Homemade artillery gun confiscated from a Khabarovsk car mechanic

Jan 31, 2011 31 Replies

If you say so, it must be. The news report I saw actually said trebuchet. I base my statement that I believed it was a trebuchet on that news video. We all know that if you see it on the news, it has to be right, eh? In the video I saw, they were pulling it back like a slingshot that had two big rubber bands on it, which would make it a slingshot.

Google "Mexican drug catapult". Go to the pictures. They are clearly of a trebuchet, which has a strap from the flinging arm, and not just a straight flinging arm. There is a video there, and at the end, pictures of the actual device.

I stated that I BELIEVED it was a trebuchet. I did not say that it was. With Mexican engineering what it is, it could have been a very large slingshot.

They say it was only capable of flinging five pound packages, so they didn't build it very well. I've seen videos of them flinging cars, pianos, freezers, and all sorts of things. In medieval times, they were used to throw dead horses and cows into besieged cities. Certainly more than five pounds.

Steve

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They are doing so well with all the other means, I wonder why they are taking all the time and effort for this. And then to run off and leave it ..............

Steve

According to the pic about 1/4 down on this page, it looks like some kind of weird morphodite that can't decide _which_ it is.

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Cheers! Rich

According to the pic about 1/4 down on this page, it looks like some kind of weird morphodite that can't decide _which_ it is.

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Cheers! Rich

According to the pic about 1/4 down on this page, it looks like some kind of weird morphodite that can't decide _which_ it is.

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Cheers! Rich

The photo from that news story looks like a Trebuchet.

And not something that can be knocked together from local materials..

I had a couple computer glitches and wasn't sure whether my other FU here got posted - much to my dismay, it seems like it got posted twice, and since then I think I'm wrong - I called the thing a "morphodite," but I think it's technically a catapult that only _looks_ like a trebuchet. But the only difference I can see is the bungee instead of the weight; maybe that's the only technical difference. At first, when I thought, "catapult," I thought of a giant crossbow. (!)

Thanks, Rich

Way less expensive than digging tunnels?

Just to do the troll thing a bit more....

Looks like the trebuchet IS a catapult, but specific in design.

Take care.

Brian Laws>

Ah! "Trebuchet" is a _subset_ of "catapult"! Cool! :-)

Thanks, Rich

"Ignoramus17662" wrote in message news:YaCdnQylWciJtNvQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

Within memory, an intelligible article entitled "Building a Better Trebuchet" appeared in "Mechanical Engineering" for those motivated to read.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

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