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. The bayonet, still used in war as both knife and spearpoint. ... A projectile is any object sent through space by the application of a force. ... Darts are missile weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp, often weighted point will strike first. ...

Sometimes, for increased effectiveness, the dart is tipped with a poison, most famously curare. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Strychnos toxifera by Koehler 1887 Curare is a substance containing the alkaloid D-tubocurarine. ...

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. A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ...

Also, North American Cherokees were known for making blowguns out of river cane to supplement their diet with rabbits and other small creatures. For other uses, see Cherokee (disambiguation). ...

Today's modern man uses the blowgun with tranquilizer darts to help maintain today's wildlife. Herpetologists find the blowgun extremely useful in capturing elusive lizards with stun darts. Today, many people are finding that blowguns offer quite a challenging sport. With different darts to choose from, blowguns are finding their way into everyday society. With the introduction of paintballs and stun darts, the blowgun offers a wide variety of sporting activities.

Sport Blowgun

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 3-ringed 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. These arrows score as an inner 10, and a 9 Archery is the practice of using a bow to shoot arrows. ...

There are several competition styles practiced around the world. Standardization of competition style internationally is being pursued by the International Fukiyado Association. 10 meter target shooting, using a standardized barrel caliber and length, and a standardized dart length and weight, is hoped to become an Olympic event. Also a Field Style competition, based on the Cherokee Annual Gathering blowgun competiton is being included as one of three styles making up the blowgun Olympic event. In this style, similar to the winter Biathlon, the shooter runs from a starting line to a target lane, shoots and retrieves the darts, running to the next station. The course length varies from 1/4 to 1/2 mile (400 to 800 m) or longer with between 9 to 16 targets at various heights and shooting distances. The final style is the Long Distance target shoot. The target is a circle of 24 cm diameter. The firing line starts from 20 meters. Three darts are fired by each shooter, at least one must stick in the target. All successful shooters move to the next round, moving back 2 meters each time.

The sport blowgun is managed by International Fukiya Association The International Fukiya Association (or IFA), is the International Federation of Blowgun, created in 2001 by Hironori Higuchi and Amante_P._Marinas_Sr. ...

• See NSBA (USA)
• See FSBA (France)

The National Sport Blowgun Association, or NSBA, is the United States affiliate national organization of the International Fukiya Association. ... French sport association for Blowgun, affiliated to IFA with NSBA History 2004 Creation Stéphane Jouanneau Tresory and National Secretary, Blowgun Long Distance Vice World Champion Pierre-Emmanuel Debergh Chairman, Former Archery French Team Champion (Source FSBA) 2005 Officialisation, Worldwide Affiliation 2006 Blowgun National Open Organization 2007 Blowgun World Championship...

Other

The blowgun is 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 Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan in mid 1985. They encountered the same problems the British experienced and switched to the US-developed Stinger after 1987. A missile (CE pronunciation: ; AmE: ) is, in general, a projectile—that is, something thrown or otherwise propelled. ... The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) was an effective state of war in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. ... A triple Javelin missile launcher Javelin is a British man-portable surface-to-air missile, used by the British Army and Canadian Army. ... Mujahideen (Arabic: , also transliterated as mujāhidīn, mujahideen, mujahedin, mujahidin, mujaheddin, etc. ... Two soldiers preparing to fire a shoulder-mounted Stinger missile launcher Light to carry and easy to operate, the FIM-92 Stinger is a passive infrared homing/seek surface-to-air missile, shoulder-fired by a single operator and designed to attack aircraft at a range of up to 15...

Some modern blowguns have removable sections, and as a result, paintball adaptors have been made so that people can use blowguns as back up weapons.

Legality

In the UK, the blowgun is categorised as an offensive weapon under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, and as such it is illegal to manufacture, sell or hire or offer for sale or hire, expose or have in ones possession for the purpose of sale or hire, or lend or give to any other person. Antique blowguns are however exempt. In the government of the United Kingdom, Criminal Justice Acts is a generic name for those acts of parliament that shape law and order in the country. ... Antique can stand for any of several things: An antique is an object, often furniture or any other domestic item, that is highly valued because of its age, or because it belongs to a specific time period. ...