latch for a sock gun

[iknowmy3tables]

hey guys, here's some background I play Humans vs Zombies at my school, it's a game on college campuses
basically zombies try to tag humans, and humans can "stun" zombies with Nerf guns and bundled socks. Normally socks are thrown by hand, but I intend to make a sock gun to shoot socks. Why? well HvZ games take place over several days, and area's outside of academic buildings are in play however some some people at the resident life office were whiny and didn't want to let people play HvZ in dorms, but eventually we were able to make an agreement to only use socks indoors. So I'd like to build a sock gun to use in dorm halls.

So my sock gun, doesn't have to be very powerful, but I need multiple shots in a compact size, and be cheap to make. I've put some thought into this and I think it would be really great if I could stack the socks in a tube like in the diagram below, however I'm having difficulty thinking of a good latch mechanism that would hold the band in place and not block the sock behind it after firing. also it would be nice to be able to operate the latches sequentially with a pull string that way I could build several units and attach the string to a motorized spool forming a sort of Gatling gun-ish design

any ideas?

[Gun Freak]

I think this design would me much harder than a simple multi-barrel revolver type that gets fired induvidually. Or since its not in need of serious power, you can make a simple pneumatic with a big and small chamber that gets multiple shots...

[clemsonguy1125]

What about a nail in front of each sock, when you pull it out it would fire then just put it in your pocket until you need to reload

[Gun Freak]

Or you could build one of these and replace the tenis balls with socks

[iknowmy3tables]

socks aren't quite as consistant as tennis balsl, their inconstant enough that I don't think a magazine would be reliable enough for HvZ, in HvZ you have to be able to rapidly stop zombie coming from all directions usually within 20ft of you so reliability is extremely important, I was going to do a revolver but that's very bulky, and like I said I still might do multiple barrels but instead I'd have multiple barrels of this stacked design

the nail pull pin, that's a great idea, I can't believe I didn't see that, I've done pull pins many many times before on pencil crossbows, however my mind was too focused on latching the rubber band itself, It's actually quite hilarious, I kept telling myself I couldn't do a pull pins because the friction between the pin and bungee would pull the bungee down and the bungee would slip under the sock, then I started to wondering what if there was a solid object, close to the barrel's diameter, connected to the bungee, and and the pin retained that object, again I told myself no because the hard object might make the bungee act like a hard whip when I fired it and hurt zombies in near point blank engagement, it never occurred to me to retain the sock
thank you very much,

but if anyone else has a good ideas I love to hear it

[Hubb]

socks aren't quite as consistant as tennis balsl, their inconstant enough that I don't think a magazine would be reliable enough for HvZ, in HvZ you have to be able to rapidly stop zombie coming from all directions usually within 20ft of you so reliability is extremely important, I was going to do a revolver but that's very bulky, and like I said I still might do multiple barrels but instead I'd have multiple barrels of this stacked design

the nail pull pin, that's a great idea, I can't believe I didn't see that, I've done pull pins many many times before on pencil crossbows, however my mind was too focused on latching the rubber band itself, It's actually quite hilarious, I kept telling myself I couldn't do a pull pins because the friction between the pin and bungee would pull the bungee down and the bungee would slip under the sock, then I started to wondering what if there was a solid object, close to the barrel's diameter, connected to the bungee, and and the pin retained that object, again I told myself no because the hard object might make the bungee act like a hard whip when I fired it and hurt zombies in near point blank engagement, it never occurred to me to retain the sock
thank you very much,

but if anyone else has a good ideas I love to hear it

It's always the simplest if ideas that slip our mind...

If you are worried about the bands slipping (which still may regardless), you could always place a slit piece of pipe inside the barrel to support the bands. The socks would go inside the slit piece of pipe and the bands would be guided down the center of the socks through the entire launch.

On a lighter note, please get this posted. I've never seen a sock launcher before.

[iknowmy3tables]

If you are worried about the bands slipping (which still may regardless), you could always place a slit piece of pipe inside the barrel to support the bands.

that's what I normally what I've done for pencil crossbows, but in this case for a tandem loaded design there can't be anything thing behind the sock that would obstruct the sock behind it, hopefully just a slingshot style pouch on the part of the bungee behind the sock should keep it stable.

On a lighter note, please get this posted. I've never seen a sock launcher before.

I'll start with a basic unit probably with just 3 shots and if I can get the latch to work effectively, I'll make more with higher ammo capacity per tube attach them to each other and connect the pins to a single pull string and possibly a improvised electric winch, then I'd have an automatic, which would provide a loophole for my campus' rules against fully automatic nerf guns

[Crna Legija]

since the socks are in consitant you could use a shell, that way you get the coolness fatctor

[Moonbogg]

I have an idea, but you might not like it. I would seriously consider wearing a sock ammo belt, and arming yourself with a sling shot. You could grab a sock and load and fire fast. It would be powerful enough, accurate, simple, cheap, reliable etc. A multi shot sock gun would shoot fast for a few rounds, then would take forever to reload and it would probably be complicated and fiddly.