Cold Steel Big Bore .625 Magnum 4-foot Professional Blowgun

To begin, I must say I've never had a blowgun before this one, so I don't have any other blowguns to compare it to. That being said, this thing is awesome! I got it today, and I was shooting in no time. It is amazing how much "thump" the projectiles have when they are fired from this blowgun. I shot the metal "arrow" tips, the blunt plastic dum-dums (.625 Magnum Stun Darts), and the bamboo skewers. The metal arrows fly the best, in my limited experience, but they all fly very well. ** IMPORTANT ** Most, if not all of the cones on the back of ALL the projectiles, no matter which ones they are, will have to be sanded down a little bit so that they will travel down the barrel sucessfully. I have a benchtop electric belt sander which worked very well for accomplishing this task. You can sand them by hand with sandpaper or emery cloth, but it will take a little longer, and it may not be as uniform as a constant-speed and distance belt sander. Just take a LITTLE bit all the way around the back of the entire cone, keeping your sanding as uniform as possible, and you'll be fine. I'm talking sanding less than 1/16" all the way around, so don't overdo it! I got this for target practice and maybe hunting small game. Some people were talking about hitting targets 20 yards away accurately. They must be a much better shot than me, or have had more practice. It was dead-on at more like 20 feet. I hit darn near everything I aimed at that distance with precision. I am going to buy different lengths of bamboo skewers and see how they fly. Amazon has 12", 6", and 4" available that I found. One thing I like about the bamboo is once I missed (rarely, hah) a target and flattened off the tip, all I had to do was take my knife and sharpen a new tip. The somewhat crooked bamboo skewers fly amazingly well, too. Now with the metal tips, you will have to file or sand them down if they get bent, and maybe use a pair of pliers on them as well to true them up. If you buy the 50-pack of Magnum Stun Darts, I'm thinking this could be the best value overall. Yes, I know they are $14 for (50) pack, BUT they come apart! What's to stop a person from taking the cone off the back and putting a properly-sized and balanced correct diameter bamboo skewer in the cone, hmmm? I'm going to try it and report back. I'm almost sure it will work. I'm just going to use the bigger diameter fondu or similar size skewers and keep shortening them until the length and weight is right. I don't even care if they are really short. These darts will be able to take down small game at close range, I'm sure, with a short stick in the cone from the stun dart. Now I will have skewers for penetration and plastic stun darts for blunt trauma using the same parts. Yes, I realize it cost me over $35 with shipping for a piece of aluminum and some darts, but I have a feeling if I don't abuse this, it will last almost forever. I really like the fact they say you can use this for a walking stick as well, and have the cap to do so. I am proly going to put a chair leg tip on mine so it's a little softer than the supplied cap. Also, I'm going to order the 24 inch extension and try it with the mouthpiece as a short-range blowgun. I'll report back on that, too. As a side note, I used to own a small paintball field. I took one of my paintball barrels and tried to blow a dart thru it. Even the darts I hadn't shaved down were a little too big, but they did shoot, but not great, out of an approximately 12" barrel. These darts are roughly .625 (as listed), and a paintball is roughly .680. I have a feeling someone is going to come up with a single-shot , break-open paintball gun (if they haven't already) that can use a smaller diameter barrel to accommodate the darts, OR somebody is going to come up with some .680 darts to use in a standard paintball barrel. I will keep doing more experimenting and practice and report back when I have something worthwhile. Get one! It's a blast!***UPDATE*** 3/4/13Use this information at your own risk. I found a bamboo skewer (approx. 3mm diameter) out in the garage. I cut it in 1/2 to (2) approx. 6 inch lengths. I sharpened one end and squared off the other ends. The female part of the cone end of the stun dart is approx. 5mm, btw, so I'm ordering some 5mm skewers on my next Amazon order. If you only have the 3mm skewers, all you have to do is wrap a little bit of tape around the butt of the 3mm skewers a couple wraps until they snugly fit inside the female end of your stun dart cone. I used some blue painters masking tape, and it worked just fine. Just make sure you trim off the excess tape flush with the edge of the female side (skewer side)of the cone. The excess tape could cause weight and balance problems. The results were/are fantastic! It is amazing how hard these skewers hit! The plastic Stun Darts themselves hit the hardest, but these 3mm skewers really penetrate a cardboard box! I'm looking forward to the 5mm skewers, so I don't have to wrap any tape. They are extremely durable projectiles, about 2x the thickness of the original bamboo skewers. They also fly really well. I can now definitely justify spending $14 for (50) stun darts when I know I can interchange the front end "dum-dum" with a approx. 6" sharpened skewer. You may need to experiment a little bit with the length and balance, but these darts are pretty forgiving. ***IMPORTANT*** DO NOT shoot the metal darts in the house (or anywhere you don't want them to hit) into an empty cardboard box! I did shoot (1) metal dart into an empty cardboard box at about 20 feet, and it completely (as expected) penetrated the box, knocked the cone off the back, and went clanging off the hardwood floor down the hallway. Sorry about the scratch in the floor, honey. Let me just repeat that these are not toys for small children (or irresponsible big children, lol) to play with. Like a lot of things, if used improperly or inappropriately, someone could get hurt. My stepson and I shot for quite a while yesterday, and I think it's safe to say he loves this blowgun. I know I do. If I could say anything negative about this blowgun, it's that the 4 footer is a little unwieldy. I'm sure the 5 footer is, too. Also, make sure if you are a heavy breather, or have a lot of moisture in your breath, you need to swab out the inside of the barrel when you are done for sure, and maybe during your target practice if you shoot a lot. I just used a white paper towel from the mouthpiece side pushed down the barrel with a **clean** fiberglass driveway marker. They are available at home supply stores for a couple bucks, and the fiberglass won't scratch your barrel tube. I'm going to see if one of my old rubber paintball squeegees with a 5ft string attached will work. I thot about a bore snake, but I don't want the impregnated brass brushes scratching the aluminum barrel. I am very happy with this unit still.***UPDATE*** 3/12/13The 5mm bamboo skewers work great with a few wraps of teflon tape. They are straighter and stronger and more uniform than any other skewers. Use at your own risk. If you use these, I think these are the best skewers for the money. See my review of the 5mm skewers. You get (100) to a package, and they are already the right size of 6.5 inches and semi-pointed. My wife and 2 stepkids had a blast this weekend having a shooting contest at a cardboard box in the hallway. The dog doesn't like them, tho, lol. Also, I did use some fine grit emery cloth to LIGHTLY sand down the cones to a tight but usable fit, and they shot very well.

slight air leaks equal less power plus the stun darts are to big around I try the first one got stuck (almost busted a blood vessel trying shoot it)had to find a metal rod to stick down it to pop the dam thing back out the other darts are ok you just have seal up the handle to help stop any air leaks it looks nice but now mine is scratch on the inside after 5 minutes of owning it ruin my fun for the dayUpdate: this seller will send you catalogs for there other products that are also crap and have reports of being knockoffs I also ended up on some other mailing lists that can't exactly say they are connected to this seller but I am pretty sure they are and for this blowgun it has just been collecting dust since I got it it has no marking's or serial number on it no cold steel logo any where on it it seems to be it might be a knock off to but I don't know its a black pipe with a handle that doesn't seal and came with some darts that work then some that don't so in all don't waste your time money or effort in this product or this seller and also as side note this seller advertises for these fake reality tv shows and sells items from them

OK the blowgun is great, very heavy duty and just an overall good piece, however... 99% of the darts that were included do not work because the cones are all warped and no longer round. If you do not mind making your own darts this is a great product but try not to get your hopes up with the darts that are included.

Pros: Very thick wall, doesn't feel like it will be bending any time soon. Massive bore. Overall rugged design. STUN DARTS :DCons: some of the fletchings were warped; more on this later. Massive bore, again, more later. poorly packaged.Ok, now for the interesting part. Many reviewers have noted that the darts arrive packaged in such a way that the fletchings get warped and won't go down the tube. Mine was no exception, there is however a quick and easy fix. Drop the warped fletchings into a pot of boiling water, and stir for a min or two. Most of mine straightened right out but there was one that was cracked, so I just tossed it.The stun darts are easily the most fun, I was using a thick piece of styrofoam as a target, and the darts punched a hole the size of a quarter in it. DO NOT BE ON THE RECEIVING END OF THESE THINGS.One more important point, the size of the tube. It is so wide that I have trouble blowing it, I could blow a 40c no problem, but have a hard time putting any power behind these huge darts. If you have a small lung capacity, you should probably stick to a 40c or 50c.I will probably update this after I have used it hunting. Great fun, and easy fixes for the bad parts.