From DemolitionRanch, “There literally has been no new developments in the art of spear throwing since the cavemen first invented spears….UNTIL NOW!”
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In the “There’s nothing new under the Sun” department: I remember, as a youth, seeing films (probably from the 1920s) made in the Congo that showed Congolese hunting using muzzle-loading muskets loaded with some fairly hefty spears. At the time the Congolese were only allowed black powder muzzle loaders. The Stoeger Catalog advertized various models of these “Trade Arms”. If I remember correctly, they came in a variety of bores up to about 4 gauge!
Check out the 45-70 line throwing guns used for rescue, they used a 70 grains of black powder to fire a harpoon line projectile from the beach to ship. Also they used them ship to ship. Lyle made a small cannon that did the same thing. Use a metal shaft so it doesn’t shatter. They were used by Fire Departments and Rescue crews up into the 80s. They use compressed air now because of the federal inter-state shipping laws for the FEMA rescue crews.
I think Greener and others made made harpoon guns and messenger line guns to soot small ropes from one ship to another for the last couple hundred years or so using method very much like this.
Red
H&R made line throwing guns for the US Navy. They were smooth bore .45-70 blanks throwing the line to another ship. Mossberg offered a line throwing shotgun for a year around 1997. I bought one originally trying to donate it to a local PD surf rescue team. The PD chief would not take it, even after the death of an officer. The dead cop came within 50 yards of the shore line and the other rescue crew said if they had a line gun they could have saved him. After the chief said no, we tried to give it to the fire department. The PD chief said no to that as well. It ended up at a local fire department for the fast water rescue team.
The officer did not need to die according to his team mates. If only they had a line gun, for the times the rescue boats and sleds failed. They all failed that day. The USCG recovered his body, but the machine was so new to them that they couldn’t find the intubation gear within time.
I’ve disliked that chief ever since.
Seems I remember seeing this some years ago. What we have here is an answer in search of a question. Why oh why would anyone go through the bother of emptying the shot out of a perfectly good shot shell to launch a short range spear point when the shot will do the same thing at longer range? The video wasn’t even amusing.
I don’t believe the video was intended to be amusing…just informative and entertaining…which it was…admirably.
Answer; For a laugh
Secondly Tom; Maybe it wasn’t funny to you, but this guy cracks me up.
Every single time I watch his goofy videos, I get a good laugh out of it.
Please check your ballistics b4 commenting on sumthing u obviously kno nothing about a regular shotshell isn’t good for anything but maybe a rabbit or squirrel at no more than 40 yards and no good at all for anything bigger up to about 20 yards otherwise your just peppering stinging material at whatever your shooting at lol
“Necessity is the mother of invention . . . . and laziness it’s father.”
( Little Richard’s Almanac, re: B. Franklin)
Years ago my FIL, a proud and practiced Wisconsin deer hunting violator, took a .410 break-open shotgun and inserted an aluminum shafted hunting arrow into the barrel from the breach end. He then cleaned the shot out of a .410 shell and inserted that, making sure the arrow shaft ended up inside the shotshell. His idea was to shoot deer during bow season with the more accurate and powerful .410. I fired the “arrowgun” at a barn wall from about 50 ft and the arrow flew straight and true and penetrated the barn siding. It was quite the weapon!