[M_J]

The biggest reason that I put down my blowgun when the weather warmed up last year is that I'm useless with it beyond 10 meters. What are the secrets to being able to shoot accurately at 40-50' and beyond?
Is there a cone shape that better takes advantage of lung power and helps propel the dart farther? Is it all in the technique?
Ideally I'd like to be able to shoot homemade nail darts at 50'. I know that lung power is the biggest factor and I'll be working on that but I'm open to all suggestions beyond just blowing harder.

 

[NaturalFork]

Heavier darts but not super heavy. Also all my long distance is done with a homemade five foot half inch pipe.I can easily shoot 30 yards with it. But still can't shoot as far as a slingshot.

 

[M_J]

The ones I typically make are from 2.5" 8-D nails. The cones I made last year are pretty short, I'm going to try to make some longer ones and a jig to get them more consistent.

 

[treefork]

Remember. Blow guns are slow relatively speaking. There fore you have to consider what the trajectory of the dart is for the extended range. Its not a straight line. Its a curved path. Bottom line. Aim a little higher. After a few test shot you will get a feel of where you need to be.

 

[treefork]

.

 

[GKU]

Without getting to technical IMHO,

For a traditional dart of a .625" bore size I like to use a cone that is 2" in length. Shaft length of 5 - 7". The total length of the dart to be 7" - 9" long. With a Cog of 38-45% and weight 2.5 - 3.5 grams. Tip: I used flag wire as a shaft.

Also, 6D galvanized common nail with a 2" long cone works great, weight is about 2.7 - 3 grams CoG is about 42%.

For greater distances of 50-200 feet 2.25"- 2.5" cone length would be better.

As for long range shooting proper technic is very important. My best two tip would be to keep your head in the exact same position for every shot (not to lean your head forwards or backwards), and second would be to remember to fallow through (keep blowing after the dart has already left the muzzle).

 

[squirrelslinger]

use a faster blowgun.

Or heavier darts, they are less affected by wind, and are far more consistant IMO.

 

[GKU]

That is true but one needs to make some kind of sacrifice between the weight and the wind when shooting long range. To light and they get blown of course, make them to heavy and the trajectory curve decreases. Holdover become even more critical and harder to replicate over nearing the fall off point and that makes accuracy suffers. I have found so far that the above is ideal, well from what I gathered from shooting anyway.

 

[squirrelslinger]

Use a faster blowgun.



I use these tiny little finishing nails(weight roughly 2 grams) and Tyvek cones 2" long.

You can make them very consistant by rolling each cone around the previous, which is still wrapped around the previous....etc.

Works wonders.

Also, by keeping the same size and orientation of the paper/tyvek piece, and using the same amount of tape, you can keep the weights extremely close.

Postal scales are great...

 

[GKU]

6D galvanized common nail with a 2" long cone works great, weight is about 3 grams CoG is about 42%.

This was last September with my CS 5' pro with the bore treated with Rain-X. All shots at a distance of 100 feet, with an average muzzle speed of 200 fps. With a couple of robin hood that bounce off after hitting the nail head and penetrating 3/4" plywood. The cones where all precision tuned using my advance methods.

http://s1277.photobucket.com/user/GKU1/slideshow/HP-HPE/BlowGunPics/100%20feet%20range%20shooting

 

[NaturalFork]

I have shot my .50 CT 4 footer with wire darts at 30 yards. I had to give it an arch. But it worked. I do prefer my homemade 5 footer and nail darts at that distance.