Blowguns, darts & curare

[tonic]

Have recently become fascinated with all things blowdart, even made some basic darts, but they are kind of dodgy. Looking for good info on traditional construction of blowguns and darts and also recipes for curare. I am not actually sure of the legal ramifications of making these of cooking curare? (please delete this if deemed inappropriate), but I am interested in learning more about the cultures who used them, how they were made and from what materials etc.

Found some great info on the net about making the guns and darts, but was keen to hear about personal experiences with these hunting tools or good references or links to good websites (preferrably traditional techniques etc.) Most of the new ones are metal or plastic, but this isn't as goood as a nice wooden one.

Thanks in advance. Keep on blowin'

Phos-

[AndyAmine.]

I remeber going through a period of interest in this subject a while ago and this is one of the book previews I saved a link for.

I thought you would find it interesting.

http://books.google.com/books?id=m2v8akdyZ...FfhuBoEFXaJzd1w

[devance]

I was into a blowgun interest at one time.

Ordered one 'The Javaro blowgun' from a comic book.

And the guy was holding a dead armadillo in the ad.

But when i got it and it was accurate for 200 feet.

Used to shoot the top of telephone poles at 200 hundred feet.

It was just a heavy gage aluminum pipe with a plastic acrylic coating to reduce drag.

The darts were piano wire cut into lengths and heated up would sink in and bond to a plastic bead, which one got off the beaded thread by putting it in boiling water.

The fun days when a interest was a interest and nobody was a considered gang member or terrorist.

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But a illegal sport now days.

Like this:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:G1VjY...lient=firefox-a

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sacramento animal services officials are investigating what they say is a series of cruel and felony criminal acts against animals in the city.

Officials say someone is maiming birds and feral cats with homemade blowgun darts.

Southside Park, barely missing its windpipe. At the nearby Miller Park Marina, at least four feral cats were hit by similar darts over the course of a week.

"It's a horrific crime ... it's difficult to believe that anyone would want to do this to innocent animals," Sacramento Animal Care Services spokesman Hector Cazares said.

Cazares said the darts are made from a golf tee attached to a sharpened darning needle, and that he thinks they are being blown out of small tube. The same weapon has been used in every known case.

"I've been in this business for 20 years and I've seen animals shot with shotguns, with BB guns, with pistols, with arrows, with knives, clubs, hammers ... but I've never seen a dart ... I've never seen this before," Cazares said. '

http://www.my-self-defense.com/expandable-baton-laws.html

'ARTICLE 2. UNLAWFUL CARRYING AND POSSESSION OF WEAPONS 12020. (a) Any person in this state who does any of the following is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or in the state prison: (1) Manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses any cane gun or wallet gun, any undetectable firearm, any firearm which is not immediately recognizable as a firearm, any camouflaging firearm container, any ammunition which contains or consists of any flechette dart, any bullet containing or carrying an explosive agent, any ballistic knife, any multiburst trigger activator, any nunchaku, any short-barreled shotgun, any short-barreled rifle, any metal knuckles, any belt buckle knife, any leaded cane, any zip gun, any shuriken, any unconventional pistol, any lipstick case knife, any cane sword, any shobi-zue, any air gauge knife, any writing pen knife, any metal military practice handgrenade or metal replica handgrenade, or any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, slungshot, billy, sandclub, sap, or sandbag.'

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Now everyones a terrorists and a harmless interest is a 1 year jail sentence.

Luckly, my penis isn't regarded so but maybe only a matter of time like in the Chinese communist state.

The one child law.

The U.K. has more bizarre laws.

[Conan Troutman]

Im sure if the Amazonian Indians can knock up a 100ft blow gun a westerner should ave no troubles...(right?)

[devance]

Yes, you could be equal in accuracy within 2 weeks, all from range or targeting from 100-200 hundred feet as natural 3 inch group shot.

But it takes three darts to get a monkey down from curare.

Just takes me a quart of brandy to take me down, As a biologist such is necessary to talk about.

But the the traditional blowpipe is in two pieces as splitting a limb. And scraping of the central groove and then the burning to smooth it out.

Works, but much more difficult than a aluminum tube.

[Moses]

http://groups.msn.com/BlowgunsNorthwestPla...amp;sortstring=

http://www.geocities.com/blowgunhunter/

check these sites out Phos

i found geezers corner a few years ago and recommend it

there is even japanese site(i cant find at moment) that has a whle page on the health benefits from blowgun use.

happy huntin....

p.s. u really want to learn to make these, makes a great practice dart(will amaze u how good they are) and quite good at killing pidgeons if u glue a bead to end of dart.

http://www.tomshiro.org/pdart/primer.html

Edited August 30, 2008 by MOSES

[AndyAmine.]

From what I understand there are various kinds of curare depending on the location and 'tribe' and there is also curare only used in times of war (Im assuming the meat is toxic to consume but also probably stronger as a result), so I guess the amount of darts to take down an animal would depend on placement of the shots, the size of the animal, the strength of the dose on the dart and the poison in use.

I have seen footage on docos where they have used only one dart to the neck but who knows what the variables were.

[rahli]

Curare is made from the bark of two species of plant, Strychnos toxifera and Chondodendrum tomentosum. Other plants used are Strychnos gubleri and Strychnos castelnaei.

Gustav Schenk (1956) Book of Poisions.

The reference is a bit old so the species names might have undergone a review.

[rahli]

Strychnos species also contains muscle relaxants which make open heart surgery possible.

Rick Strassman (2008) Inner Paths to Outer Space.

Link

This book is the most current book on Psychedelics (mainly focusing on DMT and Ayahuasca) It is well worth getting. You wont be dissapointed. Unless you know it all already I guess.

Edited August 30, 2008 by rahli

[AndyAmine.]

Interesting to know that it doesnt actually kill the animals but anesthetizes them and that one of the compounds found in curare was/is used for anesthesia on humans.

Check out one of the last pages in the link I provided in my first post for a list of some of the poisons used on arrows through out the world, Euphorbia is used in one case.

[Conan Troutman]

http://www.pgorman.com/RichardSchultes.htm

An interview with Richard Schultes in which talks about his efforts to discover the Curare of the Kofan Indians..

[tonic]

Andy that book looks great, might try and buy a copy, bet it would be very interesting to read the whole book, cheers for that.

devance, don't mean to rude but I think that is the first post I have read from you that made sense to me, some fantastic reading there a good laugh too, some people do the craziest stuff. 200ft is a long distance for breath power, if I didn't know it was fact I probably wouldn't believe it.

Great info rahli, I think this may be an excerpt from the first book you mentioned, or very similiar anyway: Curare, also cheers for the heads up on the new Rick Strassman book, my next must have addition to the book collection.

Moses, that paper dart primer site is great, it was one of the better ones I found in my search, now I need to find the specific magazine paper to make em

Yeah it seems even things like Nerium oleander may have been used or their close relatives anyway.

CT haven't checked that link yet but will shortly.

Cheers everyone some great info right here, much appreciated.

Oh and my aim is improving, now to just quit smoking and I might be able to get my darts to fly further haha