Weapons of Soviet boys (10 photos)

Did you love the slingshot?

1. Onion

We usually made bows from branches of the elm tree (birch bark), not very thick, so that they would spring well.

Bow arrows were made from dry reed stalks, loaded with a metal nail in front. The bowstring was made from thick clothesline.

An arrow fired vertically from such a bow rose so high that it disappeared from view. We did not conduct aimed shooting with a bow, but only had fun shooting high and far.

2. Slingshot

The slingshot was made from the same wood as the bow - elm. We cut rubber bands from old diving suits, gas masks, etc.

The strands were not tied in knots, but were tied with thread. The heel of the slingshot was cut out of leather.

Shooting was carried out with round pebbles, M6-M8 nuts, balls made from bearings were especially valued for their ideal dimensions and good weight for small sizes.

3. Metal stick (shmargalka, in our opinion)

This tool was made of reeds (ocheret), and was usually used in winter, because that was when there was an approach over the ice to the longest reeds.

This weapon is striking in its simplicity; the shmargalka itself is a meter-long stick made of reeds, in the last knee of which a blind window is cut out.

If you insert a spear made of reed into this window with the thin side, then with certain skills it will not be difficult to send the spear 100-150 meters into the distance (the shrub lengthens the shoulder by about 1 meter).

Due to the natural trajectory caused by gravity, the spear lands at an angle of 30-45 degrees and usually sticks into the snow, precisely marking the place of fall.

The shmargalka itself was made using a knife in 2 minutes, another 5 minutes were required to prepare the spears, with a sharp blow of the boot on the stem, right next to the ground (ice), the reed spear was cut from the root, otherwise it would be very difficult to break it without damaging it. And then there is a competition to see who can fly the spear the farthest.

4. Pea shooter

This was the lowest level of small arms for Soviet schoolchildren. The pea shooter was made like this: a wooden clothespin was attached to the bar with electrical tape; there were no others at that time.

Attached to the other end of the bar was a “pants elastic”, a linen elastic stitched with a zigzag thread, that’s all. We take a pea, put it in an elastic band and clamp it into a clothespin - the weapon is ready for battle. Small pebbles were also used instead of peas.

5. Matchshooter (clothespin that shoots matches)

Everything is extremely simple, a wooden clothespin is disassembled, a groove-channel for a match is made in one side, and a place for the spring to slip through, then the halves are twisted together as shown in the figure, the spring is inserted.

To cock, the spring is pulled back until it engages in the standard groove, and the lower part of the spring is pushed forward until it clicks; the entire weapon is cocked. A match is inserted into the channel and, at will, lit or not, the spring is pressed like the trigger of a pistol, the match flies from 3 to 5 meters.

If the shot is fired with a lighted match, then the release occurs simultaneously with the “teal” on the matchbox.

6. Crossbow (dangerous)

A tube from a fountain pen was attached to a wooden plank with electrical tape, and a crocodile-type clip was attached at a distance of half the ampoule from the pen. A ring made of aviation rubber was attached in front of the bar.

Now the ampoule itself, its upper part was cut to a depth of 5 mm, a large needle was inserted into the lower part, instead of the rod (this is why the crossbow was very dangerous, with a firing range of 10 meters, it was very dangerous for the eyes).

Such a crossbow was used, as a rule, in winter, indoors. They shot at matchboxes or any other targets, thanks to the needle the arrow stuck into any surface.

7. Stapler

A very common weapon. The most important detail was the wooden gun. The gun was very valuable, because cutting a gun, even with tools for a child, was not a matter of five minutes; it took half a day, or even the whole day.

Lucky for the one whose father helped make the gun, usually such guns had rounded shapes like real ones. To securely fix the staples, it was recommended to nail a piece of sandpaper to the stapler - this eliminated an accidental shot and allowed you to run with the weapon.

Elastic bands for staplers were a separate issue. There were no rubber bands in stores in those days, and we ran to warehouses where cement was unloaded, where they gave out gauze bandages with rubber bands. Used bandages were torn for gas masks.

Usually they went there once a month, the road was long and the danger of being caught by their parents became closer than ever.

8. Ball

IR + cartridge (sometimes duharik)

This is a more recent weapon, dating back to the late 80s, at least in my city. Like everything ingenious, the invention is as simple and cheap as borscht. A balloon was pulled onto the E27 electric cartridge from above and secured with electrical tape.

They shot with rowan, better than chokeberry (the stain is more colorful, especially on clothes). The weapon has become iconic due to its outstanding qualities:

- high accuracy at short distances up to 15 meters, then wind speed came into force,

- high range up to 50 meters, I’m ashamed to admit, but I personally planted a man on a bicycle from 25-30 meters into a soft spot, shooting for luck,

- light weight,

- small dimensions,

- availability of ammunition (rowan)

My father, being a cheerful man, was not without interest in the boys’ new invention, and after carefully examining it summed it up - nonsense, after which he even offered himself as a living target to assess combat power.

It was autumn, we were returning from the garage and I asked if I understood correctly, he wants me to shoot him? I stopped, letting go of my father, who continued to move, about 10 meters, and pulled the ball like an adult.

The rowan hit the center of the left buttock. Further, the father’s movements became similar to those performed by the man in the movie “Home Alone” when Kevin shot him with an air gun.

9. Air, duharik, duharik

The picture shows that I used the same gun as for the stapler. In life, this also happened often; the next step in the evolution of the “bracketer” was the transformation into a “balloon”.

There are many reasons for this: finding a decent board was problematic, for this they went to warehouses or warehouses, where, if you were lucky, there would be a package of something made of wood with boards of the required width.

The pump was usually used from your own bicycle with modifications. Changing fashion either elevated felt pistons, or returned to standard leather pistons.

Any attempts to intervene in the process of creating a blowgun for adults ended in a complete and devastating fiasco. For some reason, barrels screwed into threads by adults always shot worse than those glued to children's insulating plasticine snot. Pistons made by adult turners from duralumin, with rubber sealing rings, led to jamming in the cylinder and were always inferior in performance to old pistons cut from felt boots, nailed to a wooden strip and soaked in oil.

Such guns fired plasticine or potatoes; a plasticine charge reinforced with shot or a ball from a bearing had significant destructive power and could kill a pigeon at a considerable distance.

10. Samopal