Canadian decides to see for himself what the fuss is about

Dec 19, 2014 16:16 GMT  ·  By

So much outcry has been caused because of 3D printed guns over the past 2 years that it's astonishing to behold sometimes, with Japanese people being sent to prison and the Australian congress debating whether or not they're legal.

A Canadian man known as Tristan (or alkali_feldspar on Reddit) decided to see for himself if all the hysteria is justified. His method? 3D printing his own gun of course!

And not just any random gun, but a full hunting rifle that is 100% legal in Canada, according to him anyway.

The trickiest part was getting the components to print properly without them warping.

The basis for the rifle was a blow-back operated .22 caliber gun with more than 50 years of history: the Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic.

He had to adapt the blueprints in due to the material changing from metal to PLA plastic (he had to include more material).

The bolt, barrel, trigger and stock were printed only when he was satisfied that the action would handle the pressure.

Initially, the weapon came out wrong (to say the least) since he'd only split the action into two sections, but then he cut it into three and that left few enough overhangs for the gun to work.

The weapon was glued together at the end. The first gluing failed, but a second try worked as intended. Apparently, even after 200 test rounds the weapon is still going strong.

Tristan chose not to publish the designs. The weapon may be legal in Canada, but international gun trafficking laws could descend upon him if he shared what he created. Just as well. No need to encourage gun proliferation.

3D printed rifle (4 Images)

3D printed rifle
3D printed rifle in the snow3D printed rifle action mid-print
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