PVC Hiking Staff Blowgun Tutorial.

Today I will be showing you how to make a hiking staff which, by interchanging a few parts, can be used as a powerful hunting blowgun. This design features an easy-to-make mouth-piece and a capability for storing multiple blow darts.

Before making this, please note that blowguns can be very dangerous weapons. Exercise extreme caution when using this since it can have a potential range of nearly 100 metres.

I hope you all have fun using this either for target practice in your back yard, or for small game hunting in a survival situation.

Step 1: What You'll Need

To make this you will need: a length of half inch PVC piping (slightly shorter than you want the staff to be), one 90 degree elbow, a six inch length of half inch pipe, a half inch screw-together fitting (shown in pic 2), sandpaper or a file, a soda bottle and optionally some colored electrical tape for camouflage.

Step 2: Putting It Together

Start by fitting the 6 inch length of pipe into the right angle, then fit the 2 part screw-thing together on to one end of the long length of pipe.

Step 3: Making the Dart

To make the dart, sharpen the tip of a 2 inch nail, fit it into a paper cone the same diameter as the blowgun barrel, and use either super glue or electrical tape to hold it in place.

Step 4: The Mouth Piece

To make the mouth piece, cut the screw-on-lid part off the bottle and cut it to shape so that it fits your mouth comfortably.

Now use tape to fit the bottle part onto the two-way PVC connector. You can now attach and remove the whole thing from the blowgun.

Step 5: Finished

Finished! To use it as a blowgun, unscrew the screw-thing, remove the handle and replace it with the mouth piece, load a dart and blow. If you want it to have camouflage and to be more durable, just add some tape (although probably not red if you are planning on hunting)

Comments

[l8nite]

I've only recently started experimenting with blow guns but I have been using a staff as a walking aid for many years. Being nearly 300 lbs I don't find 1/2" PVC strong enough by itself but if you slip 1/2" CPVC inside it really stiffens it up, an added bonus, as a blowgun the CPVC requires less air and the thicker material is straighter. I currently hav 1/2" PVC gun about 42" long and a 1/2" CPVC about 50" and 2 metal tubes about 3' one is a commercially available gun about 3/8" diameter I think and is very easy to use and the other is a slightly larger inner diameter that was originally part of a tripod leg I think. I cut the pieces of pvc and CPVC yesterday to make a thicke outter diameter gun that is easier to hold with a smaller bore for ease of shooting. The smaller pipe is in the freezer, I'm hoping it will slide together easier when I go to assemble it

[DIYWEAPONS]

Nice! Good luck with it. Thanks for the info :-)

[Joey John 9821]

put thicker pvc over the half inch

[DIYWEAPONS]

Yes, that would definitely be a good idea, the only trouble being that while 1 in fits perfectly over 3/4, 3/4 needs to be heated a lot to be able to fit over half inch.
This would definitely be a great idea if i ever made a 3/4 in staff though:-)

[siglerk]

Cool idea. Is it really sturdy enough to use as a hiking staff?

[DIYWEAPONS]

Thanks.To be honest i was not overjoyed at the performance of the half inch pipe since it bent when any significant amount of pressure was put on it. Because of this i might recommend using 3/4 - 1 inch pipe if you were going to use it for hiking a lot.
Having said that, bear in mind, the wider the pipe, the more air you will need to propel the dart.

[siglerk]

That's what I thought, and good point about needing more air. Maybe copper pipe or electrical conduit would be a little stronger? Though I don't know if you could get the same fittings. Or another pipe of a smaller diameter inside to make it more rigid that you slide it out when you put on the mouth piece. You might even be able to combine the smaller piece with the handle to make a stand.

[DIYWEAPONS]

Electrical conduit could be but as you say, i don't think you would be able to get the same fittings. As for copper pipe, i would have thought it would be too heavy. That is a great idea about having a smaller pipe inside. I would probably use light-weight steel pipe inside 3/4 inch pvc and might use some kind of foam tubing to fill the gap.

Thanks so much for those ideas and i will definitely give you some credit if i ever use this design.