Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward64
My son's high-school has several of the 3D printers too.
I guess my question is - its not just access to 3D printers, there are commerical ones and industrial ones. You also need to proper materials I think. Can a commercial printer really create a pistol/bullets and it be reliable & workable?
I lean more towards worrying about real firearms vs 3D printed ones right now.
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It cant produce "bullets" that's a given. Now it could produce casings and tips. But you'd need to add gunpowder and you'd need to own a crimper to seal the casings. You'd also have to buy primers and load them into the printed casings.
There are polymer composite bullets on the market today. They still rely on a brass casing however. They also do not expand like lead so they are "safer" I suppose. They also will destroy (plug) the rifling on a standard gun.
Now it is worth noting that the DOD is using some polymer cased ammo currently. (polymer cased with lead projectile) With the intent being to reduce pack weight of ground troops. It has had mixed reviews and several deaths have been attributed to case failure. These are government contract bullets. Knock offs printed by little Eric in the high school library are likely even more susceptible to this. And again he has to take these composite cases and pour powder and hand seal them.
Ive hand reloaded for years because I enjoy it, again that isnt anything new - every competition target shooter has their own closely guarded secret recipe for accuracy - but its a slow tedious process. The least of my worries is that kids start shooting up more schools because they can hand load bullets and print guns.