Project Potato Rifle

A couple of weeks ago now, I started a project that I had been meaning to do for quite some time. The idea behind the project started out as a quest for a potato cannon that performed well enough to hit 50m ranges, but felt more like a rifle than a cannon. As the months went on, I discussed a handful of ideas with a friend of mine and we came to the conclusion it needed to also be accurate, and be able to use different barrels. I finally got around to gathering the materials a couple of weeks ago and after another week of building and troubleshooting (figuring out fuel mixes, finding leaks and accidentally shocking myself with the ignition) in my spare time it's now nearing completion.

So far, this cannon fills all of the criteria I had hoped for. According to Hybrid Gun Design Tool, it will make 50m ranges with a 2 degree angle and a maximum range of 175m with a 1 ounce potato, thanks to the use of propane as fuel and a 685cc chamber that wraps around on itself to form the stock. It utilizes the trigger grip from a Longshot front gun to house the peizo ignition, and just in front of that is an adapter to take barrel sizes up to 30mm without flow restriction. So far I have barrel a 450mm x 30mm bore barrel and an 800mm x 23mm long range barrel. I may build a Nerf dart barrel just to see what happens (HGDT predicts over 200 feet flat!). The cannon is also very safe, all pipes and fittings used are rated to at least 174psi, and maximum pressure inside the chamber is just under 100psi.

Before I painted this yet to be named potato rifle, I did some test shots at 20m and 30m and the accuracy and power is pretty awesome for such a compact cannon, so future additions will include either a red dot sight or a 4x scope mounted on a weaver rail. The suppressor on the barrels is foam insulation for 25mm pipe and is semi-functional in the sense that it takes away the ear piercing "CRACK!" sound from each shot, but still leave a decent thump. I chose purple, white and black for the paint work for the sole reason that I'd never tried that combination before and wanted to try it. Add on a couple of sections of foam pad left over from the suppressor as the cheek and shoulder pads, and you've got yourself a nice comfortable rig for launching vegetables. If you have any suggestions for what I should name this cannon, leave a comment below!