Seeing as how this is a family forum, do we want to discuss potato guns? What do you think?

I voted yes....I love potato cannons!

There is a new book at Barnes and Noble that shows how to build a variety of home made artillery.

But, is it really a necessity for your camp site or on the trail?

I'd say YES....you never know when you're going to come across a Green meeting....

Chase them out of the woods and back to their SUVs.....just kidding....I wouldn't do that....

My dad made one a couple of years ago and you wouldnt believe the power those have. He shot out basketball goal and it just broke a huge peice off of it. We found that using a flint igniter was better than an electric one. Also the fuel you use is really important, I will find out what we used and tell yall if Bobby says its ok.

Starter fluid or hairspray either one will work

I guess I'll be the party-pooper here...

Starting campfires with a small can of gasoline is one thing. "Playing" with artillery is another..

Oh, yes, it is a lot of fun, but the risk of major injury just shot WAY, WAY up!

Heck, if you want to have that much fun just ride a trials bike! ha ha ha ha

Go easy now... I'm smiling...

hey wasn't the dirtbike heaven gane during the summer puting pipe bombs under the cross creek trash cans and blowing them into the sky? it was funny as crap to watch bc some 4 wheller guy wasn't paying atennen and they lity the bomb and he didn't noctice it and was standing there and then saw it and then took off

Exploding arrows are fun. Just heat the tip insert up a bit and remove it. Fill the shaft with triple fine black powder, put a shotgun primer in the end, a little blob of silicone on the primer, then a cut down thumb tack. They go boom real good!!!

Tennis ball cannons are a hoot too!!!

Guys, I'm getting scared!

OK.... Now that I was almost through with this and my conputer locked up, I'll make this one short.
A friend of mine Joe, Is one that you must look out for. He's funny, dumb and not always the
smartest thing walking but good at heart. He was putting on a party and we are helping with cooking
three goats, one pig and two deer. We all dug a hole in the ground and haul fire wood Friday. He said
these deer were from last year but we had to dress them out before cutting them up and there warm
to boot. After eating somewere around 5:00 Saturday and after three 16 gallons kegs Joe pushed an
fence post (pipe) over with a truck. He then flew a hole in the bottom of the pipe with a torch and
would stuff newspaper down the pipe. He started putting an baseball bat in the pipe and used the
gass and oxygen from the torch for fuel. Once he though there was some fuel in the pipe he'd light
the torch and put it to the pipe. BOOOM!!!!! This bat would fly 200 feet or better. After see this
one time I thought I'd be better off at the house with the girls. The next day we went to see this
pipe post. It was three times the size at the bottom. This is the luckest guy I ever know.

Well, I go riding with some real smart fellers. We were going to camp out Friday night and ride on Saturday. After setting up camp, one of the guys brings out a potato gun with a 2" diameter barrel. It was pretty impressive, sort of like shooting a long gun. You could knock the bark off a tree 50 yards away. Just a little squirt of hair spray, then he had a twist sparker stuck in the side, and BOOM!

Well, we have this one ol' boy, who used to be an engineer for Texaco. I'll call him "Hammer". He had never seen a potato gun before and thought this was a pretty good idea, but on too small of a scale. Having worked for Texaco, he was accustomed to thinking big. So, the next Monday, he went down to ACE and bought his own supplies to make a more manly potato gun. It ended up being more like a mortar, with a 3" barrel, a 6" combustion chamber, and a push-button sparker from a barbecue pit. He had cut a broomstick to the length to get an Idaho potato baker in just the right depth.

Anyway, I was over his house one evening with a couple of other guys, and he says we need to go look at what he's got in the garage. We figured it was something on his bike, but we got out there and he pulls out his bazooka, a few big potatoes and a can of hair spray. We went out in his backyard and launched all the potatoes he had in different directions. Instead of the BOOM of the 2" gun, this thing let out more of a FOOOOF sound. The potato would leave the barrel so fast, you could only see it for a second before it left the floodlit backyard and disappeared into the darkness.

Having run out of potatoes, he went back in the house and came out with a big pear. Bad idea. The pear didn't have the structural integrity of a potato, it kind of turned to shrapnel in the barrel and just rained down all over us. About that time, Hammer decided we better call it quits before one of his neighbors called the cops.

He brought the mortar along on our next camping trip and left it sitting beside his tent when the ranger came by to visit. Either he didn't see it, or thought he would sneak back later and catch us using it, because he didn't say anything about it. We put it up until the next morning, and then took target practice on some of our gang who had stalled a bike about 150 yards away. We were able to rain potatoes down on them. When fired at a pine tree 50 yards away, the potato would shatter into bits on impact. What a hoot.