From the Makers of Nervous Legislators, Now a Canadian 3D-Printed Rifle

As I've mentioned before, developments in 3D printing of firearms continue on a distributed basis around the world, with many of the projects being discussed on the DefCad forums. The latest breakthrough is a single-shot, .22 rifle developed north of the border. Dubbed "The Grizzly" after Canada's take on the Sherman tank, the rifle split along both the barrel and receiver during the initial test, but the developer is already discussing improvements with other participants on DefCad.
The test firing can be seen below in a video uploaded to Youtube.
By the way, the Bundeskriminalamt — Germany's Federal Criminal Police — actually purchased a 3D printer to test how easily guns can be made and the potential threat this poses to the Vaterland.
My question: Given the cool designs being openly discussed shared and critiqued on public forums, what sort of developments do you think are going on privately? Please ponder that, especially if you're a government official prone to anxiety.
Update: I plan to start teaching my son to shoot this fall, and a perfected version of The Grizzly could be an excellent "my first boomstick."
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Golly, that rifle sure looks good for defence. I wonder how many meters it's range is, eh?
Can you kill a moose with it?
The RCMP have already indicated that anyone printing guns in Canada without the right licenses will be charged. 🙁
I hope these guys either have the licenses (unlikely) or have lawyered up.
I'd like to see them try and stop us. I mean, they're the Mounties. I'm just not going to take them seriously.
Savoire Faire is? everywhere!
Snideley Whiplash was a much better villian
You're mixin your mounties. Snidely Whiplash is the archenemy of Dudley Do-Right. Savoir-Faire was that of Klondike Kat (and had a better "catchphrase"). 😉
Oh noes! This is Rand Paul and the wacko birds fault! They've gotten to the Canadians!
We have to ban Libertarians 3D printers!
Dubbed "The Grizzly" after Canada's take on the Sherman tank
Much the same way Prince William was named after the artist former known for "Purple Rain."
They named the Royal Baby? after that singer from Wham!
Canada's take on the Sherman tank
Wrong.
The Grizzly is a lightly armored wheeled 6X6 that usually ends up being painted white and driven by folks wearing blue helmets. No sound mind would ever want to take one into combat.
It does have a 76mm gun that was also used on some Shermans. But the proper canadian version of the Sherman Tank was called...
The Sherman Tank
/armored pedantry - Cavalry BY GOD!
"The Grizzly I was a Canadian built M4A1 Sherman tank with some modifications, it had thicker, more sloping armour, had a longer range, and, most notably was fitted with Canadian Dry Pin tracks (CDP) tracks, which did not require rubber, a scarce wartime material."
Shermans of all configs are just about the most beautiful tanks ever made.
Are you kidding? The Sherman is one of the crappiest tanks ever made. The only reason we one WWII is that we could make so many that we could afford to lose four of them for every tank we killed and still not run out.
Sucked if you got assigned to crew one though.
we won ww2 because of the Russians.
"By the way, the Bundeskriminalamt ? Germany's Federal Criminal Police ? actually purchased a 3D printer to test how easily guns can be made and the potential threat this poses to the Vaterland."
You know whole else worried about threats to the Vaterland?
Bismark?
George W Bush?
Damnit. Beat me to it.
Kevin Costner?
Tom Kruiz.
Kevin Costner.
David Hasselhoff?
I forget if the link originated on the Reason forums, but I saw that one of the DD guys had put up CADs for a pepperbox pistol a couple of weeks back. http://defcad.com/forums/showt.....-Pepperbox
Isn't that what Clint Eastwood stopped John Malkovich from shooting the President with?
Look for the "DefDist DEFCAD MEGA PACK v4.4 (Raiden)", it's the latest version and has a bunch of different designs including the Pepperbox.
"My first boomstick". Man, 2chili, you are the best.
Wouldn't it be easier and faster to set up a mill the carve the plastic you want to use rather than waiting for a gun to print?
Seems to me they made the mistake of printing it to look like a regular metal rifle, with a somewhat thin barrel and receiver. That just won't work; since plastic is so much weaker than steel you need a massive amount of material to contain the pressure. The DefCad pistol had a barrel that was at least twice as thick as that one, and it was working with a lower-pressure cartridge.
Envelopes were pushed. Mistakes were made. Revisions were planned.