A spud gun is a small children's toy used to fire a fragment of potato. To use, one punctures the surface of a potato with the gun's hollow tip and pries out a small pellet, fitted snugly in the muzzle. Squeezing the grip causes a small build-up of air pressure inside the toy, which propels the projectile. They are short-range and low-powered.

Modern spud guns are built much larger to shoot bigger potatoes or other various items that will fit in the barrel. They propel the potatoes by using compressed air.

Harder, drier potatoes are preferable sources of ammunition; red potatoes, or refrigerated potatoes serve well.

E. Joseph Cossman discovered the United States was in a potato glut after World War II. Along with, Milton Levine

Milton Levine

Milton Martin Levine was an American entrepreneur who was the co-founder of Uncle Milton Toys.-Biography:...

, he purchased the machinery from the original manufacturer of the spud gun who had unsuccessfully attempted to sell the gun in the 1930s. With a blitz of publicty, Cossman made the gun a best seller.

Some places still sell old style spud guns, you can easily find them on the internet.

In popular culture

• A character in the British TV series Bottom
  Bottom (TV series)
  Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...
  
  was named after this toy.