Plastic Gun Barrels?

S

Skans

New member
Has anyone developed a plastic gun barrel yet? It seems to me that certain plastics would work fine for cheap, disposable gun barrels, especially with .22 cartridges - maybe even higher power cartridges. Is there any legal prohibition against developing / using plastic gun barrels? Just asking out of curiosity - I have no intention or ability to make one.
 
Can it be done, yes? has it been done? yes, is it legal? maybe. There are even plastic cartridges and bullets that have been manufactured.

Big flap, late 60's when H&K came out with the VP70. LE was concerned they could make it through metal detectors undetected (especially at airports and courts) Anyway, the law is that there must be X oz of metal in all firearms (don't remember the number, but it was more than enough for teh metal detectors to react to)
 
All plastic - no metal. By plastic it could be a flexible polymer, stiff carbon-fiber, polymer-fiber, etc. I would bet that such a barrel could be manufactured capable of more than one shot. Maybe many shots.

If someone developed an all-plastic gun, would it fall under NFA?
 
I don't want a disposable barrel. I just want to know if anyone has attempted to make plastic barrels for pistols, even if they can only handle a few shots. It seems like the technology is there for this. I'd bet that one can be made that can withstand hundreds, maybe even thousands of rounds. Maybe not. I don't know, but would like to know.
 
I would think we'd have to look to alternate materials for the projectile (lead vs. plastic might be tough) and casing (no sense having a non-metallic gun and metal in the ammo.)

Some of the high tech plastics are very capable in terms of tensile and temperature strength, but I don't know of one that could hold 'rifling' in the conventional sense against a lead bullet at 800+ fps. Could be there's one out there, though...

I believe the rest of the gun is a done deal with plastics already in use, with the sole exception of springs; not sure how you'd do a magazine spring or main spring in polymer, for instance.

Larry
 
I was wondering if something like common, like Delrin could be used for barrel material for a small caliber like .22. Am I way off in thinking this?
 
You could argue that any firearm with an easily changeable barrel-Dan Wesson, M1911, M-60 Machine Gun (SIG SHR 970 )-has a "disposable" barrel.
What sort of heat is generated when a round is fired? I haven't heard of any plastic cooking utensils-frying pans, stewpots, etc. Ceramic, yes, plastic no.
Or at least not any plastic I am familiar with.
 
I don't think heat would be the problem. There are plastics that can take enough heat to be used as gaskets in engines. The problem would be chamber pressure and also the force required to engrave the metal bullet into the plastic rifling. It can take up to several thousand PSI to engrave the bullet and I don't know of any plastic that could take the chamber pressure which generally start at maybe 18,000 psi and go as high as 65,000 psi.

Maybe there are plastics that could do it but I bet if there are they are MANY times more expensive than steel.
 
There used to be a light weight barrel for the 10-.22 Ruger that was a thin barrel liner in a plastic housing. I don't know how it shot since I don't have a 10-.22 and I wouldn't buy one of those barrels if I did.

Tony
 
What's going to kill you for anything reusuable is heat. There are very few materials you can use to make composites that can take the tensile load and that can take more than 400 F temperature. And the few that are out there and work up to 650F cost about $700 a pound. You would have to go with a smooth bore (probably want a sabot design) and an open-bolt construction to extract the hot casing immediately before it can weld itself to the plastic. You also have to consider shock loading, just because something can take the tensile load it's not always clear it also can take the dynamic load (carbon fiber is notoriously brittle, might have to go with s-glass).
In addition, you need something with a pretty high density to make a decent projectile, and that will still show strongly on any x-ray scanner even if it does not set off the magnetic detector.
 
I'm not concerned whether or not a plastic barrel can make it through x-ray scanners. I really just want to know if there is a plastic (no metal liners or ceramics) or combination of somewhat ordinary and available plastics that 1) will not melt (slow fire) 2) will not suffer a catastrophic destruction and 3) will channel a lead bullet through its rifled bore with some degree of accuracy out to around 50 feet.

I have a hard time imagining a .22 LR cartridge destroying a modern plastic barrel - even if it has to be substantially wider than a steel barrel. Given the fact that certain plastics are easy to machine, and that some pistol barrels are relatively simple in design, I'm a little surprised that this has not been attempted. But, maybe it has and it was a total disaster.
 
Im sure the kings of cheap construction would know... Someone get Glock on the phone.....:p and yes Im pulling chains but its meant in fun....
 
Talking about disposable guns/gun barrels -

The movie was "in the line of fire". A *wooden handgun was made to shoot 38 special bullets. It did actually fire and the movie does a decent job of showing all the steps that were used to make the gun.

I guess for a disposable gun/barrel this would be the way I'd go since *wood is very very easy to work with and most people already have the tools to do so. It's made mostly from household type items and could be chambered for just about anything you'd like.

That being said - I suppose the same could be done with plastic or an acrylic of some sort.

In The Line of Fire
scroll about halfway down to "composite pistol"

*Correction - The gun is made of composite not wood - and there is metal for the springs and ammo - but the rest is apparently made of a composite material.
 
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Seems like it might be possible to bond a softer material (plastic?) to lead and use that to engage the plastic rifling, while still maintaining relatively heavy bullets.
 
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