Maybe this should have gone in the Gear section, but I think it’ll be fine here too.
I’ve read alot of stuff about tripmines and airsoft “explosive type” devices on the boards lately, so I’ve had this thing for a while now, and have decided to finally throw this out there.
Several months ago I put up a post about something I call the CON 17. It was an airsoft mine I developed. The mines worked alright, but due to their small size you’d either need to plant them very efficiently in a high traffic area, or have plenty of them. The solution was to develop an airsoft tripmine, one that could be set off by crossing a line. Lots of R&D later I got the CON 20.
Now, I don’t know if this kind of stuff has been done before, but hey, I gave it a shot, it works well, it’s cheap, and home made, so if you’re still interested, read on.
The device is similar in design to the CON 17. The basic principle is that the mine is triggered, a CO2 capsule is punctured and either 1). BB’s shoot out of the barrel (apprx. 21). 2). Powder shoots out of the barrel. The powder (usually baby) is just for effect making a big plume of “smoke” and is typically used because it’s safer and easier.
The CON 20 is cheap to make, 100% reusable, very reliable, safe, and disassembles easily. The design has gone off without a hitch dozens and dozens of times in “lab conditions” (indoors, which means it’s tried and tested for CQB) and has been tested outdoors a few times flawlessly, yet has only seen actual outdoor combat use once (I hope to up that soon).
So here’s the technical breakdown. It’s very simple but you need an imagination to understand. At the bottom of a tube is a little spike. Midway up that tube a hole is drilled in which the trigger pin is inserted through the tube. A CO2 capsule rests in the upper half of the tube on the pin facing head down. Above the CO2 is a compressed spring. Both ends of the tube are held securely in place by pins. There is a hole near the bottom of the tube that leads to a barrel attached to the tube that runs along its length. When the trigger pin is removed the spring shoots the CO2 down onto the sharp spike, puncturing it, letting loose a bunch of gas. This gas flows through the hole in the tube and out the barrel creating a big pffft and either a shower of bb’s or plume of powder.
Total cost is somewhere around 5 bucks (not including the spring, I have yet to find a cheap, abundant and reliable source of springs). I’ve attached (hopefully) two pictures, as well as a zip file containing a little quicktime movie of the mine going off during a test (note: in the .mov the wire is manually pulled. You could string the wire between two trees and wait for it to be indirectly tripped, or you could set the mine, conceal yourself, then pull the cord when the enemy gets near, both work fine.).
Now, any Joe could make these, but not every Joe wants to or has the time to. What I want to know is, would there be any interest in the airsoft community for purchasing these trip mines? I’ve never seen a real tripmine before (other than claymores) but to be honest, I doubt these fully look the part. However, they do fit the profile of your more “terrorist like, improvised explosive device”. I don’t know the exact figures yet for pricing yet, but it’d cover the cost of materials, and a small (it would be small small, I’d rather get them out there in use than make an extra buck) fee for manufacture. If yes, cool, I’ll look into what can be done. If not, that’s fine too. If you want to make your own, great, just give a little credit and be safe.
So, any questions or comments are more then welcome. What do you think?
A link to test footage, more on the way. For me I had to right click this link and "save target as", I might just need a plugin or something though.
http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/27151/CON20.mov
NEW:
Test footage of a slow walk indoors.
http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/...ON20 Stalk.mov
More of a normal paced walk indoors.
http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/...CON20 Walk.mov
Alex