# A Potato Gatling Gun? And more Potato gun questions.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 10, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717 "2004-06-10T21:45:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/1 "2004-06-10T21:45:00Z")
I noticed, a while ago, that a website about weird gizmos mentioned a potato Gatling Gun! but the link to that contraption was dead. That only increased my curiosity. I then wondered about the original inventor of that “toy”, but only got this:
[http://www.gizmoandwidget.com/acatalog/Gizmo\_and\_Widget\_Really\_Retro\_3.html](http://www.gizmoandwidget.com/acatalog/Gizmo_and_Widget_Really_Retro_3.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Potato Gun
> Accept no plastic imitations.
>
> This is the original die-cast “spud” gun from the original German Spud Gun Armoury.
>
> We help lots of dads with highly responsible jobs in the worlds of politics and finance to recapture their youth with this retro weapon. Get back to your roots.
>
> Experiment with different types of potato for best fire power.
>
> Top secret tip: organically grown carrots work best of all.
>
> And if this isn’t enough, the gun will also fire water, caps and the little corks supplied. But veg is best.
>
> TRIVIA TRAIL: At one time Scots refused to eat potatoes because they were not mentioned in the Bible!
Originally? Is that gizmo site right? Germans invented the potato gun?
Any info on who really invented such a contraption?
And: It is true that it is banned in some states in the U.S.A. and in other countries?
How deadly could they be?
Carrots work best?
How do new and extreme models work?
(like this ones: [http://www.teamcalamari.com/dox/wen985.html](http://www.teamcalamari.com/dox/wen985.html) ) (scroll down a little)
Any more info on that potato Gatling Gun?
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/2 "2004-06-11T00:07:29Z")
There’s [this](http://users.frii.com/bsimon/gattling.htm). I didn’t poke around that site too much (Backyard Ballistics), but I did remember running across it a few years ago.
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/3 "2004-06-11T01:24:59Z")
Hold on a second. There’s potato guns, and then there’s potato _guns_, more properly called cannons.
The guns proper are a mostly harmless toy–they’ll shoot a little piece of potato that might startle somebody, but it’s not gonna do any damage. They’re good for scaring the cat.
Potato cannons, on the other hand, are Bad Mothers. The one I had in high school could shoot a 1/2 potato about 400 ft, and it got over there really quick. It’s not the sort of thing you’d fire at anything you don’t want destroyed.
The gatling gun that **ringo** linked to is just six cannons linked together. The reload time is on the order of minutes, so it really can’t be used for rapid-fire stuff.
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/4 "2004-06-11T01:53:37Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> IGermans invented the potato gun?
Ja, das V-4!
_Clicks boots and walks away_
😃
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/5 "2004-06-11T03:02:59Z")
Well, sure, but the _Spudnik_ was Russian! 😛
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/6 "2004-06-11T03:23:37Z")
You want fries with that?
😃
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/7 "2004-06-11T07:13:55Z")
> [@Ale](#):
>
> Ja, das V-4!
:smack: You could have had a V-8!
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/8 "2004-06-11T17:54:20Z")
Thanks **Ringo**.
**ultrafilter** , thaks for pointing out the difference.
**Ale** : 😃
Incidentally, there is a serious connection to the Potato and the German V1 and V2 of WWII:
[http://www.tankbooks.com/stories/hansje/potato.htm](http://www.tankbooks.com/stories/hansje/potato.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> A few German army trucks passed on the way to their launching station from where they shot their V-1 projectiles across the sea to London. The Germans were so short on war materials that they used potatoes to make alcohol for fuel.
Still no sign of the inventor of the potato gun or of the potato canon.
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/9 "2004-06-11T22:43:15Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> The guns proper are a mostly harmless toy–they’ll shoot a little piece of potato that might startle somebody, but it’s not gonna do any damage. They’re good for scaring the cat.
Is there a line between a gun and a cannon? Because our gun was dangerous as all hell. The barrel was about 3ft long (2 1/2" diameter), so I wouldn’t consider it a cannon. All though the cap about blew my buddys knuckles off when we got the bright idea to put a valve stem into it and inject it with compress air mixed with ether. So believe me, they can cause great harm. _Even without the compressed air_ \<---- important.
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/10 "2004-06-11T22:46:23Z")
Nevermind. A **Gatling Gun**. Never seen that before, how cute.
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### Author:  [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/11 "2004-06-11T22:59:53Z")
I do not have details but I know that they are illegal in one state because of a, get this, _drive by!_
No, this is not a joke.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/12 "2004-06-12T00:39:05Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> The gatling gun that **ringo** linked to is just six cannons linked together. The reload time is on the order of minutes, so it really can’t be used for rapid-fire stuff.
So, should it be called a “Potato Volley-Gun”, properly?
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### Author:  [@Fornit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fornit)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/13 "2004-06-12T02:21:51Z")
[http://www.xinventions.com/main/spud/pac6.htm](http://www.xinventions.com/main/spud/pac6.htm)
here’s a great site that shows the evolution of spud cannons up to a semi-auto version. I came across it after going to a monty python theme party where a guy had created an air cannon that shot stuffed bunnies into the crowd.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/14 "2004-06-12T02:29:29Z")
And when potato guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have potato guns…
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/15 "2004-06-12T05:11:54Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#):
>
> Is there a line between a gun and a cannon? .
They’re completely different animals.
The non-dangerous potato gun doesn’t shoot a whole potato. It’s shaped like a pistol. You stick the end of the gun into a potato, and it pulls out a little pellet, maybe 3/8 inch in diameter and about as thick. When you squeeze the “trigger,” air pressure pops the potato pellet out. It shoots the pellet hard enough that it will go about 10 feet, and not hard enough to harm anything. But it does shoot accurately enough that you can do some target practice.
A potato _cannon_ on the other hand…well, that’s some serious firepower.
Potato cannons are often called potato guns, though. As we found out on our honeymoon in Idaho. I really wanted to find some of the potato guns that I described above. I figured that they’d be a popular souvenir-type item in Idaho, and I thought it would be fun to get a bunch of them and bring them back for friends and family. But when we told people that we were looking for a dozen potato guns, they at us like we were total psychos and told us that they were illegal in the state of Idaho. I simply could not figure out why the harmless little potato guns would be outlawed. Finally, I discovered that in Idaho, the thing that I would call a potato cannon is referred to as a potato gun. No wonder they thought I was crazy–they thought I wanted bring a dozen potato cannons home to New Jersey!
Come to think of it, a potato cannon would be a great weapon for New Jersey. Could you imagine them trying to do a ballistics report on a potato? You could compost the evidence!
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-potato-gatling-gun-and-more-potato-gun-questions/249717/16 "2004-06-12T05:29:17Z")
Illegal in Idaho? Figures, too much ammo around…
So, tater tots are the .22 of the spud world? 🙂
[http://toykeeper.net/spud/](http://toykeeper.net/spud/)
(like a spud gun, but smaller)