The Down Range Forum

Member Section => Handguns => Topic started by: DeltaM on July 14, 2009, 09:09:41 PM

Title: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: DeltaM on July 14, 2009, 09:09:41 PM
Rummaging around in my gun stash the other day and came upon this.  What is it? ;)  Hint--it is a single shot 44 mag.

When I was younger and had gonads the size of grapefruits I about blew myself up with this thing.  Story to follow in a day or so.

It is a shame I can't sell a gun.  I could retire in style but then I wouldn't have anything to do.  I still have my first from 51 years ago. 

 
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Big Frank on July 14, 2009, 09:24:36 PM
Bang stick for sharks?  ???
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Pathfinder on July 14, 2009, 09:37:50 PM
.44 mag zip gun with galv pipe for the barrel?
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: twyacht on July 14, 2009, 10:26:49 PM
With that kind of rummaging, what else is in there?

(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/twyacht/blunderbuss-2.jpg)

or this?

(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/twyacht/picTomOther.jpg)

Geez, ......................



Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Galeth005 on July 14, 2009, 10:29:26 PM
well i belive the first is a handmade 44 mag made form some sort of steel piping while the flintlock muzzle loader looks like an old 50 cal and the shinny one looks like some sort of short barrel rotary mag shotgun with a manual firing pin
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: tombogan03884 on July 14, 2009, 11:32:09 PM
 Old stud driver ? they used to be .44 for driving bolts into concrete.
The Flint lock is a CG of a Blunderbuss
No Idea what the drum fed thing is.
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Kid Shelleen on July 15, 2009, 12:42:55 AM
Bang stick for sharks?  ???
+1  I'm putting my money on Frank's guess. ???
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Hazcat on July 15, 2009, 07:20:39 AM
Yep, bang stick.  They use them here on gators.
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: tombogan03884 on July 15, 2009, 11:10:15 AM
Yep, bang stick.  They use them here on gators.

I thought Bang sticks were 12 Ga. ?
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: 1911 Junkie on July 15, 2009, 11:11:39 AM
I thought Bang sticks were 12 Ga. ?

Me too, but just the primer.
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Hazcat on July 15, 2009, 12:00:27 PM
You can get them in many calibers.  And Junkie do ya think a primer would do much to a shark?

http://www.bluewaterhunter.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/shop_bangsticks.html
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: ericire12 on July 15, 2009, 12:03:49 PM
Bang stick for bears
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: 1911 Junkie on July 15, 2009, 01:04:15 PM
You can get them in many calibers.  And Junkie do ya think a primer would do much to a shark?

http://www.bluewaterhunter.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/shop_bangsticks.html

No, I'm not BM. Bang sticks,I thought, were only a deterent, not meant to actually kill the shark.

Now whales, on the other hand, could easily be brought down by a primer. Like my great great granddaddy used to say as he...........





 ;D
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Texas_Bryan on July 15, 2009, 01:10:15 PM
Does shooting a gun underwater, while your underwater, sound unpleasant to anyone else?  But I guess the alternative is worse.
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: Pathfinder on July 15, 2009, 06:38:54 PM
You can get them in many calibers.  And Junkie do ya think a primer would do much to a shark?

http://www.bluewaterhunter.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/shop_bangsticks.html

I always thought they used shotgun shells, not .44s. Hmpf.

I just checked that site - $400 freaking dollars for a pair of swim fins? Are you nuts?


No, I'm not BM. Bang sticks,I thought, were only a deterent, not meant to actually kill the shark.

Now whales, on the other hand, could easily be brought down by a primer. Like my great great granddaddy used to say as he...........
 ;D

And in all of the Jacques Couteau movies, when he whacked the shark with a bang stick and their brains poured out and they did that funny roll-sideways-arch-the-back-to-the-side-and-wriggle-in-a-death-throe thing to the bottom, that was what? Just a time out? ? ?   ;D
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: tombogan03884 on July 15, 2009, 06:41:57 PM
 I've heard that some use a CO2 cartridge  as well.
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: twyacht on July 15, 2009, 06:51:32 PM
Who needs a bang stick or fishing rod?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7upjOr4h9s&feature=related

Wood stock, lots of surgical tubing, and a stainless steel pointy thing, no tank, and hundreds of pounds of sushi,....and steaks.

Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: DeltaM on July 15, 2009, 07:45:35 PM
Wow, you guys picked up on the correct answer right away.  It is a bang stick, late 70’s early 80’s vintage.  At that time my circle of friends had a boat and we went diving off the coast of North Carolina about every weekend, weather permitting.  There was, and are a lot off WWII era ships sunk by the Germans at the beginning of the war.  Ships would hug the cost going southbound in order to avoid the 4 kt Gulf Stream going north.  The coast of NC was lit up allowing the German subs to highlight the ships silhouette and plug ‘em with a torpedo.  A stat I remember reading from a book called “The Graveyard of the Atlantic” stated that during the first 6 months of WWII the Germans sunk over 60 ships in this area.  In some cases people were making it to shore from the light of another burning ship. 

Since the ships died a violent death, there were a lot of goodies to be had. Brass portholes, ships binnacle, ships wheel, and in one case a buddy found the rear section of an exploded German torpedo. 

All of the ships turned into fish habitats, many with resident sand tiger sharks that could be aggressive at times.  Along with my bag of tools, I carried a short multi-use pry bar, one use was as a club.  Most of the times a good whack on the snout would deter any shark that got to close and it was mostly the smaller 4-5 footers that were aggressive.  Anyway, when that didn’t work, as a last resort, someone would blast them with the bang stick.  This would end the dive most of the time depending on blood and number of other sharks. 

The bang sticks are designed to be pushed against the target ejecting not only the lead but a huge amount of gas that if hitting the body cavity would fill it up.  All I had ever seen was a cartridge holder on the end of a Hawaiian sling or spear gun till I found this one for sale in a dive shop.  You wouldn’t see that now.  The gun nuts have incrementally taken that right away.  This one is in sections with the bungee inside and could be worn on one’s weight belt, freeing up your hands.   When needed, take it out and the bungee pulled the sections together.  It is made out of stainless steel and aluminum and is smooth bore.  A push drives the round into the firing pen.  We put fingernail polish around the primer and the projectile of the cartridge to keep water out.

I lost the safety pin that came with it on the first dive.  Substituted a clip from a fish stringer that worked better if I had gloves on anyway.

When I got the thing, I wanted to test fire it.  I was on dry land and instead of using a melon or the like I used a board.  The blast from the explosion filled me full of splinters.  If there is an easy way to learn I have a habit of learning the hard way, at least in my youth.  It is surprising what age and a little less testosterone does to improve your intelligence.


The shotgun rig in a different post looks like a street sweeper, as it was called.  Want to sell it?
Title: Re: Flash from the past. Check you recognization skills (or guesswork)
Post by: twyacht on July 15, 2009, 08:00:33 PM
It's not called Cape Fear for nothing. Having lived there, commercial fished in those waters, and have witnessed Mother Nature in all her elegant wrath, it is no joke.

My original avatar covered the inlet when the wind is one way, and the tide is the other...

(http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/twyacht/InletBad.jpg)

I knew these guys....Sad but true....We did warn them...