Originally Posted by: Chrispy 
haha magic story bud. I managed to lern how to make gun powder at a young age so went strait from plastic cap guns to black powdered pipe guns...... basicly galv pipe hand cannons. was a 1" galv pipe with end cap screwed on and a wee hole drilled in it for the fuse. then we'd stick carrots, spuds even apples into it. shoot them a good 100mtrs with the right charge. nearly blew off me fingers a few times but hey, it sure was fun
We did similar but in my case I made a pirate gun with an axe handle and a piece of pipe sealed at the end - unfortunately it actually exploded on the first shot and its a wonder that I didnt lose my hand. Ballistics and things like that were one of my 'interests' - an old fellow I knew who became my gold mining partner gave me a book entitled 'For Manufacturers Workshop Receipts' 1878 - the name of the original owner can be still read inside - 'Aspinall Skippers' and it came from what is arguably the most famous gold claim in Skippers canyon. In any case this book is still a treasured possession as it has pages of recipes for fireworks and explosives and was the inspiration for many experiments and foolhardy acts of total stupidity - one thing which I attempted I cant explain here as I have heard that New Zealand has not got a Statute of Limitations.
Someone found a rimfire revolver in Bathgate park in Dunedin about 1965 and I bought it for $1 but it had no cylinder - it was a .32rf but I didnt have any .32 bullets - I did have .25 ones though and the shell actually fitted into the barrel with the rim stopping it from falling too far down and out the receiving end. A long makeshift firing pin made out of a nail and we actually got the thing to fire - most of the force blew out the rim of the cartridge and that was deadly and the actual bullet merely plopped out the end - another grand scheme for killing the neighbours pet moggy went down the drain.
The best weapon though was my grandfathers logsplitting gun - taking it down the sandhills at Waikouaiti. loading it with blasting powder, toilet paper wad, half a cup of shotgun pellets then more toilet paper to hold the pellets in. We would spot a rabbit then sneak up unseen, rest the logsplitting gun on the ground facing in the general direction of the rabbit aim the logsplitting gun and prepare to send the rabbit to Purgatory - As sure as eggs are eggs the rabbit always took off when we struck a match but we still let rip - it sprayed shotgun pellets in all directions and now and again we had to look for the gun as it did on occasions take of in the opposite direction.
I had a morbid curiousity for logsplitting guns and now own eight of them - well 7 actually as the eighht one is a post hole gun but I'm a bit reluctant to use it in case it spins the planet out of orbit and if it didnt do that then it is highly likely that some poor sod ten miles away would get killed when a huge cannon like pipe fell out of the sky...one of those act of god type of accidents that could result in humanity declaring war on Aliens unknown.
Edited by user Monday, 3 June 2013 1:18:54 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
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