4' .357 cal. 2' .50 cal, 3' .50 cal, 4' .50 cal carbon fiber, 5' .625 cal 2 piece, 5' .625 cal
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So I was working on an off topic post about some life changes I've made for the sake of sport blowgunning, when I decided to fact check something for accuracy sake. In doing so I discovered that the event that started me on my path occurred exactly 13 years ago today. A bit of backstory first. Back in the days of Blockbuster my grandfather, being a big film buff, had the membership where you could have 3 movies out at a time. He would go every Tuesday morning without fail and rent whatever new movies came out that day, and he liked to watch them as quickly as possible so he could get another new movie.
On Tuesday September 16th, 2008 the "Speed Racer" movie hit video stores everywhere. My grandfather rented it that morning, and so we watched it together after I got home from school. I remember it being an alright movie, but what really stood out to me were the scenes with the ninja assassin, and particularly the blowgun scene. I was confused and curious about how they meant to kill a man with just a thin needle blown from a tube. And fascinated by how silent and simple of a weapon it was, truly elegant.
Being a young teen boy I had to try it. And so I went to my bedroom drawer and found an old broken airsoft gun's barrel, a sewing needle, and an old shoe lace and fashioned myself a dart. I started shooting at an old box, the side of my mattress, the wall (To my parents disapproval) and I instantly fell in love with it. In less than 5 minutes with materials found in my sock drawer I crafted a weapon used by a movie assassin, how cool was I?
After that I would make others with various pieces of tubing, and darts with any thin straight piece of metal I could find, fletched with a variety of fibrous materials. The only problem was that I lived in California, so I could never own a "real" blowgun. Understandably, no business would ship to me. I would still continue to play with crude homemade blowguns for years. None ever had any kind of a mouthpiece or quiver, always just a short tube, hardly ever over 24" long. But sometime around when I started working 2 minimum jobs I simply didn't have the time for it.
Fast forward to early 2021 when my fiancee and I decide to finally get out of California and leave the rat race to start a homestead like we've talked about for years. So we bought some land and move to Nevada. And as soon as I realized blowguns were legal here, I ordered one. It was on May 14th of this year when I received my first commercially produced blowgun and darts. I setup a target, and I discovered that I've still got it. I'm the kind of guy that's always been more intellectual than athletic, and this is the one sport that I'm actually really pretty good at. It's also one sport that isn't well know, but has a rich and vast history behind it. People in America generally see blowguns as toys, when they are in fact more dangerous than an inflated rubber ball, and command respect. They are an ancient and outdated weapon surrounded in mystery to many. But to those who wish to travel down the rabbit hole they can be so much more. They can be an entire martial art, a way of life even.
Or maybe I'm just a raving lunatic, thoughts?
And that's my story about how I got into blowguns, and by pure coincidence and chance how I came to tell the story exactly 13 years to the day after the fact.
Now maybe some of you can understand a bit of the reasoning about why I'm so dedicated, but still pretty new here. I am by no means new to the blowgun.
On Tuesday September 16th, 2008 the "Speed Racer" movie hit video stores everywhere. My grandfather rented it that morning, and so we watched it together after I got home from school. I remember it being an alright movie, but what really stood out to me were the scenes with the ninja assassin, and particularly the blowgun scene. I was confused and curious about how they meant to kill a man with just a thin needle blown from a tube. And fascinated by how silent and simple of a weapon it was, truly elegant.
Being a young teen boy I had to try it. And so I went to my bedroom drawer and found an old broken airsoft gun's barrel, a sewing needle, and an old shoe lace and fashioned myself a dart. I started shooting at an old box, the side of my mattress, the wall (To my parents disapproval) and I instantly fell in love with it. In less than 5 minutes with materials found in my sock drawer I crafted a weapon used by a movie assassin, how cool was I?
After that I would make others with various pieces of tubing, and darts with any thin straight piece of metal I could find, fletched with a variety of fibrous materials. The only problem was that I lived in California, so I could never own a "real" blowgun. Understandably, no business would ship to me. I would still continue to play with crude homemade blowguns for years. None ever had any kind of a mouthpiece or quiver, always just a short tube, hardly ever over 24" long. But sometime around when I started working 2 minimum jobs I simply didn't have the time for it.
Fast forward to early 2021 when my fiancee and I decide to finally get out of California and leave the rat race to start a homestead like we've talked about for years. So we bought some land and move to Nevada. And as soon as I realized blowguns were legal here, I ordered one. It was on May 14th of this year when I received my first commercially produced blowgun and darts. I setup a target, and I discovered that I've still got it. I'm the kind of guy that's always been more intellectual than athletic, and this is the one sport that I'm actually really pretty good at. It's also one sport that isn't well know, but has a rich and vast history behind it. People in America generally see blowguns as toys, when they are in fact more dangerous than an inflated rubber ball, and command respect. They are an ancient and outdated weapon surrounded in mystery to many. But to those who wish to travel down the rabbit hole they can be so much more. They can be an entire martial art, a way of life even.
Or maybe I'm just a raving lunatic, thoughts?
And that's my story about how I got into blowguns, and by pure coincidence and chance how I came to tell the story exactly 13 years to the day after the fact.
Now maybe some of you can understand a bit of the reasoning about why I'm so dedicated, but still pretty new here. I am by no means new to the blowgun.
