Rubber Band Guns- A super cool story.

Great story. I had a wooden rubber band pistol when I was younger, loved the thing. I had bought it a local fair, where the seller had a large rubber band machine gun. I would have loved to have that when I was a kid.

 

I purchased my Dad a pistol version of those as a gag gift one Christmas, then I learned the gag was on me when he ignored the warning stickers and decided I was the only target he was willing to shoot.

 

A couple years back, my family passed out little PVC marshmallow shooters. Us bigger "kids" decided to get to work with spare plumbing parts in the basement to make big-kid versions of the little-kid blow guns they passed out.

We took a large "tank" made of 4" pvc, a short piece of pipe for a barrel, and installed 3 valves between the two. (elbowed over for compact-ness) The first valve was the breech-block - we drilled a hole in the side of it to load a mini marshmallow. The second valve was the firing valve; it sealed off the charge chamber - a 6" piece of barrel pipe - and released the charge to the barrel. The third valve separated the charge chamber from the reservoir, a large piece of 4" pipe. To fire, you'd load the marshmallow and close the breech block, close the firing valve, open and close the charge valve to fill the charge chamber, then open the firing valve. We were able to get about 15 shots before needing to recharge the reservoir.


But I digress... We also had a previously built "carrot" gun with an 8-foot barrel. Smaller than a potato cannon, the barrel was about perfect for a regular-sized marshmallow. I shot my brother in the leg from about 10 feet away; he showed me a fist-sized bruise a few days later, about 7 seconds before he lit me up with his paintball gun.

 

Marshmallow. Regular-sized marshmallow, through an 8-foot barrel, charged from a 6-foot section of 4" PVC filled with air at ~140PSI... Yeah, air cannons are not to be trifled with. Our baseball gun lobbed baseballs on washcloth wadding almost 300 yards down range. Could easily shatter bones.

A carrot probably would have lodged in his leg.

Our mini cannons were much safer. You could feel the hit, but they didn't bruise or draw welts... unless you crammed the barrel full of marshmallows, "forgot" to close the middle valve and dumped the entire reservoir into the shot...

 

A little smooshed, but basically intact, yeah. It was at very close range, two or three feet from the barrel. I couldn't believe it - if I'd known how much energy it could impart, I wouldn't have shot him with it. Air cannons deserve a fair bit of respect.

 

[Citation Needed]

I've yet to find any laws restricting pneumatic cannons in Ohio. Obviously, people can do stupid things with them that would be illegal, but I've yet to find anything saying they are generally illegal. They aren't federally regulated either.

Several states consider combustion-type spud guns to be firearms; Ohio isn't one of them and I'm referring to pneumatic, not combustion.

 

I could be wrong, but I was once told that spudguns falls under ATF jurisdiction since it is a explosion that propels the projectile.

 

No gun needed

I once hit and killed a fly with a rubber band. I used that little make-a-handgun-with-your-thumb-and-forefinger method. Very "Top Shot" worthy. Made me think of Pat Morita, catching them with chopsticks.

Cool story though, reminded me of getting my first rifle, a Winchester 1890 "boy's rifle." Wasn't even wrapped though, just had a bow on it, as I'm sure the box was lost by my grandfather, its first owner. The ammo was wrapped though, didn't take long to find after a quick shake. Only noteworthy Christmas present I ever got from my dad.

 

Well, perhaps the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should regulate my spud guns since they are nuclear powered, not combustion-based. (nuclear > steam > electricity > air compressor)

The ATF stated:

I suppose since I used marshmallows and carrots instead of potatoes in that particular cannon, I might have converted it to a "destructive device"

No, the ATF doesn't regulate spud guns, pumpkin guns, or cannons used for similar purposes any more than they regulate paintball guns.

 

Thanks for the info, so as long as I do not shoot someone, We are ok.

 

My first projectile weapon was a wrist rocket. My grandpa gave it to me to rob squirrels of our bird feed up in Oregon. Needless to say, stainless ball bearings do a hell of a job of population control on critters. Them damn rabbits didn't have a chance at Ol' Grampa's garden what so ever.

 

back to the future..

This thread most likely brings back allot of memories for some us.. I doubt most of my kids generation has never seen a rubber band or potato gun..

 

Yep, most of them are too busy playing video games. No more bottle rocket wars or the old Daisy single cock bb guns (the original air soft ) or any of the fun things we did growing up