DO NOT Use Carbon Fibre Bolts on an Arrow Gun !

I recently saw a thread where a shooter suggested using a Carbon Fibre Crossbow Bolt as the arrow on a PCP arrow gun.... I would strongly recommend you NOT do this, even on CO2 pressures.... CF tubing is made with most of the strands running lengthwise, to provide resistance to bending (stiffness).... There is only enough fibre running around the tube to prevent it from crushing during use.... CF composites are NOT an omnidirectional material, they are only strong in the direction the CF strands are running.... Some CF tubes, in fact do not have ANY CF strands running around the tube, the CF is carried on a very light fibreglass scrim, which holds the fibres straight while the material is wrapped around the mandrel during manufacture.... The resulting tubing is very strong along its length, and very stiff for it's weight, but can be crushed very easily.... If you don't believe this, take a pair of pliers, put on leather gloves and goggles, and give a CF crossbow bolt a squeeze.... Be careful when it shatters, as the CF strands left over are very sharp, and make the nastiest slivers you could ever imagine.... They can be almost impossible to remove from your skin, tending to move deeper every time you touch them.... Sometimes, they have to be pushed through to the other side.... They also tend to splinter into individual CF strands, finer than your hair, yet stiffer than steel.... NASTY STUFF !!!

Now that you are thoroughly impressed by how easy it was to compress and shatter that CF shaft, imagine it with a few hundred.... or thousand.... psi inside it.... Congratulations, you have just created the nastiest fragmentation device you could imagine.... :o

If you must create your own arrow gun, use ONLY aluminum arrows/bolts, and make sure that you do the math to make sure that they have at least a 4:1 safety margin at the pressure you are using.... In addition, should you ever kink or even dent an arrow, DISCARD IT immediately, do not ever use it again, as you have severely compromised the strength.... Obviously, the barrel used to launch said arrow, should receive even more scrutiny, both as to pressure strength, and how it is fastened onto the gun, to make sure it doesn't fly off when fired....

Arrow guns can be fun, and they are not, on the surface, too difficult to make.... but as in everything else powered by compressed air....

HPA IS DANGEROUS - IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING - DON'T !!!!

Bob