Walter Brennan in the series Guns of Will Sonnett.

Thanks Phil, now my whole day is shot. How am I supposed to get any work done now that I have to practice shooting rubber bands the rest of the day! LOL That rubber band duel sounds like a safer alternative to what we did in college--we would fling pennies at each other--close range, no eye protection--you move, you lose--OK to blink but don't flinch. You just snap your fingers hard & the penny will fly if you hold it right. It's easier with a bottle cap, but young & stupid, we used pennies because they inflict more damage. (Please kids, don't try this--we were stupid. Any Mom anywhere will tell you that "You'll put your eye out!" ... and she would be right.)

It's true. It's been a long Winter for everyone.

Shooting paperclips are more fun!

Now to extend that to shooting out of a rubber band gun.

Any thoughts on getting spin out of a pea shooter?

Speaking of shooting the weather was nice today so we set up the Ohler speed machine and chronographed the new Z-7. With 370 grain hunting arrows the 65 lb bow shot 294 fps. That arrow works out to about 5 3/4 grains per pound of draw weight. This is 32 fps faster than my 62 lb Switchback XT using the same arrows.

Looks like the next day of snow will bring me to the shooting range of the hallway. Time to stock up on rubber bands.

MLH 'Any thoughts on getting spin out of a pea shooter?'

FROM THE TACTICOOL BOOK OF PEA SHOOTING
Have you tried using an off centre and smaller blowing hole? makes the pea shooter a muzzle loader instead of mouth magazine, so the reduced rate of fire doesn't really make it worth while in a duel, but spin is achieved
SBW

Thats awesome it works great i can't wait to do it to my friends in class.

It has, indeed, been a long winter. I only hope this blog, and Phil's usually excellent posts, are not descending to the level of the dog guy.

This winter has been very long but..:
As a kid we took a strong rubber band and two of mom's hair pins. To make a weapon one hairpin was held vertical, just held as a post for the leading edge of the rubber band to be pulled back on. The second had the rubber band between it's legs. When shot it would kill any bird. It would kill an unwanted cat if shot in the head. Remember, I was a lonely country kid.

Should let this one pass, but since I have a bit of experience in the field I thought I would pass it on. Are we talking about only finger fired projectiles or can I introduce the long range magnums? Whatever, here it goes. When I was a kid we made rubber band shooting guns out of material at hand which, in the most simplistic manner, was wood carved into a semblance of a gun. We made handguns and longguns with triggers and even sights (to make it look good). Of course we did not shoot the secretaries rubber bands. We used magnum bands depending on the size of the weapon. Flies were damn dead across the room. Little sisters got whacked a lot. Western style dueling went on regularly. Kind of a forerunner into what is now the paint ball craze.
Innocent fun, no one got hurt, can you imagine today's urban society seeing their kids playing with those kind of guns?? Ban them.

That's how I shoot rubber bands. People were always amazed that I could knock over a half full water bottle with one.

I always preferred the slingshot approach, first tear some strips of paper about an inch wide and roll them up and fold. Next take your rubberband and stretch it from thumb to index finger as shown in the video, but twist it so it's one "rope" of rubber between your fingers.
Now take one of the paper pieces and fold it over the center of the rubberband and shoot it slingshot style. Or for maximum stealth it can be stretched across the palm and held by the pinky finger and fired one handed.
Done right it can be accurate across a classroom and leave welts when fires slingshot style.

Yeah, I had too much time to kill growing up too.
We also used to have shootouts with spring powered bb guns, no eye protection either. Dumb kids.

Shooting is shooting, again the point is if you practice anything seriously, you can raise anything to a higher level. This is not high school stuff, most of us mastered these shooters by the 5th grade.
I remember a quite "deadly" item, it had to do with the manipulating of a bobby pin where the straight side was bent back over its self and created a spring tension that could leave a nasty welt! The good sisters would punish us severely after this contraband was discovered!

I used to throw spitballs with them stung the teacher a few times before getting caught.

I was waitin' for the heavy artillery and/or missle launcher ... with that size of a launcher/rubber band a paper clip would have been the ideal projectile!

Man ... I'm gettin' Shack Fever!

My weapon of choice is a soda straw and one of those large tooth picks with the cellophane wrap on one end.
Blowgun style, when no one is looking.
Way to dangerous to use on people, but I enjoy sticking them in tile ceilings of restaurants I frequent.
It's become the "Killroy was here" of my intellectually challenged circle of friends. So much so that I often find that the "calling card" has been joined by others.
Something to look forward to when things are dull.

You're right, Bella, but it's a guy thing. There's a part of us that never grows up.

I had a science teacher in 8th grade who kept a huge rubber band in his desk, ready whenever an unfortunate insect wandered into his classroom. Most of the guys in his class tried to learn to shoot like him - the same way Bourjaily shows. He could hit a bug anywhere in the classroom (usually on the ceiling) without getting up from his desk. To this day, I still keep rubber bands handy - and my aim is still pretty good!

i use to fly hunt in my house using basicly a very small potato gun contructed of a tube from a pen, small pill bottle, the sparker from those hand held grill/candle lighters, and a few drops of lighter fuel