There are a lot of good propellants out there, but also a lot of bad ones. The amount of distance you get from your spud gun can be dependent on a number of factors. One of the most important factors is the propellant used. Below is a listing of different propellants along with their advantages and disadvantages. Most of these have been submitted from spudgunners around the world. If you know of something that is not on the list, then just scroll down and add it.
| Propellant | Advantages/Disadvantages |
| Arrid XXX Deodorant | Fairly good combustion, cheap, loud bang, lots of shots per can. | There are things that burn better, leaves a white deposit, can be annoying to ignite. |
| Butane | Burns very clean, burns fast, cheap, powerful. | Cold gas on hot pipe may crack it, annoying to load. |
| Ether for Diesel Engines | Use some from tractor supply, as it has higher ether content. Mixes well with gasoline. Burns great! |
| Evaporates quickly, not very safe to breathe, but hey, what is safe to breathe these days? | |
| White Gas | Loud Bang, Burns very clean, cheap, slightly more powerful than Aqua Net |
| Volatile, easy to flood gun, must be atomized for introduction into the gun | |
| Aqua Net hair spray | Cheap, powerful, noisy, 2-3seconds spray. Safe (ya right) |
| May gum up inside of gun, releases nasty gases when burnt, stinks | |
| Hydrogen | Most powerful fuel there is. Can be made by electrifying water. Cheap, non-toxic, clean. |
| Takes a long time to make. Hard to collect during electrolysis. | |
| Acetylene | Big bang, really easy to make. Just put a bit of water in the Chamber and chuck in some calcium carbide. Wait a minute or so and ignite! |
| Slightly poisonous. Leaves soot. | |
| Propane | Loud bang, burns clean, very strong, cheap |
| Don't trust it in ABS guns. My ABS gun exploded using propane. | |
| Mapp Gas | Powerful, loud, doesn't take much to fire |
| Expensive, leaves carbon deposits | |
| White Rain Hairspray (in can) | Cheap, lots of shots per can, not very noisy |
| Gums up inside, smells BAD | |
| Gas | Easy to find, cheap, powerful, loud |
| Must be vaporized to work properly, very dangerous | |
| Starting Fluid (for cars) | Cheap and easy to use |
| Easy to put too much in gun | |
| Mixture: Aqua Net & Carb. Cleaner | Very powerful, many shots per can(s), cheap (depends on where you buy it). |
| Depending on the brand of carb. cleaner, they may not mix well, or even ignite. | |
| White Rain "Mega Hold" Hair Spray | Very powerful, not to loud for people that live in neighborhoods, smells good |
| May gum up the combustion chamber | |
| Nitromethane | Highly flammable and easily avaiable from hobby shop |
| Must make a mist spraying unit and a backflow valve | |
| Lysol Deoderizer | Fairly cheap, loud bang, won't gum up combustion chamber. |
| Not as powerful as other fuels | |
| WD-40 | Fireball, better distance than hairspray |
| Easy to use too much | |
| Chewing Gum Remover | Very amazing stuff. Loud boom. Launches stuff far. |
| Same dangers as pure propane. | |
| Right Guard | Has absolutely no water |
| Be careful. the less you use, the MORE powerful it is | |
| Shoe Polish | Easy to use, not too dangerous |
| Costly | |
| Spray Paint | 2-3 second squirt, loud bang, launches farther than hair spray, lots of shots per can |
| Paints gun | |
| Race Car Fuel and Propane | Not too dangerous. VERY powerful. I've launched spuds more than 1000 feet. |
| Very, very Powerful. Best if you have a gun made from steel. | |
| Suave Hair Spray | Very powerful and loud. Fire comes out of barrel. |
| Gums up compustion chamber and smells really bad. | |
| Aquanet Mega-Hold | Little residue, So powerfull it fried my cleanout cap |
| Aquanet? Disadvantages? Yeah right | |
| Isopropelene Alcohol (Rubbing) | Very cheap, Easy to find, Powerful, REALLY COOL loking flame, no smell or residue |
| Must be Atomised, Since it has water in it gun must be drained occasionly | |
| LYNX: Java / Africa | Burns great, contains hydrocarbons and alcohol, won't gum up your gun |
| Expensive, smells strange if you use it for a long time. | |
| Fertilizer soaked in gas | Very powerful, easy to load, clean |
| Dusty, really loud | |
| Denatured Alcohol | Powerful, put it in a spray bottle or mist, smells good |
| Has to be hot out so there are fumes | |
| Tough Actin' Tinactin | Little residue, neat flames, cheap, only use a little |
| Easy to flood, stinky | |
| Nitrous Oxide and White Rain Maximum Hold Hairspray | Very powerfull, small amount of n20 injected into chamber after hairspray makes hairspray burn completely. maybe used in combination with other fuels to make them burn better. Must be used with another fuel as nitrous oxide will not burn by itself. |
| Expensive | |
| Sea Mist Cologn | Much more powerful than any Hair Spray. Burns clean and quickly. Smells good too. Also it is in a presurized bottle, like hair spray. |
| Very expensive. (15 dollars for a 2.3 fl. oz. bottle.) | |
| A Regular Propellent + 100% Oxygen | The oxygen will make any thing burn at about five times it normally does |
| You have to be crazy to do it. You will probally need an metal gun | |
| Model Airplane Fuel | Very powerful, very loud, no smell, burns clean |
| Needs to be atomized, expensive, floods gun easily | |
| Nail Polish Remover | Powerful, and easy to get |
| Smells bad, expensive | |
| Old Spice | Flammable and gooey, make sure it's not the anti-persperant. |
| You get it all over your hands and it's made to be water proof. | |
| Vodka | Exrtreemly powerfull, smells good |
| Hard to find if not proper age | |
| Naphtha | Easy to find, powerful, no residue, no need to atomize |
| Low flash point, dangerous, bad to breathe, expensive, occasional need to remove water. | |
| Hexane | Very Powerful, Low Residue, fairly cheap |
| Hard to find, Dangerous, Toxic, may need to be vaporized to work well. | |
| Redi-Whip (contains NO2) | When used in combination with other fuels, increases the power dramatically. Extremely powerful when combined with gas. |
| Messes up the chamber. Can only be used with other fuels. Dangerous and loud. | |
| Carpet Cleaner | Cleans out the barrel. |
| Some of it comes out foamy, and lots are hand pump. Cheap shots, powerful... | |
| Stanly Steamer Aerseol "Cleaner" | VERY loud bang, shoots extremly far, creates fireball |
| Very dangerous, very expensive, blows up PVC quickly if it is not 80- diam or above | |
| Methyacetelyene and Oxygen | Extreamly powerful, mostly clean, easy to regulate, easy and fast loading, complete combustion |
| Sort of dangerous, must buy torch regulator to use | |
| Design Spirits Hair Spray | Won't flood gun , more distance than Aqua Net, doesn't smell, easy to use, ignites on the first try every time, good fire ball, cheap. |
| Gets sticky and it gets hard to unscrew the cap. | |
| Astrodiethelene | Quiet,safe, powerful, and it leaves no residue |
| VERY expensive | |
| Denatured Alcohol | Cheap, easy to find, burns clean and powerful. Use in a spray bottle (Set for mist). 2 to 4 squirts. |
| Flame not as visible. | |
| Silicone Spray | Poworeful, won't gum up firering chamber |
| Smells bad | |
| Gas Line Antifreez | Loud bang, shoots far. |
| You have to spray in chamber by bottle | |
| Gasoline atomized /w butane airbrush | Power, components easy to find |
| Dangerous, airbrush propellant must be butane | |
| Aqua Net and Charcoal Starter | Very effective |
| Kind of dangerous if you use too much charcoal starter | |
| HOT SHOT roach and ant killer | Very powerful, smells like flowsers |
| Harmful if inhaled | |
| Charccoal Lighter Fluid | Cheap, semi powerfull, a lot of shots per container, doesnt take mutch to shoot, easy to find |
| Don't use too much in an ABS or PVC spud gun! Smells after about three shots | |
| Ronsonol Lighter Fuel | Powerful, does not gum up inside, inexpensive, easy to find |
| Must be vaporized, a little odor | |
| Blitz Gem And Jewelry Cleaner | Powerful loud, makes fire |
| Very expensive and hard to load | |
| Pure Acetelyne | Extremely loud, about twice as powerful as Aqua-Net, burns fairly clean, works well with paper wad and gravel load, cheap, easy to get |
| Easy to use too much. If you do, everything gets furry from the ash. | |
| Compressed Air | With the right pressure valve it's better than any flammable liquid. Very cheap. |
| It takes about a minute to fill up with an air compressor. | |
| RP7 | Nice sounding bang, good distance, easy to get the right amount. Works well with PVC. |
| A bit expensive, does not evaporate easily. | |
| Carberator Cleaner | Powerful as hell, big fire ball. |
| May irritate hands if spilled. | |
| Calcium Carbide | Lot's of power, no residue. Mix with water in the gun. |
| Hard to find | |
| Gasahol (50% gas, 50% denatured alcohol) | High power, loud bang, cheap and non fouling. Not as dangerous as straight gasoline.Cool bright blue fireball visible in daylight. Little goes a long way (1 spray for my 2 foot long chamber). |
| Must be atomized, fumes might make you sick, might attack PVC. | |
| Methyl Hydrate | Cheap, get it at hardware store, flame-less. |
| Floods easily, must be atomized. | |
| Aceteline and Oxygen | Really powerfull, huge flame all around, safe with the right equipment and experiance. |
| If gun is not made of metal it will first deafen you for life then blow up your gun and then take your head off. It will notify anyone of your presence within 2 miles. | |
| 3M #77 Spray Adhesive | Loud, REALLY powerful, Cheap, Huge fireball |
| Need strong gun (contains ether), gunks up barrel, need to spray a lot to work. | |
| Acetone | Dirt cheap (about eight dollars for a gallon), powerful. Virtually no residue. About 10 ml. can get you 4 to 5 shots. |
| It's a solvent so you have to periodically check your chamber, ( I check mine about once a month) to make sure it's not damaging it. | |
| Jet Fuel | Extremly powerful if someone you know works at an airport |
| Do not use in anything less than steel or iron. It doesn't stay well stored use imediatly or it is useless. | |
| PVC cement | Really launches potatoes, loud bang, you already have a can left over from biulding you gun. |
| Smells bad!, leaves some serious gunk in you barrel, never stops letting off fumes, fireball, sometimes it stays on fire instead of going out, can soften gun. | |
| Lysol Spray | Leaves you gun smelling fresh, OK power (not as good as propane), no gunk. |
| If it gets your ignitor wet it won't fire, lots of misfires | |
| RAID, WD-40, and Ispropyl Alcohol mixed | Cheap, burns efficiently, doesn't gum up |
| You need a good ignition system | |
| Calvin Klein perfume | Good for the very small guns |
| Doesn't work for big ones, expensive | |
| Naptha Gas and Petrol | Burns clean and has lots of power |
| Sort of dangerous and has to be atomized | |
| Willow Lake Hair Spray | Shoots farther than most hairsprays and has alcohol, propane, and butane as the three main ingredients. It also a one of a kind warning "Do not smoke until hair is completely dry". Also very common in most stores. |
| Not many that I noticed. | |
| Aussie Hair Spray | Fairly powerful, loud, decent flame, and most important, very cheap. |
| Like most hair sprays it will gum up your chamber, threads, and ignitor. | |
| Chlorine and Break Fluid | Very powerfull, big fire ball, excellant distance. |
| Very gunkey, EXTREMELY dangerous, chlorine is very toxic (remember mustard gas?) | |
| Shellite | Cheap, easy to obtain (supermarket and camping stores), not smelly, good for cleaning up epoxy glue when you make your gun |
| Need a pump sprayer, you need to blow through your gun to get oxygen back in there between firings | |
| K&N Filter Charger | Works good almost as good as propane. |
| Will make the barrel sticky and wet. | |
| Aqua-Net Hair Spray In A Balloon | First put a nail in your end cap to pop the balloon. Then fill the balloon with aquanet hair spray. Place in the chamber then when you screw on your end cap it pops the balloon leave you with a lot more gas because none escapes. |
| Have to put a nail in your endcap (a small screw will also work, and probably form a better seal). | |
| Car Battery Protector Spray | Real good power (contains propane and isobutane). Comes in spray can. Cheap- about $2 at auto zone. |
| Leaves red gunk in your gun. Easy to flood gun. Fumes are harmful. | |
| MAPP/Oxygen/Propane | LOUD! Launches potato very long distance. |
| For experts only. Explosion risk. USE WITH CARE!!! | |
| Krown Rust Proofing Oil | Works very well. Not too loud. Resonable flame. Shoots propellant hard enough to dent cement. |
| Gums up the inside. Makes it quite messy. | |
| "Geri Redding" Glossing Mist | The best fuel ever. It shot my spud over 1000 feet. Smells great, really loud bang, no build-up. |
| Hard to find, expensive about, gets only about a dozen or so rounds off. | |
| AquaNet + Gasoline | Adds that extra kick to AquaNet. Loud. Nice Muzzle Flash. Burns Clean. |
| DANGEROUS! Extremely flammable. Adds a bit of a kickback. Easy to add too much. Could blow your chamber if you added way too much and it ignited. | |
| Secret Aersol Deodorant | Cheap, works better than hair spray, smells great, nice sound, nice atomization, dense fog. |
| Leaves residue in barrel. | Ethonal Gas | Makes spuds go far, loud bang |
| May explode in face | |
| Acrylic Sealer | Very powerful and funny |
| May blow gun apart | |
| Hydrogen/Oxygen Injected | Very Strong, triggers instantly when the two combine with a spark. Will send a projectile 5000+ feet if it is correctly sized. |
| Very dangerous! Need metal spudgun, need to create a valve system to keep them seperate. Make a stand and remote ignition system if you are brave enough to try it. Too much will blow a potato into a million pieces, use a tennis ball or rubber ball. | |
| Rave Hair Spray | Strong |
| Very hard and stiff, doesn't wash out easily | |
| Camp Fuel | Burns clean, cheap |
| Not that powerful | |
| Rubber Cement | It works for 4-5 shots if you used enough |
| It is sticky and sometimes keeps burning after the potato is shot | |
| WD-40 in a balloon | Shoots far, more gas won't flood gun, need only 10 seconds of spray |
| Easy to use too much, must use a screw in it to pop the balloon | |
| The Human Arm | VERY CHEAP, easy to use, can be found on the human shoulder. Very safe. |
| Not very powerfull, your arm will get tired after very many launches. | |
| Primus Isobutane Cartridges | It is a mix of isobutane and butane so it is really powerful and very inexpensive. You can buy it at any outdoors or camping store. |
| Hard to find a way to get it in the chamber unless you buy the hookup for it. | |
| Tradeco Carburator Cleaner | Lots of shots per can. Impressive reddish yellow flame. Seems powerful. |
| Leaves a slightly sticky residue. | |
| Oxygen + Static guard | Big bang. Get the oxygen by mixing hydrogen peroxide, and yeast. Wear ear plugs. |
| Be careful. | |
| Raid Bug Spray | Packs explosive power of Right Guard (my favourite). |
| Note: Won't ignite by itself. You need to put about 4 seconds worth of this stuff in there plus about 2.5 seconds worth of spray paint or hairspray to start the combustion process. | |
| Paint Thiner | OK power, easy to load |
| Bad smell | |
| Endust Cleaner | Easy to find, pretty powerful, leaves chamber smelling good |
| Leaves white film after a while | |
| Black powder | Very powerfull |
| Depending on the powder, it can produce soot. Must be nested within electrodes. Awkard in filling. | |
| Lighter Fuel | Easy to get, wont gunk up barrel, loud bang, shoots far. |
| Expensive, dangerous if to much is used. | |
| Testors Gloss Paint Spray | More powerful than hairspray. |
| Bring paint thinner with you unless you want your barrel to change colors daily. | |
| Binaca (R) Mouth freshener | cheap;works great;not loud;won't gunk barrel;smells "Minty Fresh" ;-) |
| not many shots per container | |
| Elektro Glis | Very powerfull, big fire ball, excellant distance. |
| Be careful. | |
| Butane + Starter Fuel | Starter Fuel and Butane, together supply a very large controled explosion in the chamber of PVC and ABS spudguns. Much more distance than hairspray. |
| Easy to use too much of both, Starter Fuel could gum up inside chamber | |
| Dry Ice + Water | Cheap and many shots off of one chunk |
| Its cold and you have to design a gun for it | |
| Metalic Sodium + Water | No need for igniter, shoots really far if you can still see afterwards. |
| Need balloon filled with water with screw in end cap, when bollon pops water fills chamber and causes dagerous reaction with metalic sodium. | |
| Naptalene Fumes | It is extremely powerful, deafening boom, cool yellow-red mushroom coloured flame. |
| Leaves soot, horrible smell, difficult to produce, unpredictable blast strength (easy to overdo). | |
| Gasoline/ WD-40/Ether | Shoots spuds 300yds +. Leaves really cool white smoke. Lots of flames. Good fun. Easy to obtain. |
| Smells like crap when fired. Makes your chamber smell funny. Hard to get the right amount. | |
| Laquer Thinner | Cheap 5 gallons for about $20 at any autobody jobber store. Big bang, shoots very far. |
| Carbons up gun. | |
| Cinnamon Glade | Nice odor no residue |
| None known yet | |
| Pam Cooking Spray | Quiet, powerfull, lubes barrel |
| Smells horrible, serious gunkage of chamber | |
| Pledge Clean And Dust | Loud bang and extremly extremly powerful |
| Needs a igniter with a lot of spark. A lantern igniter works the best | |
| Cheap Hydrogen | Fast and Far. Mix Hydrogen peroxide and active dry yeast. There is your Hydrogen. |
| None. | |
| R/C Car Motor Spray | Easy to find in any hobby shop, very powerfull, may be more powerfull then propane. Very, very loud. Used 5 gal. culligan bottle as a combustion chamber and 8 feet of PVC pipe as a barell. Clean burning, evaporates very quickly. easy to get right amount. |
| $5 a can. Don't get potato jammed! Need to have a good airfuel mix if your using a static lighter. Use a air matress pump to air it out each time. | |
| Keroseen | Very powerful shot, lots of kick and cleans and lubes barrel. |
| None to think of, may be smart to add a tad to little before going nuts with the stuff, must be atomized. | |
| Methane (Natural Gas) | Works great . Burns very cleanly. Easy to obtain if you have a gas stove. Turn on the stove and blow the fire out so that only gas flows out. Collect the gas in your gun and fire. |
| Sometimes hard to load. For best results, you may need to place the gun over the burner to collect the gas | |
| Lithium Lubricant | Shoots faster than anything else I have used. Only need a 1 second spray. |
| Sometimes hard to find. Fumes may make you dizzy or sick. | |
| Radio Shack Contact & Head Cleaner | easy to get, half second squirt is plenty, no residue, no smell. really powerful, big bang, big flame |
| Small can | |
| Coleman Powermax Fuel | A mixture of propane and butane. Loud BOOM! Peforms well even in cold weather. Good distance. |
| Sometimes hard to find. Also , you will need a device to attach tothe can to despence the fuel | |
| Sulphur + Potassium Nitrate ground together | Relatively slow combustion therefore better propellant properties |
| Gunks up the gun | |
| Citropane | This is made by Bernz O Matic corp. It is a mixture of propane and citronella oil. Performs slightly better than regular propane. |
| The Citronella oil may smell after a while | |
| Ronsonol Lighter Fuel | Big boom, great distance (6000ft) cheap, easy to get, no residue, 2 shots out of one load |
| Needs to be atomized, easy to over do | |
| CRC ENGINE START | Almost pure octane |
| Very dangerous | |
| American Fare Furniture Polish | Good Power, more than hair spray. Leaves lemony fresh sent. |
| Foam build-up. Probably a little expensive | |
| Methylated Spirits | Cheap, easy to get, smells good, explodes very quietly - will not attract attention |
| Needs to be shaken in barrel to turn into vapour, gives off a lot of heat and fire, hard to ignite, not the most powerful (but not bad). | |
| Prestone Brake Parts Cleaner | Cheep, powerful, and black smoke exits the barel if used in large ammounts (cool effect!) Contains: Acetone, Heptane, Xylene, Ethylbenzene, and propane |
| Leaves black soot in barel and chamber. Don't spray directly on lantern sparker. | |
| Fautless Heavy Starch | Very powerfull, less mess in chamber, a ton of shots with one can, use a little amount |
| Loud, smells bad, could be dangerous depending on amount used, BIG flamer | |
| Eve Deodorant Spray | VERY explosive, smells good |
| It's so temting to use as ammo | |
| Brute Deoderant | LOUD bang, no residue, works in pvc, not a whole lot needed, best if mixed with aquanet hairspray |
| Little residue left over, it fills barrel with fire, high pressure when shot, smells up hands, large nosel where aerosol comes out so hard to aim | |
| Gum Remover | Very powerful, sorta cheap, and its not loud, will send those spuds sailing into outer space |
| Hard to get right mixture of oxegen to gum remover | |
| Pure Oxygen + Propane + Ether | Really powerful. If you use too much you will just blow your spud to bits. Lots of flames. Really loud. |
| Very dangerous. Only use in strong metal guns. I have a metal gun with a 3" barrel and it kicks back really bad. | |
| Raid bug spray | Only thing I had. Cool muzzel flash |
| Almost no power. Poisonous. | |
| Pure Oxygen + Black Powder + Aqua Net | Very Very Powerfull, Very loud, Makes very big muzzel flash and Lots of black smoke |
| Shattered 2 of my abs plastic guns, Use only in cast iron or steel guns Leaves soot in chamber, Kicks back very bad, Have to mount on stable object | |
| MXP welding gas | Extremely powerfull, mix with O2 or NO2 and it gets crazy powerfull! All easily found in a typicall Canadian Tire store. (Canada) Also fuel doesn't condense as it is a gas so it works well in the winter. |
| You really better have a reinforced gun! (Metal probably better) | |
| Constant air C02 canisters (Used For Paintball) | Clean, Moderately Priced, Canisters are refillable, no ignition required, non flamable. Easy to load. Use more co2 to get more power. |
| C02 Reaches Pressures up to 800 PSI on average and up to 1000 psi on hot days. Be sure youre plumbing can safely handle these pressures. Need to rebuild propulsion system. Long Barrel to let co2 expand, isolated air chamber, and high flow ball valve to relase all pressure in one burst. | |
| Starting Fluid (ether) + Nitrious Oxide | Launches spud at around 300-400 ft/sec. and can be used safely in PVC guns |
| Easy to flood chamber | |
| Whistling Bottle Rocket propellant (the black powder) | Powerful (a tylenol bottle filled with it blew a 50 pound steel garbage pale 9 feet in the air), fairly easy to obtain |
| Require mass amounts a whistling bottle rockets (144 of them make 1 1/2 to 2 tylenol bottle, must be tightly packed and sealed within a contain, not recomended for plastic pipe | |
| Tyre Shine | Loud bang. Lubes barrel well due to silicon. Long, clean burn. |
| Bad smell, makes hands slippery. | |
| Jet Engine Fuel | Launching distance great with respect to noise. Cheap. Burns pretty clean. |
| Can pretty much be deadly if not properly atomized. | |
| "The Works" Toilet Bowl Cleaner And Tin Foil | Easy to find, reacts to form hydrogen. |
| Possible explosion, possible chemical burn | |
| Brute Cologne | Cheap, gun smells better |
| Pisses buddy off when you take it (why use your own?), probably not as good as other propellants | |
| Starting Fluid (Ether) + Oxy (Welding) | Adding a whiff of O2 takes a good propellent to a much higher level. Using limes as ammo, have punched perfect holes through wood fencing. Easy to add O2 from small welding bottle. O2 ensures ignition when too much propellent is added. |
| Can easily add too much O2. Not more than a 1 sec. burst from cutting torch. Have blown 4" threaded plug off the breech. The charge is as lethal as a shotgun. | |
| Moth Balls and Gas mixed in a squirt bottle | Big boom, Lot of fun. |
| Almost too powerful, needs to be atomized. | |
| Cesium and Water | Put a small chunk of Cesium in the gun. Put in waterballoon (make sure it is dry on the outside!) Screw lid with spike in. Shake and BOOOM! No need to ignite. |
| This will blow up even outside the chamber, so be sure to follow instructions! Even more powerfull than the Oxygen + hydrogen propellant. Must have big steel gun. Hard to come by. | |
| Aneaker Cleaner Aerosol Can | Very powerful, leaves no residue. |
| Smells and leaves soot | |
| Brooxetaline | Easy to find if you are in central Iowa. Extremely powerful, leaves soft white powder that wipes off easily. |
| Smells kind of funny and makes a weird noise | |
| Dr. Scholls Spray Powder | Smells funny, loud bang. |
| A little expensive. | |
| Right Guard + Whip Cream Gas (nitrous oxide) | Clean, cheap, Great |
| The right guard makes your barrle smell nasty | |
| Cut Off Match Heads | Amazing shower of flaming match heads ejected out of barrel, great power, useful for setting off rocket engine based projectiles because of heat and flame, absolutely huge smoke cloud. Could possibly be used with Aqua-Net as ignition source to simplify firing. |
| Because of heat only suitable for insaine people or those with metal guns. Will set anything around you on fire. Produces dangerous sulpher dioxide gas cloud which will make you puke instantly if not stop breathing all together. May requite custom gun with tiny combustion chamber. Takes long time to prepare/load (45 packs of matches all cut up for 1 liter combustion chamber and 6 foot barrel), difficult to ignite (requires 300,000 volt stun gun ignition system to produce hot enough spark, or flint based lantern ignitor) | |
| Gas from Hair Moose Aerosols | Flame Thrower efect on firing, 200 yrds range, and if you put little holes in your spud, and then put some coal dust in there, a massive rocket effect occurs! |
| The moose itself will dampen the explosion, so you must collect the gas only. | |
| Atomize any Liquid Fuel | Take a pump hairspray bottle (not the pressure ones), the kind that you push down with your finger and get 1 spurt of mist. Empty out hairspray and fill with the liquid fuel of your choice! I like using white gas, also sold as lantern/camping stove fuel. |
| None, works great because you can measure how much fuel you add per shot. Once you figure out how many spurts to add, you can add the exact same ammount every time for identical shots. | |
| Mess Master | Fires clean, very good distance, cheap. |
| Kinda stinks. | |
| Denatured Alcohol | Cleans igniter, very powerful, easy to find and smokless |
| Volitile, and you need a spray bottle to load | |
| Pyradex | Has nearly the same power of Black Powder, but burns cleaner. |
| It will still leave soot. | |
| Repel Bug Reppellent | It's very cheap and powerful. Makes a loud boom. Cheap to buy. |
| Only can be bought at Meijers stores. Slightly dangerous. | |
| Denatured Alcohol / Acetone 10 to1 | Cheap clean powerful 4" by 1' chamber and 2" by 4' barrel spuds in excess of 200 yds. Must atomize about 3 sprays or until a little fire comes out of barrel lot of fire just wastes fuel. |
| Big Noise (the neighbors know where you are). | |
| Popcorn Butter Spray | Big fireball, small bang, smells OK |
| Leaves sticky gunk in barrel. | |
| Off Insect Repellent/Aqua Net Hair Spray | Loud bang, shoots far. |
| Leaves a sticky gunk in barrel, and smells nasty. | |
| Very Fine Sawdust Mixed With Atomized Gas | Quick ignition |
| Very messy | |
| Blue Ice | Disappears after burnt, medium power, samll amount needed, easy to apply. |
| Hard to find | |
| Air Freshner | It's easy to get |
| It doesnt go very far | |
| 3pts. Petrol, 1pts. Gas | Big flame. I will use it if I had nothing left apart from hair spray.The gas is for the little extra power and it makes it ignighte better if your ignighter is not that well. |
| May gum up your barrel. | |
| Circuit Board Cleaner | Powerful, quick ignition, dries out chamber and barrel after using oil. A little goes a long way. |
| Expensive. Dries quickly. | |
| Arm & Hammer Deodorant | Nice Bang, very powerful, great muzzle flash. Just a second is all you need. Cheap, easy to find. |
| Easy to flood, but once you find the right amount, good times are sure to come. | |
| Moonshine (aka Everclear) | Nice bang cool flame not to far but cheap. Must be 21 or over to buy. Must catch the stuff itself on fire not just the fumes. |
| Hard to load. Hard to get if uder 21. | |
| Athleat's Foot Spray | It makes a big bang and is more powerfull if you mix with bolt lubricator. |
| You do not get a lot of shots per can, expensive. | |
| Paint Thinner & Oxygen | Very, Very loud. Big flame. Can use it in a plastic gun. |
| Don't use to much. Expensive and complicated. | |
| Soda(CO2) Bulbs | Crush sparklers and wrap a soda bulb with them and foil. Stick another sparkler in as a fuse. Shaved frozen eggs work best. Shoots very far. Cheap |
| Very loud. Needs mounting, we used a shopping trolley. Needs a solid metal gun. | |
| Gas + Finger Nail Polish Remover | Very powerful. Does not need to be atomized. Just put it in and shake it up |
| Dangerous, smells terrible, loud. | |
| Adhesive Glue (spray) | Very strong, Cheap, huge flame. |
| Leaves gunk in gun, makes gun all sticky, you might lose an arm. | |
| Antiseptic | Strong, cheap, easy to get. |
| Smells, comes in a small can, if you stand too close you might lose an eyebrow (I know from experience). | |
| Bromine + Mercury | Shoots the potato about 1000 yards. |
| Hard to get, mercury is dangerous. | |
| Testors Paint Thinner | Easily ignitable, burns quickly |
| Smells real bad, harmful vapors like spray paint | |
| Cutter Insect Spray | Not very loud |
| Stinks | |
| Static Gaurd | Loud Bang, Good Distance, Not Much Smell |
| Expensive, Not many shots per can | |
| Duster | Very Loud, lots of shots per can, nice fireball, good fuel at nite. |
| Expensive, may crack PVC/ABS when can is sprayed upside down. | |
| Cutter and Aqua Net | Loud, better distance than just Aqua net |
| May wake your neighbors ;) Smell may be unpleasent to some. | |
| Nitro, Nirtomethane | Dragster fuel. Expensive, Get from FHS redmax racing (100% nitro pulse jet fuel) |
| May blow up gun | |
| Gasoline | Very powerful, Very loud. Not easy to clean up |
| Floods gun easily, May blow ignition system depending on what you have. | |
| lighter Fluid | More powerful then hair spray |
| Hard to ignite, expensive, and harder to find then hairspray | |
| Nitrocelluce (gun cotton) | The most powerful propellant you can use besides high explosives. This is the propllant used in anti tank rounds. I have launched a golf ball 3 miles, blown through a redwood tree. Detonation volocity at 26,000 feet per second, compared to a 700fps for aqua net, generates 7000 psi, compared to aqua net at 45 psi. |
| Even steel guns wont stand up to the pressure. I used a hydralic cylinder for catiplilar bulldozers. | |
| Ethanol | You can make it yourself- just mix Cornsyup, water and yeast and let it sit for week or two (until it stops bubbling). Then distill it by boiling the ethanol in a sealed jar with a hose attached. Collect in a bottle and use. |
| Time consuming. Water vapor will get into the ethanol if the temp gets above 90 degrees celcius. Difficulty firing in the cold. | |
| Ammonium Perchlorate + Aluminium + Epoxy Hardener | Ammonium Perchlorate: 75%, Epoxy Hardener: 20%, Aluminium: 5%. Extremely powerful; used in high power rockets. Decomposition products are entirely gaseous. |
| Hard to ignite, very unstable burnrate at low pressures. High burn temperature. May explode barrel. | |
| 75% KNO3 + 25% Sugar | Cheap, easy to find, powerful, burns very hot |
| Need a strong gun, explosion varies on size of grain. | |
| Air Brush Liquid Reamer | Trichloethylene - very volatile - very powerful - easy to buy from model and art shops |
| Can attack some plastics - fumes are powerful - propellant very powerful - small can (goes a long way) | |
| Off Bug Spray | Works well, no residue, fairy cheap and poweful |
| Easy to flood gun, makes excess liquid that has to be drained. | |
| Gojo Painter's Hand Cleaner | Extremely powerful, but safe. |
| Gunks up gun. Huge recoil. | |
| Axe Deoderant | Goes pretty far, smells nice |
| Gunk, cost, and missfires. Plus, their commercials suck. | |
| Gojo Hand Cleaner smothered in Talcom Powder | Twice the distance of normal Gojo, but still relatively safe. Gojo is easy to find, and pretty cheap. One tub lasts a long time. |
| Talcom powder can be hard to get, makes your hands dirty and powdery, gunks up your gun pretty bad. | |
| Battery and Ignition Clean | OK distance and lubricates the barrel. |
| Easy to use to much. Gums up the chamber. Floods easily. | |
| Armor All Tire Foam | Powerfull, leaves barrel slick when shot, don't need much, loud bang and lots of shots per can. |
| Expensive, must fire quickly after loading, smells sour. | |
| Gasoline + Propane | Very powerful, no gunk in gun. |
| Extremly dangerous. | |
| Sodium Azide | Very very powerful 1-3km, serous bang, easy to get(used in car airbags to create an explosion responsible for the filling of the bag). |
| Very toxic and expensive. | |
| Sof Sole Shoe Waterproofer | Powerful, clean, no smell, loud, neat bright blue muzzle flash at night, cost is OK. |
| I have only seen it in shoe stores. | |
| Fog Oil | Big boom, long distance, no residue |
| Smells bad, hard to ignite, harmful if inhaled | |
| CA Glue Accellerant | Quite powerful. Get it at the hobby store (used to make certain glues dry faster). A couple sprays will do. Makes a cool fireball if enough is used, also ignigts very well. Get a spray bottle and a large size refil bottle. |
| Smells bad (burned and unburned), smells up chamber, you have to blow out the chamber very well after every shot, bad to breath (if you git a big whiff). | |
| Nitromethane + Acetylene + Oxygen | Very powerful, maybe most powerful. |
| Extremely dangerous. | |
| Paul Mitchel hairspray | Greater combustion and distance than AuqaNet. |
| Cost about 6 bucks a can, makes wife extremely angry when she finds out what happened to her hairspray. | |
| Finesse + Right Guard Extream | Works almost every time, use only a 2 second spray. |
| None | |
| Axe Body Deoderant | 2 second shot does it powerful but not loud. Sounds like giant fart |
| Stinks like cheap colonge, makes water in chamber, won't fire if too much is used | |
| Solarcaine | It is used to treat sunburns. It is fairly powerful and extremely easy to get the right amount in the cumbustion chamber, a 3 second burst should do the trick. |
| It is difficult to find | |
| Varnish | Shoots spud about 250yds. Cheap, easy to find. |
| Smells bad. Screws up brain cells. Must be used with lysol air freshener. Easy to use too much. Not to be used in PVC guns. | |
| Butane (liquid form) And Oxygen | Monster distance, 10,000 foot shots. Put a drop on the end of a Q-tip and dab on igniter electrodes. |
| None (Editor's note: this can't be true) | |
| Alcohol, Gasoline, Oven Cleaner Spray | Extremely Powerful, Easy to light (less misfires) |
| Extremely Explosive | |
| Axe Body Spray | Very loud, shoots very far |
| Gives off hot exhaust | |
| PAM Cooking spray | Greases barrel, moderately powerfull, easy to find and cheap. |
| None worth mentioning | |
| Panteen Pro v hairspray | Really powerful, cool fire blast, and shoots over 200yds. |
| Gums up chamber after a while but is easy to scrape off. | |
| Bradex Easy Start | Highly Volatile, designed to start engines even in "Artic Conditions" (well thats what it says on the tin), doesn't smell bad, its cheap. |
| Easy to use too much. | |
| Rc Nitro methylene fuel | Glow start, 16% nitro , best to use the blue variety, makes remote control cars go very fast, will make the spud go into orbit |
| Every chance of using way too much, fuel has short life span of a couple of months so have the cannon ready to fire, then buy fuel , loud noise resembles concordes roar over head | |
| Right Gaurd + Atomized Lighter fuel | Has Lots Of Power, Loud Bang, Goes Very Far, And Both Chemicals Are Cheap. |
| not good if your neighbors are too close since it is loud,smells bad if you use more lighter fuel than right gaurd. | |
| RC Car Fuel | If you want a potato to go very far and get there very fast use RC fuel. |
| The only down fall is there is oil in it and it will flood your gun after a while and it will gum it up. | |
| Disinfectant Spray and Starting Fluid | Very powerful, long range (1000 feet), very cheap, spray both can at once for about 3-6 sec, vary loud, don't put in too much starting fluid |
| Smell bad for weeks, easy to flood, kind of watery when you open the cap | |
| Dry Ice | Cheap and clean, not combustable, needs no igniter |
| Frost bite, short term storage | |
| Lithium and Water | Very loud explosion |
| Quite dangerous, hard to find lithium | |
| Chlorine and Sugar | Cool brown smoke |
| Watch out for brown pungent gas (chlorine) | |
| Potassium + Water | Another "alkali metal + water" reaction. I included this one because potassium is the easiest to obtain, it explodes more powerfully than lithium or sodium, it produces some nice pink flames and it doesn't melt easily like rubidium or cesium. |
| Very dangerous, rapidly oxidises in air. | |
| Pure Acetone Vapour | Quite powerful, cheap, easy to get, and safe |
| Needs to be atomized/vapourized by either heating the barrel to more then 60*C or by using a mister. | |
| Binaca | Burns clean & smells good. |
| Small container. | |
| (vaporized) Diesel Fuel | Big boom, launches tators super far. |
| May explode whole cannon, but not very likely. | |
| Orange Glo | Loud, works great in cold, smells great |
| Jerry Curl juice is left in cap & chamber. | |
| PVC Primer | Fairly good distance, nice bang, easy to find and cheap. |
| Leaves liquid thats needs to be drained after about 3 shots. | |
| Polar Engine Fluid | Goes pretty far, Loud. |
| Stinks, floods launcher sometimes. | |
| Rave Aresol Hairspray 3X | Very nice boom, smells good, and launches very far, easy to clean out |
| Will gunk up chamber and threaded cap | |
| Heavy Duty Degreaser | Makes a loud boom and goes farther than hair spray. Easy to find. |
| Its not to good to inhale. | |
| Metho + Chlorine | Very Very Powerful, Easy To Ignite while atomised. |
| Will Blow Up If kept in sealed containers, very hot, stinks | |
| Dry Ice and Water | No need for ignitor, self ignition. Spud needs to be tight in gun and need to seal entrance of fuel, Screw on rear helps |
| You do not know when it is going to go off. It could take a 5 mins to 25 mins. Can not have any leaks to work right. | |
| Adidas Aftershave | Easy to load, fires well |
| Residue, probably expensive. | |
| AX Body Spray | Shot far without alot of it. Makes your barrel smell better. |
| Probably very expensive. | |
| Foot Locker water repellant | Very powerful, extremely flammable, smells like the inside of a foot locker store! Very cheap at 2 dollars a can. T he cans are ENORMOUS at 10 ounces! |
| None that I know of so far, but there may be? | |
| Elemental Sodium and Water | Makes Hydrogen, Loud Boom, Easy to get if you know where to look. |
| Can be hard to get, high school chem-labs have it. Makes puddle in gun. | |
| Axe- Aftershave | Easy to load, fires well. |
| Expensive | |
| Pure Oxygen And Any Flammable Vapour | Put pure oxygen in to a long ballon then in to the gun spay more propelant than normall, pop ballon in chamber. |
| Don't use in a plastic gun. Potato and plastic goes every where. | |
| Liquid plummer Explosion | Get a bottle of liquid plummer. Than put a balloon over the top of the bottle and shake. The balloon will fill up with gas. Put news paper all around it and fire. Newspaper lights and explodes in air. |
| Don't fill balloon too much! Can become very explosive. Make sure to use newspaper, don't want this baby exploding in your gun. | |
| Water Sealant | Buy at home depot, shoots potato 400-600 yards. |
| Flash fires, so dangerous | |
| Friction Alcohol 70% | Easy to find, use with spray bottle, very loud bang! |
| Water in combustion chamber | |
| Tinactin Athletes Foot Spray | Powerful, not much residue at all. |
| Easy to use too much, so be careful. | |
| ADORN hairspray | Shoots almost everytime with a BBQ ignitor, not loud, very powerfull 200 yards with 3 second spray |
| Has a little bit of water in it that can flood your ignitor if you have a flint one. | |
| 321 Nail Dryer | Found at Wal-Mart, has lots of propane, butane, and iso-butane, alcohol-denat-40. Its very dry and will not gum up your barrel at all. |
| The only disadvantatage is it will evaporate very quick so you have to put the cap in really fast after you spray it. | |
| Cool Power 20% Nitro RC Plane Fuel | Loud. Very powerful, use small amount, lubes barrel very well. Contains Castor Oil, Nitro Methanol, & Alcohol |
| Hard to ignite when too rich | |
| Oxygen And Propane | Hypersonic potato speeds. Sounds like a grenade going off! No residue. Easily obtained |
| Recreates the PVC pipe bomb! I know this from expierence | |
| Glen 20 (hospital strength) | Powerful, 60% ethanol, doesn't missfire too often |
| Only use a small amount | |
| COX Super Power Model Plane Fuel | Burns clean with good power. Good distance/peformance. Like most Nitromethanol fuels, the flame will be white in color. |
| May be hard to find (mostly available from hobby stores). Flame is colorless and not visible except at night. May melt some plastics. | |
| H2 + O2 Self-Made In The Gun | You only need some water, salt and a battery mounted on your gun. You turn on a switch to start electrolitic reaction. With two small pipes you load directly O2 and H2 in the ignition chamber, so you don't have to transport dangerous gas. Extremly cheap. Use a lead acid battery to energize the system. |
| Very dangerous. You must bring with you enough water and a battery. Not high pressure in the ignition chamber. In the electrolitic chamber Cl gas may be developed (dangerous to inhale). You must seal the connections between the ignition and the electrolitic chamber. | |
| Finesse Firm Hold Hair Spray | Smells good, not too loud. A 2.5 second spray goes around 1200 feet. |
| Leaves a residue. | |
| Lysol | Blows up in hand. Very coo, doesn't hurt. |
| None | |
| Mix of Right Guard and White Rain | Not too loud depending on the size of the chamber. Works really well. |
| Easy to use too much. Try to use 2 parts white rain and 1 part right guard. | |
| Salon Spray Maximum Hold Professional Hair Spray(The cheap ass kind) | Cheap, Loud boom, Shoots fireball out of gun, Hard to flood gun, Many shots in a can, only 99 cents/can, Super flammable, includes Ethanol, Isobutane, Propane MEA Borate, Hydroxyethylmaleimide, and Hydroxyethylmaleimide polymer. |
| Mucks up chamber over time (though not as much as most hair sprays, because it has more alcohol and less other bs) | |
| Straight Static Guard (or Cheap Knock Off's) | Takes very little (1-2 seconds spray for 4" X 30" chamber) so its cheap and economical (~$5 cdn for a big can). Ignites very easily. Very long distance. |
| Sometimes need to air the chamber / blow it out between shots if firing in rapid succession, smells a little but not displeasent, makes one hell of a bang if you get the mix right. light residue after many shots. | |
| Flour | Cheap |
| Must make into dust to ignite | |
| Black Powder | A lot of distance and loud |
| Youl will have to tape your spud with ducktape at the back first and it is expensive | |
| Bicycle Pump | Cheap, easy to use |
| Get tired after a while, for pneumatic guns only. | |
| Hydrogen - Mix Aluminum + Water + Caustic Soda - makes Lots and Quickly | Good propellant (apparently) can be made in volume using mehod above |
| Complicated. | |
| Kerosine + Oxygen | Extremely powerful, Pretty clean, Cheap to obtain |
| Very dangerous, pretty much same combination used to power liquid-fueled rocket engines. Take that as a hint - be extremely careful! | |
| Hydrogen Peroxide + Magnesium Oxide | Safe, no explosion |
| Hard to disassemble a battery (to get the magnesium), reaction of these two will creat heat | |
| HEET Winshield De-Icer | Cheap, clean burning, Intense blue muzzle flash at night. No odor and no residue. Main ingedient is Methanol. |
| Easily floods chamber. Not as powerful as other fuels. Methanol is poisonous. | |
| Adidas Body Spray (sport fever-orange can) | Far shot, smells awsome,good flame. Smells and shoots far better than AXE. |
| Cost $3.50-$3.99 a can. You may want to use it yourself instead of firing with it. | |
| AXE body spray / WD-40 mix | Works good, Very cheap, 3 or 4 squirts of WD-40 and one 2-3 second spray of AXE |
| Gums up chamber if to much WD-40 is used | |
| Steam | Same as compressed air |
| Same as compressed air except that You need a good heat source and a gun that can take the heat. | |
| Gunpowder and Powder from Pink Sparkler/Flairs | Burns fast and produces alot of thrust |
| Need a tough gun that can widthstand the heat. Burns in access of 2000° hot! Better have sunglasses or it will blind the crap out of you. Also a good idea to have a heat shield. | |
| VP Racing Fuel | Very far and very fast. |
| If you dont use it alot it can get very expensive. | |
| LPG Liquid Gas | Leaves a fire trail similar to Napalm. |
| Napalm fires are difficult to contain. | |
| 10% #4 Glycirine, 45% #2 Diesel, 45% REGULAR Gasoline | Powerfull as hell, more stable then pure gas or diesal. Easy to ignite. Cheap. |
| Dangerous, leaves oily residue (remove with brake or gun cleaner). Some work to prepare. | |
| Bromine | I don't know what your talking about. |
| It is so hard to find. | |
| Whiskey | Shoots super far, loud bang, smells good |
| May melt chamber, easy to put too mutch, fumes make you high sometimes | |
| Easy Start and Deodorant | Very reliable and powerful, just a tiny squirt of Easy Start and 2 bursts of deodorant |
| Too easy to put too much Easy Start in | |
| CSL Suede cleaner | Super clean and amazingly powerful (about 500 yrds) this stuff ignites on the first push of the ignitor.Medium noise but huge fire ball.Amazingly, there is very little recoil. |
| Fumes before and after are really toxic and nausiating, this stuff really hurts if it is inhaled. Does not ignite well in the cold. | |
| Sheath Rust Preventative + Elmers Tacky Adhesive(areosol) | Tremendus distances and huge noise and muzzle flash. |
| Tends to gum up barrel and the Sheath smells like gym socks. | |
| Rem Oil | Shoots Far, Smells cool |
| Small can, oily | |
| Lock De-Icer | Very loud boom, and big muzzle flash. |
| Smells nasty when combusted, and is toxic. | |
| Oust Air Deoderizer | Nice with smaller guns (2" chamber), makes a cool sound. Shoots fine |
| Have to use very little, smells really funky | |
| Orange Glow | Very powerful and very reliable, big bang. |
| Expensive, make sure its the aerosol not pump spray. | |
| Potassium Carbonate with NaNo3 or KNO3 | Makes a big mess. Can explode badly even when burned freely in air. |
| Very unstable and hygroscopic | |
| Stump Remover (Saltpeter) and Sulfer(flower spray) | Easier to get than gun powder and cheaper. |
| Doesn't burn quite as fast as gun powder. | |
| Right Guard + Old Spice | Smells so good, cheap |
| Disadvantages? There are none | |
| b.o.d. Cheap Body Cologne | Quiet, almost no recoil |
| Not that powerful | |
| Antimatter | Reacts with regular matter emmiting 100% photons at 100% efficiency, projectile should easily reach the Earths escape velocity, excellent muzzle flash, no residue, very little fuel needed per shot (several billionths of a gram) |
| Chamber should posibly comprise of a ring of high speed rotating magnets to avoid fuel contact with chamber (expensive), hard to transport, hard to obtain, may result in a bad effect on the Earths natural rotation and ballance, very dangerous (eye protection should be worn). | |
| Gasoline+Nitromethane+Denatured alcohol | Goes through nearly any target, really cool flame at night. |
| Quality of ingredients determine residue. Sore shoulder, ringing ears. Ticket for disturbing the peace for firing at night. | |
| WH-40 Industrial Hornet Killer | Very powerful. |
| Very easy to gum up and flood | |
| Start Pilot | Very powerful |
| Leave a fatty film | |
| Silicone Lubricant | Good power, lubricates barrel, large flame with a "whomp" sound |
| Needs a lot to be effective however, too much will flood the combustion chamber resulting in poor or no ignition. Smells bad when burned, may leave soot | |
| Methelated Spirits | Burns Well, No residue, Cheap |
| I've never actually tried it but in theory its the perfect fuel | |
| AMFO | Diesel+fertilizer, cheap, huge explosion, large flame. |
| Extremely strong, use strong metal gun. | |
| Vinegar + Baking soda | Shake, no ignition, cheap. |
| Weak use heaps, messy. | |
| Dove Deodorant spray | Very powerful and loud, moderatley priced, easy to find. |
| Shoots out big jet of flame, very loud, may not be safe for plastic gun. Also is a woman's deodorant, so may look weird buying it. | |
| Carb + Plug Cleaner | 3 ft flame! this stuff will launch anything. It's amazing for PVC guns because etheir and such things are a bit over kill and you would blow urself up, Whereas carb cleaner seems to be pretty stable for the most part. |
| None, cant think of any bescides of they ammount you have to spray in to get it going. It's fairly cheap and a can will last you easily 1/4 yr. | |
| Silvikrin Hair Spray | Powerful if you can ignite it, Good range. |
| Very hard to ignite. | |
| Cheap Bug Spray | Can be found in many 99c/$1 stores. Doesn't make such a loud bang (good if you want to fire in your back yard). Shoots quite far. |
| Easy to flood gun/put too much. If the igniter is not sealed properly, the whole thing might just blow up due to gas escaping from the cracks. Smells weird. | |
| Everclear | Burns quickley |
| Expensive | |
| Flash Powder + Smokeless Powder | Extremely Powerful. Easier to guage than liquid or gas propellants. Use 100-350 grains of each. Pour smokeless powder directly into chamber and nest flash powder in electrodes. |
| Very Dangerous. Very loud. Barrel and chamber should be cleaned out after every couple shots. Stinks. Expensive. As barrel diameter increases, performance decreases dramatically. Use ONLY with metal guns. | |
| Powdered Silicon | If it fine enough, it is extremely explosive. Spray a propellant along with it. I haven't tried it yet, but from what i know, it is powerful. |
| Use a matal gun! Be careful, if you put your head in the barrel and press the ignitor, you might get hurt. | |
| Electric Motor Cleaner | Stronger than hair spray, only one little spray is needed |
| A bit costly | |
| Octal Alcohol | Good clean burning and will launch fairly well |
| Expensive and hard to come by, and it really smells bad | |
| Liquid Methane | Loud, cool flames out end of barrel |
| Explosive and very dangerous, use metal gun. | |
| Lysol | Safe, smells good, powerfull |
| Sticky, takes a while to dry out | |
| Angry Wife chasing spud stealing Husband. | Spud can travel far distances and around corners. |
| Wife is in much better shape than me ! | |
| Green Gas | Very Clean, No residue left behind |
| Expensive | |
| BRUT (Brutally Male) Deoderant | Works first time, every time, extremely cheap, big can (get lots of shots), the more you use the more powerful (5 seconds worth is good), smells pretty good |
| Leaves white gunk if u use more than you need to. | |
| Apx38 | Powerful |
| Hard to find | |
| (Bleach and Isopropyl Alcohol Mixture) + Hydrogen Peroxide | EXTREMELY POWERFUL! Shoots amazingly far! Pretty Cheap. Clean - no chlorine gas is released because all the oxygen on NaOCl is reacted to form NaCl which is table salt. |
| Very dangerous. Stupid to try at face distance. You need a remote control of some sort for safe distance. Definetly need a metal barrel. Need to drain used byproducts every time. | |
| Orthonex, any of the AROESOL brands w/ extreemely flammble on 'em | Makes a sweet boom when using 5-6 seconds, otherwise makes a sweet sound any way. Easily reaches 150 yards and beyond , and scares your neighbors easily |
| VERY expensive (9.00 bucks a can), smells bad, chamber becomes black and gets a liquidy build up, I'm not sure if they've changed the formula (I have a old can) | |
| Matte Finishing Spray/ for paintings | Very powerful, cheap, clean burning, doesn't smell too bad and you can easily use it without getting hurt |
| You have to let the combustion chamber air out for about two minutes before launching again | |
| Liquid Fire (also known as Greek fire) | Big Boom, Loud, Powerful |
| Hard to find. Use sand to put it out because the more water you put on the bigger the fire. Don't breath in or you'll faint. | |
| Water Proofer for Shoes | Very powerful, a little goes a very long way. |
| Easy to over load chamber, Gums up electrodes | |
| Pledge Spray | Fun, loud and needs to be shaken well |
| Needs to be shaken well | |
| Alberto Hair Spray | Fires far, loud, cheapest hair spray out there, mists good and it is in a big bottle |
| Gums up barrel. Fouls ignitor, gums up loading cap. | |
| Old Spice Endurence Spray | Absolutly amazing, powerfull, can spray a lot, fires everytime, fires real far and really loud. |
| Not many. Doesn't gum up chamber or anything, just Old Spice spell after words. | |
| Petrol with Polystyrene Dissolved In It | Powerful flame |
| Burns long, dirty | |
| Teide Deoderant | Powerful from what I've seen. My spud went 300 feet with a 4" barrel. |
| So powerful, it separated the barrel and combustion chamber on my gun! | |
| Siphitrol | Nice flame, shoots far |
| Gums up gun and smells bad | |
| Nitrogen Gas | extremely flammable and potent. Would recomend remote actuation. Will shoot over a mile if timed just right. (Editor: Um, nitrogen is NOT flammable.) |
| Hard to find and is expensive. (Editor: Won't work either...) | |
| Helliofloufiricdioxinphane | Extremely cheap and effective. Leaves no residue. Good for the novice spud gunner |
| This stuff is hard to find. Its mostly used by the military for covert op missions but I have seen it out on the market for sale to citizens in a couple places | |
| Glade Puffs | Extremely powerful, doesn't gum up barrel, easy to find |
| Costly and you have to use quite a bit | |
| Gun Cotton | Powerful. |
| Hard to find | |
| 2 Parts Potassium Nitrate + 1 Part Sugar + 1 Part water | Easy to find at hobby stores, mixes well with areosol propellants |
| May gum up barrel, solid fuel, if you add to much sugar then it makes a huge smokebomb, gets very hot | |
| Rocket Engine | Cool flames, noise, no need for end cap. Easy to affix to your potato. Simply bore a hole in the rear of the potato and stick the engine into it. Affix model rocketry ignition system. Fire. |
| Damaging to eyes and general 'face' area. If the engine is poorly aligned, the potato will fly off course and cause mayhem in an unintended direction. Fire remotely. | |
| AXE Deodorant Spray | Works pretty good our gun. Cheap and extremely easy to find. 2-5 seconds is usually enough. |
| Long lasting AXE smell, leaves the chamber real gunky. | |
| AXE | Blue flame. |
| Weak, stream is only about 3 inches. Also may explode if flame reached to chamber. | |
| Testors Brush Cleaner | Shoots far, cheap ,you can find in the model section at most stores. |
| A little wattery. | |
| Lysol Disinfectant Spray | Very, very strong. Leaves no gunk. Only needs 3-10 seconds of spray. lasts a long time. If ignited a 2nd time right after a launch with nothing in it, it acts as a flamethrower. |
| If sprayed on the igniter (i.e. flint) it won't ignite. | |
| Tag Deodorant Spray | Has Denatured Alchol, Butane, Isobutane, and Propane, Better then axe (I get about double the range with less smell) |
| None (Well, they have stupid commercials) | |
| Osis Hair Spray | Works very well. |
| Too loud if you use too much. | |
| Old Spice Red Zone | Loud, powerful, smells good, easy to use, goes really far. |
| Oily film in chamber. | |
| PASLODE FUEL CELL (Compressed flammable liquefied gas) cordless nail gun propellant. | Readily available, priced reasonably, clean burning, each can comes with its own metering device, nice loud pop when fired, cans are small and easy to carry. |
| Haven't found any yet! It woud be nice to know what kind of gas is in the canester | |
| Coppertone Spray Sunscreen | Powerful, better than deodorant, readily available |
| Slightly expensive, sunscreen residue is left behind, breathing too much makes you sick | |
| Layout Fluid (Machinist's Dykem) Remover | A little bit goes a long way |
| Extremely explosive (huge bang) | |
| Flash powder | EXTEREMLY POWERFUL, only use in thick metal gun and only use a tiny bit(like 1gram depending on how good the flash is). u don't have to use very much. |
| Expensive($50 a pound), have to make your self or get from firecrackers, hard to find ingredients(potasium perchlorate/aluminium 7/3), easy to use way too much | |
| Brake Fluid and Chlorine | Looks really cool at night and gives a good thrust to any projectile let alone a potato. Self igniting. |
| Gets very hot, you dont really know when its going to fire, turns into a flamethrower. | |
| Leaf Shine | Burns OK, big muzzle flash, OK power |
| Messy, expensive | |
| L.A looks Hairspray | (Doller Store)cheap,very loud bang,Tater goes far. |
| Gunks up the barrel(Alot),Smells terrible | |
| MEK (Methal Ethel Keatone) | One hell of a bang, combusts easily, it worked every time with a BBQ ignitor. Far distances, long blue flame. |
| Can cause cancer, it must be atomized | |
| Jet Fuel | Lots of distance, loud |
| Dangerous, hard to find | |
| Salon Selectives Hairspray (Extra Hold) | Very Cheap, Loud Bang, Goes Very Far, Sometimes Get Flames Out The End! |
| VERY Sticky, I had to use a wrench and 2 people to get the end cap off after it sat overnight (Dumbass I Know) | |
| Dog anti tick and flea spray | REALLY POWERFUL, no residue, makes a nice flame (you can even just hold a lighter in front of it and make a really awesome flamethrower), comes in easy to use spray gun. Not much noise. |
| Expensive (depending on brand), smelly, needs to be atomized, shake it up a bit. | |
| Thermasilk Hair Spray | Not very loud (won't wake up neighbors), very explosive, nice smell, long orange flame. |
| Leaves chamber sticky, if sprayed on ignitors won't light. | |
| Thrust Starting Fluid | Very loud and goes very far |
| None | |
| Gasoline + Kerosene+ 100% Oxygen | Very clean burning, it can launch objects around 3000+ feet.It was used as rocket fuel for the Saturn 5 Apollo 11. |
| Temperatures produced are very hot and pressures are high, needs a reinforced gun frame. Note: Extremely Loud with a High Level of Blowback | |
| Camp Dry | Very powerful. No Residue. Good Flame. No Smell.Cheap.Not very loud.Tons of shots per can. Good all around Propellant. |
| Very cold. Could crack frame. | |
| Air Wick 2 in 1 | Reliable, loud bang, smells good |
| May gum up chamber, leaves residue | |
| Carborator cleaner and Aquanet | Loud bang, more distance than only Aquanet. also cleans Aquanet out of your spud gun |
| None yet....What is safe about an explosion? | |
| Meter Mist or Zep Industrial Air Freshener | Commonly Available, decent power, metered aerosol cans make it easy to keep track of fuel used, botanical oils create a nice orange muzzel flash. |
| Expensive unless you know where to get it, botanical oils smell awful after combustion. | |
| Butane + Right Guard + Red Zone | Goes really far, big blue jet flame, really loud, cheap, clean |
| None | |
| Alcohol 75% + Butane | Clean, cheap, very powerful, goes really far, easy to mix: 1 spray of alc. and 1-2 seconds of butane. |
| Have to mix, a little water in camber after a few shots. | |
| Hydrogen Fused with initial Uranium-235 Fission. | Extremely powerful. Causes potato to vaporize, and Ions cause the formation of "Potato plasma". Yields an expansion rate of around 345,000,000m per second. |
| To avoid the critical nuclear mass causing the nearest 30 miles to be completely vaporized, it is advised that you have 43 inches of depleted uranium reactor shielding, and a sustained electromagnetic field with a charge of 45 Kw handy. | |
| Tequila | Good clean burn |
| No visible flame, careful not to burn on spillage | |
| Aerostart | Shoots spud out of sight, loud bang, big flame, good clean burn |
| Not many places to shoot it because it goes well over 2000 feet | |
| Fly Sprays | Powerful, insteresting to watch. |
| Smelly, poisonous and too much heat. | |
| PVC Cemet mixed with Axe | Very loud. |
| Kind of expensive. | |
| PVC Cleaner | Very loud and powerful |
| Hard to get right amount, not very reliable | |
| Brut Deodorant Spray | It is made with propane, so it goes really far when shot without getting hot or letting off toxic fumes |
| It smells strange after being used | |
| Brut Deodorant Spray + Aquanet | Shoots very far, works best with around 3 seconds from Brut, then 2 seconds from Aquanet, put on the cap, and fire. Both are relatively cheap and easy to find. |
| Smell may be bad to some. Helps a LOT to blow out the chamber with an air compressor after each launch. | |
| Old English Polish Spray | Lights real easy, fire shoots out the barrel, only need 2-6 seconds |
| Smells bad after a while | |
| Propane/Pure Oxygen | Loud, spud goes far, easy to fill |
| Expensive, not something you have lieing around the house, dangerous | |
| Aeroguard Mosquito Repllenat | Goes really far, very easy to find, doesn't smell to bad, easy to get the right amount. |
| A bit unreliable and won't fire every time. | |
| Spray Paint + Petrol + Wax | Take whole can of spray paint. Mix petrol with melted wax and dip the nozzle of the spray paint can in it. Shove it into your gun, spray petrol vapour behind it and ignite. Paint can will go about 100 yards and will blow up when it hits the ground. Like a morter. |
| Very dangerous. Paint can could explode in gun. Metal guns only. WILL gum up chamber slightly. Do not point at people or cars. | |
| Tresemme Hairspray | Shoots well when it goes off about, 2 second burst is good |
| Gums up everything, smells bad, leaves residue. Aaqua Net must better. | |
| Suave Max Hold Unscented Hairspray | Cheap explosive, nice muzzle blast, pretty powerful |
| Gunk, slight odor yet somewhat pleasant | |
| Silicone Spray | Highly explosive, spray 2-3 seconds |
| Gums up the chamber | |
| Bitumen (roof tar) and Oxygen | Very powerful (used for home-made bike rockets!) |
| Can leave gunky residue and toxic before and after firing. Hard to load, can continue to burn after. | |
| 80% starting fluid/ 20% laquer thinner | Powerful. burns clean, thinner helps ignition problems that are associated with straight ether. Most dependable and cheapest fuel found yet. |
| You can only buy a couple cans of starting fluid at a time without folks wondering what's up. | |
| Static Gaurd and AXE Bodyspray (1-2 second shot each) | Well I've never found anything I've launched with this stuff, they got shot too far. Nice good boom as well. |
| You need to air out the chamber with frequent shots, and it stinks like hell. If you use too much of each it won't shoot. | |
| Propane+Carbeurator Cleaner+WD-40 (old can) | Not too loud, extremely strong propulsion, not very difficult to mix all together. |
| Might flood, have to use old can of WD-40 (new ones use CO2 as propellant), lots of kick. | |
| Brush Cleaner for Water Based Brushes | Pretty loud, I shot a golf ball about 250+ yards with a pretty simple gun. |
| Chamber must air out very well. Comes in quart cans, and must be atomized. Smells bad. | |
| Store Brand Sport Deodorant Spray | Very cheap, shoots a potato a fair distance |
| After a few shots your barrel will start to smell like burning a combination of burning hair, plastic, and rubber | |
| Any Non-stick Cooking Spray | Makes the barrel very lubricated and virtually no smell, easy to find, and very quiet. You only need to spray for 1 or 2 seconds. Works with PVC. Also it is very safe! |
| None | |
| Steam | Really cool, goes far |
| Hard to do, takes a while, causes steam burns | |
| Adidas Body Spray | More flamable than AXE,TAG,Red Zone |
| Pricey if bought outside Europe. About 8.50$ CDN | |
| Off Deep Woods Spray | Big bang, fairly powerful. Works every-time. 2-3 second spray. |
| Vapors extremely harmful. Found out later that fumes can affect nervous system, and generally hurt us, Damn. | |
| Right Guard Sport (butane) + Right Guard Regular (Denatured Alcohol) | Goes relatively far with a just loud enough bang. Butane doesnt light easy by itself, so the alcohol provides the distance, while igniting the butane and making a big noise. |
| None so far. Make sure to use about .75-1.5 seconds of spraying both in the chamber at the same time. Remember, with RG, less is more. | |
| Secret Vanialla Body Spray | Quiet, bright orange/red flame. pretty powerful and has some distance |
| Blew the back part of my gun off, smells like burning womans clothes or something | |
| Good Look Hairspray | Medium bang, safe, easy to find (especially in Singapore and Malaysia). Suitable for plastic guns, it won't stink after fire. |
| It will leave a yellow substances after shooting. Not suitable for using it at home as it will do great damage on your furniture. | |
| Dove Hair Spray+Lighter Fluid+Axe Cologne+Butane | Light a couple with each, starting with the hair spray, then the lighter fluid, then the axe then the butane. Once you've used all of these, almost anything will work and it will shoot very hard. MAKE MASHED POTATOS!! |
| Using so many different propellants sometimes causes misfires, and you may have to click your sparker a couple times. But when it fires, it sure does fire! | |
| Revlon Hair Spray | Nice boom, many shoots per can, less is better, it can shoot 3 times without charging again. |
| Kind of expensive, gums up chamber. | |
| Polyoctane | Made of polycarbonate mixed with butane, gas, and Axe spray. Big boom, good distance. |
| Dangerous | |
| Nitrous/Propane | About 2-3 times more powerful than straight propane, start with an aired out chamber, blast the N20 bottle in for several seconds, and fill with propane as usual. Still experimenting have been 500meters with 8' PVC gun |
| If you have the stuff available, clean as hell and easy to light, can't use too much N20, meter your propane carefully. | |
| Static Gaurd | Powerful, Good boom, Readily available, Clean burning/No residue left in chamber, Average flames, Spray 1-2 seconds for best results. Used only in PVC cannon. |
| Kind of smelly, but not too bad. | |
| Brut + Lynx (Normal lynx not the dry version) | Very Powerful. I say powerful but if you ever use butane/propane then it ain't that great. It is definatly cheap. $10 NZD can get you a can of both and lasts you many many shots. |
| The Brut leaves a white liquid in the chamber after a while or if you spray too close to the chamber/too much. The Lynx heats up the chamber. | |
| Sodium-Magnese and Water Mix | Massive shot, if fired at night, magnesium that goes into the potato makes it look like a fireball. No ignition needed: just drop it into some water. For best results use a small handfull |
| Hard to get, need a metal gun or magnesium will burn a hole | |
| Gun Cleaner | Any gun cleaner works. Very loud and reliable. Good with PVC. |
| Easy to use too much. Do not spray on your ignition. Will misfiere. | |
| Shoe Polisher | OK distance, very easy igniton, makes your gun smell good. |
| Costs a lot, hard to find. | |
| Potassium Chlorate + Gummy Bear | Soft bang. Fires very far. |
| Smells of gummy bears, only needs half a teaspoon. | |
| Cutter Bug Spray | Doesn't take much to make a big boom. Nice loud sound to piss off neighbors |
| Leaves liquid in chamber that has to be drained to light | |
| Carbon Choke Cleaner | Good distance, cheap, easy to find. |
| Esy to put flood. | |
| Mix Equal Parts Paint Thinner, Denatured Alcohol, Rc Car Fuel | Clean Burn, Smell is Negligible. Distance is Fantastic. Great Blue Flame (seems to average about 3 feet from the Barrel). The Fuel Used To Break the Sound Barrier (Firing a Golf Ball). |
| Have to Mix in a Garden fertilizer then Pressurize it then Spray into a Gun. Can be a Bit Pricey But you get a Great amount Paint Thinner is $15 a Gallon Denatured Alcohol is $15 A Gallon and RC Nitro Fuel is about $60 a Gallon. Hard to Use in Winter. Loud as Hell | |
| Clorox | Very powerful, loud bang, very far (distance) |
| May leave liquid gunk in chamber | |
| Green gas for air-soft guns | Big boom, it ignites well and burns clean. |
| Dangerous. Have not used it enough to know the dangers. | |
| Right Guard | Great for the first 5 or 10 shots. |
| Then it leaves a powery, chaulky, substance behind. | |
| Tef Coat dry Lubricant | Powerful, doesn't take much |
| Easy to flood chamber | |
| ASDA Essential Care 24 hour body spray | Contains all the goodies: Butane Isobutane Alcohol Propane Methanol. Burns nice and clean. |
| May have funny smell, depends on what smell you use. I used COOL and MIAMI | |
| Lynx Deoderant + Mineral Turpentine | Very loud bang and spud out of sight!!! |
| None found so far!!! May attract unwanted attention of nearby neighbours... LOL | |
| American Eagle Body Spray | Fairly powerful, loud, never really had to air out the chamber |
| Smells, leaves behind a watery substance coating the inside (not sure what it is) | |
| ECLIPSE Photographic Lens Solution (Pure Methanol) | Burns Very clear and clean, big bang, no visible flame |
| Gives headaches if fumes are sniffed for to long | |
| Metho + Oxygen | Easy to find metho, get oxygen from local pet/fish store, Makes loud pop and plenty of power |
| CAUTION Very EXPLOSIVE will most likely blow PVC into pieces! | |
| Half Banana, Half Kerosene Solution | Travels about 0.75 miles, smells like bananas |
| Messy, requires adult supervision. | |
| Bubble Gum Remover | A Little goes a long way. We only use about 1 second of spray. Nice pop to it. |
| Smells bad much like everything else | |
| Coleman Powermax Fuel 2 | A mixture of propane and butane. Loud. Performs well. Good distance. Neat flames. Easy to find, go to a Big 5 or Target. |
| Needs to be atomized. Well, it doesn't need to be, but putting it in a hair spray bottle and putting 20 spays makes it work well. | |
| Acetylene + Pure Oxygen (Neutral Flame) | If you adjust a standard oxy-Acetylene flame for a neutral flame (ie blue, quite and no smoke), then the acetylene has enough oxygen for a perfect burn. EXTREMELY LOUD AND EXTREMELY POWERFUL - far better than Lynx deoderant! |
| Must have an Oxy-Acetylene Welding kit - expensive, not very portable, EXTREMELY LOUD!!, EXTREMELY POWEFUL - it may damage your gun and your ears and any other body part near by if the gun ruptures. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! |