What is a spudgun?

Revision as of 20:30, 21 November 2005 by 218.101.84.108 (talk)

Spud guns, potato cannons, or produce accelerators are all recreational launching devices usually made of plumbing pipe. There are two common means to launch projectiles from a spudgun. The first uses the energy stored in a compressed gas and the second, more popular method, uses the energy released by combusting fuel vapors to heat the air and cause it to expand. There is a quite rare mix of the two, a "hybrid", that combusts a pressurized fuel-air mixture. The object of these varieties is to propel projectiles in the direction of a designated (safe) target for fun. Good projectiles include: mandarins, potatoes, tennis balls, golf balls,bb's (if you have a small enough barrel), in fact pretty much any spare vegetable you can ram down the tube. There are also people that shoot bolts,coke cans full of concrete,and other flammable or otherwise dangerous objects out of thieir guns,but let me mention; THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS PRACTICE!Anthing that is much harder than a spud can cause grevious bodily harm if shot at another person,or any animal for that matter. I do not support or recommend using the gun as a rifle;i.e to shoot birds,for they can be hard to aim and will probably not give a clean kill. They are a particularly popular home-made class of projectile launchers because of their low cost to build: a simple hairspray powered gun costs no more than $20 in PVC and glue, less if parts can be scrounged.