Message-ID: 
Newsgroups: AIRGUN.LIST
A buddy sent this to me.  Thought the group might enjoy it.  Maybe
technically this is a firearm, but it is not a powder burner.
Also, it is not made clear whether the barrel is rifled (er, uh maybe
that should read corrugated) and what effect that rifling or lack thereof
had on the trajectory or comfort of the projectile.
Enjoy,
Randy Sparks
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Dumb, Dumber, and the Raccoon
In rural Carbon County, PA, a group of men were drinking beer and
discharging firearms from the rear deck of a home owned by Irving
Michaels, age 27.  The men were firing at a raccoon that was wandering by,
but the beer apparently impaired their aim and, despite of the estimated
35 shots the group fired, the animal escaped into a 3 foot diameter
drainage pipe some 100 feet away from Mr. Michaels' deck.
Determined to terminate the animal, Mr. Michaels' retrieved a can of
gasoline and poured some down the pipe, intending to smoke the animal out.
After several unsuccessful attempts to ignite the fuel, Michaels emptied
the entire 5 gallon fuel can down the pipe and tried to ignite it again,
to no avail.
Not one to admit defeat by wildlife, the determined Mr. Michaels proceeded
to slide feet-first approximately 15 feet down the sloping pipe to toss
the match.  The subsequent rapidly expanding fireball propelled Mr.
Michaels back the way he had come, though at a much higher rate of speed.
He exited the angled pipe "like a Polaris missile leaves a submarine,"
according to witness Joseph McFadden, 31.
Mr. Michaels was launched directly over his own home, right over the heads
of his astonished friends, onto his front lawn.  In all, he traveled over
200 feet through the air.  "There was a Doppler Effect to his scream as he
flew over us," McFadden reported, "Followed by a loud thud."
Amazingly, he suffered only minor injuries.  "It was actually pretty
cool," Michaels said, "Like when they shoot someone out of a cannon at the
circus.  I'd do it again if I was sure I wouldn't get hurt."
There still is no word about the raccoon.
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