damage or distance

[jor2daje]

Hi guys been a while since I posted but Ive been keeping my eye on things here, I recently got a old shopsmith 10er of craigslist for $60 and Ive been trying a couple little projects. I brought out my favorite cannon, my golfball piston launcher, and decided I could make some cool ammo partly for real use partly to practice on the lathe.

So heres the first thing I came up with took about 10 minutes including paint. Its has four interchangeable pieces, the metal tip, hardwood body, softwood tail, and a darts fly for fins. I made two tails because I expect them to break every couple of launches.

Just wondering what this ammo would be better for, damage or distance? Its very front heavy and flies straight so I assumed distance but I might not be as aerodynamic as a simple golfball.


Heres a goblet I made, just showing it so you guys can tell me what you think, I know the shape isnt great but the walls are only 2mm thick.

[POLAND_SPUD]

I think it's quite aerodynamic... I might be wrong but if it looks like a mortar round then it seems that it should have good aerodynamics

Heres a goblet I made

lol sell it on ebay as 'the Holy Grail'

[eriko1337]

looks very good for long range but can sure make some damage, looks cool too =)

[qwerty]

With a metal tip like that im guessing damage. but they probably go far to.

[SpudFarm]

I would make more of them and test accuracy at 100+ meters.
Make it all more "uniform" next time, the flange thing just in front of the fins has no purpose.

I think you should combine the both, shoot a fridge or something from 100m.

[deathbyDWV]

That's cool... I'll have to make some...

[john bunsenburner]

How reliably can you make this ammo. 10mins a piece sounds reasonable(though only you can decide that) for reusable ammo, however for accuracy and other reasons the ammo should be relatively uniform, thus the question.

[jor2daje]

I like the long distance damage idea, Im sure with a jig I could bust out quite a few of these without paint. I should be testing longrange friday so Ill let you guys know how they do.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

damage and distance go hand in hand, assuming you define damage as "depth of penetration", because the better a projectile is at penetrating a target in terms of aerodynamics and sectional density, the better it will be at "penetrating" the air and going far.

Of course if you want to bludgeon your target at short range a cylinder of something heavy will suffice