sounds good you should have a look at that and let us know how it turns out

haha, thats nice solid amentum actually. now as I think a bit more about it I think it will need some kind of mechanism to prevent early and unwanted discharges, i think strong leaf spring as used in crossbows to keep bolt on the tiller would serve well. mounted at the back and going in half circle to the dart and securing it until the final swing blast is imparted. i'll keep you informed as the project goes on

atlatl throws darts 6 feet long. darts i'm talking about would probably be around 15 inches and would work on different principle, the thrower would induce circular motion like cestrosphendone does, but it would be a short (not necessarily) stick instead of sling. the dart would be placed in a similar way crossbow bolt is mounted on a crossbow stock. sorry if my posts are confusing, english is not my first language

i see it is early in the morning in the usa but where I live it is about noon now. i tried the principle today with a simple plastic tube as a thrower, and the principle works well, though the tube does not i can throw it about forty yards with tube about the length of my forearm and it flies straight, but, as i presumed, the biggest problem is that the dart flies out before top speed is attained so timing was very crucial with this device. the other problem I was thinking about was interfering of the moving end of the pipe/thrower with dart trajectory. fortunately, it doesn't happen. dart probably moves faster and escapes during that phase. to solve the first problem i devised a trigger, so far only in my head but also in ms paint the picture will also i hope explain a general principle of the thing

seems posting pics here involves some procedures so just follow this link: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b357/Eglacam/projekat.png

so, here's how it works: dart fits into socket at the bottom of the channel in which it lays. just behind the feathers is a notch, there fits the end of the trigger which keeps it in until the moment of release. to release it it is only needed to pull it down with your finger at the handle. coiled spring pulls the lever down to ensure easier loading and keeping the dart in place. throwing action is swinging the stick downward or some other direction you like and pulling the trigger in the right moment.

oh, i forgot details about the dart. it is 14 inches long and weighing about 40 grams.

This does sound very cool! If you get some good pictures, post them please! I'd be interested in maybe building one of these myself. We could call it the Lathron Gun in honour of its inventor! And don't worry about your English proficiency. Most people that speak it as a first language mangle it much worse than secondary speakers.

I used to use to throw things quite a distance using a plastic pipe. I was mostly throwing pebbles, but darts should work just as well.

The pipe you can make roughly baseball bat, or cricket bat length. It has to be wide enough to drop whatever you want to throw inside it.

To throw, you hold the pipe roughly like a cricket bat ie. vertical, drop the whatever-it-is down the 'handle' end, and swing. If you get the timing right, 'it' comes out travelling pretty fast. The action is something like a straight drive in cricket . Or the last bit of a golf swing, maybe.

My recollection was that the timing was a lot easier than with a sling, because you can 'feel' the stone or whatever asliding down the tube as you swing.

morning! made a new dart, longer and heavier. it flies ok. not that great but ok. i can throw it easily about forty yards, I didn't go harder to stay on the range. unfortunately, it already broke, hit the wall. I guess that's destiny of almost every arrow  I think the dart would get the best performance with minimal thickness and maximum weight, while keeping it sufficiently long to get a nice drag
here it is compared to the last one