For the best in water guns, head back 10 years to the days of SuperSoaker 3000. This thing was major artillary! It had 3 settings, one that was small but powerful (it made kids cry when they were hit), a medium for a good duration/spray mixture, and one that was like getting hit with a garden hose! You needed backup because it was huge, and took a bit to pump but nobody could mess with that bad boy.

I found a game that was two kind of wimpy squit guns with a hose from the gun to a small reservoir for both guns. The goal of the game was to use water to force a little puk from one side of the play area to the other and to try to force the puk into the goal. I threw out all but the two guns and cut the hoses from the reservoir, bought some flexible surgical tube to replace the flimsy tube and some brass fittings to connect the guns to a garden hose.....

Now that was a squirt gun!

The 3000 was an impressive gun, I had one, but it was nothing compared to it's successor, the SuperSoaker Monster XL - the pinnacle of water artillery. This thing was a water howitzer; it had dual nozzles both with similar settings for more water or higher pressure/longer range in addition to several scatter nozzles. One full power blast could soak someone from head to toe and probably knock them back a couple inches. It even had it's own machine gun style bipod to support it's weight, and the quick fill nozzle made up for the fact that it took forever to pump and two shots drained the resevoir. It was a one man army, Rambo would be proud.

Yeah and it was also a monster to try and carry around. And I gave up pumping it since it took 50 pums to represurise it. It was so heavy with all that water in it, it got hard to chase people or move around. Not to mention you're a sitting duck when you run out of pressure. One time I found a solution to this problem though. I held the quickfill attachment on the fill piece and just held down the trigger! Unlimited source of water and hosed my friends! Although in the end I bought a smaller Super Soaker CPS 1200 I could shoot short burst about 50 ft and soak people pretty well. It was light and lasted a pretty long time.

was fun. next.

yeah I agree the 3000 rocked even if it did weigh a full 2 tons! The XL was awesome too, just reading all this makes me wax nostalgic. Now I'm going to have to go out and buy me a new toy. :)

On or about May 31st since moving into the south west, I host the annual squirt gun fight. Its objectives are simple. Get em wet. If a cool break from the heat also happens -- that is good too. Rules: No shooting during the refilling process. A count to 5 should be good enough lead. Failure to obey means the garden hose is fair play for the defender. Sunglasses or safety googles are recommended.

This leads me to squirt gun technology buys every year. Designs enable the gun to work during the reloading process remain preferable. Desperate defenses near the refilling station are common. Integration with Camelback water packs would be a nice feature. Further, as the Dad, I am often find myself subject to coalition attacks. Sniper accuracy in the 30-40 foot range is very helpful to thin the group of attackers. Yet, determined efforts occur. Some of the mass squirt switches are useful near 3 feet to fend of the determined.

I noticed some pop-psychology detractors. To these, I suggest that play is good for both children and the creative adult mind. Would you rather that I raise emotionally stunted children who never see their father play or have fun? Should I raise retiring girls and boys who will not rally in distress and defend themselves? Are you in possession of data showing that squirt guns leads to teen pregnancy? I think your objections are stuffy, thus I would suggest you either stay clear out of range or be subject to opposing fire.