Little story for Sol in the Duc-

Back in college during a summer break I spent a little time in Gallatin County jail due to what the sheriff described as "harassing livestock with a potato cannon". Seems Ted Turner did not appreciate a buddy and I playing a little "catch and release" hunting with his buffalo at his and Jane Fonda's Flying D ranch outside of Bozeman. We had a whole pickup truck full of reject seed taters and we almost burned through the whole lot of them.

As a side not the buffalo didn't seem to mind being the target of our fun. Initially the buffalo were spooked, but quickly learned that with the boom and smack came a little tasty snack. I figured no harm no foul, heck we're even feeding these guys. The judge did not see it the same way.

Due to my financial situation (I didn't have the money to pay the $95 fine - actually I didn't have 95 cents) and the fact that the judge thought jail time would "serve me well" I spent 36 hours in the pokey. Actually it was more like 35 hours due to time off for good behavior, but whats is an hour or two here of there when time is flying by like that.

Since then I have laid my potato gun down and passed it on to another soldier. I learned my lesson and now walk the straight and narrow ecspecially when it comes to potatos.

Steve

Now thats a good story, camp fire stuff.

wulybgr: First, the name is Sol_on_the_Duc, not Sol_in_the_Duc. Sol has never been *in* the Duc, and hopefully never will.

Cool story. I have a friend who blew his hand off at the wrist with one when the chamber exploded, so I never touch one.

My dad saw a potato gun several years ago and thought he could build a better one. He ended up making two, one of which I still have. The chamber is a 16" piece of 8" well casing, the barrel is a 3' piece of schedule 80 cast iron pipe. It is mounted on a stand that allows you to raise the barrel to the height you want and lock it down. When I first saw it, he had it in his shop at work and rammed in a potato and aimed it on a flat trajectory across the parking lot, over the road at the old power house aobut 200 yards away. He filled the chamber with oxy/acetelene and then lit it off. As soon as we hear the pow, the potato exploded against the power house wall. We never saw it leave the barrel. The gun recoiled about 6" or so. I like to fill the chamber with a good hairspray and put an M80 inside with the fuse out of the lighter hole and let that do the trick. Nobody really knows where the potatoes go, but it is exciting none the less!! It really does a number on golf balls, too!

I've never messed with the plastic ones, and never would. I've seen the power one of these things can posses and it ain't nothing to play with!

Sol looks like he's *IN*-the-Bogey on the new avatar!

Sure, jump on the band wagon, Goldielocks. :p

To all you na-sayers I say, face the tater.

With all due respect Mr. Sol_near_miss_on _the_Duc the "o" being replaced with an "i" was purely a fault of my big sausage like fingers and the fact that the laptop keyboard which I used to type the previous message is the size of a large matchbook. You see the "o" and the "i" are very close on the keyboard, but the resulting typo is a little funny. Some would say also partially to blame would be my hunt and peck typing style that resembles a crack junky desperately in need of a fix. In the future I will promise to check my syntax more carefully before posting to avoid hillarious misspelled words at your expense.

Steve

I built a potato gun (actually more like a cannon) it uses a s.plug and needs a car. And a bit of nitrous. Let's just say that nobody "holds" this thing.
Are they legal in washington? Because I would'nt exactly blast one off on the rogue without like that without expecting to talk to someone with a badge.

MH

P.S. they can only get so powerful before they become mashed potato shooters. Turnips are the rounds of choice for me, much more dense (they don't come out of the barrel on fire and in 10,000 pieces).

hey steve, do you have any pictures you could post of the gun. i have been thinking of making one in the past year, but never got to it. i am still debating on whether to use co2, hairspray, or black powder to propell it. did you use a reducer to join the 8inch to the barrel?

my friend has a pvc potato gun. it will shoot a tater about 200 yards. the most memorable time with it was when he stuffed it with horse crap and then topped it off with pea gravel. there was an old chevy truck that he used for parts. we held the gun about 20 feet from the side passenger window and let the crap fly. the gravel blew out the window, but failed to bust the other.

Every 4th of July I become the potato ambassador to the world. A 10# bag of potatoes, my spud gun, and can of extra hold Aquanet and I'm good. Schedule 80 all the way, from 4" to 2", to 1.5", and a pushbutton ignitor. We launch it at the anchored boats in the bay (unoccupied) and also try to hit the Shark buoy.

No animals have ever been harmed.

No pics - just fond memories.

Making one of these things isn't brain surgery. The sizes that Dogfish said are about right. Don't go super big = danger.

My biggest reccomendation is be very, very careful. Use common sense (common sense would probably tell you not to make one!). Do not under any circumastances use black powder. This is a very, very bad idea.

Here is a collection of ideas I have about the guns to make them work better and make them a little safer. For a charge use something like hair spray. Starting fluid might be a little too volatile and flammable and can give you a head ache (ether). Use no larger than 4" for the chamber - use a section about 1-2' long. Drill a small hole in the chamber and install a latern flint as an ignitor, they work pretty well. At the end of the chamber use a srew cap. Use a small amount of propelant , usually a spray about 1/4 of a second long is all it takes. Too much and you will flood the chamber by making the mixture too rich. A 4" chamber approx 1-2' long has a relatively small volume that will not generate huge amounts of pressure (this is a kind os built in safety feature). Sharpen the end of the barrel so it will cut the potato to the right fit. Use a broom stick to push ammo down barrel.

Above everything else is be careful. I'm sure poking around the internet can yield some btried and true plans. Please use cation when playing with these things.

Alright have I said be careful enough? Can you see the dad in me come out? Have fun - be safe.

Steve

i have found that apples work better

Yeah I shoulda said that my "gun" was made in a welding shop, is not made of plastic and did require alot of math (I had a physics major, a demo specialist and a welder/machinist on my side).

Please don't kill yourself trying to shoot a potato. If you do it's not my fault.

This is going way back in time so details are fuzzy. At one point in my childhood we made these things call " Polish" cannons. Took beer cans ( they used to be made out of steel not aluminum ) " you would cut the tops and bottoms off of a few then punch holes on the tops and bottoms of a couple. Duct tape them all together. Load a tennis ball from the top, fill the bottom with Zippo lighter fluid and light it off from a small hole in the side of the bottom. Its all fun and games until the hair on the tennis ball starts catching fire and lands in a weed patch... I think I may still be grounded to this day over that..

We could not play with those anymore so we did the natural thing and did something even more stupid... Take a shotgun shell, tape a marble to the bottom and throw it out into the road. The resulting " bang !!! was most satisfying " This lasted all of one afternoon until my dad found out.. he started to explain just why this was so stupid... changed his mind mid sentence... and beat our asses instead.

Ahhh, the old school parenting technique. Not this love and logic crap they teach nowadays---which to my knoweldge does not seem to work.

You know, my dad was totally un-predictable. When you thought you were going to catch hell for sure he might let it go... other times.. when it was something really minor.. he would go crazy and we would get hammered. I think it was by design and the same plan worked well for my kids

Salmoncatcher - I'll see if I can get some pics of it tonight for you. I have to dig it out, but it is pretty cool. There is a trap door in the back to load the charge in that is hinged from the inside, so the blast just forces it closed even tighter. We even reamed the end of the barrell a little so that when you smash a tater in it cuts it nice and smooth so it doesn't smash. I use the big taters, never had one go mashed on me, at least that I could tell. I never find anything afterwards anyway. I use orange golf balls now and then so I can see them for a little while, but you have to pack them in a wad of some sort - damp paper towels work good - or else they roll out of the barrel and spin which puts a wicked hook on 'em! Avacados also work great because the meat will mush and not fly too far, but the pit - HOLY COW!! Deadly!

You guys need to get KB to tell you about shooting bowling balls!

Dang Sol, I did not know those could build up enough pressure to do that type of damage.

I'm not certain this one wasn't "poorly built." I'm also told he was going for the "long bomb," if you know what I mean.

I built one while in the Air Force and instead of potatoes I used a piece of high density foam wrapped in duct tape. It kind of looked like a big tater tot. I would lube the barrel with G.I. spray lubricant and used Aqua Net for the propellant. We would shoot them across the steam plant where I worked at the vinyl welding screens. The boss wanted to know where all the holes came from. I got rid of the gun, I had used a push button barbeque ignitor and it shocked your hand everytime you fired it. Fun but dangerous.

Steel cannons take a few shots to warm up. The first few will just pop a little or fizzle some. Once the barrel gets warmed up, look out, you have 12ga. shotgun blasts! Whatever you use for propellant, read the contents. Any hairspray that contains water, and most do, will not be good. You want one with no water. The main ingredients are butane, propane, alcohol, and so on. I can't remember the brand I used to use, but it was the best! A little starter fluid will help excite things a bit, too. Couple all of that with an M80 in the chamber and you're gonna' make some real noise! I haven't fired mine in several years because I live in the city limits now. Someday I'm gonna' take it up in the hills and launch some spuds.

I'll take some pics in a day or two when this rain lets up so I can get some decent images for you guys.

This is fairly entertaining stuff, but I gotta say, wulybgr, I think the "common sense" boat already sailed on this thread.

How about a good cow tipping story? New thread or different forum?

"The Pile"

i heard that caulk tubes also work very well because they can be improvised, especially when shooting at a hard surface

As far as blowing ones hand off, I can imagine a few scenarios that could cause that. However, it doesn't happen if you are careful and moderately intelligent in your build. Schedule 40 ABS is much better than PVC. When PVC breaks, it shatters, but ABS bends. In any case, pnuematic spud guns are the only real ones that have a chance of bursting on you, because they have a sustained pressure while combustion guns are a fraction of a second, and the pressure will take the path of least resistance, always through the potato and out.

Yes spud guns are legal in Washington, I know because a neighbor called the police on my friend and I a few years ago, but when he got there he just want us to let him shoot it

One more thing, check this out...

This thing shoots 10 foot 2x4s at 100 MPH!!


If you want to see more like this, go here.

This website inspired my spud gun frenzy, and we actually based our diaphragm valve designs off of his Supah Valve. Cool stuff!

I'm gunna mount that baby to my bow for the SRC, next year.

FlyingFish..... You need to go fishing more. You have time to build cannons and your yard looks nice...

Haha, actually thats not me. Just an example of this guys crazy website, which gave me ideas for mine.

We tried to shoot a dead squirrel out of one in college over a trailer park. While my buddy was aiming it we were throwing potatoes at him and he ended up firing that thing 100 yards right into a ladies front door. We saw blood and hair and didn't look back to see if she came out.

Beer / Spud Guns / and idiots for friends - Let the good times rol.

Yes spud guns are legal in Washington, I know because a neighbor called the police on my friend and I a few years ago, but when he got there he just want us to let him shoot it


Sounds like you got a really cool cop, I had a neighbor, who turned me in when a buddy and i built one. We were just shooting them over and open feild. When I happened to see a cop pull in my drive way. I had my buddy hide the gun and I went and meat the cop. After about 30 minutes of dening everything he told us the "spud guns are considered "pipe bombs" and the only reason we weren't going to jail was because he couldn't find the gun and didn't see us with it.

In addition to that police officer, my neighbor is a deputy Sheriff and he looked into it for us. It depends on the intent of the user. Unless you are firing at a living thing or someone else's property, they are considered a piece of recreational equipment, in the same sort of class as a model rocket. I think that cop was just trying to scare you with the pipe bomb thing, because we looked into it pretty heavily and never saw that precedent.

This is what the Feds have to say about them...

"We have previously examined that certain muzzle loading devices known as "potato guns." These potato guns are constructed from PVC plastic tubing. They use hair spray or a similar aerosol substance for a propellant, and have some type of spark ignitor. We have determined that these devices, as described, are not firearms provided that they are used solely for launching potatoes for recreational purposes. However, any such devices which are used as weapons or used to launch other forms of projectiles may be firearms and destructive devices as defined. "

And I can find no statute in Washington state law that bears one way or another on the issue, so my understanding was that outside of any city limits, don't shoot people, animals or property, and you are fine.

Well that could be true"we were only 16 at the time" never pushed the issue farther.
Guess i'll have to bring it out of retirement then.

My propellant of choice is rite aid sport deodorent it is not as sticky as hair spray. I also put a little vasoline on the threads of the breach to keep it working smoothly.

Your going to have to explain this to Amy one day.

WANT TO SHOOT A BOWLING BALL??? forget it it is a bad idea.

Speaking of bowling balls... I've always thought that it'd be awesome to create a real life sized trebuchet (catapult) like they used in used on castles in medieval times.

You mean something like this...



It throws pianos...



Wow.

Thats pretty cool though the ammo looks kinda spendy.