Ahem A Rivet's Shot said:
> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000
> Nick Odell <nick@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:
>
>> One joule? Wow! That's about the amount of energy expended by an
>> airsoft gun with a little plastic pellet so your laws seem to have set
>
> Correct an airsoft gun qualifies as a firearm here, they're
> perfectly capable of blinding someone.
>
>> the limits incredibly low. I reckon the most dangerous aspect of the
>
> Yes they have pretty much at the point at which the projectile is
> capable of causing an injury, I'm not unhappy about that nor about the
> banning of realistic imitations. I do occasionally wonder about needle guns
> because it seems to me that they could be a lot more dangerous at low
> energies - but needle guns are rare (the only one I know of was made by a
> school friend of mine just to see if he could) and I suspect there would be
> a quick adjustment if that ever changed.

When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

Nick Odell said:
> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 12:10:41 +0000, Tone <email@address.com> wrote:
>
>>On 27/11/2021 11:26, Maus wrote:
>>> There were stories a while ago that enterprising travellers (nudge,
>>> nudge) were scouting targets with drones. I rang a relative to tell her
>>> that, and she said, "There has been a drone around here all day"
>>
>>I guess an air rifle shot would fix that.
>>
> Or another drone.
>
> I bought my £1 drone because I thought it might be useful as spare
> parts for my 25p drone but since I managed to get each of them to work
> properly and since they are similar to each other but not quite as
> interchangeable as I had hoped, I fly them both.
>
> The £1 drone had had its rotor guards removed before I got it so the
> first horizontal contact it would have with anything else would be a
> pair of high-speed spinning blades. In my fantasies about other drones
> overflying my property I go outside and politely ask the drone flyer
> to respect my privacy and not to do it any more and if they do it
> again, to then send up my kamikaze attack drone and bring the offender
> down in my garden. It hasn't happened yet: mainly because nobody I can
> think of would find the street where I live remotely interesting
> enough to overfly.

Gurglemaps Street View ...

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000
"Nicholas D. Richards" <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:

> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
> than you got out of pop gun.

Containment works wonders for explosives.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 13:21:24 +0000
Nick Odell <nick@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 09:39:16 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot

> >whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD,
> >I'd hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.
>
> Not necessarily imagination.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needlegun#In_fiction links here from
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette#Small-arms_ammunition where it
> cheerfully says:

I might have know he got the idea of a needle gun from somewhere,
the term flechette gun I usually associate with something that fires a
bunch of needles at once - they appear more often in fiction than needle
guns usually described as being like a pepper pot at the business end.

> Work at Johns Hopkins University in the 1950s led to the development
> of the direct injection antipersonnel chemical biological agent
> (DIACBA), where flechettes were grooved, hollow pointed, or otherwise
> milled to retain a quantity of chemical or biological warfare agent to

I was thinking of his particular mix when I said nasty imagination,
I truly dread to think what a sublethal dose of curare coupled with LSD
would do to the sanity of the victim - he reputedly had direct experience
with the effects of LSD, as have I.

> be delivered through a ballistic wound. The initial work was with the
> nerve agent VX, which had to be thickened to deliver a reliable dose.
> Eventually this was replaced by a particulate carbamate. The US
> Biological Program also had a microflechette to deliver either
> botulinum toxin A or saxitoxin, the M1 biodart, which resembled a 7.62
> mm rifle cartridge.

I see he's not the only one with a nasty imagination, mine is not
so nasty the worst I came up with was a sodium sliver under a water soluble
film - I expect it would hurt, a lot.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:26:20 -0600
Richard Robinson <richardR@privacy.net> wrote:

> When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
> sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
> was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.

I have a fairly clear memory of making a crossbow out of a single
blade of leaf spring and a grooved piece of wood that probably came from a
school desk somehow the details of the trigger mechanism are vague but the
sawn off six inch nail embedded into a tree is a clear memory (it scared
the penc out of me).

The thing about this is that given where it was I must have been
under six years old - I was involved in building pram wheel based go carts
at the time but still it has always seemed a very advanced bit of jbex for
my age. Neither parents nor siblings remember it - but then I was left to
my own devices a lot and the beer garden of the pub we lived in was huge.

Was it real or did I invent the memory somewhere along the line,
I'll never know - even the tree is gone there's an estate where the
Rosemary Branch used to be in Cherryhinton (careful I might smile).

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

On 28/11/2021 08:58, Maus wrote:
> On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
>> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
>> RustyHinge <rusty.hinge@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?
>>
>> A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
>> The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
>> modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail) hard
>> enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.
>>
>
> The needle gun was an early rifle used by the prussian army in 19th
> centory. The needle penetrate the cartridge and hit a primer at direct
> back of the bullet. Main snag was that the needle broke constantly and
> had to be replaced. Quickly replaced by modern Mausers after the
> Franco-Prussian war.

That was a needle-fire gnu, and was why I asked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyse_needle_gun

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote in
news:20211128155831.69a8dc426d71878272d4a69e@eircom.net:

> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:26:20 -0600
> Richard Robinson <richardR@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
>> sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
>> was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.
>
> I have a fairly clear memory of making a crossbow out of a single
> blade of leaf spring and a grooved piece of wood that probably came
> from a school desk somehow the details of the trigger mechanism are
> vague but the sawn off six inch nail embedded into a tree is a clear
> memory (it scared the penc out of me).

My grandfather gave me a very old Diana air rifle when I was a nipper - I
can't remember how old but I do remember my mother being very displeased.
It was knackered: it had a range of 2-3 yards, depending on the
projectile. With hindsight I wouldn't be at all surprised if either my
grandfather or my father (or maybe both) had dismantled it and sawn the
spring in half before I was allowed to use it. I loved that gun but it
mysteriously disappeared at some stage.

--
Peter
-----

On 28/11/2021 15:58, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:26:20 -0600
> Richard Robinson <richardR@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
>> sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
>> was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.
>
> I have a fairly clear memory of making a crossbow out of a single
> blade of leaf spring and a grooved piece of wood that probably came from a
> school desk somehow the details of the trigger mechanism are vague but the
> sawn off six inch nail embedded into a tree is a clear memory (it scared
> the penc out of me).
>
> The thing about this is that given where it was I must have been
> under six years old - I was involved in building pram wheel based go carts
> at the time but still it has always seemed a very advanced bit of jbex for
> my age. Neither parents nor siblings remember it - but then I was left to
> my own devices a lot and the beer garden of the pub we lived in was huge.
>
> Was it real or did I invent the memory somewhere along the line,
> I'll never know - even the tree is gone there's an estate where the
> Rosemary Branch used to be in Cherryhinton (careful I might smile).

Unlikely to have been a factual memory. When I was a teenager I molished
a crossbow using a suspension spring. Its performance was woeful: a
swift downward parabola. Penetration was around zilch.

I modified it eventually to use 4 of coil springs in tension.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On 28/11/2021 17:48, Peter wrote:
> I loved that gun but it
> mysteriously disappeared at some stage.

Stock conjuring trick in a local theatre was it?

Tone

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 14:19:49 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot
<steveo@eircom.net> wrote:

>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 13:21:24 +0000
>Nick Odell <nick@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 09:39:16 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot
>
>> >whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD,
>> >I'd hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.
>>
>> Not necessarily imagination.
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needlegun#In_fiction links here from
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette#Small-arms_ammunition where it
>> cheerfully says:
>
> I might have know he got the idea of a needle gun from somewhere,
>the term flechette gun I usually associate with something that fires a
>bunch of needles at once - they appear more often in fiction than needle
>guns usually described as being like a pepper pot at the business end.
>
>> Work at Johns Hopkins University in the 1950s led to the development
>> of the direct injection antipersonnel chemical biological agent
>> (DIACBA), where flechettes were grooved, hollow pointed, or otherwise
>> milled to retain a quantity of chemical or biological warfare agent to
>
> I was thinking of his particular mix when I said nasty imagination,
>I truly dread to think what a sublethal dose of curare coupled with LSD
>would do to the sanity of the victim - he reputedly had direct experience
>with the effects of LSD, as have I.
>
>> be delivered through a ballistic wound. The initial work was with the
>> nerve agent VX, which had to be thickened to deliver a reliable dose.
>> Eventually this was replaced by a particulate carbamate. The US
>> Biological Program also had a microflechette to deliver either
>> botulinum toxin A or saxitoxin, the M1 biodart, which resembled a 7.62
>> mm rifle cartridge.
>
> I see he's not the only one with a nasty imagination, mine is not
>so nasty the worst I came up with was a sodium sliver under a water soluble
>film - I expect it would hurt, a lot.

I seem to recall from the seventies or eighties that USian troops were
going into battle with 7.62mm calibre[1] weapons loaded with
flechettes encased in disposable sabots[2] which flew at supersonic
speeds. It's not so much that they would hurt a lot, more that the
impact would likely blow a limb right off. Unpleasantnesses are narsty
businesses eh, wot?

Nick
[1]As they were USian, ought I have said "caliber"?
[2]Nice bit of redundancy in my language, don't you think? I'll be
talking about ATM machines and PIN numbers before you know it

On 28/11/2021 17:48, Peter wrote:
> Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote in
> news:20211128155831.69a8dc426d71878272d4a69e@eircom.net:
>
>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:26:20 -0600
>> Richard Robinson <richardR@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>>> When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
>>> sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
>>> was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.
>>
>> I have a fairly clear memory of making a crossbow out of a single
>> blade of leaf spring and a grooved piece of wood that probably came
>> from a school desk somehow the details of the trigger mechanism are
>> vague but the sawn off six inch nail embedded into a tree is a clear
>> memory (it scared the penc out of me).
>
> My grandfather gave me a very old Diana air rifle when I was a nipper - I
> can't remember how old but I do remember my mother being very displeased.
> It was knackered: it had a range of 2-3 yards, depending on the
> projectile. With hindsight I wouldn't be at all surprised if either my
> grandfather or my father (or maybe both) had dismantled it and sawn the
> spring in half before I was allowed to use it. I loved that gun but it
> mysteriously disappeared at some stage.

I arrived home with a ferret one day. On the grounds that I would smell
of ferret (reasonable) the Old Man made me take it back. Dig, for it was
he who provided the ferret, allowed me to choose from a variety of other
treasures. I chose an air pistol, one of those you pushed in the muzzle
and then loaded from the back. I also got a packet of ·177" darts.

I set up a target on the lawn and when the Old Man came home, he swiped
it and I never saw it again.

When I molished a gnu which went "BNAG!", did I proudly show the old man?

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000, "Nicholas D. Richards"
<nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:

>In article <20211128103129.66d855e3260592f0085b85c7@eircom.net>, Ahem A
>Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
>Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100
>> It seems there are two things called spud guns. One is a canon that
>>launches a whole potato the other is a toy gun that fires a small pellet of
>>potato made by digging the end of the gun (or cap cartridge) into the spud.
>>
>> They came in cap fired versions that looked like a tiny revolver
>>and held a metal cartridge with the spud in one end and a cap (or three) on
>>the other and air fired varieties like this (which seem to be the only ones
>>made now):
>>
>>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
>>
>> This looks like the cap based one I had when I was twelve:
>>
>>https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/807238503/cap-gun-pistol-made-in-england-
>>potato?ref=reviews
>>
>> With two or three paper caps or a cut down plastic cap (the ones
>>that came in rings) behind it the spud pellet did sting.
>>
>Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>than you got out of pop gun.

I has several of the "dig out a bit of spud, squeeze, pop out" ones. One alone
is no good, need several for a battle...

I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place plastic
cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper strip caps under
the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the plastic ones were much
more expensive.

<https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>

Thomas Prufer

On 29/11/2021 12:21 pm, Thomas Prufer wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000, "Nicholas D. Richards"
> <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <20211128103129.66d855e3260592f0085b85c7@eircom.net>, Ahem A
>> Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
>> Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100
>>> It seems there are two things called spud guns. One is a canon that
>>> launches a whole potato the other is a toy gun that fires a small pellet of
>>> potato made by digging the end of the gun (or cap cartridge) into the spud.
>>>
>>> They came in cap fired versions that looked like a tiny revolver
>>> and held a metal cartridge with the spud in one end and a cap (or three) on
>>> the other and air fired varieties like this (which seem to be the only ones
>>> made now):
>>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
>>>
>>> This looks like the cap based one I had when I was twelve:
>>>
>>> https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/807238503/cap-gun-pistol-made-in-england-
>>> potato?ref=reviews
>>>
>>> With two or three paper caps or a cut down plastic cap (the ones
>>> that came in rings) behind it the spud pellet did sting.
>>>
>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>> than you got out of pop gun.
>
> I has several of the "dig out a bit of spud, squeeze, pop out" ones. One alone
> is no good, need several for a battle...
>
> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place plastic
> cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper strip caps under
> the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the plastic ones were much
> more expensive.
>
> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>
>
>
> Thomas Prufer
>

I remember having both these toys, too. Much fun!

--
Chris Elvidge
England

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 14:21:03 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net>
wrote:

>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000
>"Nicholas D. Richards" <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:
>
>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>> than you got out of pop gun.
>
> Containment works wonders for explosives.

Those caps contain "Armstrong's mixture", which is known and feared in
pyrotechnic circles for going off at inopportune moments. The standard charge
for a paper cap is around 10 milligrams...

Thomas Prufer

On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 13:21:03 +0100
Thomas Prufer <prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:

> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place
> plastic cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper
> strip caps under the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the
> plastic ones were much more expensive.
>
> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>

I unforget those and had one or two - I never knew that tip was for
plastic caps though, they always got paper caps in them.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

Chris Elvidge said:
> On 29/11/2021 12:21 pm, Thomas Prufer wrote:
>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000, "Nicholas D. Richards"
>> <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In article <20211128103129.66d855e3260592f0085b85c7@eircom.net>,
>>> Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at
>>> 10:31:29 awoke Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100 It seems there are two things
>>>> called spud guns. One is a canon that launches a whole potato the
>>>> other is a toy gun that fires a small pellet of potato made by
>>>> digging the end of the gun (or cap cartridge) into the spud.
>>>>
>>>> They came in cap fired versions that looked like a tiny
>>>> revolver and held a metal cartridge with the spud in one end
>>>> and a cap (or three) on the other and air fired varieties
>>>> like this (which seem to be the only ones made now):
>>>>
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
>>>>
>>>> This looks like the cap based one I had when I was twelve:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/807238503/cap-gun-pistol-made-in-england-
>>>> potato?ref=reviews
>>>>
>>>> With two or three paper caps or a cut down plastic cap (the
>>>> ones that came in rings) behind it the spud pellet did
>>>> sting.
>>>>
>>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either
>>> side of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps.
>>> Screw hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete.
>>> Certainly loader than you got out of pop gun.
>>
>> I has several of the "dig out a bit of spud, squeeze, pop out" ones.
>> One alone is no good, need several for a battle...
>>
>> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place
>> plastic cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper
>> strip caps under the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as
>> the plastic ones were much more expensive.
>>
>> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>
>>
>>
>> Thomas Prufer
>>
>
> I remember having both these toys, too. Much fun!

Metoo. But, not v. impressive pops, even with several.

My brother used to open the caps, build a little pile of powdered gnu
and set if off with fusewire.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

On 29/11/2021 14:05, Richard Robinson wrote:
> Chris Elvidge said:
>> On 29/11/2021 12:21 pm, Thomas Prufer wrote:
>>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000, "Nicholas D. Richards"
>>> <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In article <20211128103129.66d855e3260592f0085b85c7@eircom.net>,
>>>> Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at
>>>> 10:31:29 awoke Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>>>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100 It seems there are two things
>>>>> called spud guns. One is a canon that launches a whole potato the
>>>>> other is a toy gun that fires a small pellet of potato made by
>>>>> digging the end of the gun (or cap cartridge) into the spud.
>>>>>
>>>>> They came in cap fired versions that looked like a tiny
>>>>> revolver and held a metal cartridge with the spud in one end
>>>>> and a cap (or three) on the other and air fired varieties
>>>>> like this (which seem to be the only ones made now):
>>>>>
>>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
>>>>>
>>>>> This looks like the cap based one I had when I was twelve:
>>>>>
>>>>> https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/807238503/cap-gun-pistol-made-in-england-
>>>>> potato?ref=reviews
>>>>>
>>>>> With two or three paper caps or a cut down plastic cap (the
>>>>> ones that came in rings) behind it the spud pellet did
>>>>> sting.
>>>>>
>>>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either
>>>> side of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps.
>>>> Screw hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete.
>>>> Certainly loader than you got out of pop gun.
>>>
>>> I has several of the "dig out a bit of spud, squeeze, pop out" ones.
>>> One alone is no good, need several for a battle...
>>>
>>> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place
>>> plastic cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper
>>> strip caps under the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as
>>> the plastic ones were much more expensive.
>>>
>>> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thomas Prufer
>>>
>>
>> I remember having both these toys, too. Much fun!
>
> Metoo. But, not v. impressive pops, even with several.
>
> My brother used to open the caps, build a little pile of powdered gnu
> and set if off with fusewire.

I made my bnag!s from first principles.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On 29/11/2021 12:21, Thomas Prufer wrote:
> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place plastic
> cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper strip caps under
> the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the plastic ones were much
> more expensive.

I had a small metal one on a home made hanky panky para shoot. Used to
wrap it up and fire it in the air with a catapult. It would float down
fast enough to fire the caps inside when it landed in the street. Great fun!

Home made bows (not bows or bows) and arrers could also be pretty lethal
if the arrers were flighted right with chicken fevvers.

Looking down tappy tappy cyber powered kids nowadays don't know they're
bornded.

Tone

Thomas Prufer <prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote in
news:9of9qg554rh31k4ibd6u6gh7qrdngc2i94@4ax.com:

> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place
> plastic cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper
> strip caps under the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as
> the plastic ones were much more expensive.
>
> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec85259
> 9a5e75b4cec.jpeg>

I had one of those as a kid, though it didn't look as flashy as the one
in your photo. A tapered torpedo-shape - unscrewed the metal head from
the plastic body to inset the caps.

--
Peter
-----

On 2021-11-28, Nicholas D. Richards <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:
> In article <20211128103129.66d855e3260592f0085b85c7@eircom.net>, Ahem A
> Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
> Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100
>>Thomas Prufer <prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000, Nick Odell
>>> <nick@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:
>>>
>>
> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
> than you got out of pop gun.

Oh, dear god, I had hoped that thing had been lost to memory. Incredible
dangerous.

--
greymausg@mail.com
That's not a mousehole!

On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
> On 28 Nov 2021 08:58:09 GMT
> Maus <Greymaus@mail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
>> > On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
>> > RustyHinge <rusty.hinge@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>> >
>> >> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?
>> >
>> > A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
>> > The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
>> > modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail)
>> > hard enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.
>> >
>>
>> The needle gun was an early rifle used by the prussian army in 19th
>> centory. The needle penetrate the cartridge and hit a primer at direct
>
> I see, I'd not come across that before. My first encounter with the
> term was in the hands of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius character
> whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD, I'd
> hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.
>

I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.

--
greymausg@mail.com
That's not a mousehole!

On 29 Nov 2021 15:33:26 GMT
Maus <Greymaus@mail.com> wrote:

> I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.

Yes apart from his tendency to write essentially the same book many
times (the eternal champion series gets a tad repetitive) - still can't
blame a pro for doing what sells.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

RustyHinge said:
>
> I made my bnag!s from first principles.

Famously explosive things, them.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

On 29/11/2021 17:01, Richard Robinson wrote:
> RustyHinge said:
>>
>> I made my bnag!s from first principles.
>
> Famously explosive things, them.

And once, when my plans went awry, and it wooden go off, would have
landed me in very hot water.

Never trid to molish (and unmolish) glyceryl trinitrate again.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On 29/11/2021 15:30, Maus wrote:
> On 2021-11-28, Nicholas D. Richards <nicholas@salmiron.com> wrote:
>> In article <20211128103129.66d855e3260592f0085b85c7@eircom.net>, Ahem A
>> Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
>> Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100
>>> Thomas Prufer <prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000, Nick Odell
>>>> <nick@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>> than you got out of pop gun.
>
> Oh, dear god, I had hoped that thing had been lost to memory. Incredible
> dangerous.

Oh no. I unforget using red match heads, or the stuff broken off them to
provide the oomph.

I may have to tell you about the emptying of a short stretch of the
River Roding one day...

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.