Potato Gun
- Thread starter Keyfer 55
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WestKentucky
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Mine got destroyed when I actually needed the pipe for a repair on a rental house. I fully intend to build another one this year, but much more decorative than the last. This one will be sank into a large turning in the shape of a cannon, and fitted to a carriage. 1-1/2” should be acceptable with a 3” chamber. Grill lighter ignition, painted, sealed, and built for more than decoration. The one I destroyed was the perfect size for shooting the little Cuties branded nectarines. And there was no cleanup required, and the orange color made it easy to see them throughout their flight.
Kingcreek
Member
Never got around to building one. Had a propane fueled tennis ball mortar that was loads of fun though.
ApacheCoTodd
member
This post is very timely for me.
I'm, next month, going to spend some time at a Pal's hootch in Texas. Aside from a bit of hunting, we were going to look into 3-4 ways to torment the turtles and scare off the egrets and other pan-fish killers in his pond out back.
I have a CZ RV85 flare launcher with an adaptor for 12ga blanks for one. Building a new P-Gun would be a nice augmentation as well as a LP mortar.
Maybe I'll start a thread for ideas for ballistic foul abatement and trajectory sustainment training.
Todd.
WestKentucky
Member
For aquanet, make sure that your inserting the projectile only to a point where it is secure, spray and seal, then ram the done tile down to seat it. That little bit of compression seems to amp things up a touch.
Flames!kBob
Member
You guys are gonna get me in trouble.
-kBob
-kBob
PWC
Member
What you guys describe are the "mortors" we used to make. BUT, when I was a kid (70 yrs ago), we had potato guns that actually shot "potato pellets". You carried a raw potato in one hand and the gun on the other, jam the barrel into the potato, twist, point and shoot. Does anyone else remember those?
DeepSouth
Random Guy
I still have one somewhere, haven’t shot it in years. like others the aqua net was the best propellant I ever used, I did spray Acetylene in one once. It exploded and I built a new one, cut me up pretty good to, they can be dangerous.
ETA: I put an arrow in front of a potato once, no doubt you could do some real damage with that.
ETA: I put an arrow in front of a potato once, no doubt you could do some real damage with that.
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ApacheCoTodd
member
They in fact have been illegal in at least two places that I have lived but I can't for the life of me recall which states they were.
Todd.
Elkins45
Member
I had one of those as a kid, and bought another one when I was teaching science in middle school. I can’t remember where I found it.
Amazon has them: https://www.amazon.com/Schylling-PG-Potato-Gun/dp/B0006GK8H8
I still have two.
and I'm not sure why?
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I'm so old I remember die-cast metal spud guns from the mid-50s. Unfortunately, most of us lacked the hand strength to make them work well. Someone should have figured out how to propel potato pellets with Kilgore caps.
mcb
Member
Wife built a spud gun in her fluid and thermal design class in college. Grade was based on getting the longest hang time when fired straight up. Finger-nail polish drier in a spray can is superb fuel for a spud gun. Lights easy but has enough heavy volatiles in it to give the gun some really good velocity.
I recently acquired a slightly more refined "spud-gun" of sorts.
I recently acquired a slightly more refined "spud-gun" of sorts.
ApacheCoTodd
member
mcb
Member
That is a refreshingly objective way of grading.Not; "everyone gets an award."
What ever became of her gun... any photos of the grading day?
Todd.
Not sure where that spud gun went, might be in her dad's garage that was a few year before we got married. Now-a-days you can get rifled PVC pipe for making rifled spud guns. Some of the designs are pretty over the top, including repeating breach loaders.
And one of my favorite YouTube personalities (and local to me) made a great video on spud guns. High speed video of a clear spud gun firing.
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PWC
Member
I've heard of putting a potato over the muzzle of a .22 for a one time use silencer.
ApacheCoTodd
member
Very cool. If Alton Brown built a spudzooka.
It'd be interesting to investigate a nitrate additive to support the otherwise unburned fuel once the ambient oxygen has been depleted. Of course, this inefficiency might be the interference of angels keeping us from 'splodin' our selves to the ER or worse.
Todd.
FAS1
Member
That's pretty much how mine was. I had the flint striker on the side of the end plate and we normally used Final Net hair spray. One night I was in the garage working on my bikes and my friend was playing around with the spud gun. He used my cutting torch to fill the chamber with acetylene and when he fired it the endcap blew off and embedded in a flowerbed he was standing next to. The potato was gone and had to fly 100+ yards.
Sounds like a pipe bomb. All I ever used was hair spray. I bet that made a fireball!!!
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