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damage or distance

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:53 pm
by 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.
Image

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.
Image

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:57 am
by 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'

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:04 am
by eriko1337
looks very good for long range but can sure make some damage, looks cool too =)

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:00 am
by qwerty
With a metal tip like that im guessing damage. but they probably go far to.

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:27 am
by 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.

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:38 pm
by deathbyDWV
That's cool... I'll have to make some...

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 1:18 pm
by 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.

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:49 pm
by 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.

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:33 am
by 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 :)