A Firecracker-Launching Slingshot: Start the New Year With a Bang 65
An anonymous reader writes "Joerg Sprave is at it again. This time, in order to bring in the New Year, he's got something with a bit more bang to it: a firecracker-launching slingshot. Being German, Joerg has built a slingshot that will accommodate the largest legal firecracker in that country. '2 grams of black powder in a tight cardboard "cigar" make a pretty loud bang! In order to make these bangs more spectacular, it is desirable to shoot them as high into the air as possible. A special slingshot crossbow has been designed, chambered for the strongest legal firecrackers. The weapon is a breech loader, and an integrated storm lighter allows the shooter to light the fuse when the weapon is all ready for the shot. The weapon launches the firecracker with tremendous force. The blunt object easily crashes through a moving card board box, and — equipped with a wooden tip — even goes in all the way into a block of ballistic gelatin.' His two videos are available on YouTube: part 1, part 2."
This is the same gentleman who made a slingshot that launches machetes.
Outlawed here (Score:4, Interesting)
Those type of devices have been illegal in this area since the '70's at
that time they were a "problem".
Minus the rubber band, add a cover to the breach and you have a "Zip gun"
and a very efficient survival weapon.
shooting a nail with just a black cat fire cracker and a rubber band holding down the breach cover
and "it will pin a person to the wall"* a quote from the local newspaper.
After reading that quote my grandmother says "that must be a very large nail".
Even firecrackers are illegal here! How I envied this hint hint nudge nugde dude when
he mentioned them being legal for a day or two.
Re:crossbow? (Score:4, Interesting)
Crossbows are a form of bows -- a weapon which is based on the bending -- not stretching -- of a semi-flexible rigid material.
This is a slingshot -- a weapon which uses an elastic strap which releases energy by stretching, and then releasing.
Re:Idiots (Score:2, Interesting)
This happened to me. At a concert a few years back, some fucking idiot behind me decided to light off bottle rockets. One landed on my shoulder, went off, blew a chunk of my chin off, and blew out my right ear. I can live with the deafness, but the constant day-in day-out ringing is most irritating.
By the time the cops got to me, the fuckers had absconded. BTW, the local Free Clinic, with the help of some volunteer doctors from the local Veterans Hospital, provided first rate care until the ambulance arrived.
Due to funding issues, that Veterans Hospital has been closed, as has the Free Clinic.