Making an air fishing cannon

[NortonDommi]

[QUOTE=Moby Duck;203101]

These used to be common here then the scum in the police gang decided that they had to be classified as firearms and a license was needed to own and operate.

I think the new NZ laws around spud guns and beach cannons only apply to devices that are powered by an explosive charge so this compressed air design might be a loop hole in the law. Old beach cannon were usually powered by black powder/blasting powder and spud guns by hair spray or LPG, these are now classified as firearms because it’s an explosion that powers them. I like to think that the one in this video, being air powered, should be classified as an “air gun”, no licence required, but I could be wrong. I particularly like the ice projectile, a great idea but unless you had a freezer on the beach it might be a bit hard to keep them frozen. You would need a compressor on the beach too, or a dive bottle to recharge it. I used a beach cannon as a teenager, it was a simple 2” tube, crushed and welded shut at one end, propped up with sand at a 45 degree angle and we then lit a fire on the back end of the tube before running away a safe distance and waiting for it to fire. Crude but it worked, it would throw a multiple hooked long line out about 150 yards to where the fish were.

Yep, Spud guns are illegal now and air rifles and pistols above an arbitrary power rating need a firearms license since an undercover cop who was trespassing while attempting to attach a tracking device to a car had a heart attack after he was chased down and shot with an air rifle by one of the house occupants.
Many of the old beach cannons were basically re-purposed spud guns powered with a bit of Methylated spirits or hairspray, others air powered pumped up with a air mattress pump. I Know of people who have been prosecuted, others given warnings for both types. Back to the old Kontiki I guess.