Stun gun reliablity and discharges

[risky22]

Hi,

Im gonna try to ask this here, as in the other forum noone replied.

Ok, here it goes. I bought a stun gun, supposedly rated at "500,000" volts. But heres the question, in order to make the gun last, I should always discharge it by shorting the two electrodes, right? If I do not do this, will it just discharge onto itself or just make the caps work overtime leading to failure?
Also, about the arcing. Why is it so bad to "arch" the gun. Whats actually happening internally?I've tried looking for these answers, but I cant find specifics on the internal workings of the unit. I found alot of schematics, but they dont explain why certain things happen and why its there.

The reason I ask is not only to know, but because I tried to mod a camera flash circuit into a stun gun and for some reason it died. Basically, I didnt hear that oscillator whine any more. (Shorted transformer?)
So I dont want to same happening with this thing.
Thanks for explaining all this fellas-ladies!!!!!!

 

[Oznog]

Stun guns are totally different than flash caps in so many ways it's hard to know where to begin.

Your gun definitely doesn't produce 500,000V. Their ability to exaggerate knows no bounds.

I never heard that arcing was bad for them. However, arcing in general can produce high current surges- high dV/dT rates are much harder on insulators than static voltages. But I don't know if it applies to a stun gun circuit.