In the beginning blowguns were made from bamboo or other hollowed out
sticks of wood. North American Cherokees were known for
making blowguns out of river cane to hunt for rabbits and
other small creatures. As crude as these primitive weapons
were, they were also extremely accurate.
No one knows exactly where blowguns originated; however, it is generally
believed that they appeared simultaneously throughout many
parts of the world. The earliest evidence of blowguns dates
back thousands of years to parts of Africa and Asia.
In the America's,
blowguns have been used for several thousand years by Native
Americans as survival weapons. They were also used as far
back as the year 1500 by the Ninja in Japan, for silent
assassinations.
As a primitive weapon, there were no set dimensions for a blowgun's length
and diameter. However today, most modern blowguns typically
come in two sizes:
The .40 caliber blowgun
measures 3/8" in diameter, and
The .50 caliber blowgun measures 1/2" in diameter.
These measurements
are based on the "inside" diameter of the blowgun tube.
In recent years, blowguns have seen a resurgence of popularity here
in the US as well as other parts of the world.
Blowguns are
used to help maintain wildlife by delivering tranquilizer
darts in complete silence. The animals can then be studied
and released back into the wild.
Many people are
also finding that blowguns can offer quite a challenging sport.
With different darts to choose from such as soft-tip darts,
stun darts, and even paintballs, the blowgun offers a wide
variety of sporting activities.
There are several competition styles of blowgun practiced around the
world. A standardization of competition is being pursued by
the International Fukiyado Association, and has high hopes
of becoming an Olympic event. It is a 10-meter target shoot,
using a standardized barrel caliber and length, and a
standardized dart, as outlined by IFA.
Two other styles are also being pursued to make up the Olympic blowgun
event. The Field Style competition is where the shooter runs
from a starting line to a target lane, shoots, and retrieves
the darts, and then continues to the next station. The
course length varies from 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile or longer, with a number of targets at various heights
and shooting distances.
The final style is the Long Distance target shoot. The target is a circle
that is 24 cm in diameter, and the firing line is 20 meters
away. Each shooter fires three darts, and at least one dart
must stick in the target. All successful shooters move to
the next round, moving back 2 meters each time.
AVERAGE LENGTH ACCURACY AND VELOCITY FOR MODERN BLOWGUNS: (these
are averages based on an adult shooter with normal lung
capacity)
18" - accuracy range 40 feet, 125 feet per second
24" - accuracy range 65 feet, 150 feet per second
36" - accuracy range 100 feet, 200 feet per second
48" - accuracy range 150 feet, 250 feet per second
60" - accuracy range 175 feet, 300 feet per second
These Blowguns are not toys. They
should only be used under adult supervision!
NOTE: These items cannot be shipped to California.
The
Splatmatic accessory transforms any .40 caliber
blowgun into a semi-automatic paintball gun. Remove your
blowgun mouthpiece and attach the splatmatic to the tube.
You can load up to 20 paintballs into the magazine. Every
time you press the button, one paintball will load into the
barrel. (Paintballs and blowgun not included)
Each
Avenger Warrior Come with:
Fun Fact