My new plinker

[inonickname]

Well I bought a blowgun to make my cane gun with. I started knocking up a test rig and here's the results:

Op. Pressure: 300 psi
Valve: Modded blowgun
Barrel length: 1m
Bore: 1/4" od thinwall aluminum tube
Ammo: Q-tips (as wad, dart sabot or plain)

I even found the results surprising. It will shoot a plain, unmodified Q-tip through both sides of a coke can.

Video: (note there was already an in/out hole from another shot)
[youtube][/youtube]
If it doesn't work then give it some time, it only just uploaded.


Damage


The gun with barrel unscrewed.

Just got to get a walking stick blank or carve my own then epoxy it in and sand.

I don't expect any great responses, as it's nothing special. I'll find another can, fill it with water and shoot.

[MountainousDew]

If only this was made out of PVC, then you could have entered it in the penetration contest... Oh well.

Good little plinker, and nice discovery with the Q-tips...

[inonickname]

Yep. The fabric frays out and seals in the barrel well, but is extremely low friction. They'll also fit a couple different barrel sizes, and can be made into darts by shoving small nails into the tube, or used as a wad or even standalone ammo.

Bad thing, the q tip is unquestionably stuffed after. Cheap as hell though.

[Gaderelguitarist]

"In a world where earwax dominates the smallest of children, one man stands up to fight the tyranny...

INONICKNAME is the Q-Tipper!!!

Starring..."

Never mind that. Just my inner voice over talking.

Great idea with the q-tips though. Any thoughts on a kind of wood for your cane? My dad and I just recently busted out the mega lathe to handle a couple of nice canes of laminated wood.

[inonickname]

Maple, jarrah, something like that.

Seen as I'm an average woodworker, what's the best way to bore a 1m long hole through a piece of jarrah dowel? Maybe split it in half the carve out two sections..

Barrel will be sleeved in some dowel then I'll shape a block up for the handle and trigger shroud.

Edit: I just spotted the black bamboo (not actually black) out the front, gonna go grab a piece and see what I can do!

[Gaderelguitarist]

Your best bet would be exactly that. Rip it down on a table saw and then use a router table to make you groove in each side.

Granted the blade of the table saw will take away about 1/8" from your diameter. You may want to find some thin stock to glue on each side of the groove to get it back up to size.

Bamboo would be a good alternative I guess, although unless you stabilize it on the inside, you'll be looking at a lot of wobbling.

[inonickname]

I tried bamboo and it was rubbish. I'll wait till I'm back from camp to hit up a good shroud and handle.

I just tried some size 9,6 and 4 lead shot with a q tip wad and it rips a coke can to pieces like a strafer shot at it. I'm out of cans though, so I'm shooting at a piece of acrylic of which pieces are slowly being blasted off.

[Mike_Hunt0420]

dang ino, either you got too much time on yer hands or yer just too good at spudding for yer own good. either way props on this one lol. oh, and thanks for using me in yer quote.

[qwerty]

looks like a nice little gun there and very portable you should try some pellets and see what they can do to a shaken up coke can

mwuhahaha

BTW how did you mod the blowgun?

[inonickname]

looks like a nice little gun there and very portable you should try some pellets and see what they can do to a shaken up coke can

mwuhahaha

BTW how did you mod the blowgun?

Lead shot makes a bloody mess of cans. I dunno if pellets are a good fit in the pipe I've got but it's easy enough to shove a wad in there I guess.

clicky

All of the above, except this one opens up far enough as it is. I also took care not to bore out the holes too much, and of course the nozzle is epoxied onto the barrel for breach loading.

I might rig up some other barrels seen as I've got a bunch of tube and it came with spare fittings.

Thanks mike (and everyone)

[inonickname]

UPDATE:

I made a new barrel for the smallest size lead shot I had (me and dad opened up a bunch of shells- so I have everything from 9 to 00 buckshot)

Because it's so thin it has little structural integrity- I should probably brace it against something for shooting.

Loading the barrel up with 3-4 pieces of lead shot makes for a nice small spread- the end of the barrel probably flexes slightly so the spread would end up quite large over long range.

It's just epoxied in with 5min but I'd say it will be fine..

I'm going to keep searching for barrels. Perhaps I'll put some of my .378 barrel on it and fire blowdarts (yes, it's a bit big but the blowdarts are very light and the blowgun is modded as far as it will go without compromising it).


The complete portable setup


Muahaha, lead shot. Note the buckshot that's a bit big for the barrel. I do have some other tube that might work though..


3 round burst entry wounds

I'll come up with some new stuff tomorrow and gun down some smilies.

[thedeathofall]

nice... but maybe you should have just bought a small bag of shot, instead of opening the shells. Its not like you wont ever use it all