blow guns

[65x55 swedis]

hey i am wondering out of all of the bow hunter out there have you ever useds a blow gun. not on game but just for fun. i use a 40 cal. and i just shoot plates and cards.

[huntertrapper]

ive been meaning to make one but havent yet...i was looking to maybe use it for squirrels or something or birds.

[madcrow]

I have a couple of 40 cals, and I have the pipe for a 36 cal.  I am also working on a 6 foot bamboo that will end up being around 60 cal.  It will include 11" bamboo darts and a few will have very small trade points for squirrels and stuff.

[JW_Halverson]

I haven't read of any cultures using a blowgun that did not simultaneously develope a toxin for the darts.  I helped recover over a dozen ducks and geese that were wearing blowgun "broadhead" darts from Canyon Lake here in Rapid City, SD some years back and there was not a single fatality observed.  Think of it this way...if a wire poked a hole in small game and killed it, then veterinarians wouldn't give rabies shots for Fluffy and Muffin anymore. 

I hope I am not coming across as too sarcastic, but when you see a beautiful canada goose with a blowgun dart in it's head swimming around a family park you get a little peeved. 

And before anyone cries "hippocrite", yes, I own a blowgun, and yes I use it...just not for hunting.  Ever play darts with a blowgun?  After a game or three you will find you have to step back to about 15-20 yds to make it challenging again.

[knightd]

I don't think I would try and take something as big as a goose with one with out poison.. but I have when I was younger taken tree rats and bunny's..With good success.. I did use heavy darts with metal broad heads..

[madcrow]

I can't see shooting ducks and geese with blowguns.  I stick to the small stuff.  I have never had a squirrel get away from me after being wounded.  Knock on wood.

[Hillbilly]

I haven't read of any cultures using a blowgun that did not simultaneously develope a toxin for the darts.

The Cherokee and several other Southeastern tribes including the Choctaw and Yuchi used blowguns (and still do-there are several Cherokee in my area that still make and use them-amazingly accurate, too), and they didn't use poison at all that I know of. The Cherokee at least didn't. They use river cane blowguns that are 6-8' long, with split locust darts a foot to a foot and a half long fletched with thistle down. A blowgun like this will take out birds, squirrels, and rabbits with no poison.

[armymedic.2]

i shot a few squerrils and a bunch of birds with darts, worked really wel, i use the store bought wire "hunting" darts.

[mullet]

  I've played darts with one and it's a lot of fun. Hilbilly's friend, Barry Mc Caull had a real nice river cane one at Pat's 1st Camporama. It worked great.

[Ian Johnson]

I've gotten one squirrel in the backyard with my cold steel(real good blowgun), and lots of frogs

[Hillbilly]

I've made a couple from conduit pipe over the years, as well as a couple of primitive ones. It's surprising how powerful the things can be. I made one a couple years ago from a big joe-pye weed stalk that would stick a nail-tipped dart through a piece of 1/2" plywood. I've got some blowgun-sized cane that I'm going to try to work up this winter.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

         Have made em outta cane in the past. Got some ducks, putt-putts and some other birds. Oh yeah got a monkey in back swamps on res.  Workee good.........bob

[Hillbilly]

Bob, I'd just about bet that you're the only one of us that has ever killed a monkey with a blowgun.... So how does monkey taste?

[mullet]

  like your little cousin

[Coo-wah-chobee]

Hahaha! Yup taste good and just like Eddie says! They escaped from Miami zoo back in '92 when Andrew came through. Nasty critters and smart and hell on native birds. Lots of em in back swamps been breedin' there fer like 15 years.Felt like a south american NDN when I shot it. Well since I is a NDN kinna felt same same ! .bob