Bug-A-Salt gun

[Armybrat]

Bought three of these today for the birthday kids (DIL and two sons) celebration tomorrow.
Very efficient fly killers with a one yard range - uses ordinary table salt for ammo. Very effective according to a bunch of guys on the Texas sports board I post on. They like to sit on the patio with a brew in hand while barbecuing and slaughter the flies without moving from their lounge chair. All reported they are very effective and loads of fun to shoot. No mess either. $40 each at Academy.

However, they do not work on wasps, especially the red buggers. One fellow had to move fast after an abortive attempt at blasting one, but just made it mad.

[yqtszhj]

I needed one of those recently to assault a fly that got into the house.

For the wasp this would probably work. Yesterday a 124 gr. FMJ 9mm S&B round took out one of those black and white hornets that landed on my target. It got vaporized. Don’t know if I could repeat the shot or not. Note the splatter below...

[Armybrat]

You can google up a demonstration video of these things in action. Pretty neat.

[JohnR]

Maybe use rock salt for wasps. I use a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol on all insects. It kills - and disinfects.

[Bawanna]

I have that exact model myself, used it plenty over fishing. The salt does get damp is left out over night and won't feed. I just dumped out the clumped up salt and added new and it worked well.
It does work on bee's but you got to be close and more accurate. I got 3 or 4 but I had a 1911 for a back up.
I don't think it will shoot rock salt but I could be wrong.
I hit one at the picnic table, had everyone close their eyes, apparently richocheted off the china and got myself, also got in trouble for fly guts in the Uncle Dan's dip. Stuff happens ya know?

[gb6491]

My buddy has the 3.0 version Bug-A-Salt and says it's like a magnum compared to the 2.0.
My 2.0 has fended off many airborne invaders over the years.

Nice shooting yqtszhj!

[jeepster09]

Very cool. I need one, perhaps we can get Kahr to make pocket models....

[wyntrout]

I remember reading the articles and watching the videos as the inventor was trying to perfect it and create a market. I'm glad that it was a success. I looked online and the 3.0 is sold out... about $45 retail, I think.

I don't know about spraying salt all over the house, but I have several of those tennis-racket-looking bug zappers and like to use those. Flies are the hardest, but we don't get many of those inside... did last night. I couldn't corral the danged thing so I sprayed around with the Black Flag Flying Insect Spray. I don't know if I got it, though.

Anybody try #12 ratshot?

[Wlfman13]

I have a Bug-a-Salt, and love it. Spraying salt isn’t that big of a deal. If you miss, you wipe the salt up off the counter. If you do it right, you knock the fly off the counter, into the sink, and the salt follows. I still wipe off the counter with cleaner. The Bug-a-Salt doesn’t splatter the fly, unless the fly is on the wall. It hits it hard enough to kill it, though.

Way cleaner, more sanitary, and more fun than using an old-fashioned fly swatter.

It was well well worth the $40 I paid for it.

I have killed flies from up to 5-6 feet away on a wall, but recommend 3 feet for a guaranteed kill on the counter. My wife put an end to killing ‘em on the wall when I splattered one from 3 feet.

I normally wait for a shot that results in me knocking them from the counter to the sink, or to the floor. Easy Peasy.

-Wlf

[tokuno]

I bought the bug-a-salt Lawn and Garden 2.0 a couple years ago - might have to update to the 3.0, if only for the cross-bolt safety - that's good for the skilled skeet shooters (taking 'em on the wing).
For the slow-motor-skilled, less capable (i.e. myself), I have a Umarex Walther CP99 CO2 .177 pistol that I picked up used cheap. I found that it was useless as a pellet pistol for anything but watching gravity's effect on a slow moving projectile, but it has an 8-round rotary magazine that is pretty simple to load with salt.
A paper hole-punch circle followed by table salt and another hole-punch gives me 8 CO2-powered rounds of nimble, rapid-fire, longer-range fly death. Considerably louder and "scarier" looking than the bug-a-salt, so I'm a bit more discrete with it.
Granted, the cheap-o (~$3.00 on sale with coupon) Harbor Freight electric fly swatters are very effective for the vexing mini-flies that plague me when I've worked up a stink, but the pistol's a lot more fun!