One year at the Ex, there was a display of 6-shooter elastic guns. They looked pretty neat, so I ended up buying one of them - they turned out to work pretty well too. They also had the Mother Of All Elastic Weapons - a Gatling gun. However, it was ridiculously expensive, so I just eyed it with adolescent fascination (not that I was an adolescent at the time, of course...). Instead, being a mature and responsible adult (and yes, male) I decided I needed to build one of my own.
I considered a number of elaborate trigger mechanisms before finally settling on the very simple version in the gun shown. A thin cord is wound under each elastic, and pulling the cord both rotates the barrel and releases the elastic. Thus the rate of pulling the cord controls the rate of fire. The only problem with the gun is of course the same one endemic to any elastic-powered weapon - the time taken to load it. However, this is amply compensated by the pleasure of releasing a continuous stream of elastics. With a high rate of fire, the barrel rotation imparts a
noticeable leftward drift to the elastics, but it is not like any kind of elastic gun is a marksman's tool. Loading takes 2 or three minutes and shooting takes 2 or three seconds, if you have good self control.
Finding all the elastics takes rather longer.
| Material: | Maple, Pine |
| Finish: | None |
| Barrels: | 6 |
| Range: | 21' (6.4m) with #32 rubber bands |
| Rate of fire: | Approx 30 bands/sec |
| Capacity: | Approx 36 bands max |
| Loading Time: | Approx 150 sec for 30 bands |
| Done: | February 1992 |
