Hey guys, thank you for tuning into this episode of Forgotten Weapons, today we’ll be looking at the BFG 9000, a very unique weapon for the channel, but there are some interesting design quirks you don’t see in a lot of guns…
Just about. While I'm not sure we'll ever get to the point where ammo for this thing is quite as cheap as current ammo (You can get 20 round of 5.56 for like $12), but I can definitely see these evolving into some BADASS sniper weapons.
@@jesuszamora6949 The ammo for a gauss rifle is basically just a steel rod sawed in small bits...as soon as there is demand for gauss ammo you will see prices way below what 5.56 costs
I mean you can... like what is it going to do that a poder gun won't? Which in this design I'd doubt it move much as the coils are so far behind the muzzle.
5:56 tp 6:00- that "hollow point" projectile is a 1/2" wedge anchor. So when Ian calls it "Hardware store stuff," he's more accurate than he may have realized.
What gets me is how quite the thing is. All i hear is just a click. I can just imagine where we be in 10 years. Hell that gun alone would have been scifi when I was a kid.
@@thewingedhussar4188 It's a subsonic projectile and there is no explosion. Obviously it's going to be much quieter than a gun. Though it will make a lot of sound once it goes supersonic.
@@vladpadowicz5946 in many states, it'd not qualify at all as a firearm. They'd fall back to "prohibited offensive weapon" or something similar, even if it's not explicitly prohibited and watch the court likely reject their charges - still costed you an attorney's fees.
"Hey guys, thanks for tuning into Forgotten Weapons, I'm Ian and this is an Andromeda Arms anti-matter repeater rifle I picked up off that downed cruiser that crashed out back"
I can imagine him crouched above like a dead mutilated alien with a weird alien weapon in its hands and he does a witty little intro before prying the thing out of its hands and beginning to muck around with it, instantly knowing everything there is to know about this weird alien firearm.
The muzzle energy of a medieval crossbow bolt is somewhere around a pistol fired .22LR and this coil gun is somewhere around an air gun round. On top of that the geometry of a crossbow bolt helps to do the killing, but deviating from a cylinder shaped slug is quickly going to cost this coil gun muzzle velocity.
@@robert7984 Of course, I was referring the the commonly available models, you can make a .22LR round with as much umph as a 9mm or more if you are willing to risk blowing your face off.
@@robert7984 kinetic energy is calculated, based on mass an velocity. Ur stupid airgun might shoot a lot faster, but your bullets are a lot lighter to.
11:20 - Given that the projectile isn't touching the walls of the barrel, the smoothboreness might not degrade the accuracy nearly as much as with a chemical firearm (where you get the ball or whatnot bouncing from side to side as it goes down the barrel), so a laser sight would probably make more sense for a coilgun than for a musket.
Except it clearly is hitting the barrel a lot. The alignment isn't perfect and in the slow motion you can see the projectile bouncing down the barrel. The manufacturing isn't good enough to float the round perfectly.
I wonder if fins on the projectile with protruding guide tracks on the inside of the barrel might help(and also give it a rifling effect). The neat thing with EM guns is because the barrel doesn't need to hold up to high pressure, some fancier things can be done with them.
@@BeKindToBirds it's barely accelerated while in that transparent tube though, the real acceleration comes later, and IIRC the fields also align the projectile (again) ?
I work at an electronics recycling facility. When I learned about this gun I asked the question if we’d be allowed to recycle it, one of my coworkers said if someone does come in with one we’re hanging it on the wall.
Im petitioning the name "bolt" for mass accelerator projectiles. It has history with crossbow bolts, connects to the electric nature of these weapons, and portrays their more weighty nature compared to bullets.
This weapon is also doing something else very interesting. It's demonstrating the ridiculous amount of energy stored in just a few grams of gunpowder to get a projectile moving at the velocities that it does in such a short distance.
It's also the same with electric cars the energy density of a battery is nowhere near that of petrol or diesel. and short of changing the laws of physics to be accommodating, never will.
@@Smitty.Bacall The good news is that if we make the planet unfriendly to ourselves, we cease to exist, and the planet eventually heals, allowing the circle of life to begin again. It happened before, and it will happen again because eco freaks want to push environmentally destructive technologies like wind and certain kinds of solar power while running like scared children from actually clean and truly renewable resources like nuclear. Funny how that works.
@@Smitty.Bacall Global starvation makes a planet far less hospitable to complex life forms. Pollution is bad. Nobody should disagree. But no matter how you swing it, outside the privileged white collar workers who drive 15m to work a day, fossil fuels are desperately needed and all the global outages and supply problems we've seen are just a taste of what is to come if we refuse *actual* green strategies like nuclear and continue to demonize ICE's.
The powerful EM pulses concern me, and that thing must be tough to maintain...but my God, it's a GAUSS RIFLE. I didn't think that I'd see something like this outside of Battletech. I can't wait for the designers to refine the technology into something even more effective.
Maintenance will be different for sure. There is no explosion hazard or powder residues to deal with, but the electronics will be a nightmare to maintain for sure. It probably won't survive Garand Thumb's muddy or freezing rifle test just yet. But I can totally see it becoming attractive for situation where utmost silence is important and field maintainability is not a concern, like police sniper or SWAT operations.
@@kekistanimememan170 Removable rechargeable lithium iron or ion batteries don’t “explode” in the course of normal operation. Pretty stable consumer safe technology.
Custom machined plastic injection molds cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per PART. This thing is assembled from multiple parts. Could cost upwards of multi million dollars to proto type this thing with injection molding alone. 3D printing is absolutely critical for proto typing phases, especially for start up companies with not much capital to invest.
What I read somewhere is that 3d printing allows for insanely fast, rapid prototyping. Basically, they can iterate over a design multiple times very quickly and very cheaply.
@@rskat501 yes and as a former machinist i gotta say they have to be shipped from overseas sometimes which can take a while as well especially if you needed to adjust and change where things were, not to mention the injection mold machines are ginormous and cost astronomical prices
@@brertt8350 yes, they're used for mass production. I was just stating my experience since I work in the industry. I'm not quite familiar with previous forms of proto typing, but rough CNC models would definitely be better than molding. Even then, that's still expensive and some projects would have been scrapped due to cost. Although it's no longer necessary since now 3D printing is far superior than CNC(for prototyping at least).
Very nice, and nostalgic for me. In 1989 I built a coil gun as an item of interest for my electronics students. We did not have 3d printing or arduinos, but the basic physics are set in, well.. physics! Other than keeping coil reactance low, and gauss high, the key is to use a massive overvoltage on the coils, and timing the capacitor dump with light beams. It is very critical that the coil is shutdown just before the projectile centers itself in the coil, otherwise you will be applying unwanted braking force. The simplest way to achieve this is by an entry position of the light beam, vs the length of the projectile. In this manner, the shutoff time on that coil can be optimized, no computers needed. In my 1989 version, our voltage limit was based on available capacitors and switching transistors. So we ran at 400V with 450v caps and used TV horizontal output transistors, 2SC1308, for the switching element. As you can imagine (with each stage identical) the amount of energy contributed by successive stages diminishes. We ended up with 5 stages which would shoot A 6mmx35mm iron core through a 1989 pop can at about 40ft. Not significant, but fun! We liked to call it a rail gun because that sounded cooler than coil gun, but very quickly changed that to mass accelerator so to not panic the staff and administration. Really great to see this modernized iteration, keep up the great work!
To put this perspective: the GR-1 is like the musket (or even earlier) of gauss/coil guns, there's so much more to be done for it to rival modern-day weapons, but so did the early firearms compared to bows and crossbows of their time.
That's a good comparison for multiple reasons-- the bulk of the hard part going from cannon to man-portable firearm was in the size reduction, increasing the power, reliability and fire rate were fairly small refinements to the overall design. Taking this thing from something that weighs 500 pounds with 250 pounds of capacitor bank and causes the lights to flicker when you start charging it to something you can hold in your hand and fire repeatedly from a battery is the bulk of the really hard work. Going from that to a practical weapon is a comparatively small leap. It's already a theoretically lethal weapon, doubling the output power is a comparatively small refinement and would put this in the power range of a .38 S&W, a round that is indisputably capable of killing, if a little weak for the modern day. A 5-fold increase would put it in the range of an intermediate cartridge like 5.7mm
Yep, just like a musket its about a dozen technical innovations away from reaching its optimal form, but if anything it has one massive advantage: logistics. A gauss, unlike a normal firearm, pretty much does not care what you feed into it as long as it fits the barrel and is made of metal. That is an incredibly cheap bullet to make. Of course, you aren't going to feed it scrap metal for fun, but what you can is have a bucket-load of metal slugs that are immensely easy to carry around and store. They can't get damaged easily, there isn't gunpowder that can get wet. Hell there isn't cases to deal with, and unlike caseless ammo you don't have to deal with a fragile casing or overheating problems. That means that your requirements to produce and carry ammo are drastically lowered. And while making the firearm is harder, making the bullets for it becomes essentially workshop level trivial. Very much unusable in their current form BUT the progress in battery spurred by electric vehicles and smartphones is going to push the tech forward at great speeds.
@@dangerszewski9816 And I already imagine what would be the solution: A composite battery. There is a way to increase the current output of batteries is by putting them in parallel - the amount of current the batteries can support increases to the same degree to the amount of batteries you put in parallel, but for this application that means hundreds of batteries and the charger for those bateries would be challenging too, meaning they would have ho develop small batteries that you can build a parallel battery bank, and they have to be made with a good amount of precision as a voltage differential between batteries can generate unwanted current between them. As such, if the battery already outputs a high enough current you don't need a capacitor bank
@@mobiuscoreindustries It does need to be ferromagnetic, but you can pretty much just take a steel rod, cut it down to size, and then do whatever with it. Sharpen the tip for better aerodynamics and penetration, hollow it out and put all sorts of fun things, like high explosives, in it, as long as the coils can magnetically attract the projectile, the possibilities are nearly limitless.
@@suursuits7637 One thing I did think about is how the "propulsion" method scales a lot better with projectile mass. On top of that, the acceleration is a lot more drawn out and gradual compared to the thousands of G's worth of acceleration of gunpowder. So such a gun system would work wonders with a fin stabilized smart ammo or even just shoving a ton of explosives in it.
Never thought I'd live to see the day when I heard "do not stick a fork into the gauss rifle" being offered as real and legitimate firearm safety advice
It's sooo much the same concept, down to the trigger design Ian talks about. Like my old photo camera, if I partly depress the button, it'll use power from the battery to charge a capacitor, making that noise, then the signal will come on, I fully depress and bang, the flash / gun goes off.
Sounds like I thought a gun of the future would sound like as a child. Soon the sound of guns racking will be replaced with the high pitched sound of capacitors charging.
Scarier still is when they figure out how to make personal rail gun rifles - use a Gauss coil to inject the carrier at speed into a charged rail system; for now it's a big power and construction material issue. Anyone know where to get a Vacuum space power extraction core?
@@skypiratecaptain Gauss refers to any magnetic flux field, permanent and temporary. Creating one electrically just gives greater control of the field parameters. The term also differentiates the method used from a Rail Gun which uses the Lorenz force to electro-magnetically manipulate an object's motion (Gauss surrounds the target object, Lorenz passes through an armature which can be the target object or carries it). Not all coils are guns - a coil gun is one that is used to pull and release an object in order to propel it. Some coils pull and hold (usually called a solenoid and used for various purposes like relays, car starters, washing machine valves) and usually use a spring (which is another form of a coil) to reset. Still others are used to create or receive magnetic information (radio tuning coil, metal detectors have both a sending and receiving coil) or used for induction to change electrical parameters (transformers) or generate heat (induction metal heating). A coil is simply a length of material (metal, string, plastic, wood, etc.) wound up, how it's used defines its purpose (source material, structural support, electrical component, etc.). Therefore, Gauss Coil Gun refers to a specific use of an electrically charged wire coil (Coil) used to create a controlled magnetic field (Gauss flux field) for the purpose of attracting and expelling a magnetically affected object (the ammo for the Gun) in a straight line (may have multiple stages for greater acceleration). Particle Accelerators are, in simplest terms, multi-stage Gauss Coil Guns that shoot their atomic or subatomic ammo in magnetically bent circles (single or multiple streams, in one or two directions, simultaneously). The Coils both accelerate and bend the projectile path.
Finally, a unique weapon that isn’t just a reskin of another weapon. Although, the physical damage is pretty mid, the energy damage makes up for it, especially against robotic foes and metal-armored raiders.
@@jeremysaklad6703 Shit, I never even saw that. It’s one of those items where the item card doesn’t read all the abilities so you have to physically test it out first. Jesus Christ, it’s Borderlands’ legendaries all over again.
Quite a fascinating look at the infancy of a new type of weapon. It's bulky and impractical, but the fact that they have gotten the concept of a gauss weapon to the level of commercial functionality is still impressive.
It's a 13th century hand cannon. Looks cool and makes all the other kids at the real renaissance fair want one too, but needs a lot of R&D to be a practical military, defensive, or hunting weapon. Still, you have to start somewhere.
@@kentvesser9484 Technological advancement tends to be a lot faster now than it was then Maybe instead of 300 years to get it right this time it'll only take 10% of that time
I had a couple initial "That was it?" impressions, then I remembered that somehow, somebody managed to make ALL that tech man-portable, and mostly unobtrusive as well, and I swung right back around to very impressed.
I think if the projectiles were smaller and lighter, and the coils wrapped around the barrel in order to provide spin, I think Gauss guns have the potential to be highly accurate and practically recoilless weapons.
I can’t imagine how crazy it will be when this thing is actually practical. It looks extremely unsatisfying to shoot. It’s amazing how much impact the lack of sound has on the intimidation factor of a firearm. VERY COOL VIDEO
Being a Navy vet, I never thought I’d be around to see the day when we had a real shoulder fired Gauss gun. As compared to the rail guns. With the leaps and bounds the world has been making in battery and electronics tech in my lifetime I can only imagine what this will be like in the next 5-10 years. Awesome that we got to see Ian get his hands on it for us.
There are important differences between a Gauss gun and a rail gun - specifically the ablation of the barrel on rail guns. The interview Ian did with one of the designers of this prototype talk about those differences.
probably not much change except i there is some miracle revolution with parts of electronics used... some do believe that graphene can drastically improve capacitors and that is like 100 fold improvement but doesnt seem it will happen any time soon. but yeah that would make it far less bulky
In 5-10 years, they'll have slick injection molded furniture. The limitation of the battery not detonating and the gun not melting itself means that handhelds like this aren't likely to be anything more than a toy for a while. Bows and crossbows thousands of years old and even with all the modern technology of the last few hundred years, launching a projectile with mechanically stored energy hasn't changed much, electrically stored energy's efficiency hasn't improved much in the last 5 or so years, Tesla's last major improvement was doubling the capacity of a battery by doubling the size.
@@neglectfulsausage7689 I agree with you for the most part but the reason we don't have green energy rockets is literally because there's no other way to do it
You know this is a prototype when you see a deans connector on the battery pack cable! I love it, the whole thing feels so developmental and that's brilliant, we don't often get to see this stage only the finished item. 👍
On Forgotten Weapons many prototypes saw screen time, the difference is this prototype is made with modern prototype materials and it's an electronic product which means 3D printed PLA, polycarbonate and standard boards instead of visible machining and other signs of hand-made metalworking
I'm amused at the thought of, like some electric vehicles, production incorporating some artificial sound to give the firing experience "a better feel", haha! We're so used to the sensory feedback of traditional firearms that I'm gonna need that powerful scifi charge up and discharge sound! 🤠
As with all things 'electrical that were previously chemical' - just goes to show just how absurdly much energy there is in a tiny amount of gunpowder/gasoline etc. Neat gadget. Look forward to supercaps/hybrid supercaps being a cheap enough thing to play with.
So true, there's a reason we've been doing stuff with chemical energy for a long long time. It's super dense packed with energy. At this point it's just waiting for the steady march of miniaturization, or possibly some major breakthrough with super conductors to make these caps, PSU's, batteries, etc smaller.
@@Sophistry0001 The energy storage issue and energy discharge issue may be eventually overcome when we develop sheet of stackable carbon nanotube weaves. Putting a few hundred layers of this weave one over the other could potentially hold enough energy to power a home for a day in a battery no bigger than a phone. But that technology is still very much in development. The important part here is that there is a possible solution, butt its still far too early to be properly deployed to mass market or even military's market.
If it advances to the level where it can shoot any projectile above subsonic levels, there'll be almost the same amount of noise as a rifle with a good suppressor.
Only thing is that every single component of this gun is way older than laser as a technology. Capacitors, batteries, coils, etc. It’s been in use for decades before first lasers.
Yes but it took a lot of time for those components, mainly batteries, to get small and efficient enough to be used portable. Also the computer controlling it.
This is a completely different problem from miniaturizing lasers. The power supply on this device has a much lower specific energy and much lower specific power than does conventional smokeless powder. That is a fundamental fact of chemistry and nature.
One of the surprising things about this is how quiet it is. After years of Fallout 4’s Gauss Rifle, hearing how silent the magnets actually are is not what I expected.
I imagine it'd probably get louder once they start accelerating slugs up to break the sound barrier But i'm surprised it makes any sound at all, the plastic-ey sliding/clicking what ever is interesting to me
What's interesting is that this one, ArcFlashLabs' version, has been in development for a long time and I remember seeing their youtube channel around 2010. Meaning that it was possible even at the early days of Forgotten Weapons.
Stuck for ammo in an urban warfare scenario? Cut up some appropriate diameter rebar that's hanging out of a blasted wall. A quick bit of trim to make it reasonably uniform and you've got ammo. The whole dang city is one big ammo dump! Mind thoroughly boggled over here.... 🙃
This thing is so of our time, I love it. 3d printing, USB ports, etc. People in the coming decades will look back on this like we do those cool 80s top mounted lasers, even if the gauss stuff doesn't take off (which I'll admit I'm skeptical it will, at least in a small arms context)
Even if they never take off as a normal rifle or anything, I'm convinced there will be a niche for these just in how quiet they are. They're not even trying to make this one quiet and it already makes a suppressed firearm sound like a cannon.
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough I wouldn't say that there's no difference other than power. One is a railgun with a multi-ton barrel with a life of 100 shots, the other a handheld coilgun with a perspex barrel. One weighs many tons and accelerates about 4 Kg to 3 Km/s (or mach 10), producing up to 32 megawatts in muzzle energy. The other can be out-classed by a strong man with a slingshot. One needs a conductive projectile that doesn't benefit from added mass, the other needs a ferromagnetic projectile that automatically benefits from a heavier shot. Different in every appreciable way besides being weapons driven by electricity and firing a metal projectile.
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough If you mean the one on the Zumwalt it was a railgun, it's a very different weapon. It uses much more sophisticated projectiles but doesn't need complex coils around the length of the 'gun'.
... Do you live under a rock? You could build those (of the same power) 15, 20, and even MORE years ago! Literally nothing in this is amazing, innovative or impressive. The patent for those is from friggign 1904! The guy who made them, with that OLD ASS TECH managed to accelerate a half kilo projectile to 50 m/s too, just 20 m/s less than this too! What i'm trying to say is, this thing's a useless toy that i don't get your excitement over.
@@mkzheroyou couldn’t make the amount of power in the size of device 15-20 years ago 5-7 Tesla is insane for a handheld rifle id like to see u make something as cool as this since you’re so smart and it’s so easy
Its honestly more unbelievable that the first that I hear about s functional infantry scale GAUSS CANNON is on this UA-cam channel, than such a weapon existing in the first place
it's not, we won't be using linear accelerators outside of ships and weapon emplacements, simply because the energy needed is so great and there are very much hard physical limits to this type of stuff, eg: capacitor size to farad/voltage ratio, efficiency of the linear accelerator etc... because let's be fair, i have seen slingshots more dangerous than this, while only weighing a fraction
@@SemenTheSailor yes, i'm sure that someone will come along and shatter our understanding of physics... you know what the interesting part is? last time we put all the smartest minds together, something that basically gave us the field of quantum physics and was one of these shattering of the understanding of science and reality... we found that the stuff we where using before was still 99.9% correct! turns out Newtonian calculations are still sufficient in order to have a workable but not perfect model of reality so even if we have a modern solvay conference, don't expect that what we have until now to no longer apply, we will simply better understand the mechanisms behind it
@@SemenTheSailor yeah but I seriously doubt that a breakthrough of that nature will come from trying to make handheld gauss rifles. Why waste money and time on this when we have far more functional weapons already, which could potentially be improved on.
Imagine about a century later, and Ian's great grandson is talking about how this was an ambitious gun that had some promise but ended up being a novelty, or remarking at how advance it was for the time. Basically ending up like half the guns actually covered on Forgotten Weapons
I wouldn't be surprised at all considering Ian himself is the son of a firearms exoert. I have no idea how far back this goes in his family but lots of us Highland Scots and Irish pass down family traditions for many generations, not unlike the Japanese.
Or digitized consciousness Ian using his mind-linked robot to have a range day with his man portable plasma gun as magnetic rifles that use metal slugs are so last century when all the cool kids now use high energy plasma created in a magnetic field before it is released and accelerated magnetically, so it hits with hypervelocity kinetic and thermal effects.
Honestly I don't think that will happen. Rail guns and gauss guns are some of the more promising "sci-fi weapon" technologies at this time. Especially since there is a great industrial demand on the world market in general for more advanced batteries and ways to manipulate electrical currents (on account of the electric car industry). Laser guns are much much further into the future, since the power demands for direct energy weapons are that much higher to ever be of practical use. And then there's plasma weapons being a common sci-fi trope, but also presents a whole slew of other problems like being able to generate plasma hot enough to cause lethal damage and also finding means to project it in a desired direction. So out of these three, gauss guns and rail guns are definitely the most viable.
100 years from now you see one of these in a museum in the same sort of symbology as the earliest cartridge loading gun, something no one really picked up because it was just ahead of itself.
This tickles me given I worked on making Mass Drivers back in the late 2000's (2007-2009). This is working on the same logic and design philosophies I was as well. This stuff has matured a lot in over 14 years, a lot of it of course still comes down to issues with gates, coils, batteries, and capacitors. But this is a big step forward for man-portable mass drivers. So this was pretty cool to see as a former developer in the field.
Mankind went from the first flight by the Wright brothers in 1903 to landing on the moon in 1969. If we don't devolve into a new dark age thanks to woke culture, we could be reaching out to alien stars in a hundred or two years and crushing any opposition we encounter.
@@mobrien7211 Kinda, the main issue is energy density in capacitors and getting that to discharge at a very high amperage to drive the EM field produced by the coils to high Tesla values. Which was the main road block I hit, and looking at their design, it was as well. There are some simple physics that are the issue, as well as just we don't have better capacitors because of a myriad of reasons, mostly, again, physics. There is only so much energy you can keep in one before it fries the dielectric and becomes a frag grenade instead. Still, I can't wait to have a workshop again, I wanna get back into messing around in the field as a hobbiest this time.
"Here we have several magnetic weapons - generously donated for review by the XCOM and Xenonauts programs - ergonomics on the alien plasma weapons aren't so great, but we have these bad boys."
I always imagined Gauss rifle tech would be most practical when incorporated as a way to enhance conventional firearms. You’d still use traditional cartridges with powder loads but you could get much higher more energy by adding a coil to further accelerate the projectile. Best of both worlds
It would be perfect, since GAUSS rifles could also have disadvantages and firearms can be improved and fitted with more improvements, what do you think?
Im wondering if there would be a way to reverse that process. Have the powdercharge fire off, after the round reaches full velocity from the magnetic propulsion. Im just thinking that the magnets would do more to catch the bullet than aid it along.
Huge missed opportunity to shoot this at something interesting like a cinder block. Would like to see what these solid slugs do even at the lower velocity of this prototype.
It would bounce off, maybe lightly crack it. Definitely wouldn't pierce or shatter it. You can tell based on sound alone that this thing is ridiculously weak. Not a true Gauss rifle. It's essentially a toy gun, equivalent to a high powered BB gun, at best.
Trust me- me too. I play Fallout 4 and new vegas religously, but I already told my old lady Im getting one, Ill make videos on how it is to shoot hopefully soon. Lmao
I'm having a hard time not seeing how accurate their design was. A lot of Fallout guns are just absolute nonsense but they really nailed the fundamentals with their Gauss Gun.
I’m amazed by how fictional gauss rifles like those in STALKER and Fallout resemble this prototype in appearance and function. Similar magazine sizes, charge times, even a charge-up sound (although the video game ones use much more dramatic noises). The game devs must have done their homework, or life is imitating art once again.
In a sense it's the homework. A powerful flashbulb for photography, or even a disposable camera, makes a similar high-pitched whine as it charges. A battery dumping energy into a bank of capacitors is relatively old technology, at least conceptually.
@@thefez-cat absolutely, we’ve had the know how to do this for a very long time. Large Capacitors lots of amps lots of induction lots of magnetic field. Very simple theory. We just haven’t had good enough battery’s and capacitors until now.
"Until now" yeah, we still don't. While impressive as a dangerous toy, a 22lr is more effective than this thing. Hell, a sling is a better weapon. Maybe in 30 years.
What really struck me was how quiet it was. Sci-Fi lead me to believe it was going to make a massive bang louder than a gun when fired. Instead we get a quiet squealing noise followed by the sound of a crossbow. Terrifying.
Forgotten Weapons, a channel that talks about projectile weapons in their early stages, so of course, it naturally should do this for Mass Drivers too. It's very interesting to see weapons in their infancy stages, and despite being in its infancy, a few parts of this weapon has already amazed me in certain aspects to how "smart" the weapon can be, such as inputing select amount of joules the weapon shall fire. This prototype is a great demonstration of what Mass Drivers can become. Also the sound is really ominous, it's like a Crossbow with an harrowing wail as it gets charged, but keeps the decibels low enough. I look forward to the future of Coilguns and Railguns and more prototypes of their kind being demonstrated on this channel, because they seem to be able to fill a different or a new niche with enough development.
This is definitely the first of a long serie, as batteries keep on improving. But seeing how the projectiles were just tumbling around, it feels like certain key componenents of the technology are still missing.
@@benoitbergeron8858 Two reasons for that. One, the projectile speed is still very low. Two, smoothbore. If they can get the speed up and some sort of stabilization to the round, that is when it becomes practical instead of prototype.
@@benoitbergeron8858 although it would complicate the ammo a bit FSDS might help a few of the issues. Thanks to tank guns we know smoothbore doesn't necessarily equal inaccuracy.
So that's how they felt in the 1840s looking at a Dreyse, or in the 1850s looking at the Gloire, or in the 1890s looking at a maxime gun! This is so cool!
These Gauss rifles are the future of warfare. They eliminate the need for gunpowder and casings, which will eventually result in magazines with immense capacities, as well as being able to carry more of those magazines. The bullets themselves will be able to be customized with everything from armour piercing, incendiary, explosive etc. Obviously over time the rifles will become smaller and lighter but much more powerful and adaptable to suit any kind of combat. I'm genuinely loving Gauss and Railgun tech, it's so exciting. ( I know they are instruments of death...)
I thought your remarks were really interesting. Could you clarify why it is easier to customize bullets more with these guns than with traditional guns? Can't you make bullets with exactly the same kinds of shapes for traditional bullets? What hinders creative designs on todays casings.
Not until battery technology makes serious advancements, both in terms of the amount of power they can store and in terms of how quickly they can be recharged or discharged.
@@erikengheim1106mostly the fact that when you put into perspective what makes a bullet, well, a bullet you need a lot of different things for it to actually fire in a gun mostly the gunpowder it doesn't leave a whole lot of space for different things and the fact the its propelled by combustion (Which as you can imagine is not very good for things that break easy) soo mostly the cool projectiles that have all of these features like incendiary or explosives inside the bullet are reserved for BIG projectiles like crew served AA's with things like flak rounds or tanks with things like sabots and HESH rounds the idea that I think OP was going for is having these features in a gun you can hold since a Gauss rifle like this is 100% more bullet per bullet and you have a lot more space to work with
Yup, Capacitors have a nasty habit of sneaking up on you, and these things are monsters, if they don´t hurt, they kill outright. I guess, a few percent of residual charge is enough for a painful surprise
It's interesting to note that this rifle is never fully "safe". With projectiles removed the battery is still potentially a fire hazard, and even with that removed, the capacitors are still potentially an electrical hazard. That's a bit different to a normal firearm where if it's definitely unloaded, it's about as dangerous as a mousetrap.
@@cnawan Like firearms, unloaded this thing is only as lethal as you can swing it. Also, ammunition can literally explode, which is like the one thing worse than catch on fire. The rules can be contrasted as such: firearms and live ammo never mix unless you know what you're shooting at and it's a good idea to shoot it, and you should never ever touch one of those capacitors unless you are for sure certain that it and you are safe, because you can do all the things you need too with those capacitors with equipment that keeps you safe if those designers are worth their salt.
I loved this. These people treated an experimental weapon with the respect of any other firearm. Safe it by pulling the battery and the magazine. I respect the thorough "safety first" attitude.
Frankly, despite this being 'low' power compared to a firearm, I am not any more enthusiastic about getting shot with it, especially accidentally at close range. Ian just treats all projectile weapons with the same respect he shows firearms. And we love him for it.
Watching this gives the unique feeling of watching a primary source waiting to happen. Years down the line a historian is going to be thrilled to find this. Hello, future historian! I hope "Developmental Gauss Rifles: 2020 - 2062" is going well!
@@Braziliansyrah You got a degree for knowing military history? wut? I know more about military history / battles over the ages from europe to asia to america :') not really good in name memoring haha
As a welder... wow. 16,000 amps?! For reference, guys, hardcore fabrication units run anywhere from 100-1000 amps. 16,000 @ 25 volts is insane. When Ian says that's a tremendous amount of energy, that's no joke. I run pretty hot welding rods at 170 amps @ 20-28 volts.
As Brad says, there's a big difference between peak and continuous power, and they're not really comparable without taking time into consideration. I have a pulse capacitor here not much bigger than a soda can that can dump 50,000 amps, but only for microseconds. Energy (Joules) = Power (Watts) X Time (Seconds). Jack's welder is running about 4000 watts continuous (170A*24V), or 4000 joules every second. So every 5 seconds that welder puts out more energy than the muzzle energy of a .50 BMG (5 seconds * 4000J = 20,000J) :O That's some serious energy, but it's not all being released in a short burst with high power like with firearms or explosives.
I do believe a fin stabilized discarding sabot has an use case here, because you can use it to optimize the shape of the ferrous part of the projectile to better react to a driving magnetic field and prevent fins from damaging the polycarbonate barrel, especially in the dead space above the trigger where the projectile was visibly knocking about due to limited velocity. Lastly, I'd say that the real use case here, as with most "railguns" we've seen in development until now, is to have some sort of initial propellant and then acceleration with coils. I'd probably attempt to use a pneumatic system for the initial acceleration, for example using CO2, which could in turn also be used to cool down the barrel because of gas expansions cooling.
But then you could just have a compressed gas weapon in the first place, which is already much closer to the usefulness of a "regular" gun. Electricity can be better used to compress air than to "mass drive". Then again it can perhaps be even better used to simply drive a physical spring. Imagine a really heavy spring bb gun. Pretty sure if you used electric motors to crank it up the stored energy release would have much higher returns then this gauss idea. Just a lot less cool factor. That's my two cents.
@@beargillium2369 the handheld gauss rifle is an interesting concept but the real test is going to get the ideal projectile shape down, and then adapt it for use in zero gravity environments where the limitations of the system disappear. even if ship to ship space combat is still a few generations away, this does appear to be a viable weapons system to use against satellites and other HVTs in near space.
@@beargillium2369 with current Batteries and Capacitors that would be a better use. Or one could develop an ElectoThermalChemical Gun with improved propellant mixtures. In an Ideal case scenario though Coilguns would be preferred over the ETC or your Airgun due to the shear amount of energy you could conceivably dump into a projectile.
@@localeightironworker why do you feel that gravity is the limitation? I'm 99.9% certain that conventional propellants work in space so I'm not seeing the benefit you're trying to illustrate... Weight saving perhaps? Solar charged weapons? Maybe there's something there
“This thing has the muzzle energy of a 22 long” that absolutely blew my mind. May not be a powerful round but I personally just wasn’t expecting this thing to be anywhere near that level of power at this early stage.
Why not? You can build one at home. It would be no stronger then crossbow or pneumatic rifle. Magnetic accelerators and magnetic accelerators from fantasy(because most of those don't deserve to be called sci-fi) are two very different types of magnetic accelerators;)
That depends, like so many other exotic technologies, on battery technology. If there is a breakthrough on that front we will see some pretty interesting things emerging.
@@mpetersen6 Stop with the "punk" nonsense, call it tech or whatever, but it doesn't have anything to do with punk. "You are overreating!" Perhaps, but that shit needs to stop, it grates my sould when I hear stuff like solarpunk or frostpunk... Cyberpunk was called that because it was some "punks" and low lifes using cybertech to mess with a corpo, not because it had anything to do with the tech.
On any gun, fewer potential points of failure is almost always better. Gun design is very interesting to me because it's dealing with energy levels that can easily damage the system, but the need for a gun is for it to always be ready to fire. A degree of simplicity is fundamental and takes a special kind of creativity. Future gauss guns may look nicer, but will probably have a similar or fewer number of moving parts going forward.
something you NEED to be aware of: capacitors hold power all on their own. this weapon could fire with the battery completely removed. particularly important when dealing with misfires, as a capacitor discharge could throw a "stuck" slug.
After all the preservation of history, Ian deserves to become a part of it. "Do not stick a fork in the Gauss rifle" needs to be a standardized marking going forward, and he needs to be heralded as the source
@yep Maybe with proper inyection molded parts, they can use additives similar to glass fiber, like carbon fibre or other material to give it a " faradays cage " property to prevent the EMP from affecting external electronics.
"A 3D-printed gauss rifle" was not something I ever would have expected to see on this channel. I am reminded of Snowcrash's "Ultima Ratio Regum", especially after it misfired on the second shot.
I haven't read it in a while, but isn't the railgun in Snow Crash called "Reason"? The "last argument of kings" quote was definitely engraved on it or something like that though.
Fisheye is up on his knees now and has torn away the canopy and space blanket that have covered him until this point. In one hand he is holding a long device a couple of inches in diameter, which is the source of the whirring noise. It is a circular bundle of parallel tubes about pencil-sized and a couple of feet long, like a miniaturized Gatling gun. It whirs around so quickly that the individual tubes are difficult to make out... The device is attached to a wrist-thick bundle of black tubes and cables that snake down into the large suitcase... The suitcase has a built-in color monitor screen with graphics giving information about the status of the weapon system... "See, I told you they'd listen to Reason," Fisheye says, shutting down the whirling gun. "...See, it fires these teeny little metal splinters. They go real fast - more energy than a rifle bullet. Depleted uranium.
That book and specifically REASON was the inspiration for the rail gun I made for my A-Level physics project. Just a shame the school's EHT supply only got me a muzzle velocity of about 0.5m/s
Current coilguns vs firearms reminds me of early firearms vs bows. Early on bows were more capable and affordable than firearms until decades and several wars later firearms technology surpass bows in military use
@@odinatra yeah but what about all the technology that falls off? Maybe when we can’t make gunpowder anymore we’ll need coil guns but battery technology is gonna have to get insanely crazy for a coil gun to sustain fire in combat like a machine gun with a removable barrel
Since it's Smooth Bore making the Projectiles more Aerodynamic would be a big improvement,great video and Archflash has made a great first step toward a Gauss Gun.
Gauss Gun Safety: 7:05 Rule #1 - Do not stick a fork into the gauss rifle. 7:45 Rule #2 - Do not EMP backblast your cyborg friends. 17:00 Rule #3 - Storage: turn off, remove magazine, disconnect battery. Don’t lick the terminals.
For living in the future, the most terrifying noise to come will be the sudden high-pitched "weeeeeee" of a charging coil gun. Especially if right behind you unexpectedly.
@@bastian_5975 That is common sound of switched power sources, even the way it sounds is just same as loaded/unloaded power supply, you can hear how it changes during charging. If you will grab power source of your laptop, or printer or something similar and put it close to your ear, you would hear almost the same sound of square wave.
you do not need rifling to create spin with magnetics. if they incorporated this into the design and made the projectiles more bullet shaped to reduce drag then they could extend not only the range of the projectile but also the speed and penetration values as well. Fun Fact. since this does not use any sort of combustion it does not qualify as a firearm and requires no license to own. not to mention not being illegal to possess if you are a felon lmao. The same goes for high powered Pneumatic guns.
Depends on the jurisdiction. Canada, for example, defines firearm as "a barrelled weapon that discharges projectiles capable of causing bodily harm or death, or anything that can be adapted as a firearm". Nothing about combustion.
Some of those PCP .357 and .45 caliber pneumatic rifles are legit AF. I've seen like 405gr hard cast .457" bullets fired at 750 ft/s (505 ft-lbs muzzle energy, right between .357 SIG[475ft-lbs] and .357 Magnum[550[ft-lbs]) from PCP air rifles.
Something that struck me is the silence beyond a click... imagine a battlefield, major battle raging, in near silence. Would the sound change once they get it supersonic, so there's an audible crack from the round? Excellent review!
If this technology ever manage to get projectiles supersonic, yes, it would sound similar to a real firearm shootin supersonic ammo with a sound moderator on.
the supersonic crack alone would bring it to nearly the volume of a low calibre firearm, similar to an unsuppressed .45. However it wouldnt be a single loud crack, it'd be a prolonged kinda "zip"
We have VR headsets, the ability to speak to the world from a pocket device, and AI manipulate our thoughts and voting patterns, in a worldwide pandemic, we were missing Gauss rifles for a fully cyberpunk reality, and here we are.
Basically this same technology is being used to fling aircraft off carriers. The steam catapult is no longer being built and I think I read any existing were being converted over.
@@allangibson2408 Screw that, I want to shoot a slug made of highly unstable fissile material such as Californium at sufficient velocity to go critical mass on impact...lol. Can't wait to see the ATF ruling on that one.
@Steven A bow and arrow can pierce ballistic gel. So can this. Im not so sure with its current projectiles though. I want to see it with something machined with a spiral to it. Remember those old foam nerf footballs you could throw with a perfect spin WITH your eyes closed and hands tied behind your back? Something similar. Either Hollow or solid (not sure really) but a alloy sleeve of sorts maybe, with a cnc machined spiral down the core and/or exterior. Would likely help the projectile not tumble. With something like this im betting it would have no problem. Would also help its accuracy a ton.
Still a very impressive engineering feat. The things that can go wrong with just this prototype is immense and so some serious R&D has been done to mitigate those issues. Very good proof of concept and I look forward to the future of this tech!
The most scifi gun of 2022 has a ring pull. This is awesome. Also, you may want to fire it when the marker is red, because super mutants. One thing to note, it's a lithium polymer battery with a deans connector. It's absolutely the worst connector type for a high current application. It will eventually desolder itself.
You forget it doesn’t pull from the battery hi Voltage. It’s pulling the normal battery voltage then stepping it up in the capacitors. Doesn’t need to be high current connectors at that state in the electrical system.
Remember, this is a 3d printed gun made by 2 engineers as a side hustle. Imagine if they had full factory resources! Edit: I'm talking more about having a refined product that is less clunky and easier to work with. I am fully aware of the limitations of batteries. I know that this tech is not ready to replace firearms, but do believe it one day could.
Check out the Hacksmith on youtube. I belive they made a more powerfull version but it is illegal in canada. If they would move to the US I dont know what would stop them :)
To think In 100 years time when these guns have been refined and in mass production this gun along with this video will probably be in a museum somewhere to show people how it all started.
I hope so. Actually it seems more like we want to use the weapons for a World War III instead for a museum. Hell I love weapons! Everything about them! But why do we use them against humans? Isnt it enough that they are cool? Let us blow some stuff up in a testing range and make videos of it and call it a day. For me thats good enough to justify the army budget of my country
"Here at arcflash labs we belive in delivering the best customer experience - that's why our gun fires the entire cartridge! That's 300% more bullet per bullet!"
In the year 2022, with a lot of technology and quite a lot of limitations (barrel temperature, charging time, etc) we have reached almost half of the energy delived by a 80g arrow launched by a 72-75kg @75 cm draw warbow during The Hundred Years War. But, before we snigger at this weapon, the warbow at Agincourt was at the pinacle of its development spanning more than 7000 years. This MassDriver is not even in infancy, but rather inception. Imagine (or rather not) what this will be able to do in 25 - 50 years time.
I doubt this will ever take off. See how many beefy capacitors you need to impart the same energy into the slug as the few grains of powder in a .22LR? They aren't going to get much smaller if at all since capacitance is a function of the surface area of the dielectric plates. To get actually useful energies into that slug you'd need many more caps or much bigger caps which would make it non portable. Chemical propellant is just a vastly more efficient and reliable energy storage medium when it comes to firearms.
Playing back at 25% speed you can see the projectile tumbling the moment it exits the barrel. Aside from the device itself being an alpha prototype, the ammunition needs a lot of work to make it lighter and more aerodynamic
Yes, I hear that it is a smooth barrel no spiral like a normal firearm, maybe that would help an engineer the projectile to suit? Seems like a simple solution, unless there's an engendering or physics issue I'm unaware of?
I think that smooth bore isn´t a problem at all.. first you need to achieve much higher velocity. I am pretty convinced that you can do everything else by developing a decent sabot round~ I mean.. look at TFM Channel, there is alot of stuff that flyes perfectly accurate out of a smoothbore shotgun.
Hey guys, thank you for tuning into this episode of Forgotten Weapons, today we’ll be looking at the BFG 9000, a very unique weapon for the channel, but there are some interesting design quirks you don’t see in a lot of guns…
"Casually test fires it at demons" ;)) 🤣
decino could tell you how it works.
***proceeds to blow a hole in Mars***
And we'll look into that in a moment. But first I would like to introduce our special guest...
@@TheBlackAshTree man of culture
This is the musket of the Gauss Rifle technology, just remember this video 10-20 years from now
Just about. While I'm not sure we'll ever get to the point where ammo for this thing is quite as cheap as current ammo (You can get 20 round of 5.56 for like $12), but I can definitely see these evolving into some BADASS sniper weapons.
@@jesuszamora6949 The ammo for a gauss rifle is basically just a steel rod sawed in small bits...as soon as there is demand for gauss ammo you will see prices way below what 5.56 costs
@@jesuszamora6949 i'll just go play Crysis and use the Gauss rifle in that ;)
@@Presbiter Ammo cost would be in the degradation of the power cells. Plus a few pennies for the slug and electricity.
@@johnk6757 Thats maintenance cost...like any other equipment that uses power cells like night vision googles
"Do not stick a fork into the Gauss rifle."
-Ian McCollum 2022
"Front toward enemy" vibes
literally 1984
Words of wisdom!
Even if its plastic?
I mean you can... like what is it going to do that a poder gun won't? Which in this design I'd doubt it move much as the coils are so far behind the muzzle.
5:56 tp 6:00- that "hollow point" projectile is a 1/2" wedge anchor. So when Ian calls it "Hardware store stuff," he's more accurate than he may have realized.
“Do not fire when the weapon is too hot.” *solemn nodding from years of BattleTech and MechWarrior*
Just wait ‘till we start developing double heat sinks
Double barrel gauss rifle
@@idoobbberz_tv6676 rotary gauss. already in BTA.
@@thomasneal9291 Hyper Assault Gauss. In Kerensky's Name.
You act like the engineers on this project never heard of the game
Love that the "hollow point" is literally a drop-in anchor for bolting into concrete
Got to hunt them magical golems some how...
It came off the shelf in the same aisle as the dowel pin and ball bearings. They went to a hardware store with a magnet.
@MINI DIVA Came for rail guns, not to rail girls. Spam somewhere else.
@@hollowscarf great comeback. I'm so tired of those spammer girls.
With the low velocity and high weight of the gauss gun the recoil appears minimal
The fact that the screen says "FIRE!" as it fires is actually pretty adorable and I hope all future gauss weapons keep that feature.
What gets me is how quite the thing is.
All i hear is just a click.
I can just imagine where we be in 10 years.
Hell that gun alone would have been scifi when I was a kid.
The perfect assassin’s weapon
Needs to flash red
@@nicholaspatton5590 a little hard to conceal though. I don’t think I can appendix carry that thing!
@@thewingedhussar4188 It's a subsonic projectile and there is no explosion. Obviously it's going to be much quieter than a gun. Though it will make a lot of sound once it goes supersonic.
It sounds more like a crossbow than a firearm. Super cool and will be crazy to see where this ends up in a couple decades.
IT IS a crossbow, magnetic crossbow is a cool and accurate name for these weapons
Yes, in fact, its projectiles have the speed of a crossbow bolt.
It's clearly not a "fire"-arm since there's no explosion with fire to propel the projectile
@@vladpadowicz5946 in many states, it'd not qualify at all as a firearm. They'd fall back to "prohibited offensive weapon" or something similar, even if it's not explicitly prohibited and watch the court likely reject their charges - still costed you an attorney's fees.
@spvillano No where in the world does it qualify as a firearm for the reason I already mentioned
I love how the digital display on the back says "Fire!" with an exclamation mark. This thing is straight out of a video game and I love it.
Reminds of that demolition man gun
If an alien ship ever crashes on earth, Ian’s gonna be the first guy to review the weapons found on board
"Hey guys, thanks for tuning into Forgotten Weapons, I'm Ian and this is an Andromeda Arms anti-matter repeater rifle I picked up off that downed cruiser that crashed out back"
@@awesomedude222 bro andromeda arms make some good weapons specially anti-matter powered
@@kaiserpanzer548 I dunno man, the anti-matter stuff is ok, but have you checked out their quantum phased array warp entanglement phasers?
I can imagine him crouched above like a dead mutilated alien with a weird alien weapon in its hands and he does a witty little intro before prying the thing out of its hands and beginning to muck around with it, instantly knowing everything there is to know about this weird alien firearm.
@@awesomedude222 or if we get around inventing real life Bolter rifles
Keep in mind that the "muzzle energy" of a crossbow bolt is also miniscule compared to a proper firearm, but it can absolutely injure or kill you.
The muzzle energy of a medieval crossbow bolt is somewhere around a pistol fired .22LR and this coil gun is somewhere around an air gun round. On top of that the geometry of a crossbow bolt helps to do the killing, but deviating from a cylinder shaped slug is quickly going to cost this coil gun muzzle velocity.
@@SBBurzmali Modern Air-guns can shoot WELL above this. Over 1500fpe. I own several that do over 500FPE.
@@robert7984 Of course, I was referring the the commonly available models, you can make a .22LR round with as much umph as a 9mm or more if you are willing to risk blowing your face off.
@@robert7984 kinetic energy is calculated, based on mass an velocity. Ur stupid airgun might shoot a lot faster, but your bullets are a lot lighter to.
@@SBBurzmali why? Slapping a non-ferrous cap on that slug wouldn't impact muzzle velocity.
11:20 - Given that the projectile isn't touching the walls of the barrel, the smoothboreness might not degrade the accuracy nearly as much as with a chemical firearm (where you get the ball or whatnot bouncing from side to side as it goes down the barrel), so a laser sight would probably make more sense for a coilgun than for a musket.
Except it clearly is hitting the barrel a lot. The alignment isn't perfect and in the slow motion you can see the projectile bouncing down the barrel.
The manufacturing isn't good enough to float the round perfectly.
I wonder if fins on the projectile with protruding guide tracks on the inside of the barrel might help(and also give it a rifling effect). The neat thing with EM guns is because the barrel doesn't need to hold up to high pressure, some fancier things can be done with them.
I think with some tinkering, the projectile could be made to spin magnetically.
@@BeKindToBirds it's barely accelerated while in that transparent tube though, the real acceleration comes later, and IIRC the fields also align the projectile (again) ?
I work at an electronics recycling facility. When I learned about this gun I asked the question if we’d be allowed to recycle it, one of my coworkers said if someone does come in with one we’re hanging it on the wall.
I’d have a raffle for who can take it home
That’s kinda a badass thing to have on a wall ngl
Imagine this technology and you just go and recycle it. Like the barbarians sack of Rome and the burning of the great library of Alexandria.
Im petitioning the name "bolt" for mass accelerator projectiles. It has history with crossbow bolts, connects to the electric nature of these weapons, and portrays their more weighty nature compared to bullets.
Competing with 40k gyrojets for that moniker
Solid artillery rounds fired by rifled cannons during the American Civil War were also called bolts.
Harrumph!
Seconded.
It's because you want to call it a Bolter, isn't it?
This weapon is also doing something else very interesting. It's demonstrating the ridiculous amount of energy stored in just a few grams of gunpowder to get a projectile moving at the velocities that it does in such a short distance.
Such is the power in a few million atoms
It's also the same with electric cars the energy density of a battery is nowhere near that of petrol or diesel. and short of changing the laws of physics to be accommodating, never will.
@@Smitty.Bacall Nobody is arguing otherwise. It's an unfortunate reality and a big part of why we're not already switched off of fossil fuels.
@@Smitty.Bacall The good news is that if we make the planet unfriendly to ourselves, we cease to exist, and the planet eventually heals, allowing the circle of life to begin again. It happened before, and it will happen again because eco freaks want to push environmentally destructive technologies like wind and certain kinds of solar power while running like scared children from actually clean and truly renewable resources like nuclear. Funny how that works.
@@Smitty.Bacall Global starvation makes a planet far less hospitable to complex life forms.
Pollution is bad. Nobody should disagree. But no matter how you swing it, outside the privileged white collar workers who drive 15m to work a day, fossil fuels are desperately needed and all the global outages and supply problems we've seen are just a taste of what is to come if we refuse *actual* green strategies like nuclear and continue to demonize ICE's.
The powerful EM pulses concern me, and that thing must be tough to maintain...but my God, it's a GAUSS RIFLE. I didn't think that I'd see something like this outside of Battletech. I can't wait for the designers to refine the technology into something even more effective.
Maintenance will be different for sure. There is no explosion hazard or powder residues to deal with, but the electronics will be a nightmare to maintain for sure. It probably won't survive Garand Thumb's muddy or freezing rifle test just yet. But I can totally see it becoming attractive for situation where utmost silence is important and field maintainability is not a concern, like police sniper or SWAT operations.
@@KoflerDavid battery’s explode.
@@KoflerDavid also look at coil gun shooting projectiles going at real speeds the noise is comparable to a firearms and the muzzle flash is worse.
@@kekistanimememan170 Removable rechargeable lithium iron or ion batteries don’t “explode” in the course of normal operation. Pretty stable consumer safe technology.
@@kekistanimememan170 thats what railguns do not coilguns.
"Here at ArcFlash labs, we fire the whole bullet. That's 65% more bullet per bullet"
ArcFlash's founder played Portal 2 once and went: "I too wanna be Cave Johnson."
And he did.
they did all their science from scratch, no hand holding
did they get a cake at the end of testing?
@@brian0057 He made life take the lemons back! Got mad!
So you pass the savings on to others
Only now, seeing this gun, I could notice how important the 3d printer invention was for R&D. Even more so for small teams.
Custom machined plastic injection molds cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per PART. This thing is assembled from multiple parts. Could cost upwards of multi million dollars to proto type this thing with injection molding alone. 3D printing is absolutely critical for proto typing phases, especially for start up companies with not much capital to invest.
What I read somewhere is that 3d printing allows for insanely fast, rapid prototyping. Basically, they can iterate over a design multiple times very quickly and very cheaply.
@@rskat501 arent injection molds usually reserved for mass production? i always thought singular prototypes were done with resin, or cnc'd?
@@rskat501 yes and as a former machinist i gotta say they have to be shipped from overseas sometimes which can take a while as well especially if you needed to adjust and change where things were, not to mention the injection mold machines are ginormous and cost astronomical prices
@@brertt8350 yes, they're used for mass production. I was just stating my experience since I work in the industry. I'm not quite familiar with previous forms of proto typing, but rough CNC models would definitely be better than molding. Even then, that's still expensive and some projects would have been scrapped due to cost. Although it's no longer necessary since now 3D printing is far superior than CNC(for prototyping at least).
Very nice, and nostalgic for me. In 1989 I built a coil gun as an item of interest for my electronics students. We did not have 3d printing or arduinos, but the basic physics are set in, well.. physics! Other than keeping coil reactance low, and gauss high, the key is to use a massive overvoltage on the coils, and timing the capacitor dump with light beams. It is very critical that the coil is shutdown just before the projectile centers itself in the coil, otherwise you will be applying unwanted braking force. The simplest way to achieve this is by an entry position of the light beam, vs the length of the projectile. In this manner, the shutoff time on that coil can be optimized, no computers needed. In my 1989 version, our voltage limit was based on available capacitors and switching transistors. So we ran at 400V with 450v caps and used TV horizontal output transistors, 2SC1308, for the switching element. As you can imagine (with each stage identical) the amount of energy contributed by successive stages diminishes. We ended up with 5 stages which would shoot A 6mmx35mm iron core through a 1989 pop can at about 40ft. Not significant, but fun! We liked to call it a rail gun because that sounded cooler than coil gun, but very quickly changed that to mass accelerator so to not panic the staff and administration. Really great to see this modernized iteration, keep up the great work!
that is really cool! thanks for sharing
Wish we had more teachers like you, dude.
“Very quickly changed that to mass accelerator” hahahaha, good work dude
That's awesome. My teachers didn't even know how to change the batteries in their TV remotes.
That'd awesome! Yeah, science!
A gun creating a significant EMP every time it’s fired is something I very much wish I had in MW2
To put this perspective: the GR-1 is like the musket (or even earlier) of gauss/coil guns, there's so much more to be done for it to rival modern-day weapons, but so did the early firearms compared to bows and crossbows of their time.
That's a good comparison for multiple reasons-- the bulk of the hard part going from cannon to man-portable firearm was in the size reduction, increasing the power, reliability and fire rate were fairly small refinements to the overall design. Taking this thing from something that weighs 500 pounds with 250 pounds of capacitor bank and causes the lights to flicker when you start charging it to something you can hold in your hand and fire repeatedly from a battery is the bulk of the really hard work. Going from that to a practical weapon is a comparatively small leap. It's already a theoretically lethal weapon, doubling the output power is a comparatively small refinement and would put this in the power range of a .38 S&W, a round that is indisputably capable of killing, if a little weak for the modern day. A 5-fold increase would put it in the range of an intermediate cartridge like 5.7mm
Yep, just like a musket its about a dozen technical innovations away from reaching its optimal form, but if anything it has one massive advantage: logistics.
A gauss, unlike a normal firearm, pretty much does not care what you feed into it as long as it fits the barrel and is made of metal. That is an incredibly cheap bullet to make. Of course, you aren't going to feed it scrap metal for fun, but what you can is have a bucket-load of metal slugs that are immensely easy to carry around and store. They can't get damaged easily, there isn't gunpowder that can get wet. Hell there isn't cases to deal with, and unlike caseless ammo you don't have to deal with a fragile casing or overheating problems.
That means that your requirements to produce and carry ammo are drastically lowered. And while making the firearm is harder, making the bullets for it becomes essentially workshop level trivial. Very much unusable in their current form BUT the progress in battery spurred by electric vehicles and smartphones is going to push the tech forward at great speeds.
@@dangerszewski9816 And I already imagine what would be the solution: A composite battery. There is a way to increase the current output of batteries is by putting them in parallel - the amount of current the batteries can support increases to the same degree to the amount of batteries you put in parallel, but for this application that means hundreds of batteries and the charger for those bateries would be challenging too, meaning they would have ho develop small batteries that you can build a parallel battery bank, and they have to be made with a good amount of precision as a voltage differential between batteries can generate unwanted current between them. As such, if the battery already outputs a high enough current you don't need a capacitor bank
@@mobiuscoreindustries It does need to be ferromagnetic, but you can pretty much just take a steel rod, cut it down to size, and then do whatever with it. Sharpen the tip for better aerodynamics and penetration, hollow it out and put all sorts of fun things, like high explosives, in it, as long as the coils can magnetically attract the projectile, the possibilities are nearly limitless.
@@suursuits7637 One thing I did think about is how the "propulsion" method scales a lot better with projectile mass. On top of that, the acceleration is a lot more drawn out and gradual compared to the thousands of G's worth of acceleration of gunpowder. So such a gun system would work wonders with a fin stabilized smart ammo or even just shoving a ton of explosives in it.
Never thought I'd live to see the day when I heard "do not stick a fork into the gauss rifle" being offered as real and legitimate firearm safety advice
It's not a firearm though. It's an energy conversion device.
@@randomidiot8142 How is a firearm also not an energy conversion device?
I say we call those electroarms.
All firearms are energy conversion devices. The gunpowder devices transfer chemical energy. This is electromagnetic.
@@randomidiot8142 I believe I heard the distant collective screeching of a thousand confused ATF agents
Surely anything you can fit down the "barrel" you should be able to shoot 😄, if it's possible, someone will😆
21:45 - you can hear the capacitors charging up like an old camera flash. I love it.
It's sooo much the same concept, down to the trigger design Ian talks about. Like my old photo camera, if I partly depress the button, it'll use power from the battery to charge a capacitor, making that noise, then the signal will come on, I fully depress and bang, the flash / gun goes off.
Sounds like I thought a gun of the future would sound like as a child. Soon the sound of guns racking will be replaced with the high pitched sound of capacitors charging.
@@42Antares42 Some simple DIY coil guns are built using the flash mechanism from those cameras
oh, to have tinnitus-free ears... every moment of every day is like an old school camera flash charging for me. Protect your hearing, kids!
Likes some shit from fallout lmao
It’s weird to think we live in a world where Gauss guns are actually real.
Scarier still is when they figure out how to make personal rail gun rifles - use a Gauss coil to inject the carrier at speed into a charged rail system; for now it's a big power and construction material issue.
Anyone know where to get a Vacuum space power extraction core?
@@user-ts1kj1te2j the future is now old man
They were real for a long time. I built one a few years ago. There's just not much use for them currently to be produced commercially.
@@CyberSpiderPrimegauss implies a permanent magnet. Any electromagnetic coil is a coil gun.
@@skypiratecaptain Gauss refers to any magnetic flux field, permanent and temporary. Creating one electrically just gives greater control of the field parameters. The term also differentiates the method used from a Rail Gun which uses the Lorenz force to electro-magnetically manipulate an object's motion (Gauss surrounds the target object, Lorenz passes through an armature which can be the target object or carries it).
Not all coils are guns - a coil gun is one that is used to pull and release an object in order to propel it. Some coils pull and hold (usually called a solenoid and used for various purposes like relays, car starters, washing machine valves) and usually use a spring (which is another form of a coil) to reset. Still others are used to create or receive magnetic information (radio tuning coil, metal detectors have both a sending and receiving coil) or used for induction to change electrical parameters (transformers) or generate heat (induction metal heating).
A coil is simply a length of material (metal, string, plastic, wood, etc.) wound up, how it's used defines its purpose (source material, structural support, electrical component, etc.).
Therefore, Gauss Coil Gun refers to a specific use of an electrically charged wire coil (Coil) used to create a controlled magnetic field (Gauss flux field) for the purpose of attracting and expelling a magnetically affected object (the ammo for the Gun) in a straight line (may have multiple stages for greater acceleration).
Particle Accelerators are, in simplest terms, multi-stage Gauss Coil Guns that shoot their atomic or subatomic ammo in magnetically bent circles (single or multiple streams, in one or two directions, simultaneously). The Coils both accelerate and bend the projectile path.
Ian casually dropping the coolest names in weapons tech astounds me
"Coil gun"
"Gauss Rifle"
"Gauss CANNON"
"MASS DRIVER"
I personally like the halo name a M.A.C. Or a mass acceleration canon
@@Zdkazz Magnetic Accelerator Cannon*
@@devastater97 ah, my bad, been a few years since I read a halo novel thanks for that
Magnetic musket
@@CandidZulu sci-fi blunderbuss
Finally, a unique weapon that isn’t just a reskin of another weapon. Although, the physical damage is pretty mid, the energy damage makes up for it, especially against robotic foes and metal-armored raiders.
Buff against synths with a 100% critical chance lmfao
@@a3nofficial25 Every shot a critical?
On the other hand, it explodes for 20 points of damage if it receives a critical hit.
@@jeremysaklad6703 Shit, I never even saw that. It’s one of those items where the item card doesn’t read all the abilities so you have to physically test it out first. Jesus Christ, it’s Borderlands’ legendaries all over again.
Honestly I prefer the ozone smell that comes from a plasma rifle
Quite a fascinating look at the infancy of a new type of weapon. It's bulky and impractical, but the fact that they have gotten the concept of a gauss weapon to the level of commercial functionality is still impressive.
It's a 13th century hand cannon. Looks cool and makes all the other kids at the real renaissance fair want one too, but needs a lot of R&D to be a practical military, defensive, or hunting weapon. Still, you have to start somewhere.
@@kentvesser9484 Technological advancement tends to be a lot faster now than it was then
Maybe instead of 300 years to get it right this time it'll only take 10% of that time
I had a couple initial "That was it?" impressions, then I remembered that somehow, somebody managed to make ALL that tech man-portable, and mostly unobtrusive as well, and I swung right back around to very impressed.
I'm surprised Biden didn't gift wrap this and leave it overseas as well
I think if the projectiles were smaller and lighter, and the coils wrapped around the barrel in order to provide spin, I think Gauss guns have the potential to be highly accurate and practically recoilless weapons.
I can’t imagine how crazy it will be when this thing is actually practical. It looks extremely unsatisfying to shoot. It’s amazing how much impact the lack of sound has on the intimidation factor of a firearm.
VERY COOL VIDEO
The laser flashing faster then going to solid when it's fully charged is just to let the player know when the boss is about to take a shot.
Sounds like the spartan laser from Halo
Being a Navy vet, I never thought I’d be around to see the day when we had a real shoulder fired Gauss gun. As compared to the rail guns. With the leaps and bounds the world has been making in battery and electronics tech in my lifetime I can only imagine what this will be like in the next 5-10 years. Awesome that we got to see Ian get his hands on it for us.
There are important differences between a Gauss gun and a rail gun - specifically the ablation of the barrel on rail guns. The interview Ian did with one of the designers of this prototype talk about those differences.
probably not much change except i there is some miracle revolution with parts of electronics used... some do believe that graphene can drastically improve capacitors and that is like 100 fold improvement but doesnt seem it will happen any time soon. but yeah that would make it far less bulky
In 5-10 years, they'll have slick injection molded furniture. The limitation of the battery not detonating and the gun not melting itself means that handhelds like this aren't likely to be anything more than a toy for a while. Bows and crossbows thousands of years old and even with all the modern technology of the last few hundred years, launching a projectile with mechanically stored energy hasn't changed much, electrically stored energy's efficiency hasn't improved much in the last 5 or so years, Tesla's last major improvement was doubling the capacity of a battery by doubling the size.
anymore 10 years in the tech world is an entire lifetime of innovation.
@@neglectfulsausage7689 I agree with you for the most part but the reason we don't have green energy rockets is literally because there's no other way to do it
You know this is a prototype when you see a deans connector on the battery pack cable! I love it, the whole thing feels so developmental and that's brilliant, we don't often get to see this stage only the finished item. 👍
Lol I was thinking the same! That's the same connectors I use on my rc planes!
AK50 lol
That said, I'm surprised to see 3d printed part
Yup. In 10 years it will indeed become a forgotten weapon even if those enter production since it's such an early prototype.
You know it's a prototype because it has 3D printed everything.
On Forgotten Weapons many prototypes saw screen time, the difference is this prototype is made with modern prototype materials and it's an electronic product which means 3D printed PLA, polycarbonate and standard boards instead of visible machining and other signs of hand-made metalworking
I'm amused at the thought of, like some electric vehicles, production incorporating some artificial sound to give the firing experience "a better feel", haha! We're so used to the sensory feedback of traditional firearms that I'm gonna need that powerful scifi charge up and discharge sound! 🤠
The film camera flash charge sound would be perfect for this
The next model will have a text-to-speech voice saying "Bang" every time you pull the trigger.
As with all things 'electrical that were previously chemical' - just goes to show just how absurdly much energy there is in a tiny amount of gunpowder/gasoline etc. Neat gadget. Look forward to supercaps/hybrid supercaps being a cheap enough thing to play with.
So true, there's a reason we've been doing stuff with chemical energy for a long long time. It's super dense packed with energy. At this point it's just waiting for the steady march of miniaturization, or possibly some major breakthrough with super conductors to make these caps, PSU's, batteries, etc smaller.
@@Sophistry0001 The energy storage issue and energy discharge issue may be eventually overcome when we develop sheet of stackable carbon nanotube weaves. Putting a few hundred layers of this weave one over the other could potentially hold enough energy to power a home for a day in a battery no bigger than a phone.
But that technology is still very much in development.
The important part here is that there is a possible solution, butt its still far too early to be properly deployed to mass market or even military's market.
@@Keemperor40K they already have surpassed that they just dont want you to have it.
@@Keemperor40K - these (obviously) Fossil Fuel-loving, Renewable Energy-hating mouth-breathers surely do not belong in the future. How sad for them!
@@GlowingFernSlowedAndReverb aww man, first they take away our antigravity devices and water powered combustion engines and now this too? 😢
The scariest thing about this weapon is how quiet it is. Imagine a battle where you don't hear gunshots, just screams.
I suppose at some point in the future these might be powerful enough to accelerate stuff to the speed of sound.
I almost spit red wine out of my nostrils at that comment
@@RyanTosh probably gonna happen sooner than we think
Just imagine all you hear is the screams and the rampant UA-cam Sex bots.
If it advances to the level where it can shoot any projectile above subsonic levels, there'll be almost the same amount of noise as a rifle with a good suppressor.
Reminds me of the really early lasers. They look ludicrously huge and foreign but they eventually got smaller and more practical.
Only thing is that every single component of this gun is way older than laser as a technology. Capacitors, batteries, coils, etc. It’s been in use for decades before first lasers.
God right, insane to think about. Now they are smaller then a duracel battery and just need to operate on one.
Yes but it took a lot of time for those components, mainly batteries, to get small and efficient enough to be used portable. Also the computer controlling it.
Although those components are low tech, they require high tech materials and manufacturing technology to make the gun practical.
This is a completely different problem from miniaturizing lasers. The power supply on this device has a much lower specific energy and much lower specific power than does conventional smokeless powder. That is a fundamental fact of chemistry and nature.
One of the surprising things about this is how quiet it is. After years of Fallout 4’s Gauss Rifle, hearing how silent the magnets actually are is not what I expected.
Same, especially after playing Halo 3 lol. That Gauss cannon was so loud
I imagine it'd probably get louder once they start accelerating slugs up to break the sound barrier
But i'm surprised it makes any sound at all, the plastic-ey sliding/clicking what ever is interesting to me
Prolly because those guns are firing more than 200 times faster at least.
and this is precisely why, it will never catch on or become popular, irl
Now go listen to the Navy's railgun... that's closer to the sci-fi speed.
If you'd've told me years ago that I'd be watching Forgotten Weapons review a gauss rifle in the future I'd say something along the lines of "I wish"
I'd have been like "Oh, you mean on April 1st right?"
But not a rifle. So a Gauss musket, I guess?
What's interesting is that this one, ArcFlashLabs' version, has been in development for a long time and I remember seeing their youtube channel around 2010.
Meaning that it was possible even at the early days of Forgotten Weapons.
@@WingMaster562 I'd guess the theory was ready by then, but it took them 11-ish years to make it portable. Which is no small task!
*Gauz harquebus, for it to be a musket it needs to be able to penatrate munitions grade body armour at the very least.
The "medium length hollow point" is actually just a "Drop in" concrete anchor. Amazing what can be used as a projectile.
Haha yep, I worked as a concrete cutter and immediately recognized that.
Nice 😂
Stuck for ammo in an urban warfare scenario?
Cut up some appropriate diameter rebar that's hanging out of a blasted wall. A quick bit of trim to make it reasonably uniform and you've got ammo.
The whole dang city is one big ammo dump!
Mind thoroughly boggled over here.... 🙃
@@deltavee2 wouldnt be too hard to imagine an attachment or accessory that does that. Just toss the rebar in end first and it spits out ammo.
Quick we’re running low on ammo, get to B&Q
This thing is so of our time, I love it. 3d printing, USB ports, etc. People in the coming decades will look back on this like we do those cool 80s top mounted lasers, even if the gauss stuff doesn't take off (which I'll admit I'm skeptical it will, at least in a small arms context)
The only diffnce between this and the US navy's gun.. is power sorce and no one honestly belives we hit peak battery or powerplant yet.
Even if they never take off as a normal rifle or anything, I'm convinced there will be a niche for these just in how quiet they are. They're not even trying to make this one quiet and it already makes a suppressed firearm sound like a cannon.
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough I wouldn't say that there's no difference other than power. One is a railgun with a multi-ton barrel with a life of 100 shots, the other a handheld coilgun with a perspex barrel.
One weighs many tons and accelerates about 4 Kg to 3 Km/s (or mach 10), producing up to 32 megawatts in muzzle energy. The other can be out-classed by a strong man with a slingshot. One needs a conductive projectile that doesn't benefit from added mass, the other needs a ferromagnetic projectile that automatically benefits from a heavier shot.
Different in every appreciable way besides being weapons driven by electricity and firing a metal projectile.
As we get room temperature super conductors, and better batteries I see gauss taking off for small arms.
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough If you mean the one on the Zumwalt it was a railgun, it's a very different weapon. It uses much more sophisticated projectiles but doesn't need complex coils around the length of the 'gun'.
This is absolutely incredible. I honestly did not imagine I could see this kind of thing working in my lifetime.
...
Do you live under a rock? You could build those (of the same power) 15, 20, and even MORE years ago! Literally nothing in this is amazing, innovative or impressive. The patent for those is from friggign 1904! The guy who made them, with that OLD ASS TECH managed to accelerate a half kilo projectile to 50 m/s too, just 20 m/s less than this too!
What i'm trying to say is, this thing's a useless toy that i don't get your excitement over.
@@mkzheroyou couldn’t make the amount of power in the size of device 15-20 years ago 5-7 Tesla is insane for a handheld rifle id like to see u make something as cool as this since you’re so smart and it’s so easy
I will say, this has got to be the first gun I've ever seen that has a USB port on it.
it better be usb c cause you don't want to 50/50 it on the field.
@@palmespilates1294 but that's what makes it fun
I believe the MP-155 Altima has a USB port for its camera.
@@palmespilates1294 you mean 50/50/50
Serge voice: “AQUEL! AQUEL FOLEEEE!”
Welcome to Forgotten Weapons, this is a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
First thing that popped into my mind too!
The T-800 wouldn't have asked for that weapon if it did not exist
A phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range was probably in the testing phase
Ah, the good ol' Westinghouse
You know your weapons, buddy!
"...Hey it's just what you see pal.."
Please Ian,
we all know the 3 second “charge” is a cooldown for balance purposes, this would be way too OP otherwise
Its honestly more unbelievable that the first that I hear about s functional infantry scale GAUSS CANNON is on this UA-cam channel, than such a weapon existing in the first place
This is the musket of the modern age. Primitive and unwieldy, yes, but a harbinger of things to come.
it's not, we won't be using linear accelerators outside of ships and weapon emplacements, simply because the energy needed is so great and there are very much hard physical limits to this type of stuff, eg: capacitor size to farad/voltage ratio, efficiency of the linear accelerator etc...
because let's be fair, i have seen slingshots more dangerous than this, while only weighing a fraction
@@quantuman100 but that is why this is just a harbinger it is like Ian said it is barely in alpha stage of testing
@@quantuman100 All it takes is one breakthrough to completely reshape our fundamental understating of science and reality.
@@SemenTheSailor yes, i'm sure that someone will come along and shatter our understanding of physics...
you know what the interesting part is? last time we put all the smartest minds together, something that basically gave us the field of quantum physics and was one of these shattering of the understanding of science and reality... we found that the stuff we where using before was still 99.9% correct!
turns out Newtonian calculations are still sufficient in order to have a workable but not perfect model of reality
so even if we have a modern solvay conference, don't expect that what we have until now to no longer apply, we will simply better understand the mechanisms behind it
@@SemenTheSailor yeah but I seriously doubt that a breakthrough of that nature will come from trying to make handheld gauss rifles.
Why waste money and time on this when we have far more functional weapons already, which could potentially be improved on.
Imagine about a century later, and Ian's great grandson is talking about how this was an ambitious gun that had some promise but ended up being a novelty, or remarking at how advance it was for the time.
Basically ending up like half the guns actually covered on Forgotten Weapons
why not both?
I wouldn't be surprised at all considering Ian himself is the son of a firearms exoert. I have no idea how far back this goes in his family but lots of us Highland Scots and Irish pass down family traditions for many generations, not unlike the Japanese.
Or digitized consciousness Ian using his mind-linked robot to have a range day with his man portable plasma gun as magnetic rifles that use metal slugs are so last century when all the cool kids now use high energy plasma created in a magnetic field before it is released and accelerated magnetically, so it hits with hypervelocity kinetic and thermal effects.
Honestly I don't think that will happen. Rail guns and gauss guns are some of the more promising "sci-fi weapon" technologies at this time.
Especially since there is a great industrial demand on the world market in general for more advanced batteries and ways to manipulate electrical currents (on account of the electric car industry).
Laser guns are much much further into the future, since the power demands for direct energy weapons are that much higher to ever be of practical use.
And then there's plasma weapons being a common sci-fi trope, but also presents a whole slew of other problems like being able to generate plasma hot enough to cause lethal damage and also finding means to project it in a desired direction.
So out of these three, gauss guns and rail guns are definitely the most viable.
@@sevenproxies4255 What makes it more effective than contemporary firearms?
Considering it's place in the timeline of electrically driven guns I think the term 'E- Musket' would suit it well.
Definitely! It’s long, unhandy, inaccurate and got to be charged after every shot.
Would "Thunderbuss" be too goofy? 😄
@@LuckyImpling If you could just dump a handful of steel balls into it and fire them shotgun style, "Thunderbuss" would be incredibly appropriate.
@@RedMageGaming you could already use masking tape and sewing needles to create a Flechette cannon, probably
@@LuckyImpling Not at all, since I was thinking of Gaussket. Haha
100 years from now you see one of these in a museum in the same sort of symbology as the earliest cartridge loading gun, something no one really picked up because it was just ahead of itself.
This tickles me given I worked on making Mass Drivers back in the late 2000's (2007-2009). This is working on the same logic and design philosophies I was as well. This stuff has matured a lot in over 14 years, a lot of it of course still comes down to issues with gates, coils, batteries, and capacitors. But this is a big step forward for man-portable mass drivers. So this was pretty cool to see as a former developer in the field.
Check out some of the modular kits on aliexpress, there's a bunch of 400V ones that exceed many countries joule limits for under $200!
Mankind went from the first flight by the Wright brothers in 1903 to landing on the moon in 1969. If we don't devolve into a new dark age thanks to woke culture, we could be reaching out to alien stars in a hundred or two years and crushing any opposition we encounter.
I have *NO* idea what you said yet it sounds cool.
I'm going to bet that if they make this open source we can have something usable in less than 10 years
@@mobrien7211 Kinda, the main issue is energy density in capacitors and getting that to discharge at a very high amperage to drive the EM field produced by the coils to high Tesla values. Which was the main road block I hit, and looking at their design, it was as well. There are some simple physics that are the issue, as well as just we don't have better capacitors because of a myriad of reasons, mostly, again, physics. There is only so much energy you can keep in one before it fries the dielectric and becomes a frag grenade instead.
Still, I can't wait to have a workshop again, I wanna get back into messing around in the field as a hobbiest this time.
Also I can imagine future drill sergeants yelling "for the love of god do not stick a fork in to the gauss rifle!" during firearms training.
Metal forks are entirely banned at training bases
Imagine firing crayons out of it lol
@jstorm 14 that is 100% not true, at least for army.
@@madmanthepope6448 dont give the marines any ideas
Next thing you know they’ve renamed FIREARMS training to just ARMS training
This XCOM play-through is going pretty well, we’ve unlocked magnetic weapons.
Magnetic Weapons available from the start of the game? I've heard of playing on easy, but damn. And we already have Arc Throwers (tazers).
"Here we have several magnetic weapons - generously donated for review by the XCOM and Xenonauts programs - ergonomics on the alien plasma weapons aren't so great, but we have these bad boys."
mf keeps it on em
I just happened to buy that on steam today lol
smh, this must be his first playthrough for not rushing sonic weaponry first.
Lobstermen are going to fuck us up.
I always imagined Gauss rifle tech would be most practical when incorporated as a way to enhance conventional firearms. You’d still use traditional cartridges with powder loads but you could get much higher more energy by adding a coil to further accelerate the projectile. Best of both worlds
It would be perfect, since GAUSS rifles could also have disadvantages and firearms can be improved and fitted with more improvements, what do you think?
Yeah you try and get the best of both worlds.
@@epicdoggo4925 I think it would be better, but do you think GAUSS would be better than firearms but improved in the future?
Im wondering if there would be a way to reverse that process. Have the powdercharge fire off, after the round reaches full velocity from the magnetic propulsion. Im just thinking that the magnets would do more to catch the bullet than aid it along.
Huge missed opportunity to shoot this at something interesting like a cinder block. Would like to see what these solid slugs do even at the lower velocity of this prototype.
so? did ya take the special offer?
WATERMELON!!!
I don't think it does much tbh. Still, that would have been my target of choice as well.
It would bounce off, maybe lightly crack it. Definitely wouldn't pierce or shatter it. You can tell based on sound alone that this thing is ridiculously weak. Not a true Gauss rifle. It's essentially a toy gun, equivalent to a high powered BB gun, at best.
@@monkeysk8er33 that sort of thinking is how kids end up on the news
I am having a hard time realizing that this riffle actually exist outside of fallout
Add another set of coils, and it’ll look more like the real deal than it already does
Trust me- me too. I play Fallout 4 and new vegas religously, but I already told my old lady Im getting one, Ill make videos on how it is to shoot hopefully soon. Lmao
i know the name from half life
@@roythegracious heck yeah
I'm having a hard time not seeing how accurate their design was. A lot of Fallout guns are just absolute nonsense but they really nailed the fundamentals with their Gauss Gun.
I’m amazed by how fictional gauss rifles like those in STALKER and Fallout resemble this prototype in appearance and function. Similar magazine sizes, charge times, even a charge-up sound (although the video game ones use much more dramatic noises).
The game devs must have done their homework, or life is imitating art once again.
In a sense it's the homework. A powerful flashbulb for photography, or even a disposable camera, makes a similar high-pitched whine as it charges. A battery dumping energy into a bank of capacitors is relatively old technology, at least conceptually.
@@thefez-cat absolutely, we’ve had the know how to do this for a very long time. Large Capacitors lots of amps lots of induction lots of magnetic field. Very simple theory. We just haven’t had good enough battery’s and capacitors until now.
Believe it or not, the gauss gun concept had been around decades before the game release.
"Until now" yeah, we still don't. While impressive as a dangerous toy, a 22lr is more effective than this thing.
Hell, a sling is a better weapon. Maybe in 30 years.
@Nice Until the next big war that is... *glancing nervously at Ukraine*
What really struck me was how quiet it was. Sci-Fi lead me to believe it was going to make a massive bang louder than a gun when fired.
Instead we get a quiet squealing noise followed by the sound of a crossbow. Terrifying.
There's an argument to be made that, in many cases, that "bang!" is the sound of the projectile breaking the sound barrier.
Forgotten Weapons, a channel that talks about projectile weapons in their early stages, so of course, it naturally should do this for Mass Drivers too.
It's very interesting to see weapons in their infancy stages, and despite being in its infancy, a few parts of this weapon has already amazed me in certain aspects to how "smart" the weapon can be, such as inputing select amount of joules the weapon shall fire.
This prototype is a great demonstration of what Mass Drivers can become.
Also the sound is really ominous, it's like a Crossbow with an harrowing wail as it gets charged, but keeps the decibels low enough.
I look forward to the future of Coilguns and Railguns and more prototypes of their kind being demonstrated on this channel, because they seem to be able to fill a different or a new niche with enough development.
@@mildlyupset6011 the spammer is the alpha of the AI that will inhabit future coilgun iterations 😆
Coilguns could easily be the Next Big Thing in weapons tech. Like smokeless powder only more so
This is definitely the first of a long serie, as batteries keep on improving. But seeing how the projectiles were just tumbling around, it feels like certain key componenents of the technology are still missing.
@@benoitbergeron8858 Two reasons for that. One, the projectile speed is still very low. Two, smoothbore. If they can get the speed up and some sort of stabilization to the round, that is when it becomes practical instead of prototype.
@@benoitbergeron8858 although it would complicate the ammo a bit FSDS might help a few of the issues. Thanks to tank guns we know smoothbore doesn't necessarily equal inaccuracy.
This really goes to show just how much energy gunpowder really holds.
It's high explosive
@@KneeCapHill Not... Exactly...
@@KneeCapHill its literally a low explosive.
Gunpowder doesn't actually hold much energy, it's a slow burning propellant. We modulate the energy released through pressure manipulation
@@21kiwi24 I mean, if you stuck a detonator in it, it’ll detonate. It’s nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose. We just don’t detonate it.
So that's how they felt in the 1840s looking at a Dreyse, or in the 1850s looking at the Gloire, or in the 1890s looking at a maxime gun! This is so cool!
These Gauss rifles are the future of warfare. They eliminate the need for gunpowder and casings, which will eventually result in magazines with immense capacities, as well as being able to carry more of those magazines. The bullets themselves will be able to be customized with everything from armour piercing, incendiary, explosive etc. Obviously over time the rifles will become smaller and lighter but much more powerful and adaptable to suit any kind of combat. I'm genuinely loving Gauss and Railgun tech, it's so exciting. ( I know they are instruments of death...)
War, war never changes
I thought your remarks were really interesting. Could you clarify why it is easier to customize bullets more with these guns than with traditional guns? Can't you make bullets with exactly the same kinds of shapes for traditional bullets? What hinders creative designs on todays casings.
And all Gauss rifles are silent, too. This could be a game-changer.
Not until battery technology makes serious advancements, both in terms of the amount of power they can store and in terms of how quickly they can be recharged or discharged.
@@erikengheim1106mostly the fact that when you put into perspective what makes a bullet, well, a bullet you need a lot of different things for it to actually fire in a gun mostly the gunpowder it doesn't leave a whole lot of space for different things and the fact the its propelled by combustion (Which as you can imagine is not very good for things that break easy) soo mostly the cool projectiles that have all of these features like incendiary or explosives inside the bullet are reserved for BIG projectiles like crew served AA's with things like flak rounds or tanks with things like sabots and HESH rounds the idea that I think OP was going for is having these features in a gun you can hold since a Gauss rifle like this is 100% more bullet per bullet and you have a lot more space to work with
SAFETY NOTE: Always treat the capacitors like they're live, like how you never ever point your barrel at someone
Yup, Capacitors have a nasty habit of sneaking up on you, and these things are monsters, if they don´t hurt, they kill outright. I guess, a few percent of residual charge is enough for a painful surprise
It's interesting to note that this rifle is never fully "safe". With projectiles removed the battery is still potentially a fire hazard, and even with that removed, the capacitors are still potentially an electrical hazard. That's a bit different to a normal firearm where if it's definitely unloaded, it's about as dangerous as a mousetrap.
@@cnawan Like firearms, unloaded this thing is only as lethal as you can swing it. Also, ammunition can literally explode, which is like the one thing worse than catch on fire. The rules can be contrasted as such: firearms and live ammo never mix unless you know what you're shooting at and it's a good idea to shoot it, and you should never ever touch one of those capacitors unless you are for sure certain that it and you are safe, because you can do all the things you need too with those capacitors with equipment that keeps you safe if those designers are worth their salt.
@@cnawan You can definitely discharge capacitors safely, depending on how the power delivery system is designed. But it's not an insurmountable issue.
People have to remember the dielectric absorption. HV capacitors need to be short circuited during storage to avoid this effect.
I loved this. These people treated an experimental weapon with the respect of any other firearm. Safe it by pulling the battery and the magazine. I respect the thorough "safety first" attitude.
Experimental means not as safe as production normally.
So if anything you have to be safer with experimental anything.
Frankly, despite this being 'low' power compared to a firearm, I am not any more enthusiastic about getting shot with it, especially accidentally at close range. Ian just treats all projectile weapons with the same respect he shows firearms. And we love him for it.
@@stillenacht8518 Crossbows and longbows are "low power" compared to a firearm, I'd sure as hell not want to get shot by one of those either.
@@spikem5950 Does the word 'duh' mean anything to you?
@@stillenacht8518 Was saying that as a way of agreeing with you.
Watching this gives the unique feeling of watching a primary source waiting to happen. Years down the line a historian is going to be thrilled to find this. Hello, future historian! I hope "Developmental Gauss Rifles: 2020 - 2062" is going well!
I'm graduating this semester in military history man! I'll be sure to closely follow these developments and maybe write something about it someday
@@Braziliansyrah You got a degree for knowing military history? wut? I know more about military history / battles over the ages from europe to asia to america :') not really good in name memoring haha
hi future people please make a biopic on me!! :)
Imagine what the military has/is developing?.... Oh Yeah they totally stopped funding their Railgun research.. uh huh sure......
I wonder if there's going to be Gauss hybrid rifles
Even though it's in its infancy, this is still an amazing piece of technology. This technology is what our grandchildren may be fighting wars with.
We shouldn't want that
I would hope not
let's just hope that by the time this technology is well-developed, we won't be sending young men and women to their untimely death in warfare
As a welder... wow. 16,000 amps?! For reference, guys, hardcore fabrication units run anywhere from 100-1000 amps. 16,000 @ 25 volts is insane. When Ian says that's a tremendous amount of energy, that's no joke. I run pretty hot welding rods at 170 amps @ 20-28 volts.
Im surprised it doesnt melt
One thing to consider is time. 16k amps for a half second is way less than 1000 amps sustained for 5 minutes.
Not to undersell the amount of power in the device, it's still awesome.
As Brad says, there's a big difference between peak and continuous power, and they're not really comparable without taking time into consideration. I have a pulse capacitor here not much bigger than a soda can that can dump 50,000 amps, but only for microseconds.
Energy (Joules) = Power (Watts) X Time (Seconds).
Jack's welder is running about 4000 watts continuous (170A*24V), or 4000 joules every second. So every 5 seconds that welder puts out more energy than the muzzle energy of a .50 BMG (5 seconds * 4000J = 20,000J) :O
That's some serious energy, but it's not all being released in a short burst with high power like with firearms or explosives.
@@clotz1820 duty cyle of this thing is tiny. That current is spent in milliseconds.
I do believe a fin stabilized discarding sabot has an use case here, because you can use it to optimize the shape of the ferrous part of the projectile to better react to a driving magnetic field and prevent fins from damaging the polycarbonate barrel, especially in the dead space above the trigger where the projectile was visibly knocking about due to limited velocity.
Lastly, I'd say that the real use case here, as with most "railguns" we've seen in development until now, is to have some sort of initial propellant and then acceleration with coils.
I'd probably attempt to use a pneumatic system for the initial acceleration, for example using CO2, which could in turn also be used to cool down the barrel because of gas expansions cooling.
But then you could just have a compressed gas weapon in the first place, which is already much closer to the usefulness of a "regular" gun. Electricity can be better used to compress air than to "mass drive".
Then again it can perhaps be even better used to simply drive a physical spring. Imagine a really heavy spring bb gun. Pretty sure if you used electric motors to crank it up the stored energy release would have much higher returns then this gauss idea. Just a lot less cool factor. That's my two cents.
Hybrid
@@beargillium2369 the handheld gauss rifle is an interesting concept but the real test is going to get the ideal projectile shape down, and then adapt it for use in zero gravity environments where the limitations of the system disappear.
even if ship to ship space combat is still a few generations away, this does appear to be a viable weapons system to use against satellites and other HVTs in near space.
@@beargillium2369 with current Batteries and Capacitors that would be a better use. Or one could develop an ElectoThermalChemical Gun with improved propellant mixtures. In an Ideal case scenario though Coilguns would be preferred over the ETC or your Airgun due to the shear amount of energy you could conceivably dump into a projectile.
@@localeightironworker why do you feel that gravity is the limitation? I'm 99.9% certain that conventional propellants work in space so I'm not seeing the benefit you're trying to illustrate... Weight saving perhaps? Solar charged weapons? Maybe there's something there
“This thing has the muzzle energy of a 22 long” that absolutely blew my mind. May not be a powerful round but I personally just wasn’t expecting this thing to be anywhere near that level of power at this early stage.
That's not much for the size of the projectile
Still wouldn't want to get hit by one
Wonder how they would interact with ballistic gel
100J is enough to kill
This is the gauss rifle equivalent of a match lock.
There is a lot of room for future development
With the advantage that the target won't fail to notice he was shot in the heart till after he beat you to death.
"Hey guys, thank you for tuning in to this episode of Forgotten Weapons. Here today, I have with me the arm I dismantled from a Metal Gear..."
"A metal Gear ?"
METAL GEAR!?
@@georgesears2916 hey its the boss to surpass big boss itself ! Solid Snake !
@@csam9167NO! That is NOT Solid Snake!
As far as looks goes, I'm incredibly suprised how close Fallout 4 got.
Holy shit, you're right
Like god intended
My thoughts exactly
I'm willing to bet it's not a coincidence
2077 is only 55 years away
Compared to hobbyist coilguns, which tend to be bolted to tables, this is wildly practical
I honestly wasn't expecting to see a handheld gauss rifle in my lifetime. Very curious to see where this develops in the future
go on the hacksmith yt channel they bild two of them
Why not? You can build one at home. It would be no stronger then crossbow or pneumatic rifle. Magnetic accelerators and magnetic accelerators from fantasy(because most of those don't deserve to be called sci-fi) are two very different types of magnetic accelerators;)
@@TheArklyte yes because everyone is just building gauss rifles at home. It’s so common
This thing is function only. No ergo or durability considered yet for sure
That depends, like so many other exotic technologies, on battery technology. If there is a breakthrough on that front we will see some pretty interesting things emerging.
"Do not stick a fork into the Gauss rifle" is something Sgt. Johnson would say
What you didn't mention is that you need an energy weapons skill level of 75 and a strength of 6 to use it effectively.
And high science and intelligence, maybe perception.
pfft. Like always a high CHA and no one needs to know you're actually empty.
@@jayhom5385 did I fire 9 dowels, or 10? Well punk, do you feel lucky?
I love the Fallout games, so thanks for the reference.
this is featured in this month's Future Weapons Today
The most impressive alpha/proof-of-concept ever.
Who woulda thought that hot wheels boosters would be applicable firearms manufacture theory.
It's both amzingly modern and incredibly crude in its construction. It's like a sci-fi Lutty,
More like Steampunk. Or better yet Magnetpunk. Or Coilpunk
@@mpetersen6 thats a pun-punk sentence
@@mpetersen6 Stop with the "punk" nonsense, call it tech or whatever, but it doesn't have anything to do with punk.
"You are overreating!" Perhaps, but that shit needs to stop, it grates my sould when I hear stuff like solarpunk or frostpunk... Cyberpunk was called that because it was some "punks" and low lifes using cybertech to mess with a corpo, not because it had anything to do with the tech.
On any gun, fewer potential points of failure is almost always better. Gun design is very interesting to me because it's dealing with energy levels that can easily damage the system, but the need for a gun is for it to always be ready to fire. A degree of simplicity is fundamental and takes a special kind of creativity. Future gauss guns may look nicer, but will probably have a similar or fewer number of moving parts going forward.
@@yeraycatalangaspar195 yeah this is a real punkpunk commentpunk
something you NEED to be aware of: capacitors hold power all on their own. this weapon could fire with the battery completely removed. particularly important when dealing with misfires, as a capacitor discharge could throw a "stuck" slug.
15:47 Sounds like they dump the energy pretty quickly. Either way, I'm sure this is something the manufacturers have considered
After all the preservation of history, Ian deserves to become a part of it. "Do not stick a fork in the Gauss rifle" needs to be a standardized marking going forward, and he needs to be heralded as the source
Do not stick a fork in the gauss rifle
@yep Maybe with proper inyection molded parts, they can use additives similar to glass fiber, like carbon fibre or other material to give it a " faradays cage " property to prevent the EMP from affecting external electronics.
Do not stick forks in the gauss cannon unless firing forks as projectiles*
@@alexeidmitriev6235 electric blunderbuss
Yup
"A 3D-printed gauss rifle" was not something I ever would have expected to see on this channel. I am reminded of Snowcrash's "Ultima Ratio Regum", especially after it misfired on the second shot.
I haven't read it in a while, but isn't the railgun in Snow Crash called "Reason"? The "last argument of kings" quote was definitely engraved on it or something like that though.
@@jm3267 Oh shoot, you're absolutely right! Well, that's what I get for relying on my memory.
Fisheye is up on his knees now and has torn away the canopy and space blanket that have covered him until this point. In one hand he is holding a long device a couple of inches in diameter, which is the source of the whirring noise. It is a circular bundle of parallel tubes about pencil-sized and a couple of feet long, like a miniaturized Gatling gun. It whirs around so quickly that the individual tubes are difficult to make out... The device is attached to a wrist-thick bundle of black tubes and cables that snake down into the large suitcase... The suitcase has a built-in color monitor screen with graphics giving information about the status of the weapon system...
"See, I told you they'd listen to Reason," Fisheye says, shutting down the whirling gun.
"...See, it fires these teeny little metal splinters. They go real fast - more energy than a rifle bullet. Depleted uranium.
That book and specifically REASON was the inspiration for the rail gun I made for my A-Level physics project. Just a shame the school's EHT supply only got me a muzzle velocity of about 0.5m/s
@@PsychadelicoDuck All good mate: last read it maybe 3 years ago so it's probably fresher in the mind haha!
Current coilguns vs firearms reminds me of early firearms vs bows. Early on bows were more capable and affordable than firearms until decades and several wars later firearms technology surpass bows in military use
Red dot type sights were around in 45 but didn't become practical till the 60s when battery tech caught
@@ivankrylov6270 yeah also ICE cars vs electric cars
Literally any technology. See also tractors vs horses.
@@odinatra yeah but what about all the technology that falls off? Maybe when we can’t make gunpowder anymore we’ll need coil guns but battery technology is gonna have to get insanely crazy for a coil gun to sustain fire in combat like a machine gun with a removable barrel
@@chinesesparrows elecric cars are around for longer than ice cars
Since it's Smooth Bore making the Projectiles more Aerodynamic would be a big improvement,great video and Archflash has made a great first step toward a Gauss Gun.
Gauss Gun Safety:
7:05 Rule #1 - Do not stick a fork into the gauss rifle.
7:45 Rule #2 - Do not EMP backblast your cyborg friends.
17:00 Rule #3 - Storage: turn off, remove magazine, disconnect battery. Don’t lick the terminals.
Rule #4 - Do not look into the laser emitter, because somehow you idiots didn't learn that one yet.
Rule #5 - Green = Good, Yellow = Hmmm, Red = Bad Day. Do not Red.
😂
I like the phrase "Do not open when live. It will kill you and it will hurt the whole time you are dying."
I would say that sounds like a USMC safety brief but you didn't include a warning to not attempt to... impregnate it...
For living in the future, the most terrifying noise to come will be the sudden high-pitched "weeeeeee" of a charging coil gun.
Especially if right behind you unexpectedly.
There are scarier things, that are banned but probably still are being developed in secret.
that's probably just the riffle interfering with the mic.
I'm hoping more for an "ominous hummmmmm". Heh
Wasn't that in 'Men In Black'?
@@bastian_5975 That is common sound of switched power sources, even the way it sounds is just same as loaded/unloaded power supply, you can hear how it changes during charging. If you will grab power source of your laptop, or printer or something similar and put it close to your ear, you would hear almost the same sound of square wave.
you do not need rifling to create spin with magnetics. if they incorporated this into the design and made the projectiles more bullet shaped to reduce drag then they could extend not only the range of the projectile but also the speed and penetration values as well.
Fun Fact. since this does not use any sort of combustion it does not qualify as a firearm and requires no license to own. not to mention not being illegal to possess if you are a felon lmao. The same goes for high powered Pneumatic guns.
Depends on the jurisdiction. Canada, for example, defines firearm as "a barrelled weapon that discharges projectiles capable of causing bodily harm or death, or anything that can be adapted as a firearm". Nothing about combustion.
Pretty sure once this tech becomes better and more lethal that law will be changed to fit these type of weapons into it.
@@yinanwang2244 in the uk its legal as the uk requires a propellant to be classed as a fireamr
@@yinanwang2244 um, thats Canada. though i do have to admit I did not specify america.
Some of those PCP .357 and .45 caliber pneumatic rifles are legit AF. I've seen like 405gr hard cast .457" bullets fired at 750 ft/s (505 ft-lbs muzzle energy, right between .357 SIG[475ft-lbs] and .357 Magnum[550[ft-lbs]) from PCP air rifles.
having worked in automation where we use these kinds of components, that gun is serious.
Something that struck me is the silence beyond a click... imagine a battlefield, major battle raging, in near silence. Would the sound change once they get it supersonic, so there's an audible crack from the round? Excellent review!
If this technology ever manage to get projectiles supersonic, yes, it would sound similar to a real firearm shootin supersonic ammo with a sound moderator on.
the supersonic crack alone would bring it to nearly the volume of a low calibre firearm, similar to an unsuppressed .45. However it wouldnt be a single loud crack, it'd be a prolonged kinda "zip"
yea, the only sound would be the soundbarrier breaking and possibly the sounds of the projectile spinning in the air.
I'd think it'd something like a integraly supressed gun using normal ammo, not as silent as sub-sonic ammo but still not very loud
Yeah, you would get a supersonic "crack" from firing hypothetical supersonic rounds out of that thing
I still can't believe we're at this point in technology. This is literally something out of and 80s sci-fi film
We have VR headsets, the ability to speak to the world from a pocket device, and AI manipulate our thoughts and voting patterns, in a worldwide pandemic, we were missing Gauss rifles for a fully cyberpunk reality, and here we are.
Basically this same technology is being used to fling aircraft off carriers. The steam catapult is no longer being built and I think I read any existing were being converted over.
@@aaron4820 Now we need neuralware processors and smartgun links to be fully cyberpunk
@@genuz yes and they are way more advanced tbh, this gauss rifle is kinda disappointing
@@aaron4820 then why does this reality lack the cool cyberpunk aesthetic lol. No I totally get your point
2022: "The long projectile is about as long as a .308 case"
2032: “We fire the whole bullet, that's 65% more bullet per bullet”
Love the portal reference I was thinking the same thing lmao
JJ Simmons collab when?
The point is that it could fire a 308… (the entire round down range…)
Awesome reference! Thanks for reminding me of one of my favorite games!
@@allangibson2408 Screw that, I want to shoot a slug made of highly unstable fissile material such as Californium at sufficient velocity to go critical mass on impact...lol. Can't wait to see the ATF ruling on that one.
It is amusing how such a futuristic weapon sounds like a simple catapult. Awesome weapon, and an amazing demonstration!
Would be nice to see a ballistic gel demo of the rounds and different power levels
That should be a nice YT-Video.
Its no joke!
ua-cam.com/video/G7SMBoNi0CI/v-deo.html
i feel like they'd just smack off lol
Yeah I'm really curious, seeing as he said it's about a .22lr muzzle energy, firing 6-700 grains.
@Steven A bow and arrow can pierce ballistic gel. So can this. Im not so sure with its current projectiles though. I want to see it with something machined with a spiral to it. Remember those old foam nerf footballs you could throw with a perfect spin WITH your eyes closed and hands tied behind your back? Something similar. Either Hollow or solid (not sure really) but a alloy sleeve of sorts maybe, with a cnc machined spiral down the core and/or exterior. Would likely help the projectile not tumble. With something like this im betting it would have no problem. Would also help its accuracy a ton.
Still a very impressive engineering feat. The things that can go wrong with just this prototype is immense and so some serious R&D has been done to mitigate those issues. Very good proof of concept and I look forward to the future of this tech!
No that thing is corny and only exists to show how dumb it is 🤦
holy keyholey. not impressed
@@kxkxkxkx PoV: You are a medieval archer saying guns will never catch on because they lack the accuracy, damage and range of the bow.
@@alexanderd6793 speak for yourself LOL
I can do math 👌
One of the serious r&d was very clearly trying to stick a fork in the gauss rifle
The most scifi gun of 2022 has a ring pull. This is awesome. Also, you may want to fire it when the marker is red, because super mutants. One thing to note, it's a lithium polymer battery with a deans connector. It's absolutely the worst connector type for a high current application. It will eventually desolder itself.
Gotta take my gauss rifle to a tech and get it rewired to Tamiya
"...alpha level of development...", you brain much? I guess not...
How is deans bad? I nothing about electronics and am genuinely curious. I have all my Airsoft/RC stuff rewired to deans
@@JohnSmith-oh9ux XT60 connectors handle high current better and are commercially available, they could've easily used one of those.
You forget it doesn’t pull from the battery hi Voltage. It’s pulling the normal battery voltage then stepping it up in the capacitors. Doesn’t need to be high current connectors at that state in the electrical system.
Yellow bar amkes sense in a situation where you need to fire even with the risk as a "it might explode", and the red bar as a "it will explode"
Remember, this is a 3d printed gun made by 2 engineers as a side hustle. Imagine if they had full factory resources!
Edit: I'm talking more about having a refined product that is less clunky and easier to work with. I am fully aware of the limitations of batteries. I know that this tech is not ready to replace firearms, but do believe it one day could.
Check out the Hacksmith on youtube. I belive they made a more powerfull version but it is illegal in canada. If they would move to the US I dont know what would stop them :)
Be DIY kits in a few years.
Perhaps they'll work on it full time after starting a company to develop these, calling it Cyberdyne Systems....
yeah they could manufacture a gun that sucks ass on spec but that has great reliability and manufacturing quality
It still looks like a very crude prototype. The muzzle velocities are pathetic.
To think In 100 years time when these guns have been refined and in mass production this gun along with this video will probably be in a museum somewhere to show people how it all started.
This better kill a deathclaw in the future.
I hope so. Actually it seems more like we want to use the weapons for a World War III instead for a museum. Hell I love weapons! Everything about them! But why do we use them against humans? Isnt it enough that they are cool? Let us blow some stuff up in a testing range and make videos of it and call it a day. For me thats good enough to justify the army budget of my country
@@mikecampos1193 Nah man, this bad boy's great great grandkids are going to gut Covenant ships with a single shot.
@@Ttavoc I am perfectly satisfied with this.
Maybe not, the plasma rifles also look promising )
"Here at arcflash labs we belive in delivering the best customer experience - that's why our gun fires the entire cartridge! That's 300% more bullet per bullet!"
Sounds like something you would hear in a Borderlands weapon manufacturer advertisement
@Aaron Cutting
Lol. Nice "Portal" game (Easter egg) reference XD
@@jfs1291 "Let's go ahead and get this out of the way: Most of my merchandise was taken from the hands of dead adventurers."
Aperture science hah
@@jfs1291 lmao very accurate 😂
I could see this being extremely useful technology for fixed applications. You could probably use 3 phase electricity to add spin to the projectile
In the year 2022, with a lot of technology and quite a lot of limitations (barrel temperature, charging time, etc) we have reached almost half of the energy delived by a 80g arrow launched by a 72-75kg @75 cm draw warbow during The Hundred Years War.
But, before we snigger at this weapon, the warbow at Agincourt was at the pinacle of its development spanning more than 7000 years.
This MassDriver is not even in infancy, but rather inception. Imagine (or rather not) what this will be able to do in 25 - 50 years time.
I doubt this will ever take off. See how many beefy capacitors you need to impart the same energy into the slug as the few grains of powder in a .22LR? They aren't going to get much smaller if at all since capacitance is a function of the surface area of the dielectric plates. To get actually useful energies into that slug you'd need many more caps or much bigger caps which would make it non portable. Chemical propellant is just a vastly more efficient and reliable energy storage medium when it comes to firearms.
Exactly. This is simply proof of concept.
I like how you snuck in the racist word just adding a S too get it in. SICK
Thank you for the information✌️
@@randysterling4700 Is it CM? I'm confused
The platoon commanders did not longer shout "fire". They say "energy at will."
İtsnot an energy. İst just Projectile that runs from a bolt with an extreme velocity. İts not a plasma.
The enemy shouts "charge!" so you fix banetes,then get cut down in a hail of MAC rounds
W-177 is still programmed to say "what did I do?"
They could say PULL, as in "pull the trigger", which originally comes from bows and refers to pulling the string.
It would be 'discharge at will'. Which sounds worse tbh.
Playing back at 25% speed you can see the projectile tumbling the moment it exits the barrel. Aside from the device itself being an alpha prototype, the ammunition needs a lot of work to make it lighter and more aerodynamic
They need to take some lessons from the real Naval rail gun - Sabot and stabilizing fins on the projectile.
Yes, I hear that it is a smooth barrel no spiral like a normal firearm, maybe that would help an engineer the projectile to suit? Seems like a simple solution, unless there's an engendering or physics issue I'm unaware of?
@@immarriedwith5kids514 its unrifled for simplicity so they can focus on the coil part of coil gun and do the gun oart which is far simpler later
@@ericjohnson6105 So basically, it needs to use something like a flechette round?
I think that smooth bore isn´t a problem at all.. first you need to achieve much higher velocity. I am pretty convinced that you can do everything else by developing a decent sabot round~ I mean.. look at TFM Channel, there is alot of stuff that flyes perfectly accurate out of a smoothbore shotgun.
I hate to have to say it, but licking this weapon is far more lethal than being hit by this weapon.