Joined
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162 Posts
Hi Guys/Gals,
My nickname is Teach, I'm a 55 year old retired barber. I just retired the end of October 2013. I've been into blowguns since I was a kid. And since blowguns are illegal in Canada I am limited to using them only in Mexico when we either vacation or go south for the winter.
I've only used home made equipment so I have nothing else to compare to. I have used mainly wire darts, bamboo darts, and blunts. I no longer use anything smaller than 50 cal and much prefer .625 over .50. I find the smaller calibers inefficient and much harder to blow the smaller in caliber one goes so I stick to 50 and 625.
Back now in Mexico I built two 50 cal BGs with copper water pipe utilizing rubber crutch tips as the mouth pieces (my favourite mouthpiece of all time) and cane tips for the muzzle guard to protect the end of the soft copper pipe.
I have also been doing lots of experimentation with paper darts. I have always rolled my own paper cones but now I am trying to incorporate a weighted tip into a rolled paper dart. I've tried finishing nails with the head of the nail pointing out and then pointing in. Oddly enough pointing in worked better than out. It seemed to tear the foam stop less upon entry than with the nail pointing out.
The ones that fly the best so far are are with wooden bbq skewer sections two inches long rolled into the tip of the paper dart and secured with plain old play school white glue. I followed a video on youtube instructing how to make a paper shaper and darts. The shaper allows the making of paper darts that are almost identical to one another. The only down side to these darts is that after shooting them into the foam cushion back stop they are hard to remove without squashing the long paper cone section without using a form slid into the paper cone to give it strength before gripping it and pulling it out. If I'm careful I can remove them without that form. Otherwise they are a great dart. Cheap to make and take little time.
For wire dart shafts I use piano wire. I believe it is a spring steel and it is very resilient. It flexes upon impact but springs right back to being straight again.
I am very impressed with some of the darts and cones being made utilizing PE and PP film in a heating/forming process and even utilizing a form of mold evacuation sucking the plastic down over a form to have it take the shape of the form. The ones that really have caught my eye are the helical cones that induce a spin to the dart once shot from the BG.
Well I guess that is plenty for an introduction. I'm looking forward to exchanging ideas and experiences with everyone here. Thanks to the owner of the forum for providing us all a platform for us to get together on.
Teach...
My nickname is Teach, I'm a 55 year old retired barber. I just retired the end of October 2013. I've been into blowguns since I was a kid. And since blowguns are illegal in Canada I am limited to using them only in Mexico when we either vacation or go south for the winter.
I've only used home made equipment so I have nothing else to compare to. I have used mainly wire darts, bamboo darts, and blunts. I no longer use anything smaller than 50 cal and much prefer .625 over .50. I find the smaller calibers inefficient and much harder to blow the smaller in caliber one goes so I stick to 50 and 625.
Back now in Mexico I built two 50 cal BGs with copper water pipe utilizing rubber crutch tips as the mouth pieces (my favourite mouthpiece of all time) and cane tips for the muzzle guard to protect the end of the soft copper pipe.
I have also been doing lots of experimentation with paper darts. I have always rolled my own paper cones but now I am trying to incorporate a weighted tip into a rolled paper dart. I've tried finishing nails with the head of the nail pointing out and then pointing in. Oddly enough pointing in worked better than out. It seemed to tear the foam stop less upon entry than with the nail pointing out.
The ones that fly the best so far are are with wooden bbq skewer sections two inches long rolled into the tip of the paper dart and secured with plain old play school white glue. I followed a video on youtube instructing how to make a paper shaper and darts. The shaper allows the making of paper darts that are almost identical to one another. The only down side to these darts is that after shooting them into the foam cushion back stop they are hard to remove without squashing the long paper cone section without using a form slid into the paper cone to give it strength before gripping it and pulling it out. If I'm careful I can remove them without that form. Otherwise they are a great dart. Cheap to make and take little time.
For wire dart shafts I use piano wire. I believe it is a spring steel and it is very resilient. It flexes upon impact but springs right back to being straight again.
I am very impressed with some of the darts and cones being made utilizing PE and PP film in a heating/forming process and even utilizing a form of mold evacuation sucking the plastic down over a form to have it take the shape of the form. The ones that really have caught my eye are the helical cones that induce a spin to the dart once shot from the BG.
Well I guess that is plenty for an introduction. I'm looking forward to exchanging ideas and experiences with everyone here. Thanks to the owner of the forum for providing us all a platform for us to get together on.
Teach...
