The Gun Counter

It's the season for Track and Field at the local high school, and over the past couple of years I've noticed the abysmal quality of starter pistols. To a unit, they simply suck. I haven't seen one in the past five years that would work for an entire track meet.

I've considered making blanks and letting the starter use one of my pistols, but that's a bad idea for lots of reasons, but I'm having trouble laying hands on a starter gun that even seems to approach what would be even a basic level of quality for a handgun.

Does anyone know of a good, solid basic starter pistol that would work for more than an hour at a time? Alternatively, a device that combines bang and flash, perhaps a battery device that could be used for starting heats?

How about a black-powder, muzzle-loading pistol. A few grains of black powder and a cap makes a nice bang.

MarkD wrote:How about a black-powder, muzzle-loading pistol. A few grains of black powder and a cap makes a nice bang.

Now, you've started me pondering. For the hoplophobes, it can't be a real pistol. Too many safety concerns with an open barrel, so any barrel would have to be plugged. The device has to be simple enough for an idiot (coach) to use, yet must be durable, and provide bang, flash, and smoke.

For an event that where the starter and the timers are at the same place, the bang is enough to start the clocks, but for those events where the starter is on one end of the track and the timers are at the other end, the device must give a visual clue: smoke for daytime, flash for night-time, so that the timers aren't delayed waiting for the bang to travel the length of the track.

Most importantly,it's got to be inexpensive. I'm thinking a caplock, fitted with a musket cap. It would be easy to plug the barrel and that musket cap might give me enough flash and smoke. It would certainly provide the bang.

Mosin Nagant pistol. Pin the barrel. Make cylinder insert to take whatever size small blank cartridge you decide on.