I've been looking at Cat Doctor's flying squirrel movie since he posted it. And I 've been looking at my skeet thrower that I've been using for quite a while. His post was an inspiration to me like Henrico Fermi had after lunch with that E=MC2 fellow long ago. Now on my thrower machine, it's welded to a truck tire rim, and I long ago replaced that wimpy factory excuse of a spring with a half of an old fashioned garage door spring. With a few other minor changes in the throwing arm it launches six clays at a time in a cloverleaf pattern that would give those Windchester and Banelli big magazine trick shooters heart failure. Plus you can double stack them for 12 to go if you want a team shoot on clays. And now that I'm too old and weak to cock the darn thing by hand like I've been doing for years, I usually use an electric thrower out back here at home when I want to shoot a few skeets. So I take the old thrower to the hunt club on pig pickin' day and stake it down with some good heavy rebar stakes like Barnum used on his three ring tents. It holds pretty steady that way, but youngsters below 18 are not permitted within 25 yards of it, and 12 years and younger are not even allowed to watch it put the regular shotgun shooters to shame. But the club members have fun what with the beer&pig lunch and all the extra 3 and 3 1/2 shotshells we use up so we can buy fresh ones each fall. Thinking of all this, I dragged my picnic table over to the garage area and started hypothesizing about Cat Doctor's squirrel premis of the sideways launch using my old Mk III, mod 4 thrower as the motivational tool. I want to launch cats though. And more in a V-1 orbit. From his movie setup, I rotated the thrower 90* ccw, cut a wide slot in the table top so the throwing arm goes from flush at the viewer's vantage point to full forward away, sort of an overhand pitch,(a la Catapulto) and then I bolted the thrower base down with lots of angle iron for braces, and made some ballast racks to hold the table down safe from rotational torque. HTRN and some of you big boar shooters recognize that for sure. Now after seeing all those cat pictures on the forum lately, I modified the throw arm sort of like a LaCrosse shape and sized it for a 50 pound cat. Most likely the machine will be used more with something around that size or maybe a cat collection instead of the very big used cats so popular now. I wired it for an infrared trigger with three locks set so it has to be a whopping big cat or three more normal ones to launch on detection. I only ran one test so far but I think its ready. I filled my old seabag with stuff to simulate a bag of cats, or one big one. I put some strips of surveyors pink tape on it so I could find it better, and hit the go button. I overshot the county land fill by 278 yards and hit a tin storage shed dead center. Tossed the county's rake and shovel collection into a pile of pick up sticks, looks like a hippo sat on the gang box. Damn good thing it was on saturday with everybody off. I am going to adjust the angle of departure a little steeper for more height and less distance, but I think I got a winner.

Dadgummit,this is why I keep showing up here.
I believe this will work out great.
If you are worried about hitting innocent bystanders in the next county, aim it at a billboard,barnside(neighbors) or a tall chain link fence for that 'food processor' effect.
I don't know how much yardage you have access to,but 'in flight' pyrotechnics would be eye-popping.

Video please.

SHERLOCK,

I just learned I should never read your post while at work, because now I have to try and clean the soda out of my keyboard and explain to the passers by that I am not crying from sadness but from soda burns in my nostrils.

what was the total distance of your first throw?

do you think it will throw cats out of range of a 12 gauge 3 1/2" mag? If it does I have seen people shoot at flying geese with rifles might be worth a thought.

There you guys go again instigating of a near genius with Poletax wanting to sluice those crats through a chain link fence at long range and the idea of just wrapping them up in a rug or something so the charge of cats separates from the shot seabag like a cat cluster bomb. 120mm will go crazy ordering up cat canister at 800 meters. "Kitten canister at 450 meters, sarge" he yells........ CD, the range was close to 4 miles by road to the landfill and 567 yards to the dozer parked on the side of the dump route inside the fence and the extra 278 yards to the tool shed. Forget the 12. You would need a flak battalion of 88s to have a chance. I got to start hanging around the scale model airfield here to find a scale something able to shoot down an incomong barrage of cats.

I guess that cluster bomb could be really useful when mother-in-law arrives with the intention to stay for a week or two...

quote:

all the extra 3 and 3 1/2 shotshells we use up so we can buy fresh ones each fall.

Geesh, I'm still tryin' to figure out how to use up a virgin box of 2-3/4" #2s my brother left me. Ain't a day over 25 years old near as I can tell.

Well, this certainly has potential...not unlike the circumstance that Mr. Little found himself in years ago. I can hear the little girl telling mommy with excitement coursing thru her wee little veins, "Mommy, mommy, I tawt I taw a fwying puddy crat!" Mom will doubt that certainly, little Elvira will be scared for life and wind up being the MC of a cult gothic television event. NS, the future of the world is in your hands.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.Ballistic.Pussies

Dan, hoard those lead #2s like they are gold. Can't get'm no more.

NS, pictures man, pictures

Hog Killer

Hk,,send me the hulls and lead,,I'll roll ya some, http://www.precisionreloading.com is the place to look if you wana do your own,Ned,,That thrower of yours sounds like it's ready to launch cows!!Clay

Man, the idea of a 105mm "Beehive" canister round for cats has got me to thinkin'!

OK I admit it, I AM somewhat offbeat, but ef me too tears, I got a flash image of a murder of crats sailing down range trailed by an absolute rain of crat shit! derf

this is the best thread i've read in months!

pictures please!!!

Thank yuh! Thank yuh! Hold muh beer while I try another one. I don't do pictures, BTW, as they never faithfully reproduce truth like a brief description.