Electric ignited firearm?

My dad was a electrician and just built the electric BP pistol for grins. I don't think there would be any real market for it. A lot of guns are built for grins and have no commercial value. A electric trigger in a modern rifle or pistol would take the mechanical linkage of trigger pull out of the equation. It's not that new of a technology. Most weapons in aircraft
and multiple mounted machine guns have been fired with electric since before WW2.
 
For hunting & defensive use, electric small arms have never caught on because even when as refined as the Remington effort was, the market simply isn't interested in relying on battery power not to fail.

I doubt it ever will be, until we're beyond mechano-chemical systems & into something like more perfected lasers.
Denis
 
Nothing like getting to the range just to learn your gun battery is dead. Anyone got a CR2? 2032? 377....

I have a crossbow scope with illuminated dots and never use the feature because I don't want to worry about dead batteries or turning another knob when trying to shoot a deer.
 
Batteries are susceptible to cold, which, along with high ammo costs and other factors, is what killed off the Remington.


Range aside, nobody wants a battery or other electrical failure just when the buck of a lifetime crests the ridge in front of you, or when the bear decides you're in the way.
Denis
 
For hunting & defensive use, electric small arms have never caught on because even when as refined as the Remington effort was, the market simply isn't interested in relying on battery power not to fail.
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But they sell lasers by the thousands with slick advertising claiming they are a must have on any gun used for self defense!:eek:
 
It is a pain when you get up to the line in a match and your optic won't come on as the batteries are dead. That's why we preload folks under supervision and test the optics.

In a SD situation, that would be annoying. Good idea to trade out batteries like you do on a smoke detector. I also do that with flashlight batteries. I take the old ones and keep them for cheap utility lights and gadgets around the house.

I have a set of batteries for all my gadgets in my range back and in the car's emergency junk.
 
Hopefully,we all get a little creative cranial flatulence once in a while.
Then maybe we filter it through feasibility,etc.


I'm not interested in kicking the slats out of OP's ideas,


The old GyroJet was not electric ignition,but it had a reasonably similar layout to the OP's gun. The ammo was a rocket with helical jets for spin.It had a primer in the base,like a conventional handgun round.

It was magazine fed,like a conventional semi auto. There was a fixed firing pin in the breech face.


There is a hammer that whacks the projectile on the nose,driving it onto the firing pin.The hammer is recocked as the rocket runs over it.


The "barrel" is just a launch tube,that does not contain any pressure.


It was a flop,for a number of reasons.But it did create a stir.
 
Not trying to do any slat kicking, just advising OP that there's no commercial viability in the concept detailed here.

If he was doing his experimentation with that end in view, best to realize that up front before committing serious time and/or money into the project.

If just playing around for personal fun, by all means pursue as long as the mood motivates.
Denis
 
I spent most of my 30 years as a machinist working in the R+D "Model Shop" developing new products.
Often I worked off crayon and napkin sketches creating from scratch whatever the engineers dreamed up.
I've done the same supporting a University Engineering research center.
I've also listened to a lot of folks tell me what I need to do for them is make this simple little job,you just...…


Creative cranial flatulence is really easy.Its often easiest in bed,in the space between waking and dreaming.

I don't mean to be harsh,but its castles in the air.

You can draw a magnetic breech plug that will pull a steel cartridge from muzzle to breech. Easy.

But if you can't find the energy or creativity to set a steel 1/4-20 nut on a table and see if bore diameter neomidium magnet will even pick up the nut from 6 inches above....something is missing.


Dpris,I agree. Another critical component is identifying or creating a customer need. To be successful,you need a market.
 
You recon a chunk of flint rock in a hammer whacking steel might make some hot sparks without them batteries Hawg?

I suppose if you had no cartridge case,you wouldn't have to eject.....HMMMM

We might be on to something here.
 
Some guys get off building 12g rifles, others putting together a BP kit rifle. If guy wants to
fool around with electric ignition, why not. I see many guns today new in shops that have no practical value or of so low in quality they aren't worth having.
 
A bit of a drift from the main idea:
Maybe you can find the old movie "Carbine Williams".Its a real story about a man in prison to took an axle and a fencepost and crafted a working model of a short stroke gas operated carbine that evolved into the M-1 Carbine.
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Not quite accurate....too much Hollywood. Williams was a talented man for sure and did invent the Short stroke piston which was used in Winchester's M2/M1 carbine designs. The guns he made in prison are in a museum in NC.The bulk of the design for the M1 Carbine was done by others.
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2016/4/7/carbine-williams-myth-reality/
 
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I had an old Gun Digest with an article on building a muzzleloader to be fired by a model airplane glow plug. Sorry, I no longer have the issue and don't recall details (if given) about lock time and fouling of the element.
 
You guys never thought of putting a fresh $2 battery in for every major adventure...among all the other involved costs that make spending $2 seem pretty silly?
 
If this is for personal experimentation purposes, try using Estes model rocket ignitors. They are used with batteries to ignite black powder rocket motors all the time. They would easily ignite a charge in a muzzleloader type firearm.

For commercial applications, electronic ignition is almost certainly the future -- but it's not here yet. Yes, electric ignitors have been done in the past, but it wouldn't be the first time an invention was "ahead of its time."

There is nothing wrong with the reliability of batteries. They're chemical devices that are no less inherently reliable than primers or the metal springs that we depend on today. With N+1, it's easy to have redundancy as well. Batteries and electronics are easily waterproofed and they work in cold environments like outer space all the time.

The chief reason electronic ignition is superior to the moustraps we have today is because ignition can be initiated without any mechanical demand. The trigger pull weight, pull length, take-up, smoothness, gritiness, wall, feel, stacking, and the location of the trigger relative to the bore center all contribute substantially to the gun's shootability. That's the reason we have so many types of "actions." Everyone is trying to invent a better mousetrap. With electronic ignition, the trigger is mechanically disconnected from the mechanism that fires the gun. It's fly by wire. It does not have to cock the striker or mainspring. It could be better than the best single-action trigger we have now, and yet it wouldn't require pre-cocking the hammer or manipulating the safety. Why not?

That brings us to the second advantage: electronic control of ignition means computer control. If it's not your finger on the trigger, but clothing or a piece of the holster, no fire. If it's someone else's finger, no fire. Of course this could also mean that if GPS indicates you're in a "gun free zone," it could be remotely disabled. There's lots of other implications to remote control, but I won't get into all of them because they're all hypothetical "what ifs." But how about this one: Your eye focuses on a target. You move the gun up and press the fire button. When the bore is aligned to the target your eye is looking at, then the gun fires. You could adjust it to 1 MOA to hit bullseyes at long range, or to fire when anywhere within 80 MOA for the fastest shot on a man-size target at 7 yards.
 
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