I confess I’d never heard of this gadget. I rarely give pepper spray projectors a thought, since once back in the late sixties I got maced in the face by another kid and I’ve never been so motivated to violence in my life. Oh, I remember how much it hurt, I truly do, but before rushing to flush my face with cold water for half an hour I took time out to beat the hell out of the person who did it. I’m not a big or imposing guy and I was less so at fifteen, but I’ll bet the person who maced me remembers the incident better than I do – or he would, I happen to know he’s dead but that’s not directly* related to the incident.
Also it’s a two-shot weapon that can’t be reloaded, and it must hit the face. Also I notice in the video that his wife, clearly not deeply motivated to violence against her husband, missed the target by a lot the first time. So I’m not saying I’m gonna give up my .44 for one of these, but it’s still probably a better non-lethal weapon than a spray can of mace.
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*It’s related to the fact that he was a dick.
You pull one of those you’re most certainly going to have to use it. The .44 on the other hand………
I remember reading a review of sorts about one of these things by George Hill (Mad Ogre) back when he used to work at a store that sold them. One of the employees somehow set one of these off in his own face while checking it out. It took him a half hour or hour of putting his face under the cold water tap to get back under control, after having a pepper spray stream blasted up his nose at 90 mph. The take-home from George though wasn’t that it took an hour for this guy to shake it off, but that the guy was able to get over to the sink on his own right after this happened.
I wouldn’t count on a blast or two from this thing being enough to stop an attack, even though I don’t want to take a shot of it in the face.
Hey Joel I would not trade in the .44 just yet. While these are OK for animal control (think cow issues) for dealing with determined bad guys, not so good… The problems with these are
– very short range,
– only two shots with no reloading
– determined bad guy will get to you
– the capsicum glop is not instant, during that time it takes to work the bad guy can do a lot
– the shoot ’em in the face aspect in a high stress situation
– the 21 foot rule (a bad guy in reasonable condition can cover 21 feet before you can draw a
gun 100% of the time)
As I have said to others, when it comes right down to it capsicum is just a fancy type of seasoning. There have been studies where bears (black and grizzly) have been known to return after being sprayed to where it happened and start licking wherever the pepper landed. I think that when it comes right down to it a person would be better off with an ash walking stick to use against a bad guy.
If you really want one save your nickels and dimes and get a small paint ball gun and pepper balls. They are more accurate and have better range. I have used them before I retired for animal control. As effective as they are we still had guns as backup.
http://www.pepperball.com/launchers/tmp-pistol/
To me, these look like a self-defense solution for those who really do not understand the dynamics of sudden, violent attack or who do not want to “hurt” anybody even to save their own bacon . . . a marketing tool that plays on the false assumptions of the sheep.
“Better than nothing”? I’m not at all sure about that, considering its tendency to infuriate a target.
Color me highly skeptical.