The World Famous Potato Gun

A "Must Have" for the outdoorsman

Potato Guns have been around for many years. When I was a small boy in Chicago, my father, on the fourth of July would use a piece of pipe with a removable cap at one end and a small hole in the side of the pipe for a firecracker fuze to protrude. At this time fireworks were legal in Chicago, but that's another story. He would cut up a potato in small enough pieces to fit in the pipe and when the firecracker fuze was lit, point the potato gun at a homemade target, usually a Quaker Oats box across the yard. This was great fun for us and the other kids in the neighborhood. ( Note: In those depression years there were not the sick minds of today.) My father then made a parachute launcher for us with a larger piece of pipe. (this was somewhat like a mortar) with a small hole drilled at the bottom and something internal to keep the potato from going all the way to the bottom. We would attach a parachute to a potato, Dad would give the launcher a shot of gas from his welder, we would drop in the potato and he would light the gas escaping from the hole at the bottom. A big swoosh and the potato was launched. Recently while in Baja a friend showed me a similar potato launcher, that he also called a potato gun and which used the same principles, but with a little more modern technology for ignition. This returned the boyhood memories, so when I returned home I designed and constructed the ones I use today.