Spud Guns

[Metallover]

Does anyone besides me have a spudgun? Here is some info on mine. The gun is propane powered and it has detachable barells. For now, the ignition is a bbq sparker, but I may upgrade to electric bbq ignitor or maybe even stun gun ignition. Other possible additions include a chamber fan and a 2.5" tennis ball barrell.

Tomorow I plan to make a magnetic propane cyllender holder out of some 4" pvc or sewer pipe with one end plugged off and a magnet glued to the inside.

The gun shoots a potato up in the air almost out of sight and it takes 15-25 seconds for it to come down. I once shot it straight into the ground and it made a pretty good crater. It would have been deeper, but the ground was pretty frozen.

The old meter used an air chuck/schraeder valve system to transfer the propane. That system proved unreliable. Today I attached it so it would hopefully help in reliability.

[mikey09120]

i have one. about a ten foot barrel. 2in diameter PVC and 120 psi of pure compressed air. i use empty caulinkg tubes as bullets of mass destruction.
i plan on cutting the barel to 6in and adding a threaded thingy so i can switch diameters or make a double barrel or other stuff. i once shot water out of it and had it resting on the ground. masssive recoil. i wouldv flown back if i wouldve held the gun.

I have not had 1 for awhile.It was just a basic straight,potato gun with BBBQ igniter.But if you want to have some fun build a mini one.I took a electronic lighter,a medicine bottle and a aluminum arrow shaft ,to make a mini potato gun.It worked really good.Just slice your potato about 1/4 in thick and use your barrel like a cookie cutter.It would easily fire them over 100ft,but they caused no destruction.Even when fired at indoor targets.

[brushlessboy16]

My Friend Mike (Eovnu87435ds) Has a good sized one- About 5 1/2ft tall, shoots thinks up to the size of a tennis ball. Runs off 120psi of compressed air. Strong enough to put a tennis ball through a shed :) will get him to post a pic

[BL_RV0]

Where's the pic? It's been almost 2 hours.

[eovnu87435ds]

ya sorry i wasnt around yesterday... I have 2 cannons, both compressed air powered. dubbed the SPNKr and the SPNKr II... one has a 1 1/2 inch barrel, and the other one has a 2 1/2 inch barrel...perfect for tennis and lacrosse balls. One day I happened to shoot a bottle filled with water out of it, and it hit my neighbors shed from about 50 yards away... it hit right at the hinge of the door, blew through the siding, the 3/4 inch plywood, and the 2x4 at the end of the door! Ive also shot tennis balls into an electrical transformer, only to have the tennis ball bounce a block down the street. it leaves an oval shaped imprint and the fizzes are embedded into the metal now! my next task is to destroy a nalgene water bottle with it! will post pics when i can

[Metallover]

Originally Posted by eovnu87435ds

ya sorry i wasnt around yesterday... I have 2 cannons, both compressed air powered. dubbed the SPNKr and the SPNKr II... one has a 1 1/2 inch barrel, and the other one has a 2 1/2 inch barrel...perfect for tennis and lacrosse balls. One day I happened to shoot a bottle filled with water out of it, and it hit my neighbors shed from about 50 yards away... it hit right at the hinge of the door, blew through the siding, the 3/4 inch plywood, and the 2x4 at the end of the door! Ive also shot tennis balls into an electrical transformer, only to have the tennis ball bounce a block down the street. it leaves an oval shaped imprint and the fizzes are embedded into the metal now! my next task is to destroy a nalgene water bottle with it! will post pics when i can

I like your stories Where did you get your 2 1/2" pvc?

We need to get TDC57 on this thread.

[MetalMan]

Back in the day I played around with air cannons. The big one had a 1.5" ID barrel, about 4ft. long and would shoot anything I put in there. At first it was just lemons, but lots of other stuff like Ofna shock oil bottles found their way in there. Typically I shot it at 100-120psi, but the biggest downfall of that gun was the ball valve, where the velocity of the projectile was directly proportional to the time it took to open the valve.

My other gun was much smaller, and I set it up to accept two barrel sizes, 1/2" ID and 3/4" ID. 1/2" is perfect for shooting AA batteries with several layers of duct tape wrapped around them. For the 3/4" barrel I purchased some 3/4" OD polypropylene balls and shot those. Just like its bigger brother this gun suffered from not-fast-enough ball valve-opening time.

[eovnu87435ds]

Originally Posted by Metallover

I like your stories Where did you get your 2 1/2" pvc?

We need to get TDC57 on this thread.

my dad is a union plumber... you gotta go through a plumbing supply warehouse, its hard to find anywhere else. I have some lying around. Ill get exact measurements of what I got when the weather isnt soo bad and if u need some let me know...

[Metallover]

Originally Posted by eovnu87435ds

my dad is a union plumber... you gotta go through a plumbing supply warehouse, its hard to find anywhere else. I have some lying around. Ill get exact measurements of what I got when the weather isnt soo bad and if u need some let me know...

To suit my barrell and fuel I figured I'd need 33" and a reducer.

[trev3813]

I've got one, its at my friends house, but its just a basic hairspray BBQ ignition. Its fun

[Metallover]

I got a chance to shoot my gun today. It fired everytime, except once becuase of a bod load. I got the pipe to hold the propane cyllender in. Now all I need to do if attach it and make it hold the can.

[eovnu87435ds]

Originally Posted by Metallover

To suit my barrell and fuel I figured I'd need 33" and a reducer.

33" i should definitely have, reducers I do not have on hand. what do you want? 2.5 to 2 im presuming?

[Metallover]

Originally Posted by eovnu87435ds

33" i should definitely have, reducers I do not have on hand. what do you want? 2.5 to 2 im presuming?

2.5-3" would be what I need. I guess I should say 3-2.5". I attached a pic of the design I am used to. It is more like a disc vs. a cone shape. In the pic there is a threaded coupler on it so I can change barrells.

I did some more work on the propane holder. I put a bottom on it and now after I sand it down a little I will get some pipe clamps to attach it to the chamber.


I came up with some new Ideas. My next upgardes will probably be a tennis ball barrell, chamber fan, and breech loading. I think I am getting addicted to this thing. It cost way less then my other hobby....

haha I think I'll still stay into RC for awhile.

[Metallover]

I'm planning a V3 spud gun. I'm starting the build this weekend hopefully.. I just ordered a computer fan and a stun gun.

This one will be a little bigger. It'll have a 4" chamber, basically the same metering system, a new ignition system, and it'll use the same breech loading system. I hope to get into the hardware store tomorrow or sunday and buy some plastic.

Cant Wait!