Dart gun

[5] While working with colleagues to study populations of deer and wild goats introduced to New Zealand, he considered that killing the animals to examine them would be unnecessary if a dose of sedative could be administered by projection from afar.

The first modern remote drug-delivery system was invented by scientists at the University of Georgia in the 1950s, and was the direct predecessor to the Cap-Chur equipment used worldwide for decades.

[7] In the first half of the 1970s, experimental 9×53mmR cartridges for immobilization of wild animals for 9mm "Los" bolt-action carbine and "flying dart" for 16 gauge shotguns were made and tested.

[9] In the second half of the 1980s, the standard tranquillizer gun in the USSR was a single-shot IZh-18M shotgun (a dart with a dose of sedative was fired with a blank cartridge).

The dart is propelled from the gun by compressed gas, and it is stabilized in flight by a tailpiece consisting of a tuft of fibrous material.

[11] In one example, compressed air or butane in the rear of the dart pressurizes the solution, while the needle is capped to hold the fluid in place.

[17] Tranquilizer darts are generally not used in kidnappings, rape, or theft because they would easily be detected in a public place such as a bar or restaurant.