Blowgun

From Freepedia

A blowgun or blowpipe is a simple weapon consisting of a small tube for firing light projectiles, or darts. The wielder blows into one end, forcing the dart out the other.

Sometimes, for increased effectiveness, the dart is tipped with a poison, most famously curare.

Many cultures have used this weapon, but various indigenous rain forest tribes in South America and South East Asia are the best known wielders. Blowguns are very rarely used by these tribes as actual weapons, they are used primarily to hunt small game such as monkeys.

Also, North American Cherokees were known for making blowguns out of river cane to supplement their diet with rabbits and other small creatures.

In recent years, blowgun target shooting, which shares traits with both throwing (pub) darts and archery, has become a popular sporting event. The range is 10 meters long by 2 meters wide. The targets are composed of a 6 cm bulls-eye, centered at 160 cm above ground, scored as 7 points. The inner ring is 12 cm in diameter, scored as 5 points, and the outer ring is 18 cm in diameter, and scored as 3 points. The shooters use a 120 cm (4 ft.) barrel with a bore of .40, or .50, caliber (in Japan, only .51 cal. is used). 6 rounds of 5 shots are taken, with a maximum score of 210 points. Men and women of all ages compete equally, as do handicapped shooters. The only concession made is for wheelchair-bound competitors, whose targets are lowered to 90 cm. This is perhaps the only sport to make the claim that all participants are considered equal.

Also, a shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile developed by the British and used in the Falklands war. The missile could engage targets head on but had to be manually guided by the firer. It was made obsolete by the Javelin and sold in large quantities to Mujaheedin fighters in Afghanistan in mid 1985. They encountered the same problems the British experienced and switched to the US developed Stinger after 1987.