Canadians build first 3D printed rifle: it breaks on the first shot

[thewayne]

It's called the Bulldog, and they basically took the 3D plans for the Liberator 3D pistol and upscaled them to make a rifle, a .22 LR caliber, and apparently didn't do much to reinforce it. I'm not sure exactly how they failed since the Liberator is basically a proven design. Regardless, it shouldn't take much to refine the design and make a practical model.

One thing that I found amusing was the printer manufacturer said that their software was going to scan files uploaded for printing and see if they looked like gun parts, and if they did, not print them. Yeah, right. It's so hard to crack a system and create custom ROMs. Not to mention make subtle alterations to plans so that they no longer look like gun parts but ten seconds work with a nail file and they suddenly transform.

Making a 3D printed rifle was inevitable once a 3D pistol was made. The thing that I want to know, but won't until they have a working rifle designed, is how accurate it is? The point of a rifle is that you have a longer barrel for better long-range accuracy, but that barrel requires internal grooves (rifling) to impart spin on the bullet so that it gyro-stabilizes by itself and travels longer distances more accurately. I really want to know if 3D printers build rifling in the design of a barrel.

The fear of 3D plastic guns is that they're difficult to detect with current weapons scanning technology and that you could get a gun close to a high value target like the President. A printed rifle is totally outside this discussion because it's really hard to conceal a rifle under clothing. If you're going to snipe someone, you need a very accurate long-range rifle, and I don't see a printed gun filling that role.

It's going to be interesting to see how the media and politicians react to this.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-3d-printed-rifle-broke-after-its-first-shot-video

Comments

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

This is hilarious. Also, I would never tell anyone I was doing this until I'd done it successfully.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Well, half the fun is bragging rights. "We started this first!" regardless of the fact that it's actually "We can prove that we failed at starting this first!"

[silveradept]

Then again, it didn't take too long for the plastic handgun(?) people to get their weapon to fire several hundreds of rounds without jam or breakage.