Not so spendy and complicated ways to hurl ammunition!

[NPloysa]

I made a PVC potato gun, using propane, when I was a little younger (22 now) and the gap for the spark was too big. Well, dummy me, wanted to see the spark after I adjusted the gap. There was still propane in it, no potato thank God. I clicked the sparker and felt like I got hit with a hot wadded up sock, right in my right eye. Singed all my eyelashes off, some of my eyebrow, and singed one eyelash inside my eye and was scratching my inner eye lid. Haven't made one since...

 

[KBennett]

:-laf :-laf :-laf



Sorry Nick but I could not help myself, TOO FUNNY!

 

[Scot]

Originally posted by NPloysa

I could never get tennis ball cannons to work. It would light but never enough to set the ball in motion...

I have no doubt that we were getting >100' out of ours. I wonder what the burst pressure of those cans and duct tape was? But we were young and invincible then.

 

[Scot]

Originally posted by NPloysa

I clicked the sparker and felt like I got hit with a hot wadded up sock, right in my right eye.

This is an AP story but the link to the Houston Chronicle no longer works:







Teen blinded when frog shot from potato gun Associated Press



DALLAS - A teenager was blinded after being struck in the face with a frog shot from a so-called "potato gun. "



Daniel Benjamin Berry, 17, received the injury after he looked down the barrel of the gun's PVC pipe barrel and was hit in the face by the frog.



"He is going to be blind in both eyes," Daniel's mother, Lisa Berry, said.



Potato guns are made of pipe with one end sealed. A potato is wedged into the open end and a flammable liquid put into a sealed chamber is ignited, launching the object.



Denton County Sheriff's Department spokesman Kevin Patton said the accident occurred about 1 a. m. Sunday when Daniel Berry joined a crowed of teenagers watching the gun be fired.



When it misfired, Daniel Berry looked down the barrel to see what was wrong when the gun went off, Patton said.



"He said it just went off. It was a misfire. It hit him square in the face," Lisa Berry said, adding that her son had broken bones in his face that would require surgery.



Patton said no charges would be filed.



"This is the first incident involving a potato gun that we have had to deal with," he said. "What are you going to do? This was an accident. "



Lisa Berry said the accident ruined her son's career dreams.



"All he ever wanted to do was be an Air Force pilot," she said. "That isn't going to happen now. "

 

[TPCDrafting]

And what happened to the frog?? What about his dreams/goals?