after-market replacement mouthpieces. I still have my 6.ft blowgun I made out of aluminum Emt it is about 30 years old and is still straight and shoots as good as the day I made it.

Don't use metal Emt. The stuff is soft and bends very easy.

I made my mouthpiece out of a crutch tip. There is a good book called the Breath Of Death by: Michael Janich https://www.amazon.com/Blowguns-Breath-Death-Michael-Janich/dp/0873647076/ref=sr_1_sc_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1538054614&sr=8-9-spell&keywords=breath+of+death+michels

It covers the history of the blowgun and shows how to make your own blowgun and darts.

Regards,

SpinnerVin

 

[Fiveshooter]

Now that we have both lengths neither one of us notice any real accuracy difference between the two lengths at 10 meters.

We did some shooting of strings of 5 darts through a chronograph to see what our personal speed difference is in both lengths.
I'm 61 years old and I don't have strongest lungs. My average difference in speed between the 5' and the 4' was only 3 fps higher with the 5'.

107 fps average on the 4' and 110 fps average on the 5'. We were shooting the CS stun darts and tested no others for speed this evening.

I'll try some other darts at a later date after I've had more practice time. I think I can improve the margin in time.

I expect many others can and do get a much wider spread. I don't think either one of us has the lung power to get the full velocity the 5' model is capable of.

After feeling the weight of the 4' pro model I'm sure a 5' pro model would not be right for me but my son still has his heart set on finding a 5' pro.

My son already has a 4' .40 caliber one piece and I'm getting one to match.

We both want a .50 caliber and are trying to decide if we want the .50 caliber in 4' CT or the 5' Commando model.

I have not seen any 5' .50 caliber one piece other than the Commando so it narrows it down for a 5' model.

I have no faith in any two piece connection other than the Cold Steel connector so whatever we choose will be one piece.

In .50 caliber I think I would be able to get a wider velocity spread between 4' and 5'.

 

[spinnervin]

Hi Billy:
Ever do anymore chronograph testing with different darts? I would love to see the results if you have.

 

[afishhunter]

I have both the professional 4 foot and 5 foot big bore blowguns.
I bought the 4 foot for my nephew/godson, (age 8 at the time) the 5 foot for myself.
Of the two, I prefer the 5 foot.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to shoot them in the 5 years (and counting) we've had them.
No legal place to shoot them in the Miami/Homestead area, and the archery range will not let us shoot them there.
Home is a Condo, so no yard.

 

[Ridge Runner]

No legal place to shoot them?

How small is your condo?

I shoot mine indoors almost every day. Mostly 8 meters but 10 to 15 meters when nobody else is home and I can shoot between rooms.

 

[Sven]

I have both the 4'and the 5' in the 'professional' (wtf does that even mean?!) models. While I would say that the velocity difference is not great, it is perceptible. That extra foot of barrel makes a difference at short ranges, naturally; but over a greater distance, the performance -overall- is not immensely affected.

 

[spinnervin]

Hi Billy:

Just a heads up. I know you're son has his heart set on getting a 5ft. Pro model. I was just on the Cold Steel Arizona site and they have the five put professional blowgun listed although it's showing out of stock it's listing for 5195 last I checked they removed that model because it was discontinued maybe give them a call to see when they're an ETA getting them in stock and picking one up for your son.I looked on Midway and a few other sites to see if they had them stocked like knifecenter they don't show them available just figured it's worth a shot.

 

[spinnervin]

Hi Billy:

I found a site selling a 5ft pro model give me your email and I can send you a link.

Vinny

 

[one shot]

I have the 5 foot 3mm wall blowgun , it would be awesome to find another. If you guys know who’s selling one post it up please

 

[RyanZim]

Hi Billy:

I found a site selling a 5ft pro model give me your email and I can send you a link.

Vinny

Hi, I am after one of these, do you mind sharing the site? Long shot but might be able to find one.