Pea shooter traditionalists decry use of laser sights at annual competition
The Telegraph UK reports on the World Peashooting Championship where George, the 58-year-old reigning champion, used a high tech pea shooter to win again this year, much to the consternation of traditionalists, who use a simple straw.
Pea shooters fight it out for world championshipsGeorge's home-designed device featured a gyroscopic balancing mechanism, a hyper-accurate laser sight, and what he described as "other bits" borrowed from his son's Nintendo.
The result is a fearsome piece of kit that has helped him to three world championships.
Contestants have to hit a calibrated target, fashioned out of putty, from a distance of 12 yards.
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Screw the traditionalists. This contest is just begging to become a makers' paradise.
The target should be the back of the head of a nerdy old English teacher writing on a chalkboard.
This is going to be as fun as the time I brought a crossbow to the archery competition.
Hey, nerdy middle-aged English teacher here: stop the hate! We're better archery targets anyway, as we can lengthily recite Middle English lays of Robin Hood whilst you thwack arrows into us a la Saint Sebastian. Fun!
Wait till the bionically-eyed, -armed, and -otherwised get wind of this!
That has to be the best post title since Radioactive Pedophile suspect at Large
Why not just form two classes? One for traditionalists, and one for modified shooters?
smartpeas next.
But... the summary is wrong, since a 'traditionalist' won:
"The title was won by Jim Collins of Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, using a traditional-style peashooter. "
@Tdawwg: "...Hey, nerdy middle-aged English teacher here: stop the hate!"
Hate?! Come on, Mr, Dawwg, you know me better than that!
We sometimes had a substitute teacher in freshman English who would put on a second pair of glasses and read Mark Twain all period. He would utterly ignore all us students. The object became to bounce a big spitwad off his book.
When he got to the line "...the horses were humping themselves..." it started a laugh riot.
I always finished second in spelling bees to a begoggled, pocket-protected little nerd who carried a suitcase full of books. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Clearly, this man believes in peas through superior firepower.
Teehee, I know you were joking.
We easily solve that problem in drag racing. It's known as "Ultra Modified Class". Traditionalists then could excel in "Stock Unmodified" at their level, and the rest of us could see if metal plating the pea would allow us to use it as a rail gun projectile.
Very Punny! ;^)
Luc above is right: the title and write-up of this post are completely wrong.
You say "...where George, the 58-year-old reigning champion, used a high tech pea shooter to win again this year."
Actually, the article doesn't say that anywhere. It says Jim Collins won it.
I vote for two classes, too. Traditional and
Modified. Then you have the best of both worlds.
Where I came from it was not considered cool to hit "the back of the head of a nerdy old English teacher writing on a chalkboard" as the absurdly monikered "Troofseeker" states. Cool was to allow the "pea" to strike the chalkboard to the immediate right of the writing hand or to dot the i of the word just written. Actually hitting someone, especially someone with their back turned, was considered gauche and cowardly and was just not done. If you don't know the rules, don't play the game.
we used to steal lengths of glass tubing from the chemistry labs, then construct a dart from a pin and wound thread. Fortunately there was no curare available to us.
Use frozen peas.
It looks like that techno-peashooter needs to be steampunked. A pressure gauge and a copper housing for the laser would make it look much better.
At my high school, they used to use the tubes from Bic pens, and make darts from stick pins jammed through the broken off ends of Q-tips. They would puncture well enough to stick if they hit skin. Once again, fortunately no curare.
The peas used at the World Pea Shooting World Championship are maple peas, not maple seeds.