Super Soaker Central

I have a river trip coming up in the next couple of months. I'm looking for someone to build me a gun that would be river ready. I'm a 45 year old housewife and don't have a clue on where to start to build one on my own nor do I have the time or desire to learn. I'll pay for all of the supplies and the time required to build it. I don't know what people are building so I don't know what I want. Email me at rmn876@classicnet.net with "supersoaker" in the subject line if you're even remotely interested. Michelle

What do you mean by "River ready?" Do you mean it would mount on a small boat and pull water from the river, or do you mean a gun that can be carried around and survive being submerged?

River ready meaning, I don't want a kit or anything I have to put together. I don't want anything with a steep learning curve. Now that you mention it, I don't want anything that mounts to my canoe so I guess that means something fairly lightweight and easy to reload.
I'll look around on some of the websites to see what catches my eye.

I've looked around and it looks like I would be satisfied with a double barrel waterzooka with an 3 ft intake hose. Can an "off the shelf" model be modified?

I like the looks of the picture in this tutorial.

http://www.geocities.com/m15399/chosingahomemade.html

Welcome to Super Soaker Central!

If you're going on a river trip, you would want just a simple pump-to-shoot gun like the Waterzooka. The Waterzooka design is actually just the generic design for what many people can a "river gun" or "piston pumper." It's perfect for on the water because you don't need a reservoir or pressure chamber; all the power comes from the user.

You can actually find good river guns at stores like Sports Authority. I know my local one stocks some good looking ones. Look for ones that have the feed hose; they reload much faster than the ones that you have to nozzle-load.

If you still want someone to build you a special one, my brother, who runs the site, and I are getting home from college late next week and could possibly--no guarantees, though--build you something if need be.

I like the looks of the picture in this tutorial.

This is exactly the kind of gun you wouldn't want for on the river. You have to pump it and then shoot; it's just an added complication. These kind of guns are more adept for land battles. It just takes too long to reload compared to a simple river gun.

I believe m15399 has a much better river-ready gun. The type of gun you are looking for is a Piston gun that has no onboard reservoir so that you can easily fill it and fire it, without having to load a reservoir.

m15399's piston gun is here:
http://www.geocities.com/m15399/piston.html
This one is the simplest of them all, as it is only 3 pieces: PVC, pump, and the nozzle.

There is also another one, it has a larger capacity, but is slightly more complex:
http://forums.sscentral.org/t3955/
The build instructions are not as detailed as one might like, but they work.

I can build a water gun for you in the next two weeks without a problem. A river gun as you described is easy to build and cheap. If you don't reply back within a few days I'll fire you an email.

By the way, are you sure you want a double barrel piston water gun? They are harder to push (at the same pressure) because there is more surface area. I think a single barreled one with a larger nozzle would work better. If you want to discuss your options here would be a good place.