[skrbjc]

I remember the first time we fired one of these. It was dusk and my brothers and I had rigged a remote igniter, and I was elected to hold the cannon itself. We loaded it up, sprayed hairspray in and my brother pushed the igniter.

None of us had any idea of how powerful one of these was! The flame that came out the front was over a foot long. We thought maybe the potato would reach the back fence of our yard, but it was launched into oblivion. Luckily our house backed up onto a nature preserve, so at least no-one had a surprise potato land on them.

We had much fun that summer iterating on designs and trying every type of various projectile we could find.

[mavamaarten]

I remember shooting a potato into a wall, hoping to laugh at the potato becoming mush. There was no mush. Only potato dust.

[ahartmetz]

Same with an apple, only a wet patch on that steel door. Bouncing potatoes off the surface of a lake was fun, too.

[rolph]

you have to freeze the potato for more "lolz"

[RicoElectrico]

If you freeze it, it won't cut to the diameter of the barrel.

[katbyte]

Use paper towel as wadding

[rolph]

you make a number of spud pellets, you freeze them after

[BizarroLand]

I like how when someone offered an idea that turns a mildly dangerous toy into a decidedly lethal weapon, rather than dissuade others of the terrible notion we went into problem solving mode to increase reliability, quality, and to minimize the potential hassles inherent with the lethal solution.

[gorlilla]

Schedule 80 pvc is pricey. I found that a 1" barrel accepted s that had been wrapped in a bit of duct tape to form a snug seal.....

[lagniappe]

You probably started a small field of potatoes if it stayed mostly intact!

[sandworm101]

You get better range if you swap out the hairspray for black power, and the barrel for a metal pipe.