Outdoor Temperatures for Shooting Your Spud Cannons

Ball launcher Temperature: Some like it Hot!

Believe it or not, the ambient temperature has lots to do with the kind of performance you’ll see in your potato gun. Temperature is an important factor in anything that runs off combustion – it’s the reason cars have radiators and coolant to keep the temperature down. Too much heat is bad in an engine, while in a spud gun, it just degrades performance.

Is it Hot in here or is it me?

There are two kinds of temperatures we’re talking about here – ambient temperature, which you don’t have a lot of control over, and chamber temperature, which you do. Chamber temperature is easily controlled with a fan system, and we show you how to do that in our manual. It’s not so much that you want to keep the temperature down, it’s that you want to push out all the hot gasses because they artificially raise the temperature inside the chamber and screw with the fuel-air mixture. Next time your spud gunning, shoot one off cold, and then immediately fire off another with a hot chamber. You will be underwhelmed, we promise.

The second temperature we’re concerned with is ambient. Simple science tells us that gasses are denser in cooler air. The simple reality of how this relates to spud gunning is that you will be able to fit more air and more fuel into the chamber on a cooler day. This isn’t our conjecture, it’s an undisputable scientific fact. Whether your fuel is propane or hairspray, the cooler the temperatures are, the more of it fits inside the chamber.

Now realistically, the difference isn’t that huge – a shot on a 72 degree day isn’t going to be much different than one on a 75 degree day, but spud gunners who live in warm desert climates such as Arizona will simply have different shooting conditions than those who live in Canada.

Spud gunners in hot climates aren’t necessarily at a disadvantage, however, because our calculations are assuming the same size combustion chambers – all you have to do if you live and shoot in a climate where the temperature is regularly over 85 degrees is simply increase the size of your combustion chamber a hair. By doing this, you’ll enjoy the same performance as a spud gunner who shoots in a colder climate.

Cooler temperatures are only good to a degree, however. PVC gets very brittle in extremely cold temperatures, so shooting a spud gun that has been sitting overnight in minus 20 degree temperatures could be your last shot – expect it to turn into a giant grenade.

The Spud gun Moral of the Story

Room temperature is where it’s at for spud gunning. Spud guns like to be fired in the same conditions as humans like to live, and at room temperatures, the gasses are predictable and the performance is reliable. Speaking of reliable performance, think about buying our ebook and set of plans to make a world champion ball launcher, spud cannon, or orange gun.

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