Making a spud gun to look like a firearm.

[qwerty]

I don't, it realy depends how you are holding it. If you are running around with a piece of metal pipe in you hand i would be pretty scared but if you hold it with the barrel pointing at the floor you would think someone had just been to home depot and was carrying a load of plumbing parts.

[spud downunder]

yes true, but i was more meaning if sumone seen you in your backyard, or goin to a friends place with it. but i really dont understand wat stu is gettin at here. what a pointles thread to start. Ive only been into spudguns for not even a year built one pneumatic n a couple off pill bottle conbustions, and i can even see the necesitys of having a stock on ur gun in terms of making it easier and safer to hold, and to improve aim. even tho i have not even made one

[qwerty]

Yeah, but anyway the reason that we build spudguns is that they are totally unique. Why would you want to make it into something that looks like a real firearm when most people in America could just go and buy one. And also some Air guns look better than the real thing (old shatterhand)

[rikukiakuchiki777]

I don't, it realy depends how you are holding it. If you are running around with a piece of metal pipe in you hand i would be pretty scared but if you hold it with the barrel pointing at the floor you would think someone had just been to home depot and was carrying a load of plumbing parts.

Depends, Jack_Hoggs new launcher is just a bunch of plumbing parts, but it could easily be mistaken for some form of 'shotgun' or similar, regardless of whether or not its pointed at the floor.

[spud downunder]

true, but admitably the desighn of the spudgun will have sum resemblance to a real firearm, well dependin on wat your making, if you wanted a comforatble-shoot from shoulder gun then u will need to adapt a stock, or somethin similar. yes i think everyone here wants an old shatterhand hangin on there wall.

[psycix]

Don't commercial air guns also look like firearms?
Lets see:
-A barrel
-A stock
-A trigger
-A scope
From a distance, it looks pretty much like a firearm to me.

Another comparison:
Firearms shoot projectiles
Spudguns shoot projectiles

What is wrong about making it look like a firearm?
If one would make his supersoaker look like a firearm, then yes, that will cause unneeded commotion, but for a spudgun, well, you shouldn't carry it around in town anyway right?

If you want to hit stuff at a range, you will need a stock. Stocks are not just for looks. If they were, why do all rifles have stocks?

I think firearm-looking spudguns can look awesome. And that is my opinion.
The fact that you don't like spudguns looking like firearms, that's your opinion.

[Brian the brain]

In the very beginning I wanted it to function above all.

My way has always been to make things as compact as could be.
This pretty much eliminates the plumbers nightmare-look.
Most of my cannons are a combination of looks and the power to back it up..
If you don't like it, that's fine.I got over 10.000 views on Shatterhand alone so I must be doing something right.

I do agree that a well built spudgun can be beautiful in it's own right.
We don't need to copy a firearm to make it look cool.
The brass over under is a good example.Nice but nothing like a firearm.
There ae noumerous examples really...

Stu, your stengun style cannon also stands out and it certainly has a character of it's own.
Nobody tells you to change it.That's the thing about this hobby, see..
You decide.


The orange tip shouldn't even be an issue.You don;t take a spudgun outside where everybody can see it unless it is legal.
If it looks like a firearm than treat is like one and don;t go shopping with it.
Use your common sense...please.

About creating your own look:
If I could own a shotgun legally...I'd still saw off the barrel and stock and probably change out the grips to fit my personal style.Personally, I'd rather build one than buy one...but okay..

And yes...I would be shooting it from the hip...

[Ragnarok]

if a "spudgun" looks like a "real gun" than the common person will treat it as one, and hopefully that means taking proper safety precautions which we can all appreciate.

A fair point, but I wouldn't let anyone operate a launcher unless they understand fully that it needs to be treated with absolute respect - whatever it may look like.

I do NOT want it near my face!

I have no problem with having any of my spudguns near my face, unless it's at the muzzle end. Perhaps you should be building guns that are perhaps...safe?

This is a bit of a tricky matter.

As far as safety goes, I list things under "The Two Ps"
- Prevention: What you're doing to avoid any accident happening.
An accident in this case is any unintended action, operation or result (things like accidental triggering, chamber rupture, etc), whether or not it results in damage/injury.
- Precaution (or if you prefer, Protection): What's being done to minimise the damage/injury caused by any accident.

Anyone using a launcher should have both in place simply as a smart measure, but precautions are no substitute for preventions.

As far as "nouns" go, Prevention is things like using strong enough materials. Precaution is things like safety goggles.

As far as "verbs" go, Prevention is not touching the trigger except when you intend to fire.
Precaution is not pointing the muzzle at anything you're not willing to destroy, not having it loaded when it's not necessary or remote triggering.

Choosing to only fire a launcher from the hip is a precaution - it won't stop any accident, but it will minimise damage if something should go wrong.

Safety catches could be a bit of an argument over whether it's Prevention or Precaution - it depends on whether you consider the accident pulling the trigger when you didn't mean to (in which case, they're the precaution that stops you firing), or firing when you didn't want to (in which case, they're a prevention that stops you firing).
Personally, I consider them Precaution - any sequence of events that leads to the trigger being pulled at an inappropriate time should count as an accident.

I won't ever tell someone not to use precautions in case there is a failure, but if they're sufficiently concerned about the measures they have in place to stop an accident to be convinced they need to have measures in place to contain an accident, then I suggest they stop using the launcher at all.

It wouldn't hurt if more people were to start thinking this way (and at some point, I may write a SpudWiki article along the rough lines of the above.)

[cannonmaster]

i think that a spud gun should look like a gun to a certen point but because they are a new breed of gun i think that they should stay the way they look because each person is different and each gun is different and uneque and it should stay that wat

[c11man]

i totaly agree with btb, things like my brass over under will almost never be mistakein for a real gun yet almost anyone who picks it up would be able to figure out that the black end goes on your shoulder, trigger is the brass tube out front, and you look down the barrel to aim.

[Ragnarok]

... and you look down the barrel to aim.

Looking along the barrel, maybe.
Down... not so sure about that one being a smart idea. :tongue3:

[Brian the brain]

I always chop down the barrel..

Have we come to a conclusion yet?

[spud downunder]

yes, we each have our own opionins about how we feel about making our guns and how we desighn them, wether they look like a bunch of pipes and fittings or a shiny new hight-tech rifle or something, but bottom line dont go walking around with it where u can attract unwanted attention. we shuld have this thread closed now, it was kinda pointless to begin with.

[D_Hall]

because they are a new breed of gun

Ah... Kids these days.


Hint: There ain't much happening around here that hasn't been happening for generations. Ah well.... Every generation seems to think that they invented kinky sex. I guess every generation can think they invented spud guns too.