Eh, I truly hait to keep you all waiting with baited breath.....but....
I just got home from a HUGE TD, I'm dead tired, there isn't much sunlight left, there's an AA meeting I *really* wanna go to at 6pm, which gives me an hour to nap. <shrugs> sorry!!
However, since tomorow I'm doing work for my customers out by the *other* ranch I used to live at, way out in the desert, I'll take the stuff and do it out there. Noone will care, most of them have shooting ranges
It'll also give me some time to adapt to changes based on TreeMachine's conjectures. I agree the line is too heavy, I think some of the 2mm slickline that TreeDimensional told me about would be much better. I'll end up flaking out the line for the first couple shots, just so I don't have to deal with spooling yet. Actually, for the *FIRST* shot, I'm not going to use line at all.
About blanks... I just burned some shotshell powder in a paper bowl last night (for chuckles,....didn't get many, it burns "slow", relatively speaking)
Normal blanks are made to sound...LOUD! they're usually loaded with more powder than normal, since there's no projectile to bother with creating overpressure issues. Also, the reason your .22 round has so much power to it is because .22 rounds, not being center fired with a primer, use a contact-sensitive EXPLOSIVE which is dribbled to the bottom of the casing, the powder rests on top of this.
Once again, shotshell powder is *NOT* an explosive, its a conflagrant. (conflagrative?) Two completely different chemical reactions. Plus... there's a bit of wadding material between the brunt of the hot gasses and the dowel.
Fletching is a good idea... but now this is starting to get elaborate. Tomorows first run will just be the "stick & ball" setup, to see if it gets much loft or if it is shattered outright.
Though I gotta say, I'm leaning toward high pressure air powered now. Still though, we're gonna do this thing tomorow!!!! Hope you guys don't keel over from anticipation, I know I'm bummed about not doin it tonight
