Bug-a-Salt Salt Shotgun

Product Description

Bug-A-Salt - Fire your fly swatter - The Original Salt Shotgun

The Ultimate Fly Solution

Get ready to have fun getting those pesky flies! Get them all with the original salt gun, The Bug-A-Salt. Fill with salt, pump the handle, turn off the safety switch, aim and shoot. Kills fly's within 3 feet with a mini shotgun effect. Only uses a pinch of salt. Virtually no mess. Effective way to rid fly's from the home, yard or BBQ. Will not hurt glass windows or walls. High quality design and made to last.

Will the Bug-a-salt Gun kill mosquitoes too?
The Bug-a-salt is extremely effective at killing mosquitoes.

How many shots before I need to reload?
The gun will hold about 50 shots before reloading.

What kind of salt does it use?
Any ordinary granulated table salt.

What is the accuracy range of the gun?
Within 3 feet is ideal. Practice accuracy by shooting aluminum foil to see salt spray pattern.

Will the salt splatter the bug?
No, the bug will remain whole for easy clean up.

Use responsibly and have fun!

Features

• Uses ordinary table salt

Top Reviews

Back yard party hit
by Mikeyman (5 out of 5 stars)
March 27, 2015

Bought this based on a whim...and a video showing it in action. In short, it works as advertised. I've killed hundreds of various bugs with it and it's been a hit at a couple of bar-b-ques!! It takes a while to get this thing "sighted in" but once you figure out just where it shoots, the fun begins!! It's deadly at less than two feet. Since it uses table salt as ammo, you can blast flies off your french fries and season them at the same time!! Actually, it doesn't blast the bug to pieces...it just knocks them off their perch, kills them and leaves them in one piece. No problems with breakage as reported in other reviews. Not a serious bug killer but definitely a hit at outdoor parties!! A word of warning...it's not very effective on large armored bugs like wasps and it really pisses them off when you shoot them. Excellent on flies and mosquitoes.
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Hard to shoot, inaccurate and less than 20% kill accuracy
by Parchment Purveyor (2 out of 5 stars)
August 12, 2014

I love the concept, it is very unique and enterprising. I give props to anyone who is an entrepreneur.

But my gun jammed up within one week. In my zeal to get one (as a gift) I quickly nabbed this as it was in stock, out of stock, $45 then $85. I deviated from my norm of reading reviews, bad mistake. It was a gift, I was on a time table.

I really don't like that I had to look it up on the internet to figure it out and got the video that the problem is cheap gears from China. Sigh ... then fix it! Don't blame! Take it like a man, admit you did wrong and fix it. This is such a winning idea it's a shame that it boils down to saying you got cheap gears from China. In the short time it's been around it's jumped almost double in price so blaming China is so lame.

Does the gun work? Kind of. It's not that precise, even from point blank. I'd say less than 20% of the time it kills the first time, even from someone who has shot a gun before. And when you do hit, don't expect to kill. It mostly stuns them.

The salt spray goes everywhere and can be dangerous for pets or kids nearby who can get it in the eye (it happened for us that way) and it still didn't kill the fly :-(

And it won't work for girls. I mean, it will but the mechanism is really tight so ladies won't be able to even cock the gun for the next shot. The person I got it for is very strong and over 200 lbs and his arm was sore the day after.

I did contact the company & they sent me gears within a week. But when I saw how hard it is to replace them via the video they provided, I said no thanks. But I'm giving an extra star for them trying to stand by the customer to send out correct. However, with a 30 day refund policy, will they still stand by it after that?

Great concept, short on engineering and delivery. I hope they can fix the problem as it is a great idea.
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It will break; it will become useless and unrepairable. You're SOL and the S isn't for Salt.
by Careful Buyer (1 out of 5 stars)
July 25, 2015

Broken, useless. Details follow.

I bought mine in June of 2014, and it worked fine for a while, and broke shortly after my second salt filling. I've just taken it apart (as the 30 day warranty is over) and I've found that a plastic gear inside has broken, rendering the unit totally useless--see photos where I've circled the broken gears and the piece that fell off. These gears are involved when I cock the gun, and now when I cock it makes a loud grinding noise but doesn't fire; then I can't cock it again. There's a rattling noise when I shake the unit and I've found that's the little pieces of the gear.

A waste of $50 for a few dozen salt shots.

Maybe the 2nd version solves the problem but it's not worth another $50 to me to find out and the description for the 2nd version doesn't address the issue. But the design using plastic for a critical high torque piece is a design fault in my opinion.
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A General Disappointment
by Kelketek Rritaa (2 out of 5 stars)
September 12, 2014

It should be called the Fly-A-Salt. This thing is designed to kill flies and nothing more than that. No beetles, no roaches, no spiders of any significance.

Using kosher salt to act like buckshot doesn't solve the problem, either.

The worst bit of it is trying to make follow-up shots. If you failed to kill your bug on your first shot, you might expect to be able to pump and shoot again. But you're wrong. You have to push back the safety lever each time.

Every. Stinking. Time.

This thing isn't an airsoft gun. It only kills flies half the time and roaches like, none of the time. What in the world was the engineer so afraid of that he mandated thumbing back a safety mechanism after each pump? Look, here's what's going to happen:
1. You see a bug that's too big for the Bug-A-Salt, but, man, you really want to try.
2. You shoot it.
3. It gets angry and flies after you.
4. You freak out, and pump the thing, trying to get another shot at it as it flies in your face, and stings you, and you keep squeezing the trigger, forgetting that you have to pull back the safety.
5. You suddenly remember to pull back the safety.
6. Go to step 2.

Seriously, it's just a big wad of broken dreams for what could have been a really cool, sporty method of pest control.
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Great fun until it broke
by TJH (3 out of 5 stars)
July 30, 2013

I really want to be able to keep this gun. Its a fun and novel idea and actually does work quite well if you get close just like the instructions read. 24" or less is what I would say is its expected lethal range. Flies go right down at that range. Yellow jackets take a few more hits.

As a way to keep bugs away from the picnic table its just a lot easier and faster to use a swatter. But!.... The rifle is way more fun! And that nasty disgusting fly swatter is not something I want waved over my food while waiting for those yellow jacket bees to stop someplace that i can smash them without making a mess of my plate or the whole big bowl of food. A good shot with the salt rifle blows them right out of the air without any splattered food and the little pinch of salt won't even get noticed.

However.... and this is a big problem, it only worked for two days and then stopped cocking. I took mine apart and found the teeth had all busted off the gear inside. I have sent an email to their customer service asking for a new gear to fix it. Now I know Amazon has a great return policy, but I really want to like this rifle, I don't mind fixing it myself, and I am going to give the manufacturer a chance to make it right. I will post back what happens.

Edit 8-1-13: Customer service replied, asked for a picture of the broken part, and they are mailing me a new piece today.

Edit 8-8-13: Received the replacement gear and installed it. Gun is working once again. Lets see how long it lasts this time. Sure is fun though.
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Want some? GET SOME!
by Peter Sterchak (4 out of 5 stars)
July 27, 2017

Whether you are pretending to be Lt. Hicks from aliens or Rico from Star ship troopers it don't matter. This thing is going to help you get some sweetheart, that is what you are going to do. You are going to get some.

The.....magazine? I guess. Holds enough salt for 20 something shots easy. The pump is not the easiest thing to run but once you get the hang of it you will be shooting down bugs like crazy! Works great on mosquitoes up to 5 feet away. I have taken large bull yellow jackets and wasps with it while out on safari in the backyard. However I would only recommend those for the seasoned hunter.

The ONLY thing that kept me from giving it all five stars was the trigger! It's crazy hard to pull sometimes and can get really jammed. Anyone who knows anything about shooting will tell you a heavy trigger pull is bad for accuracy. Dons't affect how much fun you have overall but it's bad enough to take note of.
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Not worth $9.99. Cheap brittle plastic parts
by Hunter (1 out of 5 stars)
April 5, 2015

Well right idea, but definitely a horrible design. Like something you'd buy in the dollar store toy section. Less than two months use and it quit working. Hubby modified it over and over repairing it with steel pieces he cut from a coffee can. It would work a day or two and then another part would break. This went on for a few months. He modified it so much he could probably build one made of metal by now.

But it was a huge disappointment and pain in the butt fixing all the time. The only good part is when he did modify it it shot much harder and splattered anything he hit with it. Too bad it keeps disintegrating with every use. It's too far gone now to fix and won't cock at all.
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Great fly killer and customer service!
by Christopher Porter (5 out of 5 stars)
April 17, 2015

Okay, had bought the Bug-A-Salt back in July 2014. Worked great and killed a great many of flys using ordinary table salt. Effective range is definitely 3 feet and of course kill percentage increases, the closer you are able to get. As stated, leaves no blood mess other than some salt and the fly. After 8 months of random use, I stripped two transfer gears between the pump charging handle and the air piston. I'm afraid I may have got fly kill happy and was in overdrive trying to get as many as I could and I may have over worked the weapon and especially the gears. Looking at past reviews, it would appear that this is the weak point of the weapon. I filled out a warranty claim on their website and supplied a picture. After a week, I recieved replacement gears and installed and found proper operation. I will see how long it will last. I will try slowing down my reloads and see if that helps out on the life of the gears. In other words, not get to anxious next time.
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Indoor hunting
by NoDestiny (5 out of 5 stars)
September 19, 2013

So after having the quick turn of summer-into-autumn hit and the flies raging, I quickly turned to find a product that would help eliminate the flies, without dealing with sticky (and ugly) traps. After a friend mentioned this Bug-A-Salt, I looked it up. Saw the video and was quickly ordering it right here on Amazon. Prime got me free shipping and got it in my hands quickly. Right out of the box, it feels very solid. Generally, a plastic gun like this doesn't feel very stable: I expected the pump to "jiggle" or the trigger to have a lot of give. Perhaps the lid to the salt loader would break off quickly? All these things are not a bit to worry about. The pump, my largest worry, is VERY solid. It has tight tolerance and pumps back and forth, not moving around or feeling lose in the slightest. The trigger pulls back smoothly without all the wiggle room. The salt lid pops on and off easily, but holds tight. The safety is fairly easy to disengage between every pump, once you get used to it.

I just used "iodized salt" sitting in my cupboard. With it, I have found many flies to terminate. I found that, when it started to get cold at night, they collected all over my front door and windows outside, trying to get into my nice warm home. Poor little guys, didn't see me coming like a T-1000, did they? About 2' away with a decent aim will take one down and keep him down. At 3' and further, he's likely to only get stunned. The spread, like a real shotgun, needs more distance to spread. Since you have such a short distance, don't expect a large spread. You will still need to take decent aim to get a fly. And don't think for a second you can hit one of those speedy little buggers in mid flight, either!

Again, every time you pump it, the safety needs to be clicked over. When I go into rampage mode, this is a pain. You can, however, hold the safety down with your thump and pump/shoot to you hearts content. It's not very comfortable, though. I threw on a small chunk of duct-tape over the safety while disengaged, which seemed to hold through ~100 shots, easily. Shoot it enough and you will find a bit of sharp plastic edges that will wear at your hands a bit. Specifically: the trigger recess when you pull it back. It never left a mark, but definitely caused irritation.

I saw others note how other bugs respond to this weapon of mass bugstruction. I can confirm that beyond a fly, you are going to have a tough time sending insects to meet their maker. Common yellowjacks, if you can get a good shot on em at a close distance, will hit the ground in confusion, but get back up in a few seconds if not finished off. If you only pepper them with a poor shot or too much distance, they will get mad and seek vengeance. A box elder bug was crawling by, begging for death before the winter's cold comes. I decided to show him mercy and take a point-blank shot at him. He flew a few feet, but didn't leave a mark on him! I took about 10 shots point blank before I got through his shell. At this point, I felt bad and just crushed him with my foot. No point in making him suffer... after all, high velocity salt injection can't feel good.

Speaking of not feeling good, here is a warning: If you shoot something on the wall, chances are, a lot of that salt will do a 180 and come right back at your face. I've taken quite a few grains of salt to the old "ojos". It stings/burns for about 10 seconds... nothing you can't handle, but definitely isn't a great feeling. Safety glasses are a smart thing when you might salt your eyeballs. I also find grains of salt in my hair every so often after a long day's war. Finally, with winter coming, my wife should be thanking me for salting the porch for her! You can actually swipe your foot and see all the salt on the ground out there. I've shot probably 50+ flies off my front door/porch in a single sitting. Eventually they are all laying on the ground instead of on your door, waiting for you to open it and invite themselves in.

I haven't had too many flies indoors, but when I do... I try to take careful shots. Salt isn't horrible, but you don't want it on everything if you can help it. I had one land on my couch next to me. I was only probably 6" away from him before I pulled that trigger. Sadly, he went from one spot to about 5. He definitely exploded for the extreme amount of salty grapeshot. Wasn't too hard to clean up, luckily.

Shooting my hand at about 1.5' away leaves a mild sting. Nothing intolerable or throbbing by any means, but it is definitely felt sharply. I hit the wife's leg at about 2' and left a good sized welt, though. So do note that calised skin can probably take it, wife... not so much.

I haven't tried different ammo, but will once I run out of current stock (which at this rate, won't take long).

One thing to note: This thing reminds me of a "springer" riffle. I'm guessing when you cock back the pump, it pulls back a spring. Pull the trigger, releases the spring and fires the air/load of salt. If I'm not mistaken, this means you should NOT leave it cocked all the time. Shoot it and leave it uncocked when not using it. This should make it last longer.

overall, this has been worth every penny. It is entertaining and rids of things annoying. I don't think it will work on all annoying things, like neighbors or tax collectors, but if you got flies and you got salt, this is your only missing ingredient for a good time.
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Awesome! Fun! Not perfectly efficient, but well worth it!
by Ryan (5 out of 5 stars)
September 20, 2014

This thing is great! Sometimes it seems like It doesnt work... like I hit the fly but the fly doesnt die. I give 5 stars for novelty, fun, concept etc. If you are looking for efficiency... $2 fly swatter may still work better, but I love the laughs I get walking around my house with a salt shotgun searching for flies. When you get good at it... it is possible to hit a fly in midair at about 3 to 4 feet range and kill it. Now I get excited when I see a fly in my house. Be sure to look up safety videos from the inventor. Also look at his story. I have a positive view of this product partially because the inventor seems like a good guy and he is also firm about safety and quality of the product. His advertisements don't make any false claims about the product either. LAST, my girlfriends biggest complaint when I purchased this (and many other comments from my friends) was the potential that she would be finding salt everywhere around the house from using this gun. It does shoot salt, but it shoots a very small amount and hardly noticable, if at all. Not once have I, or my girlfriend found or niced salt anywhere in out condo. You could prolly shoot it 50 times in the same spot and still not be able to find the salt (might be exaggeration, but you get the point)

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