Spud gun Safety rules

A place for general potato gun questions and discussions.
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judgment_arms
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Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:01 am

Well sense a lot of people obviously know very little about firearm safety, or they do and don’t relies that it should carry over to spud guns, I’ve decided to make a thread about safety rules, I think every one should read this as it’ll make spud gunning a lot safer if people know what and what not to do.

Moderators, I think this should become a sticky so that it’s easy to find.

General spud gun safety rules (also applies to any form of projectile weapon):

One, a spud gun is to be treated like a firearm, and given the same respected as firearm. A spud gun is NOT A TOY, it is a dangerous weapon, like any other cannon it’s nothing more and nothing less.

Two, under no circumstances should you look down the barrel of you gun when it’s loaded, else this could be you: blinded by ignorance

Three, a spud gun should be treated as loaded at ALL times, keep the muzzle pointed down range and away from people. Keep your finger of the trigger till your reedy to shoot. Never point it a any thing you don’t intend to take responsibility for shooting, i.e. your house, people, etc. always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, i.e. down range, at the ground, or as a last resort up in the sky, just remember what goes up must come down.

Four, NEVER SHOOT ANYTHING YOU DON’T INTEND TO TAKE RESPOSIBILITY FOR!!! No matter what you shoot there’s always consequences, whether it be cleaning up the mess, paying for somebody window, too jail time for hitting someone. Paintball is fun and a lot of fields allow you to use cannons, but it’s still dangerous I’ve seen cannons the a know could put a paintball through a face mask, if you use you cannon in paintball keep the power low. Same goes for airsoft, rule of thumb is: if you wouldn’t want to get hit by it nether would somebody else. After doing research on what other people use as ammo in their cannons for paintball, a lot of them are telling you to glue a bunch of paintballs together, not a good idea, with all that mass you could easily seriously hurt somebody.


Five, know your back stop and beyond, no matter were you shoot you MUST have a back stop, a back stop caches any rounds you shoot and ether miss with or they blow straight through your intended target, a back stop has to be able to stop what ever you shoot at it, if your gun can put a spud through ½”plywood then make your back stop out of something heaver than ½” plywood, your best bet would be a big mound of dirt about 6feet high and how ever long you need, but at least big enough that you can safely shoot.
Besides knowing your back stop you need to know what’s behind it incase you miss the back stop or you projectile goes straight through, if there’s houses behind your back stop your ether going to need to stop shooting all together, or need to make your back stop three times thicker than you think you need.
A good back stop that will stop most low to medium powered rounds can be constructed from about one inch of OSB (oriental strand board) and enough bales of straw to completely cover the OSB, (straw can be bought at a lot of feed stores) the straw will slow down the projectile and the OSB should stop it, but this won’t work for anything with a lot of power, or if you shoot high speed darts.
Hotwired wrote:Hard projectiles have a tendency to riccochet off hard objects.

Launching fireworks is just another game of russian roulette.

Safety valves and switches are your friends.
joannaardway wrote:...I also suggest not spudding alone if possible. In case of a severe emergency, then it will help to have someone else nearby.
Special rules pertaining to combustions:

One, Wear hearing protection when firing your cannon, although it may not be as loud as a firearm it’s still very loud, protect your ears, you’ll need them later.

Two, If your guns not firing, DO NOT LOOK DOWN THE BARREL, keep the barrel pointed down range (make sure nobody get in front of the gun incase it goes off) click the igniter a few more time, if it still don’t work completely vent the chamber and push your ammo out. Then ask somebody here on Spudfiles how to fix it.

Special rules pertaining to BBMGs, clouds, vortexes, straifers, and MMGs:
VH_man wrote:With BBMG's- They may be airsoft guns but IN NO SUCRUMSTANCES EVER USE BBMG"S IN AN AIRSOFT BATTLE!!!!!!! It may be Airsof bb's but even the Full-Auto airsoft guns you buy only put out about 500 rounds per minute. with a BBMG, you are firing 10,000 rounds per minute or more. the reason airsoft bb's dont break the skin but the airsoft bb's can shred cans is becuase of elastic colisions. the can keeps the dent, while your skin bounces back. if you dont give your skin long enough to bounce back, your skin turns into those cans BBMG's can shred to peices. Basically, Treat a BBMG as a REAL Machine gun and youre all good and safe. Who wants to actually die in an airsoft war?
Special rules pertaining to pneumatics:

One, If you use a piston valve you may need hearing protection, if it’s loud enough to make your ears ring then wear hearing protection.


That’s as much as I can think of know, if you can think of something else post it, or PM me and I’ll add it in it’s proper place on the list that way the all that you have to read is the first post.
Last edited by judgment_arms on Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:44 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Spud gun safety rules
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Hotwired
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Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:36 am

Hard projectiles have a tendency to riccochet off hard objects.

Launching fireworks is just another game of russian roulette.

Safety valves and switches are your friends.
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VH_man
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Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:31 am

With BBMG's- They may be airsoft guns but IN NO SUCRUMSTANCES EVER USE BBMG"S IN AN AIRSOFT BATTLE!!!!!!! It may be Airsof bb's but even the Full-Auto airsoft guns you buy only put out about 500 rounds per minute. with a BBMG, you are firing 10,000 rounds per minute or more. the reason airsoft bb's dont break the skin but the airsoft bb's can shred cans is becuase of elastic colisions. the can keeps the dent, while your skin bounces back. if you dont give your skin long enough to bounce back, your skin turns into those cans BBMG's can shred to peices. Basically, Treat a BBMG as a REAL Machine gun and youre all good and safe. Who wants to actually die in an airsoft war?
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noname
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Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:45 pm

Just a random thing I've always wondered, because they're regarded as seperate things most of the time:
Why are BBMGs and strafers always listed seperately (?), they're the exact same thing, as far as I know.
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85Dave
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Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:32 am

I still have to read the whole first post but its a great thing to post

I see spud guns on break.com all the time and you always see how flippin stupid the guys firing them are being...

its a cannon/gun...keep that in mind everyone.

now, back to havin fun :D
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joannaardway
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Mon Feb 05, 2007 7:11 am

Good advice.

I also suggest not spudding alone if possible. In case of a severe emergency, then it will help to have someone else nearby.
Novacastrian: How about use whatever the heck you can get your hands on?
frankrede: Well then I guess it won't matter when you decide to drink bleach because your out of kool-aid.
...I'm sorry, but that made my year.
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judgment_arms
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Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:42 am

Thanks to all of you who’ve contributed, hopefully I’ll see less post’s about “I just got burnt by my combustion”, but I probably won’t… generally speaking, no offence to anybody, if they’re dumb enough to take off the end-cap and look in the thing and spark it well it’s full of fuel, they’re going to be like my neighbor and never read the safety precautions (he throws half empty cans a “AXE” into the fire just to watch it frag…).

Now my question is why is this still not a sticky but “Spudfiles member map” is? Is it because nobody cares about safety?
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Spud gun safety rules
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Flying_Salt
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Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:33 pm

Old topic, but one should never, never for any reason put more than one hard projectile, namely golf balls, in the barrel at once. They will bounce off each other and head straight for you. Believe me, if I didn't hit the dirt, I would have several holes in my rib cage.
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deusXmachina
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Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:55 pm

Know the power of your cannon, especially for hybrids and large pneumatics. The larger the mass of the projectile, the larger the recoil. Also, consider remote firing, if at least for the initial tests.

For that matter, just because your cannon fires without fault 1000 times, there is no guarantee that it won't fail catastrophically on the 1001st.
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joannaardway
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Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:32 am

Although it's true that if you've fired your cannon 1000 times, it might explode next time, if you've carefully maintained it (checked for cracks, flaws, leaks,etc.) , and stored it correctly, that chance is hugely reduced.

If you can't trust your cannon enough that you expect it might explode everytime, then you shouldn't be using it.
Novacastrian: How about use whatever the heck you can get your hands on?
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pyromaniac
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Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:48 am

as for pneumatic safety the best thing to do is listen to others about dwv its not fun to get pvc shrapnel in your leg.
Also make a good mark of the psi your going to shoot with. ( should be far enough below the rating) try not to exceed that mental mark you made. get a pressure guage so you know how high your takeing it.
Last edited by pyromaniac on Wed May 09, 2007 4:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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lukemc
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Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:56 am

a bit of a safty suggestion put you ignitor for a combustion on the end cap so that was there is no way that it can fire while the cap is off. i know this weakens the design but ive been doing it and it hasent poped out or fired while the chamber is open.
Last edited by lukemc on Sun Mar 25, 2007 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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noname
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Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:29 pm

I think he means, "Put the igniter in the cap, it weakens it, but there's no way for it to shoot out a fireball accidentally when the chamber is open."
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