We made better in the Army in the 90s. We had a few folks that created some real works of art - my favorite was the 'chadzooka'
Chadzooka - long before the 'chad debates' of the elections of the late 90s, computer geeks and government workers had been cleaning it up out of punchcard and tractor feeds for printers and throwing it away, or at least most of it. It sticks to everything and therefore makes great ammunition for office siege engines and weapons.
The chadzooka was a 4 foot long cardboard mailing tube open at both ends. A papercup was fit into the opening to ensure that it would slide smoothly down the 'bore' of the tube. the cup was pierced through the bottom and attached to dental floss run through the length of the tube (the firing mechanism).
The cup was also pierced on either side and attached to the tube with rubber bands and paperclips (the armature). The cup was filled with chad (ammunition), the floss was pulled through the rear of the tube by the 'trigger man' (firing technician) and aimed by manually sighting down the top of the bore by the 'weaponeer' (aiming technician)
Operation was as follows:
Step 1 - the trigger man would load the cup with chad
Step 2 - the weaponeer would bring the chadzooka to the shoulder and would do a quick aiming calculation by sighting the target
Step 3 - the trigger man would pull the floss to extend the firing mechanism in the breach, directed verbally by the weaponeer based on range needed by sight to target
Step 4 - the weaponeer would make final aiming adjustments and give the command to fire, the trigger man would release the floss and the chad would be sped along the tube to its target along the calculated trajectory
Did it work? We nailed a guy entering the Secure Operations Area from a distance of about 90 yards (yes that's 270 feet or about 87 meters). Yeah, it worked.
