Blowgun
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A blowgun or blowpipe is a simple weapon consisting of a small tube for firing light projectiles, or darts. The wielder blows into one end, forcing the dart out the other.
Sometimes, for increased effectiveness, the dart is tipped with a poison, most famously curare.
Many cultures have used this weapon, but various indigenous rain forest tribes in South America and South East Asia are the best known wielders. Blowguns are very rarely used by these tribes as actual weapons, they are used primarily to hunt small game such as monkeys.
Also, North American Cherokees were known for making blowguns out of river cane to supplement their diet with rabbits and other small creatures.
Today's modern man uses the blowgun with tranquilizer darts to help maintain today's wildlife. Herpetologists find the blowgun extremely useful in capturing elusive lizards with stun darts. Today, many people are finding that blowguns offer quite a challenging sport. With different darts to choose from, blowguns are finding their way into everyday society. With the introduction of paintballs and stun darts, the blowgun offers a wide variety of sporting activities.
In recent years, blowgun target shooting, which shares traits with both throwing (pub) darts and archery, has become a popular sporting event. The range is 10 meters long by 2 meters wide. The 3-ringed targets are composed of a 6 cm bulls-eye, centered at 160 cm above ground, scored as 7 points. The inner ring is 12 cm in diameter, scored as 5 points, and the outer ring is 18 cm in diameter, and scored as 3 points. The shooters use a 120 cm (4 ft.) barrel with a bore of .40, or .50, caliber (in Japan, only .51 cal. is used). 6 rounds of 5 shots are taken, with a maximum score of 210 points. Men and women of all ages compete equally, as do handicapped shooters. The only concession made is for wheelchair-bound competitors, whose targets are lowered to 90 cm. This is perhaps the only sport to make the claim that all participants are considered equal.
There are several competition styles practiced around the world. Standardization of competition style internationally is being pursued by the International Fukiyado Association. 10 meter target shooting, using a standardized barrel caliber and length, and a standardized dart length and weight, is hoped to become an Olympic event. Also a Field Style competition, based on the Cherokee Annual Gathering blowgun competiton is being included as one of three styles making up the blowgun Olympic event. In this style, similar to the winter Biathlon, the shooter runs from a starting line to a target lane, shoots and retrieves the darts, running to the next station. The course length varies from 1/4 to 1/2 mile (400 to 800 m) or longer with between 9 to 16 targets at various heights and shooting distances. The final style is the Long Distance target shoot. The target is a circle of 24 cm diameter. The firing line starts from 20 meters. Three darts are fired by each shooter, at least one must stick in the target. All successful shooters move to the next round, moving back 2 meters each time.
The blowgun is also a shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile developed by the British and used in the Falklands war. The missile could engage targets head on but had to be manually guided by the firer. It was made obsolete by the Javelin and sold in large quantities to Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan in mid 1985. They encountered the same problems the British experienced and switched to the US-developed Stinger after 1987.
Some modern blowguns have removable sections, and as a result, paintball addaptions have been made so that people can use blowguns as back up weapons.
Legality
In the UK, the blowgun is categorised as an offensive weapon under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, and as such it is illegal to manufacture, sell or hire or offer for sale or hire, expose or have in ones possession for the purpose of sale or hire, or lend or give to any other person. Antique blowguns are however exempt.
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