Safety chiefs target German craze for 'bazooka' spud guns (HOLD MEIN BIER!)

The Times ^ | January 29, 2003 | Allan Hall

[MadIvan]

GERMAN youths have taken up a dangerous new pastime: firing potatoes as fast as a rocket from “bazookas” made from drainage pipes.

One man almost lost an eye, a woman had her leg broken and one teenager was badly burnt when the hairspray used as the propellant exploded in his face as he prepared to fire.

A 16-year-old in the university city of Göttingen lost part of his ear when the firing chamber ripped open as he pulled the trigger.

The so-called Kartoffelkanone are made from piping and masking tape bought at any hardware store. With a range of 200 metres they could split a man’s head at 15 metres and penetrate a wooden wall at 90 metres.

The guns are not governed by the usual strict firearms regulations in Germany, but prosecutors in the republic’s 16 states are passing emergency rulings to try to outlaw them.

Horst Przbyla, a munitions expert for police in Brandenburg near Berlin, said: “What started out as an extreme form of paintball has become deadly dangerous. Certainly, anyone caught in the path of the projectiles can expect to sustain very serious injuries indeed. It can only be a matter of time until the first death.”

Police are considering asking leading hardware chains to sell piping only to adults.

Local stores that sell hairsprays and pressurised lighter fluid, the favourite propellants for the DIY weapons, may also be asked to sell them only to adults. Failing that, police suggest that youngsters should have to explain why they are buying them.

A website used by the Kartoffelkanone enthusiasts was receiving only 20 hits a day just three months ago: now there are more than 700.

German police fear that the youths will turn to more lethal ammunition than potatoes. Tests have shown that such a bazooka firing an empty film canister filled with sand and the cardboard centres of toilet rolls filled with cement could penetrate brickwork.

An apple fired from one of the guns almost took out the eye of a middle-aged man near the Baltic coast.

In Bavaria a 55-year-old woman suffered severe injuries when a potato smashed into her thigh as she walked near woodland with her dog. A school in Weinstadt in Baden-Württemberg recently came under a potato barrage from children playing truant, while in the Taunus region several windows of a block of flats were smashed.

The hairspray is ignited using a battery which provides a spark. Some youths have made multi-barrelled potato cannons, resembling the Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers of the Second World War and capable of firing at a phenomenal rate.

Thuringia in the east has imposed a ban on the guns and four youngsters in the town of Schlotheim caught by police had their weapons destroyed and were sentenced to 25 hours community service. Police also caught two teenagers with a cannon nearly 6ft long in one Rhineland town. A spokesman for the police in Brandenburg said: “Woodland on Sundays echoes to the thump-thump of these guns. It is a growing social problem that needs to be tackled.”

[capitan_refugio]

Ping

[HiTech RedNeck]

Google turns up a whole passel of hits on "kartoffelkanone". Looks like the main website got taken down. Google cache

[capitan_refugio]

These are good, but I am partial to trebuchets myself.

[Sid Rich]

Frozen grapes make a nice projectile for your 3-man slingshot...so I've heard.

[Argus]

More proof that "German pacifist" will always be an oxymoron.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Just flying a conventional diamond kite with the skeleton covered with foil should have a similar effect I would think....

[Charles Martel]

Yep, and over-ripe kiwifruit fly like you would not believe. :-)

[Karsus]

You should have heard Russ Martin on 105.3 in Dallas when they lit a potato gun off LIVE on the air and took out the dual pain glass in the studio. Funny, very funny! Then there was the time they were launching it at the sheet rock at the end of the hall...

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I guess it's a good thing you don't live in Germany!

[HiTech RedNeck]

trebuchets

Wile E. Coyote used these for trying to catch Road Runner, didn't he?

[clamper1797]

They have no idea do they ??? !!!!

[tet68]

Field Expedient bump


Some youths have made multi-barrelled potato cannons, resembling the Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers of the Second World War and capable of firing at a phenomenal rate.

Damn, we hadn't even thought of that here.

They should see what a half inch bolt taped to the end of a plastic coke bottle does, then again maybe it's better not.

". It is a growing social problem that needs to be tackled.”

Typical liberal answer.

[HiTech RedNeck]

OK, I will bite. How do you fire an anvil. Does this involve gunpowder and barrels, or what???

[HiTech RedNeck]

Just flying a conventional diamond kite with the skeleton covered with foil should have a similar effect I would think....

Oh, and disclaimer "don't do this at home kids." I can't imagine a better way to get in trouble right now.

[Thud]

Sounds like people have been watching McGvyer reruns again.

[radioman]

It's only fun until somebody gets an eye put out...

That's why they were outlawed in California. They claimed hundreds of kids were going to be maimed and killed by these dangerous devices.

These things have been around since I was a kid, a mighty long time, and I have never heard of anyone losing an eye or getting killed by one.

Awesome fun!!!

[Ford Fairlane]

OK, a little less acetylene...

I like propane, myself. Of course I find high pressure steel pipe works better than PVC

[tet68]

Anvil shoots require two anvils of known good quality, some
black powder, cannon fuse, and perhaps some papertowls and a little window putty.

One anvil is laid upside down on a nice solid LEVEL ground and leveled with a spirit level then since most anvils have a concavity in the base, a quantity of black powder is wrapped in a tissue a fuse inserted and put in this depression. a line of putty is put around the cavity and the other anvil set on top.

the fuse is lit and boom up it goes, depending on the
charge, as high as 150 feet or better.(Since the anvil
may weigh as much as 125 lb or more, it IS spectacular!)

Long fuses are the order of the day and spectators are urged to keep well back.

Shooting Anvils has a long tradition among blacksmiths,
and goes back to a time when small towns that didn't own cannon wanted to celebrate the 4th of July.

Note. There was a time when small towns OWNED cannon,
but that was long ago in a land far away.

[Rebelbase]

"Another great one is a three-man slingshot made from surgical tubing, using a pad made of a sewed-together towel. We tried it out on the archery range and hit the target with a filled water balloon the first time from 50'. "

Growing up, we had a similar device that used a funnel for the pouch. We could shoot a water ballon from our street, over 2 houses and hit the street on the next block.

When the ballons ran out we'd load rotten mangos and for close range shotgun effect we'd use sea-grapes.

[Rebelbase]

Reminds me of the Jerky Boys tennis ball/potato shooting prank call.