Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/12/pew-pew.html
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i come here for wonderful things, not descriptions of my private, intimate activities! 
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Why shot a defenseless Lego Minifig? Looks like he was just having a coffee and not bothering anyone.
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It’s so tiny you can’t even see it in the slo mo camera. Color me surprised it made it through the whole can. Wonder how fast it was going.
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Wow, you really have to double check when someone says “2 inches”. I was expecting something, ahem, bigger. Big guns are measured by their bore diameter, like the 16 inch guns on Iowa-class battleships.
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The ball probably doesn’t weigh all that much. So even though its basically just stuffed in a primer, I’d imagine its moving pretty fast.
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Do not mess around with pinfire guns at home.
How exactly would you fire one of these things in a way that didn’t constitute messing around?
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I really hope the miniaturization doesn’t make these prohibitively expensive because I really want one.
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But like a lot of things, they vary in price. You can even find some old ones on ebay, as they aren’t fire arms. Looks like new you can find them for <$100.
Pin fire is an OLD ammo type and pre-dates both rim fire and centerfire. So called because the hammer strikes the little pin that strikes the priming agent in the round.
Originally they were for “normal” sized ammo, not just these tiny 2mm things. But the drawbacks in design and developments in ammo lead to them being not really used any more.
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Sounds reasonable, thanks for the insight.
I thought I saw that on the ejected round but I didn’t understand what I was looking at.
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I remember quite cheap ones being advertised in the back of goofy magazines back when I was younger. But I just googled it and Jesus fucking Christ. Both to how expensive a lot of these are. And how deeply weird the miniature weapons and military junk hobby is. Quarter scale Nazi daggers!
So self contained cartridges are ignited by a primer. A small little sub charge of volatile chemicals that burns up when exposed to a sharp blow. In the pin fire its contained in a little metal cup sort of thing inside the side wall of the casing. The pin in pressed into it and projects out the side of the full casing. Hammer hits the pin. Pin hits the primer. Primer lights up, and burns up the powder. Gun goes off.
The usual types of ammunition we see these days are center fire where that little cup of primer is mounted in the base, and struck by an external firing pin. And rim-fire (usually for small ammo) where its embedded in a hollow rim of brass at the base of the cartridge, and also struck by an external firing pin.
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I’m familiar with how center fire works but didn’t know the other methods.
The first firearm I ever shot was a black powder rifle with a ball I poured myself and a percussion cap on the hammer. After that I could grock having everything self-contained in the round.
I only noticed the pin in the video after ejection so I thought it was an after effect but i wasn’t really thinking about it critically
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I shot a cap and ball revolver once. Its a bit terrifying. But it does make how a gun works ABUNDANTLY clear. You can hear the different stages of ignition going off.
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I wonder how much the pinfire ammo costs, and if anyone even makes it anymore.
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Ten 2mm Pinfire ROUND/BALL-TOP Handmade LIVE ROUNDS x10]: $39.90
same site also sells the targets in the videos.
You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t directly link to what is googlable.
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Wow. So, $3.90 a pop. hold on a sec… WHAAAAAA!!!
I suspected expensive because pinfire, but $3.9 per?
You could buy 50BMG for less than that (well, if I didn’t live in CA, and wanted to kill my shoulder with each shot).
Man, I think I’d make something weird like an old spanish pepperbox pistol before I sunk the $ into this weird little gun.
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have you tried a baby cannon?
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Oh man, I’ve seen these! (and really really thought about getting one)
But… I live in standard suburban neighborhood, and don’t want to be the asshole neighbor.
(bur I do have dreams about making a giant damascus block, and drilling and milling out a maybe 8 barrel cylinder for a pepperbox)…
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Compromise: how about a baby Katyusha?
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Jesus Marion Joseph I wish current day You Tube existed when I was a juvenile delinquent.
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