Topic: another life, another hobby...

[spudafett]

sooo... I was pretty down today with everything that I've had to do lately and gone through I was feeling a little nastalgic for the good old days...

back in the day (3-6 years ago....) I had a much different hobby that ate up my time and money. 

I think in alot of ways my old hobby was alot more relaxing than this hobby... since... well... I got to blow stuff up.  And that is the best release anyone could have... at least a man anyway...

here are some images I forgot I had uploaded to my facebook account (which I decided to reactivate today)...

I now present, "spudmaster_of_mtwashington's" custom home made potato cannons
(smomw was my screen name on several potato cannon forums back in the day)




the green cannon was dubbed "Mantis" and has the quote "Envy is ignorance, Imitation is suicide" carved into the side of the bondo shell (which protects the inside electronics).



the "Bone Dragon"... man... look how skinny I was... lol






the "Kraken" monster of the deep...  You can see in most of these images my technique for having different sized barrels for different ammunition.
I had barrels for everything from AA-batteries, golf balls, spuds, tenniss balls, prengles cans, croquet balls, and even socker balls:





This is a screen shot of a full unopened can of coke hitting a cinder block after it was shot out of the mantis:



that car hood was shot with potatoes, wax slugs, and golf balls...  sollid wood croquet balls also went through it... 

eventually i'll put up some videos and stuff as I have reconected with some of my old spud gunning buddies (pictured above at the 2006 western ky spud gun shootout).

well... what do you folks think?  Has anyone here ever constructed their own home grown artilary?  or... have you even heard of spud guns?! lol

[Clonehead]

I have heard of em and even shot a buddy's before but never have I seen such an intemmidating collection of spud guns you spud killer, you. That first one,"mantis" is still my favorite.

[Phatty]

Wow Spud!  Those are some SERIOUS looking canons!

[DocOutlands]

I was just today talking to a friend about building some arty like that - we want to take the howitzer approach for a device capable of direct and indirect fire both.

I want to launch very large nails.  APFSDS Galvanized Steel Nails! 

[spudafett]

the mantis and the kraken were always my favorite... they were the most versatile and the most destructive.

I have alot of videos saved on my old computer that eventually I'll get uploaded onto youtube.

believe me guys there are more powerful and intimidating cannons out there.  the guy standing behind the car hood in the black t-shirt actually built a Back-pack mounted cannon that had a fully automatic rate of fire.  Everything was controled via a trigger on the barrel and a flex hose went to the chamber on the backpack.  On the backpack he had a completely electronic propane meter and injection system, a "chamber fan" to mix the propane in the chamber, and an exhaust system to clear out the chamber after each shot.  
He called it the "proton pack" as it resembled the ghost buster backpack... I remember he brought it to the first meet in 2006 while it was still in the R&D stage and it actually caught fire on his back... I have a great video of him freaking out trying to get out of the harnesses that supported the monstrosity!  He fixed it and brought it back to the 2007 meet though and the thing was a beast.  It could shoot 10 golf balls within 5 minutes... not impressive by modern gun standards but when you think about the fact that it's built of PVC pipe available at the local hardware store... and your launching these golf balls farther than tiger woods can hit them... it's pretty impressive.

I remember we went to a golf range in '06 to get some distance measurments of our cannons and were shooting over the range... which was 500 yards...  

that soccer ball cannon will launch a soccer ball 100 yards.... and runs on propane....

I'll have to get those videos up... and I need to get out to the garage and get these suckers back out.  I still have all of them, in various stages of disrepair...  Now that I have the time on my hands, and living at my parents I should have time to work on them once school is finished. (if I ever finish)....

[spudafett]

I was just today talking to a friend about building some arty like that - we want to take the howitzer approach for a device capable of direct and indirect fire both.

I want to launch very large nails.  APFSDS Galvanized Steel Nails! 

doc you replied while I was typing...

if you want I can send you links to plans and all the materials you'd need to make one.  then you take your artistic thumb to building a frame around the cannon itself and voila you have a home made howitzer. 

to launch the nails... I'd tie string or streamer to the head end of the nails and then use a prengles can (with a 3" diameter pvc pipe a prengles can seems like it was made to fit inside it...) as a sabot to launch them into the air shotgun style....

if your going for a single shot I would tie a streamer to the head of the nail and then center it inside a small diameter pipe and use spray foam to make a seal around it... let it harden and then cut the foam lengthwise to make a fall apart sabot for a single nail....

be carefull of course, cuz once you get into ammo that isn't spuds for these the legalities get kinda iffy... normally if your being safe and doing it on your own private property and obeying common sense gun saftey rules there is no problem.... BUT... when you go into city limits, or your shooting up road signs or doing other reckless and distructive activites local authorities don't like it...

technically spud guns are legal in the United states according to the beauro (sp?) of alchohol tabbaco and firearms (atf).  however local laws have been passed in several states banning the construction of any home made device of this nature... with that said, if your safe and carefull and on your own property they usually leave well enough alone.


there was an instance that gained nation wide movement to ban spud guns in 2000 where a kid in texas accidentally shot himself in the face with a frog from a basic potato gun... he got on dan rather's 60min or whatever and they painted the hobby in a very negative light... 

but anyways.. I degress... I just wanted to show you guys what I used to be up to... and where my screen name originated....

[DocOutlands]

I live, literally, in a national forest.  I have a major pipeline ROW approx 3 miles away by road that in one direction goes further out into the forest for MILES before it crosses into anything resembling civilization again.  We'd love plans and materials-lists for everything - portable, mobile, *and* fixed-site.

How accurate can you make them so as to shoot a nail at, say, a standard archery target?

[spudafett]

as for acuracy... it realy depends on the fuel... if you meter out propane you get consistant results....

the other thing is the barel length/type and ammunition...

If he still sells it I used to know a guy who custom made rifled PVC spud gun barrels which put a spin on the ammunition to increase accuracy....

and... if you have a big enough target... you can hit it pretty good.


I have hit targets (like that car hood) accurately from 50 yards...  but it was mostly luck.

I'll get back to you on plans and parts lists...

until i do you can TRY and check out my old spud gun website (beware it is pop-up loaded and incredibly dificult to navigate through) at:
cherryspotatoguns.150m.com

I think that's the link... 
I used to have alot of good diagrams, parts lists, tips and tricks located there. 
like I said though, all my old spud gunning footage, pics, and files are on my old desktop.  It'll take an act of god to get them off of there at this point!

search around the net for stuff, you should find some good stuff

spudtech.com is the site that if he still operates should sell the rifled barrels and alot of other supplies (contact them first to make sure before making any orders...)

and
spudfiles.com is a comprehensive database/forum of ALOT of cool stuff.  a buddy of mine from back in the day started that site.  I've recently rejoined it and there are alot of people on the forum... with spud gunning it's a very short lived hobby for most.  And the majority of people in the hobby are 13-20.  This makes for realy cluttered forums and realy repeditive posts.  If I were you doc I wouldn't even join the forum but instead look through the FAQ's pages, and the sticky threads in the forum (you can view just not post if your not a member).

until next time, I'm going to bed.....

[narceron]

I was going to go on and on about "hillbilly hobbies" but then I really don't want to be shot with a firey potato,

We had spudguns when I was in HS and 2 liter bombs, and we had BB gun wars and backyard WWF, but I don't think any of that is as cool was what you guys are able to build.

[spudafett]

thanks simon, I take pride in my hillbilly hobbies.  not many non-rednecks can appreciate the subtle nuances of produce projectiles....

lol... 

[Phatty]

I gotta say, that first pic of you with the big green one and the cowboy hat...makes me think of you in a movie where you're fighting aliens or zombies or something!

[spudafett]

if zombies ever do attack... i'll be prepared

ya know.. speaking of horror movies and spud guns...

has everyone here seen the tremors saga of movies?  you remember the scene where the "Ass blasters" are attacking them in the dump and they build a spud gun?... yeah... that WAS NOT a spud gun... that thing sucked and would NEVER have worked like they showed it to....

lol but I degress.

[spudafett]

I just broke out the kraken for the first time in 3 years.  Man I built her good, all she needed was a couple 9-volt batteries and she was good to go.  Hooked up a fresh propane canister and shot off several rounds.... and took the above video. lol