Pack Rat Workshop Experimental Firearm Designs

Workshop Index

Disclaimer: The drawings on this page are for informational purposes only. The black powder firearms have not actually been built and tested for safety and probably never will be because I no longer do any gunsmithing type of work. These are not detailed plans on how to build any of these devices simply because I feel that if you try to build any of these you should be responsible for the operation and safety of your own designs and projects.
Paint balls are just what they are, messy. You may also need cleaning services after your trial run.

Firearm Library Free Pdf Files

Paint Ball Bazooka

Simple Paint ball Bazooka It actually works pretty well if you use at least 100 psi in the air tank. It shoots about 24 paint balls at a time.

The original design used a simple ball valve as a trigger and I decided that it would look more realistic if the bazooka looked more like a real one so I designed the inline valve system for it.

It should work somewhat better as the air flow will be faster into the barrels. It is reset when reloading the barrels by pulling the handle back and replacing the firing pin to lock the valve shut. When fired the spring on the valve will slam it open allowing for maximum air flow to the barrels. The valve parts should be glued and pinned into place to insure it will hold at high psi.

Matthias Wandel's Home page plans for a compressed air marble rifles

Alan's Website Construction and plans for a compressed air powered shotgun

"Binaca" Ping Pong Ball Pistol

Here is one that is a little different. I modeled it after my son's paintball gun. There are a number of places on the net where you can find the little film cannister cannons but I wanted something with a bit more capability for having fun. This pistol operates on the same principal as the cannons. Spray a small amount of flamable gas into a chamber , close the chamber and create a spark. Bang! Simple right?.

This one operates as so: Pull the bolt back and a ball falls in front of the combustion chamber closing it just before the "Binaca" cannister pushes back against the rear panel. This causes the "Binaca" to spray a metered amount of butane and "Binaca chemical" into the combustion chamber. Push the bolt back forward and drop it into locking slot.

Aim and fire.   Do not wait too long to fire as the chamber charge will slowly evaporate because the ping pong ball doesn't really seal it up well - if you tilt the barrel down the ball will roll out. It must be a loose fit as the ball is not forced into the barrel like a real firearm. It just needs to be tight enough that the gas doesn't blow pass it instead of launching it.

The barbecue or cigarette lighter ignighter creates a spark and sets off the butane. It burns(creates pressure) shooting out the ping pong ball.

You get a bang, a nice spearmint smell and some fun target practice all at the same time. The ball will only travel about 15 ft though. A fun game is to hang up one of those little minature basket ball hoops and try to arc the pingpong ball in. It's not as easy as it sounds as there is no spin on the ball and two shots never seem to go the same place. Good afternoon game with the kids though.

A new "Binaca" will normally supply over 100 shots.

To load or reload the "Binaca" :
1    empty hopper of ping pong balls
2    pull rear panel retaining pin from top
3    pull bolt back quickly, will push rear panel out
4    remove emply cannister and remove sleeve
5    place sleeve on new cannister and insert
      into hole in rear of bolt
6    replace rear panel aligning holes in receiver
      and panel
7   replace retaining pin.
8   replace balls in hopper. DONE

This is NOT a childs toy. Use ONLY pingpong balls as amunition as heavier objects could cause the plastic receiver to split due to pressure and possibly cause an injury. Never use easily flammable objects due to a possible fire hazard.

NOTE Pushing the bolt back more than once will not cause the pistol to shoot harder.   What will happen is the chamber will flood with excess fuel and there will not be enough oxygen for combustion.  The pistol will not work again untill the bolt is reopened partially and charge dissipates/evaporates. The hopper should be emptied to prevent loading an extra ball and the bolt may then be completely pulled back and the chamber recharged with "Binaca" for normal operation and fired with the ball that was left already in the chamber.

100 watt Laser Pistol

I was wondering if the parts are actually available to build a real laser pistol... THEY ARE! I would cost a small mint to build but it could be done. Commercial lasers would work but all I can find are in the infrared types so an aiming laser would probably be required also. Now think about this. If we could build one from standard stock items what does the military really have available to them? I think they should have these by now!

Black Powder - Breach Loading

Bolt Action - 22 Caliber - Pistol

This is my most unusual design for a black powder pistol. The front of the outside section of the bolt acts as the breech face of the chamber in the barrel. To load the gun the bolt is pulled back, a 22 cal ball dropped in and then the powder.

The bolt is closed cocking the pistol and a #11 cap is placed through the hole of the bolt outside section onto the nipple inside the bolt on the back of the breech face. Gun is now ready to fire.

The picture shows possibly scaling up to a 44 cal. This is probably not a good idea actually as it would force the outside shell of the bolt and the reciever tube to have to become fairly thick to still be safe to operate and would make it difficult to place the cap and add a lot of weight to the pistol.

Yes I know it looks a lot like a RUGER MK2, thats what the design was originally based on before I started modifiying everything. (I think his gun frame was based on a very nice hand drill that they originally sold back when they were a tool company - the handles are almost identical)

I like the design of that pistol as it balances very well in the hand and like them I saw no reason to re-invent the wheel so to speak.

Black Powder - Muzzle Loading - Bolt Action - Pistol - Various Calibers

This is a very simple muzzle loading black power pistol.

Operation is fairly simple. Load bullet and powder from muzzle end, cock bolt and insert #11 cap on nipple, point somewhere safe and fire!.

Black Powder - Removable Barrel - Bolt Action - Pistol - Various Calibers

This is a modification of the pistol above. This version allows the barrel to be removed and another clicked back into place. Carry more than one barrel and save on reload time!

Concealable - Single Shot - 22 Short Caliber - Double Action -
Imitation 'Flip top Lighter' Gun

  A very small pistol that simply does not look like a pistol..

I haven't actually built it and don't plan to even though it is a working design. You notice that I didn't say a safe design? I don't believe any barrel that small would actually be very safe - Also I don't believe it would be legal to own without a rather expensive permit. I design all types of stuff during the winter when it's too cold to work outside and came up with this one afternoon when I was bored.

I added this plan just to show some of the unusual designs that can be done.  It is double action only as there simply is no place to put a cocking handle and it could be only fired once anyway without dissasembling to reload.

The barrel swivels up to load like the small tip-up pistols made by various gun companies over the last 100 years (not a new idea) .   The barrel is held in place by the lighter case itself when the gun is reassembled after loading.

The original lighter internal sleeve is used to hold all the internal parts after being modified by removing the chimney and top of internal case.

The breech face is pinned with 3 steel pins and they are either silver soldered, brazed or welded in place.   Another possible weakness in the gun design besides low barrel wall strength are these pins. Even though it is a working design but I don't feel it's safe to fire in the hand, the barrel is just to thin in my opinion. I have seen .22's with barrels no thicker than this but I don't really trust them either and won't own any of them.

This pistol should not be dry fired any more than absolutely necessary , as with many .22 caliber weapons the firing pin can and will eventually damage the side of the mouth of the chamber by hitting it when fired empty. A previously fired cartridge should be in the chamber when testing the mechanism , this will aid in preventing this type of damage.

   I have had a number of requests for a set of plans for this.   Save your time folks, there is NO real set of plans for this anywhere. I never did more than a hand drawing for the thing since I never plan to build it. It would end up costing $3-400 by the time I applied and got a permit for it.  I have never been the collector type and don't spend what little money I have on things that would just end up never used. BUT I do have the original full size drawing that I scanned in and if you want a copy of it , you can now dload it here.   It is a 3087 X 2040 X 8 gif about 4.9 meg in size.  It was scanned at 300 dpi and was originally drawn on 1/4" graph paper. The pic prints out to actual size, so even though there are not measurements, most people can use a ruler! Just lay a "Zippo" on the pic and you can see yourself.

Various spring loaded crossbow designs

These are just some ideas I was playing around with one evening trying to see if I could design a spring-bow that was actually strong enough to be usefull. A suggestion was sent to me that might make them work better. Instead of one spring, use two with one inside the other and opposite twists.