Caplong – Bamboo pump gun toy from my childhood days; Part I

As a kid, I used to make and play my bamboo ‘Caplong’ pump gun all the time.

I would say that Caplong is a traditional Malaysia kampong craft made of bamboo and is played as a childhood game. It is especially common in remote villages where there are plenty of jungles with bamboo plants.

Caplong is made from a ‘special’ kind of bamboo. The bamboo needed to make this jungle pump gun must have a thick wall. The thick bamboo wall must be able to contain compressed air as it is ‘pumped’, producing a built up pressure that will result in an explosion of ‘bullet’ at the other end of the barrel.

We were at a public park one weekend when I stumbled upon this particular bamboo. The park authorities have been doing some cleaning up and some of the bamboo scrubs have been cleared. I managed to pull out a piece of bamboo that is super suitable for making Caplong.

Caplong, catapult and fishing makes up most of my childhood days. I was introduced to Caplong by my Thai friends from the nearby village in Baling, Kedah where I grew up. We would walk into the bush, usually armed with our dad’s Parang and begin chopping down bamboo. The ideal bamboo is a thick wall, freshly cut bamboo with a length of at least 1 foot. A longer bamboo will make a more powerful Caplong pump gun.

A particularly thick wall bamboo is necessary to make a Caplong

I was supposed to help with some knots demonstrations that day. The truth is, my mind was itching to get my hands on the bamboo and start making my Caplong. I told Meun that I have not played it for a very long time and I have not seen this particular type of bamboo much. I went to work almost immediately.

The longest piece I manage to get between the bamboo notches is just under a foot. It is perfect because the wall is super thick and the hole is super small.

Our of the whole piece of bamboo, this is the best piece for Caplong I can find

Just the right bamboo for making Caplong

After tidying up the two ends of the barrel, I started on the handle or piston. Everything I needed came from a piece of bamboo

This will be the Caplong’s piston handle

The firing shaft of the Caplong is made using part of a split bamboo. The shaft ought to be shaped as close as possible to the size of the barrel’s hole. This would add strength to the shaft. One end is stuck permanently into the handle. The length of the shaft should be just a centimeter short of overall barrel length. This would allow the shaft to push the bullet to the end of the barrel without pushing it out.

The shaft is permanently stuck into the handle.

With the firing piston and the shooting barrel done, the only thing I need now to shoot my Caplong bamboo pump gun is the ammunition. As a kid, I used to use a particular fruit from a tree. The fruit is quite hard and pushing it into one end of the barrel, we’d then bash the fruit in. I can’t find the fruit in KL, so the next best alternative would be wet newspaper.

All I need now is ammunition to fire my Caplong gun

To be continued…