Similar to paintball but played with bottle rockets (small fireworks rockets) in the dark, fired from a rifle that stocks up to a hundred rockets with an automatic rocket lighter and a reasonably long barrel.
Face shields recommended.-- UnaBubba, Jan 23 2013 My family just gained a new Independence Day tradition. [+]-- Alterother, Jan 23 2013 I can recall bottle rocket battles from my childhood, on Guy Fawkes Nights.-- UnaBubba, Jan 23 2013 I think this could also be played retro style, with muskets. Matchlocks would work well to light the blue touch-paper.-- Loris, Jan 23 2013 When we were younger my brother and I would sometimes chase and fire Roman candles at each other in the forest after it rained. Then we started making our own bottle rockets that could punch through the boards of outdoor skating rinks.
We were not very well supervised... and prolly shouldn't still have all of our fingers.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 23 2013 This is sort of Baked but definitely not Widely Known To Exist.
As a launcher, a length of stout cardbord tube, painted inside with water based emulsion paint, or a metal pipe (never plastic, it melts) is used like a bazooka. Competitors operate in teams of two, aimer and loader.
The sticks on the rockets have to be shortened, otherwise they work as they are meant to, moving the centre of mass rearward, and causing the projectile to automatically turn into a vertical trajectory. Best is to cut the stick right down, and add cardboard fins for directional stability. This also means more rounds can be carried.
Not that we'd ever participate in anything so foolish and dangerous, you understand. We also still have all our fingers. Sometimes we take the jar of formalin down off the shelf and look at the detached ones.-- 8th of 7, Jan 23 2013 When I was 13, a friend and I constructed a rocket launcher using a carpet tube, a 6-volt lantern battery, and a C-motor model rocket kit. It was great fun and only caused a small, easily extinguished grass fire. Our parents, no doubt guessing what we had in mind, intervened when we started to build a second launcher. Years later, I realized that we had technically manufactured and discharged a Class-III Destructive Device without obtaining an ammended FFL, which is a federal felony.
It's times like that which made me the man I probably am today.-- Alterother, Jan 23 2013 I think we could do some of this, take pictures, and send to UnaBubba so that he can enjoy pyromania by proxy.
I doubt this activity is recommended in the Down-Under land at the current time.-- lurch, Jan 23 2013 Definitely not. We stopped the public buying rockets and fireworks nearly 40 years ago... maybe more, I can't remember.
I do recall using "throwdowns", small firecrackers filled with sand, as slingshot ammunition. We used to get in a bit of trouble if we fired them at cows, girls or the schoolteacher's car.-- UnaBubba, Jan 23 2013 The local youths used to have bottle-rocket wars, in which I occasionally joined. They'd all use the technique of holding the rocket by the end of the stick, lighting it, then using a swinging throw just as the fuse burned down---which gave horrible accuracy, though it looked dashing.
I made a launcher out of a piece of aluminum tubing about two feet long, with a cap over the back end. I'd light the fuse, shake the rocket down into the tube, and point with it held at arm's length. The accuracy was a lot better, and I loved the feel of the rocket launching. I burned a few holes in my shirts, though.
(I never noticed the rockets tending to turn upward, BTW.)-- baconbrain, Jan 24 2013 random, halfbakery