Tranquilizer Guns - Invented Here In New Zealand:

Christchurch born Colin Murdoch (1929-2008)  grew-up to be a pharmacist and veterinarian - but from an early age he was experimenting with home made gunpowder and the chemical ignition of firearms. As a dyslexic "child gun-nut" - he must have been a worry to his parents.

When 10 years old he discovered that certain nitrates would immediately ignite when mixed with sulphuric acid and he used this reaction to design and build a successful firearm that involved a wick and an asbestos filled hammer. He used his homemade gun for hunting rabbits and hares.

 Murdoch 'Acid-Action' Gun.

"My very early acid ignition, muzzle loading pistol. When the spring loaded trigger is pulled it pivots the hammer above. When the acid soaked asbestos filling, makes contact with a short special chemical mixture “touch wick” it causes ignition of the alternative powder charge in the barrel to fire the weapon. Unlike flintlock weapons which when fired have a short delay, acid ignition is immediate."

Once qualified & working as a Timaru pharmacist he developed and patented multiple iterations of disposable injection syringes that are now used in the billions, - new tranquilliser drugs, and invented delivery guns for use to tranquilize and capture wild animals.. these were very successful and lead to him forming PAXARMS to market them.

So successful were his 46 patents and inventions that he was awarded one bronze & three gold medals in 1976 - the Prince Philip Award, the Governor General's Export Award, and The New Zealand Award of Merit.

PAXARMS Mk.24C Projector.

This New Zealand genius may be new to you - as he was to me until I stumbled on an image of one of his guns .. but some people must have heard of him as he even had a postage stamp issued to mark his importance in 2007:

Despite all of his innovations - Murdoch made less money than he might - as he was reluctant to sue anyone breaching his patented designs:

“Patents give you the right to sue, they don’t give you the money to sue. It just costs too much”, he told the Timaru Herald in 1995.

Marty K.

After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?

https://www.patreon.com/posts/24075745