For many generations, maybe thousands of years, native Americans have used blowguns to kill small game.
What Is A Blowgun?
The blowguns that the Cherokee used was made of river cane, a plant that is still plentiful in it's habitat and just as useful as it ever was. The blowguns were made by hollowing out the cane, smoothing the center with various methods and firing the cane to straighten it.
With careful work the cane can be straightened and smoothed to make a precision bore. Young hunters started with blowguns about 3-4 feet long. As they grew into teenagers they learned to handle longer versions up to 10 feet in length.
Darts are made from sharpened sticks fletched with thistle down. There is an art to making the darts, but once you learn how it goes pretty fast. Generally speaking, poison was not used by American natives. The sharpened darts did a lethal job on small game.
How To Use A Blowgun
These hunting weapons were used to take small game like rabbits, squirrels, quail and larger, like turkeys. The blowgun was not often used as a weapon of war, but if the fighters had them handy, they could be used that way.
Making a blowgun for a hunting weapon is no different today than it has been for centuries, however some use heated rebar for make the bore smooth since it's handy and cheap to get now days. Some native teachers still show youth how to make blowguns for themselves.
Learn More About The Ancient Blowgun
Take a look at these 3 books about ancient blowguns used in native America:
Blowguns: How to Make Your Own for Fun and Profit – a Kindle ebook that is packed with great information for a small price. The construction is simple and straight forward for making a blowgun for your own use. If you want to make blowguns to sell at flea markets or gun shows, the author shows you how.
Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters – a modestly priced paperback book that not only teaches you how to make an authentic ancient blowgun, but several other ancient weapons. Easy projects for a project in your garage.
Native American Blowguns – This author Doug Meyer is one of the foremost experts on primitive survival skills and has researched the use of blowguns in native American Indians for many years. This book is the encyclopedia of everything on the subject.
