True that.... I picked up a cap and ball .36 Navy revolver replica that shot pretty well. No paper work and no permit required due to it being a black powder gun. Not too accurate at any distance but tons of fun for making noise and busting melons and paint cans relatively close up. I have since retired it to paperweight status. It still works and shoots but I have decided not to shoot it again. The metal is not tempered and therefore the weapon is not safe.
 
That CO2 cylinder packed with match heads would likely have exploded rather than launch as you were hoping for.
 
I've made one of the drink can canons with duct tape and cans. Lighter fluid and a flame..... BOOM... sounds good.
 
At a bluegrass event I attended on a annual basis years back, some of the guys had made a number of potato cannons. PVC pipe, some fittings, and a BBQ grill igniter and some white rain hairspray and a bag of potatoes.... we were launching from the far end of the campground, over the heads of the crowd, and targeting the cows up on the hillside on the other side of the creek. Cows were not hit by any of the spuds.....Those cannons were really well made and had a nice range. They brought about 10 of them and sold them to anyone who wanted to join the fun.
 
You can find all sorts of idiocy on Youtube involving homemade guns.
 
There are always idiots when it comes to guns and safety. But to infer that criminals are safer with their weapons than the average citizen is totally ludicrous. These are the same kind of people who, if handed a sword, would start swinging it around in their living room and as a result, smash and slash the lights, ceiling fan, and couch cushions since they have no clue on proper swordsmanship. The idiots who mishandle their weapons and cause an accident, are, I believe, a very small percentage of non-criminal gun owners. We tend to hear about their misdeeds due to the entertainment value and the agenda of the media which is (generally) anti-gun. You rarely, if ever, hear about the safe use of guns, and the many times every day where a citizen uses a gun for self defense to prevent a crime and never pulls the trigger. Most of the accidental discharges are due to that person ignoring the safety procedures that every gun owner has a responsibility to know and practice. Firing a rifle or a pistol into the air is the height of irresponsibility and I am 100% in favor of charging them with a crime and the results of the consequences of where that bullet goes and does. A number of states already have laws against shooting into the air. Shotguns with bird shot are in a slightly different category from rifles and pistols.

There was another story about the cops in NYC...on a crowded sidewalk.... shooting approximately the same number of times..... and missing.... well kind of, they managed to hit a number of innocent bystanders and other objects.... I think they did manage to hit the target once or twice..... so who's more dangerous? The street punk doing a drive by or a cop trying to apprehend a litter bug?
 
Cops with guns..... we need to put an end to that for sure. How'd that work out in Britain?
 
I had a police range master and firearms instructor tell me one time at a gun store where we were engaged in deep and meaningful conversation, that the most dangerous people with firearms were cops. They thought the safety rules didn't apply to them, and he told me he ALWAYS wears his Kevlar vest when training cops at the range. He said there are more accidents and unintentional discharges of the firearm with cops than with rookie first time civilian shooters who are new to firearms and handling them for the first time.
 
check you tube... funny stuff if it wasn't so serious.
 
I'm not making light of the seriousness of firearms safety... to me it is very important. Too bad everyone doesn't handle firearms with the same level of respect and safety, and accuracy that I do... including law enforcement.
 
just for grins.... here's a recent target with a new rifle I acquired. 65' off hand kneeling open sights... no optics. (center one beside the penny) the other 2 were standing offhand.
 

 
nice groups.  that little red square, at that distance was smaller then the front sight stud.
 
And my definition of gun control...as I have said in the past is being able to consistently hit the target... even if it's moving.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LOrAXwNd1g&feature=c4-overview&list=UUvsxe9zrCwjhAjw09YoBw6w
 

 

sharke

paulo

sharke

paulo

sharke
Unfortunately I live in a state where only the criminals can normal people don't have guns :)

fixed. 

Well how is that fortunate. I'm effectively banned from defending myself.

 
Never noticed you being shy about defending yourself sharke ;)

Yeah but only online. I'm a total wimp in real life...

Hence the requirement for a gun, to compensate against that unsurprising fact I guess.
 
In all honesty how many times in your life have you had to defend yourself from a bad guy attacking you with a gun, and even if you were attacked with a gun how many guys are going to be giving you chance to hit them back?
 
In my case it's none and none.  I'm thinking it's cause 'I'm banned from defending myself' or whatever bent description it was you used to carry your clear and openly one-sided agenda forward I suppose.
 
Why do people start bothering with these 'my weapon is bigger than your's threads'?  They just piss everyone off probably more than religion or politics as they seem to manage to be a combination of both those things at once, and they all end up the same way.  Being locked.
 
I need a grenade launcher just to point at every one of these type of threads as soon as they surface.  I only need a grenade launcher for my own defence here as sense seems go out the window here it seems whenever guns get mentioned and the inevitable caveman style pissing contest ensues.
 
Why not take this crap down the gun club and discuss it with other like minded good ole boys and blow each others brains out 'til your heart's content.  Perhaps instead you could try being really courageous and open up as to what those inadequacies are that you are really feeling behind the 'big talk' mask.

mike_mccue
 
Just for grins I went ahead and converted the 65' to 21.6667 yards.
 
:-)

Now that is impressive Mike, I think I need a gun after hearing that news big boy!
 
Just before then there I was lovingly stroking my mighty howitzer with pride.
 

jbow

Jonbouy
Man, them fighter pilots didn't even have .50 cal to shoot at the bombers that started coming over here in 1940.  They'd empty out 8 magazines of .303 ammo at time at them and they'd still not knock them down.
 
What on earth would you use a .50 cal weapon for at home?  Domestic anti-aircraft use?
 
 

It is a blackpowder muzle loader. They pretty much come in .50 or .58. The biggest I've seen is the .69cal the north used in the US war of northern aggression. Ive always wanted a good replica of a circa 1860 Whitworth. IT was a British weapon used by the Confederacy as a sniper weapon. From what I understand they were very accurate. It was a .45cal
 
Whitworth rifle.

 
Since I am too lazy to take a picture.. the one I bought is like this: (it was designed in 1823 and used by trappers
etc, esspecially in the American west. Iwas known as a "Rocky Mountain Rifle". It is for deer hunting and for fun.
 

Ah, I see antique collectables. Those are cool.
 
It's them bloody pro-lobbyists that come in and jump over these threads that get my goat.  Actually in this thread it's only been one, the usual ex-brit one...no surprises there...
 
Rant over, as you were...

Ive always wanted a good replica of a circa 1860 Whitworth. IT was a British weapon used by the Confederacy as a sniper weapon. From what I understand they were very accurate. It was a .45cal

 
Actually James Whitworth that designed the weapon for the British Army after the Crimean War was a pretty cool engineer, he invented the standard for screw threads 'BSW' which was in use before metric systems.  I've often had to get nuts and bolts tapped to 'Whitworth' specs to repair some old items that you can't get off the shelf anymore.  I had an old Premier snare drum that I eventually had to ditch because it had 'Whitworth' lugs and I could no longer get spares for it easily.
 
The gun he designed was rejected by the British Army for being too expensive to mass produce and suffered some durability issues due to the rifling design which was the thing that made it so accurate, but the French army picked it up and that is probably the biggest source of the rifles used by the Confederates.

If you're going to bring a gun to the party, then bring a big one!
 

LMAO.
 
:-)

Me use crossbow when deer hunting. 

I am not too bad... I only have 9 guns (only one has a bayonette) two swords, and numerous knives. I love my Buck "Folding Hunter" and my Kabar. I was at a store today (bought some Asics Gel Kayanos, black with red) and asked about a war hawk but they didn't have one. There is a guy less than an hour from here who handmakes them. I want a good throwing tomahawk... maybe two, one for each hand. Of course I don't want to bring a tomahawk to a gunfight, lol. I spent a lot of hours throwing my dad's WW II era Army knife when I was a kid, maybe I am getting young again?
 
J

The only weapons you should ever throw are grenades and boomerangs.
 
Excluding the above,  if your target is far enough away that you have to throw your weapon at it, then all you're doing is throwing away your weapon...

Karyn
The only weapons you should ever throw are grenades and boomerangs.
 
Excluding the above,  if your target is far enough away that you have to throw your weapon at it, then all you're doing is throwing away your weapon...

I prefer to throw rocks and temper tantrums.

How do you get the target to stand still and at just the right distance?

Guitarhacker
I wrote many paragraphs and then deleted it all.
 
Let me simply say.... I like guns. If you don't, that's fine.... don't buy one.
 
 
 
Jbow.... I just picked up one of these:  M-48 Hawk  http://www.unitedcutlery.com/ProductDetail.aspx?itemno=UC2765&cat=UC  Mostly for fun and grins. Dang thing is pretty sharp right out of the box. Not really useful for heavy duty tomahawk chores, but sure looks good. Has no hammer end to it with the spike. I took it camping and used it to chop some wood for the fire. Maybe I'll learn to throw it. Looks tough enough to deal with my beginner attempts.

That loks nice Herb. This place is in NE GA (Cleveland). They make some really good looking hawks and swords. They aso have longbows and other early weapons. http://www.kingsforgeandmuzzleloading.com/

A tomahawk is a realy fearsome weapon. I think I would much rather be shot than attacked close in with a tomahawk.
 
J