Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Big Red's Pond Gizmo

Can anyone post what this thing is and its purpose? It may have application for many of you. Here's what Big Red used to make it.

1. Coat hanger tube
2. Dowl rod
3. Pipe insulation
4. Green electrical tape
5. Coffee can lid

bottle rocket launcher

Ding Ding Ding Winner. Dern, I thought it would be harder than that. Good job! So, here is the gizmo's intended victim:

I knew it when I saw the tube of Blistex. I used to fire 'em off from my teeth, too.

Now that would be a sight. Big Red seems to be having good luck with keeping the birds moving by zigging a bottle rocket at them.

SSS is all that I can say there.

He had better hope that he hits the egret instead of that dry grass.

That's not a bad bottle rocket launcher. I would add a little length to it for accuracy and I would use an old 2 liter cut in half to keep the sparks from hitting me.

That brings back childhood memories of bottle rocket wars with neighborhood friends. It's amazing that none of us were ever severly injured.

I grew up in the city but fortunatly we lived on a canyon system that snakes through an entire area of the city. Three branches of the canyons came together right behind the house that I grew up in and formed a "Y". It was a very fun place to grow up. We spent most of the summer days goofing off in the canyons. Each of the three canyon branches had groups of guys that hung together. We often had BB gun wars with each other. It was all just fun and games with our spring-powered BB guns, and we strickly had a no-head shot rule. Then one wise guy bought a Crossman 760 air rifle with a scope. That seriously upped the ante and started an arms race. For a while after that being in the canyons wasn't so much fun. Finally we all declared a truce.

No one was ever seriously got hurt that I was ever aware of, very lucky indeed.

Back in college my roomate (who resembled Kurt Russell playing Snake Pliskin in "Escape frm New York/L.A.", down to and including the eye-patch) kept a plentiful supply of bottle rockets on hand to startle sorority girls sunbathing across the alley from our apartment.

He was a little off in other ways as well, but he was nice and quiet in the mornings so we got along well. You could judge how good one of his parties was by adding up the number of times he fell off the roof and the number of times the cops came. Any total over 4 = good party.

He became a Dentist, I believe primarily to get a discount on having repairs made after his frequent tooth losses.

We finally graduated to bb bun wars, too. However, prior to that, our best bet was to get a piece of aluminum tent pole (maybe 16 inches or so) and saw the barrel off a plastic squirt gun. Little black (electrical) tape to attach the aluminum to the squirt gun grip and stuff an empty 20 gauge shell in the back end and, voila, a PERFECT bottle rocket gun!

Man, we had some great times back then. I believe we all grew up with each and every limb (eyeballs included) intact.

We used to make "acorn guns", powered by Black Cat firecrackers. The acorns could make a pretty good welt on you.

One of my buddies used kitchen matches to light his firecrackers, and stuffed a handful into his front pocket. Bad idea. He made a pretty smoke trail to the nearest water hose. He missed a week of school, and walked gingerly for 2 more weeks.

One time a friend broke the "no headshot" rule with a Daisy pump, and got me dead center in the back of the head. I saw stars, and it nearly knocked me down. Made a very skinny but very high knot on my external occipital protuberance.

HEY, AREN'T THOSE 2 OF THE 7 WORDS THAT YOU CANNOT SAY ON POND BOSS!!!
where's a Moderator when ya need one?

Yep, they're occipital, protuberance, fusiform, schistosomiasis, pharyngeal, larvaltrawler, and mahi-mahi.

Oh the good ol days.

heeee, heeee, Theo said Mahi, Mahi.

Do egrets eat fish? I thought they just ate insects. I have thousands of them at my farm right now and often do this time of year. I guess due to their migration route. I don't like them because of the mess they leave I have to power wash my dock off.

Ever heard of a potatoe cannon? My brother in law built one using a length of 3 inch PVC pipe open on one end witha a screw cap on the other. A flint igniter is mounted on the breech end. You place a potatoe down the muzzle (get a snug fit) and open the breech just enough to spray in a good aresol propellant (hairspray works great) and close the cap. Flick the flint and you have a heck of an explosion and a potatoe that will click 75 yards easily. He is the county Circuit Clerk and I am the town doctor so we have to be discreet with this thing and only get it out on holidays to shoot at the Canada geese in his neighborhood lake.

A town doctor firing a potatoe cannon at Canadian Geese sounds like the makings of a good commedy movie. Hmmmm, I can see Chevy Chase as the town doctor......

Mine has 4" pvc with a 2" barrel.It throws a potatoe 100 yds easy.Cheap hairspray works the best.OK,acetalyne mixed with a little oxegen works the best but a little too much and you have to build another one