Experimental blowgun injuries, ballistic aspects of modern blowguns

Slender thin arrows blown through modern blowguns can cause serious injurie s. In this paper we present some data regarding the terminal ballistics of such an arrow when blown by a young male who had no previous experience wit h the weapon. The penetration depth into wood was similar to that of an arr ow fired from a pistol-crossbow. Further, the blowgun arrow could pass thro ugh more than 7 mm of porcine bone. The velocities at a distance of 2 m fro m the blowgun of three different types of arrows having weights of 1-1.6 g and diameters between 1 and 5 mm were between 22 and 32 m/s, giving an ener gy of 0.3 to 0.6 J. When blown from a blowgun, these slender modern arrows can thus penetrate human skin and even the cranial bone of a child and caus e serious injury. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserve d.