So a few questions, cost to build?
Legality?
Effectiveness? Got the idea after learning about them from the Garaed Bull thread
Combustion light-gas gun as a weapon
Anthony Ortiz
Aaron Perez
Anyone?
Carter Hernandez
Help out your own thread by providing an overview of what you're talking about and link to some examples/elaborations.
Easton Morales
The light gas guns I have heard of are huge stationary things used for experiments, not weapons. They use dual stages and burst discs. Not feasible as a weapon at all. Maybe as some benchtop toy.
Christopher Taylor
>Combustion light-gas gun
en.wikipedia.org
Leo Edwards
None of those questions can really be adequately answered by most people on this board. Cost is certainly impossible to estimate. On the legality front, I don't think they'd be regulated as firearms or destructive devices under the NFA, but I have no idea. When it comes to effectiveness, there's really not enough of a need for the velocities achieved by a light gas gun that outweighs the various drawbacks (complexity vs other systems, potentially lower durability, cost). The main reason rail guns are being looked at as a practical way to achieve high velocity projectiles is due to their relative simplicity vs both light gas and traditional artillery. Overall, light gas guns will likely continue to be relegated for laboratory use only.
en.wikipedia.org
If you like the idea of super long range artillery, though, this might be interesting to you:
breakingdefense.com
Basically, the Army is looking to fire rocket-assisted shells out of a huge cannon as a lower-cost alternative to targeted cruise missile strikes.
Tyler Murphy
Are you talking about building one yourself or are we talking as a military weapon? What size are you imagining? Handheld, cannon, artillery?
Kayden Cook
Building on as a mil weapon.
Or a group of Patriot using one as an ambush tool for armor...in minecraft of course
Chase Wright
legally they would be regulated by the ATF, probably as destructive devices because they are large bore weapons that use explosive chemical propellant
Owen Cruz
Well as far as legality assuming you are in the USA.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Luke Harris
But it would be using a gas you ignite
Blake Cox
These are fairly common in the potato gun / spudgun communities, often called a "hybrid" system, because they rely on a slightly compressed flammable gas, such as MAPP/Atmosphere or Propane/Atmosphere mix, compressed behind a burst disk to 2-10 PSI. I've heard of people achieving supersonic velocities with projectiles like soda cans full of concrete.
Ayden Cooper
Neat. Never knew that was a thing at the hobbyist level.
Liam Baker
yes and that gas is still a chemical explosive you idiot. potato cannons are destructive devices but the ATF often does not enforce against them. If you use them to launch explosive mortar payloads they will most certainly enforce it.
Asher Morris
Aren't non-cartridge weapons not subject to the NFA? Muskets and other muzzlelaoders, including cap and ball revolvers aren't considered firearms for the purposes of the NFA, right?
Zachary Rivera
Me and a buddy made on of these. It would launch golf balls into fucking orbit. Compressed oxygen and butane. Fired remotely on a tripod because it was basically a bomb with extra steps.
No
Charles Campbell
It depends on the ignition system. "antique firearms" are exempt from the NFA, but what constitutes an antique is based on either the year of design of the weapon (pre-1898) if it uses cartridges, or the ignition system if it does not.
Xavier Ward
>yes and that gas is still a chemical explosive you idiot. potato cannons are destructive devices but the ATF often does not enforce against them. If you use them to launch explosive mortar payloads they will most certainly enforce it.
God, is fucking everything I want in life illegal?
Liam Perez
Potato canons are muzzleloaders, idiot.
Kevin Scott
Explain away electric ignition muzzleloaders
Isaac Gutierrez
What else did you shoot from it?
Any fails?
James Butler
Legality = pneumatic gun
Spud gun laws might be similar.
Usefulness? Low. LGG work best when there is a vaccuum in front of the projectile, or at minimum a light gas.