I want to build a coil gun that can shoot .22 rounds at around 1250fps.

I need a gun for hunting, and I don't want to buy one. I want a coilgun because there are no guns on the market that can shoot a .22 at 1250fps, I won't have to pump it 50 times to shoot it, and it'll be much quieter then any traditional gun today.

I'm planning to do this with a car battery, and some disposable camera flash circuits.

My question is, how fast does 1 flash circuit shoot a bb? I remember reading it somewhere, but I don't remember.

Also, with that many, would I car battery be enough?

If flash circuits prove to be too hard to use, I'm open to alternatives.

First of all, you can't propel a .22 round with a coilgun. Your projectile must be ferromagnetic. Second of all, 1250 fps is significantly faster than the speed of sound. That is going to take a lot of power, and probably multiple stages of coils. you'll need very large capacitors, and solid-state switches to minimize power losses. A coil gun is no easy feat to make. You'll also need a massive transformer to charge the capacitors, and a car battery probably will not be the best option for power.

If you just want a cheap, high-powered, quiet projectile weapon to hunt with, I suggest looking at making a pneumatic weapon. You can easily make one from PVC, and you could configure a way to have several cartridges of compressed air ready to fire with. Plus, you can use whatever kind of projectile you want.

Yeah I'm thinking air power is the way to go here. You can get a dive tank or a smaller paintball air tank for portability. A coilgun of that magnitude is going to be seriously complicated, I just don't think it's feasible.

-N-

Although its certainly not easy, if you were sure you wanted to go down this route (and had a reasonably good knowledge of electronics) I would recommend buying some large very high power transistors and finding out which gauge of wire will give you optimum magnetic field with the max current etc. You will probably want to design a circuit that uses optical sensors (photodiodes/laser diodes/LEDs) to fire each coil stage.

The .22 slug will also need to be made out of iron/steel, nickle, or cobalt so you'll likely have to buy/lathe down bits of rod.

I'm not trying to be that guy in DIY telling you to just go and buy something, but Walmart has a .22lr rifle for around $100.
Just sayin...

Not everyone wants to deal with the legalities of buying a gun.

-N-

Not everyone wants to deal with the legalities of buying a gun.

-N-In most states it's really not much of a hassle to buy shotguns & rifles, and MN is one of those states. The only requirement is that you be 18 or older and have a clean record...
MN gun laws (http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/MNSL.pdf)
gun laws by state (http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws/)

I need a gun for hunting, and I don't want to buy one. I want a coilgun because there are no guns on the market that can shoot a .22 at 1250fps, I won't have to pump it 50 times to shoot it, and it'll be much quieter then any traditional gun today.

Since 1250fps is super sonic, you are still going to hear that crack. It wont be silent at all.


Your coilgun is going to cost you more than a decent bolt-action.