# How does one build a high-quality potato gun?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 18, 2001, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603 "2001-01-18T00:54:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Soup\_Nazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_Nazi)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/1 "2001-01-18T00:54:45Z")
I’ve looked all over the boards and the closest I’ve seen to the posed question was the goat-launcher. So how do you do it? What materials are needed? What type of fuel/launcher do you use? I would like to build one for pretty cheap. Is this possible? I turn to you Teeming Millions.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/2 "2001-01-18T01:22:20Z")
Here is the first of **788** [spud guns](http://www.mshamash.com/spud/spudgun1.html) returned by Yahoo when I entered “[potato gun](http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=%22potato+gun%22&hc=0&hs=1)”. Search engines are a wonderful thing; avail yourself of them.
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### Author:  [@posatyvo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/posatyvo)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/3 "2001-01-18T06:11:08Z")
I would like to add to the link above that if you bevel the PVC that you can just shove a potato in and it will cut off the excess. It’s easier if you bruise the tater up a little bit first. It also creates an air tight seal and provides lubrication for a speady exit.
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### Author:  [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/4 "2001-01-18T13:20:25Z")
I use Starting Fluid as fuel in mine. Don’t limit your self to potatos as ammo. Turnips and apples work good too!
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/5 "2001-01-18T14:43:36Z")
I’m a hair spray man myself.
Anyone who knocks it hasn’t tipped a few next to a lake on a warm summer’s eve and then blasted a few taters. Fun for the whole family!
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### Author:  [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/6 "2001-01-18T15:35:30Z")
Has anyone ever used one to actually do work?
I’ve always wanted to try launching a spud with a fishook line and sinker to some place I can’t otherwise reach.
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### Author:  [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/7 "2001-01-18T15:35:49Z")
Wow that looks like fun!
How legal are these? Especially in the UK…
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### Author:  [@Short](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/8 "2001-01-18T16:19:33Z")
[Here](http://www2.csn.net/~bsimon/batf.htm) is a letter (at least claimed to be) from the ATF on spud cannon.
Don’t know anything about the UK…
Oh, spud cannon have their own webring [here](http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=spud&list).
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### Author:  [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2001, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/9 "2001-01-18T23:52:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \*
> \*\*I’m a hair spray man myself.
>
> Anyone who knocks it hasn’t tipped a few next to a lake on a warm summer’s eve and then blasted a few taters. Fun for the whole family! \*\*
Amen, my brother. I am a pacifist, but I have NEVER experianced the same joy that I did while shooting spuds New Years '98. They were frozen, so they shattered leaving the barrel. SPUDS EVERYWHERE!!! It was wonderful.
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### Author:  [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/10 "2001-01-19T02:12:17Z")
personally, I have embarked on the following spudgun
[http://www.goldmann.com/spudgun.html](http://www.goldmann.com/spudgun.html)
he has constructed a bolt action, breach loading spud gun that works through a fuel injection system of oxygen and propane. Woo hoo fun!
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/11 "2001-01-19T07:07:05Z")
Try this link:
[http://www.goldmann.com/spudgun/launchers.html](http://www.goldmann.com/spudgun/launchers.html)
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### Author:  [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/12 "2001-01-19T07:14:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by justwannano \*
> \*\*Has anyone ever used one to actually do work?
> I’ve always wanted to try launching a spud with a fishook line and sinker to some place I can’t otherwise reach. \*\*
I gotta ask: exactly what the hell kind of fish are you trying to catch with tater-bait?🙂
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### Author:  [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/13 "2001-01-19T07:39:13Z")
Beat ya sam, nice try though
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### Author:  [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2001, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/14 "2001-01-19T09:13:41Z")
My ex-brother-in-law made an effective one with PVC and a starter from a gas grill. He used hairspray as the propellant too.
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### Author:  [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2001, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-build-a-high-quality-potato-gun/50603/15 "2001-01-21T07:13:29Z")
peepthis
I haven’t tried it but I’ve read that you can chum for carp with potatoes.
I just was wondering if you could launch a bait further or into places you might not be able to reach with a spud gun. I don’t care what happens to the spud after it gets there.