Blow gun?

[NGshooter17]

I checked and didnt see many posts about blow guns let alone any topics concerning them so i hope i am not reposting anything but just curious of what/if anyone owns a blow gun or if anyone thinks one might be useful in a survival situation
? I think so at least...small game, rabbits, squirels, birds etc...they are quiet and the amo is cheap and retrievable. I have a 4 ft gun and about 200 hunting spears. It is .50 calber and you can get about 250-300fps out of it. Lets just ay it hits hard enough that you need pliers to pull out the spears from wood. Thoughts?

[spyderco monkey]

Blowguns are fucking awesome, by far the safest way to shoot indoors, especially in a small apartment.

I've built my own out of aluminum pipe, used junk mail menus for fletching and shiskabob skewers for arrows, and it was a hell of a lot of fun to play with.

I now have a 4 foot, .625 cold steel magnum and I would consider it viable for hunting, at least in terms of accuracy. I think a an air rifle of slingshot would be more humane, however, due to the needle like wounding characteristic of the blowgun preventing a clean, humane kill. There's also the very real possibility of the metal arrows overpenetrating and sticking the game to the tree it was up in, forcing you to climb the tree to dispatch and retrieve the poor little furry bastard.

In short, unless you have some very wide razor broadheads or are a phenomenal shot, I think hunting with a blowgun is bad karma waiting to happen.

But for shooting paper targets and action figures, which is my preference, they're excellent.

[doitnstyle1]

I have had squirrels run off with the barbs running straight through them before. unless it is heart shot or a head shot that may happen leaving the animal to suffer with a dart through their intestines or other non-critical parts of their anatomy. I have since stopped using them as I am not that accurate and not that cruel. Survival situation I would probably use it.

[NGshooter17]

Ya they are great for target shooting and burning time but don't get me wrong I would never shoot at any animal unless I absolutely had too

[cristofkelley54]

Blowguns provide an extremely fun its really a simple weapon and it makes me exciting to use it

[Evan the Diplomat]

Had fun with one in college. Great for nailing cockroaches on the dorm wall. Heard of a herpetology professor that used one for catching lizard specimens. He would puff and nail them right to the tree.

Remember the native tribes that hunted with them used poison tipped arrows.

[maine1]

back in Jr high and HS, I hunted alot- nearly daily- with one of the old 38 cal blowgun world blowguns. I practiced constantly, and looking back on it, i was pretty good.
Got MANY squirrels- headshots mostly, but the aforementioned wounding was possible if not accurate and careful. Most i got thru the eye, it was my focal point.

I also took a coon or two, and a few porcupines.

Best shot was a pigeon Off the silo roof- about 55 feet, straight up. I stood under neath him directly, and he kept sticking his head out over the edge- and i nailed him with good timing.

next best was a bird on a fence post say, 40 yards away, with a good cross wind. aimed off about two feet into the wind, and it blew the dart right into him.

I have a CS blowgun now, but have NOT put the time into it that i formerly had ( job and children cut into blowgun time). Its powerful, but the darts are not as well made or as effective as those cheap spring steel wire darts from blowgun world( defunct in 1991-2 as far as i can tell)
With some good consistent darts, you could do some real damage with one of those.

Blowguns really taught me how to move, and how to hunt. good times!
k

[ninja-elbow]

My blowgun anecdotes, that I have told a few times on this forum over the years:

Main point - terrible at taking even small game like birds and mice.
Both anecdotes are with the same 4ft. blow gun.

1) Mid 90s. Had this new blow gun I just bought at a gun show. I got pretty accurate with it.

Cat had brought inside a live but wounded robin. One of it's wings was broke and the cat was not able to kill it out right. It was flapping about in the house, half flying and half hopping form one high point to another. I felt I needed to put it out of it's misery so I busted out the old blow gun and loaded it with a broadhead/bamboo skewer dart. I got within 5 feet of the robin from behind and put the dart square into it's back. The broad head came right out it's front breast. It flew around with a dart through it's chest for 2-3 minutes chucking blood up all over the place and tried to excape. It finally stopped, exhausted, and I was able to put another broadhead threw it's neck - finally killing the thing. Took me and my roommate hours to clean all the blood it splashed over everything.

2) Late 90s. Portland, OR. Same blowgun, this one with broadhead "thumpers" (short and heavy plastic darts with broadhead tips).

Portland was having a heavy rain season and our sewer systems were getting backed up some. A news report just went out about rats showing up in toilets, some alive. They said that if one is in your toilet to call the county animal control. F- That, I'm a man! We got one in our toilet the very next day. I grabbed old Blowy the blow gun and my roomy at the time had a stick and rubber gloves on. His job was to lift the toilet lid and I was going to shoot the rat. That happened and that rat was really pissed, big old dart stuck in his back and bleeding profusely with an equal amount of squeling. I could not get a clear second shot so me and my roomy ended up beating it to death with his stick and the plunger I grabbed. It fought back the whole time and bled all over the place. I never thought a rat could have so much blood in it.

[Viper shtf]

Dude, what the fuck. I'm torn between grinning, and feeling sorry for the critters.

[freenarative]

It's a good AND bad idea. Ok, I have a blow pipe and I use it regularly. Here is the conclusion I have come to; Anything other than LARGE ammunition is totally useless. Target and/or spear tips are unsless unless you happen to have the recipe for a decent poison or can milk some neuro-toxins or hemo-toxins from the local flora/fauna.

Realistically you want to use something like the cold steel stun dart. If you can guarantee a head shot,,,,do it. otherwise aim for center-mass (the bit with the heart/lungs) this should shatter the ribs and kill the animal in seconds. If you do HAVE to do this then don't bother with anything bigger than a large rat.

You could try a fishing jig and use a line to "teather" what ever you hit but you have to carry a fair old weight in gear so it's not a good trade off.

Also; Also if anyone tells you that they can kill with a target/spear dart you should instantly call bull*hit on them. Doctors use adrenaline needles on dying patients by impaling their hearts. These are 5x-10x bigger and cause no lasting damage.

Just look at it another way, a blowgun dart is about 1mm across,,,,,, what are the chances of hitting something vital?

Do what I did; learn to make an atlatl. They are accurate, powerfull, you can (with practice) craft a high quality one in a day and those things can take out ANY animal you could consume on your own. Hell, in a survival situation, if there are a few of you, make one each and take out a cow.

cold steel stun dart


atlatl

[showland]

You could always build what I built:

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/penetra ... 24026.html

you may still have the same problem that others were talking about with darts penetrating and not killing, but the darts will be traveling a lot faster (think .22lr vs .223) and there's a good chance that the animal will then be pinned to whatever is behind it. Also, you would be able to use stun darts for improved lethality. Definitely make sure you have a pair of pliers for any penetrating darts. It is a bit louder than a blowgun being used in that traditional method, but it's more compact and much more powerful.

Cheers,
Sean

[Neddog]

I used to own a blowgun, and like others here found it best just for target practice and not for hitting anything live.
But also as mentioned here, it's the most low-profile projectile weapon for inside target practice.

? I think so at least...small game, rabbits, squirels, birds etc...they are quiet and the amo is cheap and retrievable.

For a small game hunting weapon with cheap or retrievable ammo, you have many MUCH better choice than a blowgun. Slingshot for one, or for something you can easily make yourself then how about a shepherd's sling, or an atlatl as suggested here already? Ammo is all outside, waiting for you to grab it. Bows also have "mostly" retrievable ammo, along with the possibility of making your own. Slings and slingshots are the most compact and with ammo that takes no effort to fashion. The atlatl can be made with the most raw material while in the woods if you brought nothing with you but your knife, while a shepherd's sling can be made in the woods from materials found in most people's PSK. A shepherd's sling is so compact that I can carry one with me everywhere I go, even to business meetings. A slingshot can be modified with an eyelet to shoot arrows as effectively as a bow (forming a "slingbow")... without the bulk or expense of a bow.

Blowguns are fun, but that's their greatest virtue. You say blowgun ammo is cheap, but compared with sling and slingshot ammo darts are expensive. Bow, slingbow, and atlatl ammo are all easier to retrieve. All of the above weapons are many times more effective at killing small game than a blowgun. You should certainly keep your blowgun and keep having fun with it... but it's a no good choice for hunting small game.

[ninja-elbow]

Dude, what the fuck. I'm torn between grinning, and feeling sorry for the critters.

Oh, both instances were quite horrible. No doubt there. Reason why I got rid of the thing. I've got a pellet gun for such instances now.

...but... this one time... I know this guy who went hand to hand with a bull elk...

[Viper shtf]

We need to hear that story, right guys?

[cityscout]

I bought one from BUDK when I was little. Early middle school if i remember right. I used to shoot a lot with my dad. We had a dart board set up at the end of the basement allowing us to shoot most of the length of the house.
When I was in high school I had it with me at the summer camp where I worked. One day we had a bat in our cabin. My roommate spent 15 minutes chasing it around with a fishing net. Once he was frustrated enough I decided to take a shot at it with the blow gun. I never expected to hit it. Sure enough the first shot hit the body and pinned the bad to the nearest wall. We had to walk over to finish it off. I have had the same thing happen with squirrels. If there is a decent backstop close enough to the animal it works, but it isn't great. IMHO slingshots are a better option for actual use. Blowguns are tend to be more of a toy then anything. If only I had some arrow frogs...

[Neddog]

Blowguns are tend to be more of a toy then anything.

Well, probably unless you pair them up with deadly poison or tranquilizers. But that's not how we hunt small game...