An attempt to classify homemade shooting games from Soviet childhood from memory.
From simple to complex... Match shooters are easy to make, miniature, but fire hazardous.
A match shooter from a clothespin fired a match whether it was burning or not.
The head of the match was wrapped in foil from a cigarette pack, heated by another lit match and psssh, the match flies like a rocket.
The photo shows a remake, but the principle is the same; when a match ignites, a shot is fired from the box grater.
Match shooter from a fountain pen.
From simple to complex... Darts. Simple, but dangerous if it enters a living organism.
Almost "darts", we preferred to use needles from sewing machines, they are heavier.
A dart made from a welding electrode was thrown into trees, but it was very dangerous.
From simple to complex... Spitting tubes.
A metal tube for spitting plasticine or mastic balls. A large supply of mastic or plasticine was molded directly onto the tube, from which a piece was pinched off and loaded into the tube. Apart from moral damage, such spitting did nothing to its victim. The pipe was also made from a thick rod from a pen and they were shot with grain, which even happened in bursts. And chewed paper or blotter could be shot from any chemistry pencil in class without arousing suspicion.
This is a beautiful plant that I have known since childhood. When there was an epidemic of rowan spitting from tubes in our yard, hogweeds seemed to us an excellent option for making weapons. Needless to say, everyone walked around with burns afterwards. At a minimum, around the mouth, and at most, someone was talking about a burned stomach and so on. I had a burn on my hand - about the size of a modern five-ruble coin. And only now I learned that it is not the pungent hogweed itself, but that it washes away the UV protection from the skin with its juice. Watch and be careful with him.
We also found long glass tubes at the dump of an electric lamp factory and shot berries far and hard.
From simple to complex... Sikalka or dousing.
A sikalka was made from an empty shampoo bottle or a liter plastic bottle of Belizna. A hole was made in the cork with a hot nail on the stove and half of a ballpoint pen without a refill was inserted into it. All this was sealed with mastic or plasticine.
They also made portable sikalkas from a perfume bottle with a push-button liquid supply. The tip was removed from the ball rod, and the ball was knocked out with a needle and hammer. The resulting nozzle was heated over a fire and fused into the hole in the perfume plug. Each press of the button and a few drops of water fly 5-7 meters. Practiced at school. I couldn't find the photo.
From simple to complex... Crossbows.
A block, an elastic band from panties and a clothespin. They shot small pebbles, sometimes at each other. The most advanced models broke the bottle. Dangerous if in contact with eyes.
This crossbow model is more serious.
Pocket crossbow.
From simple to complex...Slingshots. They were divided into bracket and “stone” ones according to the type of charge.
The staple slingshot was usually made from single-core insulated aluminum wire from electrical wiring. The insulation was carefully cut in a circle near the ends, an elastic band (Hungarian) was attached under it, and everything was ready. Shooting brackets were made from thinner wire. Dangerous if in contact with eyes.
The stone slingshot is much more serious and dangerous. A medical tourniquet was screwed onto a wooden spear and attached to a piece of skin. They shot stones over long distances.
From simple to complex...Homemade bows.
They were made from anything. From a stick with an elastic band, a hazel branch with a bowstring, to complex composite structures.
Fantasy had no limits, everything was limited by possibilities.
From simple to complex...Homemade crossbows. One of the crowning achievements of children's creativity.
Safety of use was determined by the tension of the bowstring and the type of arrowhead.
From simple to complex...Airs. One of the crowning achievements of children's creativity.
They were usually made from a bicycle pump, to the nipple of which a barrel (smooth tube) was glued using epoxy. All this was attached with electrical tape to a wooden fore-end, plus a rubber band. Loading was carried out from the end of the barrel by wetting it with saliva and laying plasticine, followed by sucking it into the barrel bore (chock!) by sharply cocking the pump handle back.
When it hit a person it left bruises.
