Awesome Guns

Flasutie shows off an insane toy gun that looks and works like an oversized revolver. It fires plastic projectiles using a high-voltage igniter and oxyhydrogen (HHO) gas as a propellant. Before building the main weapon, he made a single-barrel unit to test its firing system. Despite the TPU bullets being relatively soft, they could still leave a mark on unprotected skin.

A coil gun is a weapon that uses electromagnets to accelerate a metal projectile through its barrel. It’s possible to build your own, but the high voltage electricity involved can be dangerous. Using the utmost caution, Jamie’s LEGO built a slightly less deadly coil gun using Technic parts, a bunch of 9-volt batteries, and some 100-volt capacitors.

How do you stop a bear from attacking? Take away his right to bear arms. Adam from North of the Border imagines a way to make a grizzly bear more deadly: by arming it with a high-capacity, rapid-fire weapon. After sculpting the bear’s body, head, feet, and hands, he imparted a fur texture before building a mini minigun and ammo pack.

Despite only firing rubber bands, we would not want to be on the business end of this wooden minigun. Generic Woodworking shows off the incredible amount of blood, sweat, and tears it took to build this impressive toy weapon. It uses parts from a lawn trimmer and a belt sander to drive its mechanism, and makes an unnerving popping sound as it fires off rounds.

Robotime’s ROKR division is showing off a flat-pack wood model that lets you build a replica of a Thompson M1928 submachine gun. The finished gun not only looks like the real deal, but it rapidly fires lightweight projectiles using a rubber band and spring firing mechanism. It’s even got a removable magazine.

The Slow Mo Guys were joined by Scott from Kentucky Ballistics to test how destructive a .577 Tyrannosaur rifle cartridge is by firing it at close range into thick blocks of ballistic gel. It’s amazing (and terrifying) to see how the bullets deform the gel and the destructive forces at work. No wonder they say these things can stop an elephant.

The S adds to his arsenal with an impressive-looking cardboard machine gun that can rapidly fire numerous rubber bands. It has a motor drive mechanism that turns a pair of gears when its trigger is pulled, sequentially releasing 16 rubber bands in just a few seconds. We wonder if he could double or triple up on rubber bands or if that would jam it.

Ammunition blanks are often used in stunt work and military practice exercises. While they don’t fire the same metal projectile as a regular bullet, they can cause serious damage at close range. The Slow Mo Guys shot footage of blanks being fired at various objects, revealing incredible details at speeds up to 82,000 fps.

Wearing a Kevlar bulletproof vest is a good idea if you’re in a place where bullets might be flying. But Ryan Kung wanted to see if you could provide a similar level of protection by curving bullets around a body with a vest made out of bent pipes. It holds up reasonably well to handgun fire, but bigger ammo is a bit more of a problem.

We know that firearms can be dangerous – especially if they malfunction or are mishandled. The Slow Mo Guys got together with Scott from Kentucky Ballistics to witness a worst-case scenario. Loading the wrong ammo into an already jammed gun doesn’t ordinarily happen, but the consequences can be explosive.

This handmade weapon combines the shape of a gun with a slingshot mechanism to fire a blade. Sabatkay Project shows us how he made this dangerous contraption that uses a modified kitchen knife as its projectile. Mixing elastic bands and knives seems like a recipe for disaster, so definitely don’t try this at home.

DanCreator is back with another cardboard NERF gun. This time, he created a Fortnite-inspired sniper rifle that can shoot foam darts. He built it almost entirely from cardboard and hot glue, with a handful of dowel rods and some stiffly bent wire for its springs. It uses a pair of small motors to accelerate and fire each dart.

The Slow Mo Guys offer up a brief lesson on how bullets work, then show us what happens when you fire a projectile from a tiny pinfire gun at the primer from a normal-sized bullet. It’s fascinating to see how a bullet behaves when it doesn’t have a gun to contain it.

Games like Goat Simulator and QWOP have proven that your game concept doesn’t have to make sense to be entertaining. Indie developer and VFX artist Dan DeEntremont is running with that idea with the creation of a game with the simple concept of a squirrel wielding a variety of firearms. Punish has the story.

Forgotten Weapons takes a look at an unusual piece that dates back to the 1860s. The Sure Defender combined brass knuckles, a wavy dagger, and a single-shot pistol in one. It wasn’t the most practical weapon, but it certainly gave users a variety of options.

When it comes to car acceleration, you can’t get much quicker than a Tesla Model S Plaid. FullMag equipped a Model S Plaid with a working M134 Minigun that just might be enough to convince slower cars to get out of the left lane. A second video shows a test firing with blanks and a night vision drive. (Thanks, Chris!)

Want to practice your shooting skills without heading to the firing range? The Zip Range Kit gives you pro-quality targets in your own backyard. Its paracord cable trolley system lets you adjust your target distance up to 100 feet. Great for practicing paintball, archery, BB guns, and more. Check your local laws before using.

Robotime’s flat-pack wood kit gives you everything you need to assemble your own working rubber band shotgun. It features a simulated pump-action mechanism and can fire multiple bands in sequence. Includes wooden soldier targets and plenty of rubber bands.

(PG-13: Language) Playing with toy cap guns is a rite of passage for many kids. Their impact-sensitive explosives make quite the racket at normal size, so imagine how loud a 5-foot-tall cap gun might sound. Builder Nick O’Hara shows how he designed and built his giant noisemaker, then used it to scare the crap out of his pals.

We’re pretty sure you can stop a bullet with enough layers of any substance. DemolitionRanch took a bunch of Kraft’s processed cheese bricks and fired into them to see how much it would take to stop various ammunition in its tracks. Spoiler alert: it’s possible he needs a lot more cheese.

Modern firearms are usually made from metal and maybe a little bit of plastic. While ND Woodworking Art’s handmade wooden machine gun can’t fire its wooden bullets, it’s still an impressive and detailed piece of art. Just don’t try looking through the scope.

Does your day not have enough explosions in it? Then tune in to Edwin Sarkissian’s YouTube channel for your daily dose of destruction. Here, he and his buddy Mark Serbu take aim at a stack of fully-loaded propane canisters and lay waste to them with some serious firepower. Yep, don’t try this one at home.

We’ve seen lots of slow-motion footage of weapons being shot, but this is the first time we’ve seen exactly what happens to a shotgun shell when it’s fired. Pistolas Refritas rigged up a trigger that fires a 12-gauge shell outside of the barrel, so you can watch as its gunpowder explodes, and its steel pellets go flying.