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Marble Barrel help!

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:03 am
by Pyrodevil
Hi there this is my first post!! - I've been a great spud gun enthusiast for a long time (Australian Gun laws steer me towards making vs purchasing... its more satisfying anyway) The guns i tend to make are generally aimed at accuracy rather than raw power.

I've been looking towards using marbles for a new rifle i'm working on. Barrel is made of 1/2 inc PVC pressure pipe (smallest bore i could reliably find). The marbles i have aren't snugly fitting into the barrel.

Id love to know if anyone has:
1) the diameter of purchasable pvc pipe and fittings that will snugly fit a marble.
2) Possible Wadding and Sabot construction methods that will result in a minimal loss of performance with maximum accuracy.

3) Cheap an reliably ammunition that will result in maximum accuracy when fired from a 1/2" pvc barrel

Thanks

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:14 am
by frankrede
For a half inch barrel a nail with the head cut off with a tape stabilizer works great!

marbles vary by size greatly, mine won't even fit in a 1/2" barrel by a long shot. but a toilet paper wadding should work fine.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:16 am
by TwitchTheAussie
Go for a 16mm id pipe for marbles

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:34 am
by Marco321
Hey
I use Darts and they work very well. I use masonry nails instead of wire which rifles the bullet and instead of JB weld i use hot glue gun glue. The hot glue can soften the flight abit, so when i put the glue in i put the dart into a small part of the barrel so it keeps its shape until it cools down. For me they work very well and are very accurate, they also fit perfectly into the barrell.

For a marble you can place a small bit of rubber in the barrel to support the marble until you fire it, but this can reduce accuracy because when the marble leaves the small bit of rubber it has some play in the barrel

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:30 am
by sniperjosh
I use marbles from the 2 dollar shops, they are in bags and called decorative marbles, they are 16mm diameter. Perfect barrel for them is found at bunnings hardware, or an electrical supply shop - 20mm PVC conduit, it is grey in colour and has "aussieduct 20mm upvc" printed on it. here is a link to it (20mm one in list) http://www.app.net.au/products/electric ... ?c=6&ID=19
you will see that it has an I.D. of 16.1mm, best stuff ive found.

I share your pain with the gun laws, its a joke. I have done alot of shooting with .308 rifles, and even though the first few times is a rush, when you fire your marble sniper which you have constructed yourself, the feeling is that much sweeter.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:33 am
by spud yeti
Apparently copper pipe fits marbles pretty well

EDIT: sorry if someones written this already, I thought this was new!

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:53 am
by f.c
15 mm pvc pipe always does the job for me. a nice tight fit is what you want.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:56 am
by FreakyShotGlass
15mm pipe works well, but when i want extreme power I go with 20mm PN12 PVC and paper towel wadding.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:55 pm
by Pyrodevil
Thanks for all the replys guys, i'm going to give the copper pipe and conduit a try, see how it goes

:D

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:09 pm
by VH_man
1/2 inch copper requires 14mm marbles.

take a look in craft stores in the floral section. ususally they are there.