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This homemade propane rifle is an accident waiting to happen

Remember when we just had bows and arrows? That was quainter. Let's go back to that.

 

AJ Dellinger

Internet Culture

Posted on May 21, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 6:54 pm CDT

You have a propane torch, a two-by-four, some clear tubing, and a water bottle. What are you going to do with it?

If you’re like most people, you’ll just put the items in their proper place in your garage and go about your business. But if you’re YouTuber and amateur MacGyver impersonator the Backyard Scientist, you take those tools and turn them into a crazy weapon straight out of a sci-fi flick.

The Backyard Scientist runs through a few different iterations of his design in his brief video. In some instances, the rifle just produces a flame or some sparks. But the amateur scientist takes it a step further and turns the propane gun into a golf-ball-launching cannon.

In reference to the golf-ball cannon, the Backyard Scientist writes, ‘This experiment was not explody enough for me, so I used the same concept to build a propane powered cannon. This is honestly the best gas cannon I’ve ever used, it is just so simple. You could probably shoot 20 golfballs a minute the length of a football field or farther. The canon shot golf balls over 600 feet in the air!”

We’d tell you not to try this at home, but the whole video essentially explains exactly how to build one of these rifles. So just don’t blow yourself up, please.

H/T Sploid | Screengrab via TheBackyardScientist/YouTube

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*First Published: May 21, 2015, 6:06 pm CDT