Well... I have been surrounded by spudguns for a while, but only started building my own at the end of my sophomore year.
When I was in the 5th or 6th grade, I went to one of my friend's parties at his house. His dad, a retired geologist, got out the spray-n'-pray combustion at started sending Excedrine bottles across the yard.
Well, of course, I told my parents I wanted to build one, and the answer was of course, NO. Fast forward to August 2005.
Hurricane Katrina blew through and we went to Illinois. When we came back, I had nearly an entire month ahead of me with no friends or school, so...
I started off small. Hunting in the mornings for squirrels and such. By the second week or so, I was actually reloading 0.38 Special cartridges with 0.32 caliber buckshot "bullets" with a little wadding. After this, I was starting to get really bored.
So, one day, I grabbed my backpack, some random crap, and walked the few miles to my friend's house. He showed me the DPC-400.
Truly amazing in my eyes at the time, even though he couldn't get it to fire at the time. 1-1/2" chamber and 3/4" barrel with a powerline 3-9x32 scope mounted as well. He had fired it quite frequently before I got there, but it just wouldn't work for us.
So, fast forward yet again to later in that school year, he built another model with a larger 3" chamber for easier fueling. We went for a couple of Friday nights firing CO<sub>2</sub> cartridges, lightsticks, and paintballs without incident. We finally discovered our favorite ammunition: Dum-Dum lollipops. These fly amazingly straight and could actually put a hole in tin when shot with the right mixture. Of course, I was truly intrigued by then, until it blew apart one night. So, I decided to make my own, using air pressure. A pneumatic had to be safer than a combustion, right?
And the rest, they say, is history. I got some 3" SCH-40 from an arrow case a guy from the local archery shop sold us arrows in, went and bought some DWV fittings and a sprinkler valve, and I was set. For a month or so afterwards, I was shooting all the standard ammunition better than the old DPC. Of course, then I realized the components weren't pressure rated, so I scrapped the cannon and turned it into my first combustion. Everything went downhill after that and the rest some of you know.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.png)
The summer after Sophomore year was full of much boredom. Before I eventually got a job and really started the building, one of our best friends and my friend's girlfriend moved to Texas, creating a little boredom. But, I wouldn't trade it all for anything.
And of course, I wouldn't be close to where I am at now without the SGTC forums and later, Spudfiles. What can I say... *sniff*...
I love you guys...