Here’s something you don’t see too often… someone firing *numerous* rounds from a Gyrojet. Each of these .45 caliber rounds are solid propellant rocket units, last manufactured in the 70’s or so. They apparently run about $200 *each,* which makes me wonder if there might be a market for newly manufactured ammo. As a practical home defense, police or military weapon… the Gyrojet basically wasn’t. It took something like 50 feet for the round to reach maximum velocity, which means at close range it might just bounce off an opponent. But as a range toy they might be fun, especially if the cost per round could be dropped substantially. And there’s no reason why it can’t… sure, each round is more complex than an equivalent conventional bullet, but they are just some basic parts with 1960’s rocket propellant. And that last could doubtless be improved; better propellant, better grain design and better manufacturing of the nozzle plate could *really* boost performance.
The claim is made here that the Gyrojet was designed to be used in space because they were uncertain if conventional gunpowder firearms would work in a vacuum. This is untrue; nobody with the least bit of understanding of the chemistry of gunpowder and how guns work thinks that guns *won’t* work in space. However, conventional firearms do have three major issues for space applications:
- Recoil.
- Thermal issues: exposure to sunlight and vacuum means that small metal devices like guns heat up *fast.*
- Vacuum issues: grease, gun oil and the like boil off quick, meaning they can’t be used in space.
The Gyrojet has far lower recoil than conventional firearms. And the Gyrojet is a far simpler mechanism, made largely from stamped metal sheet to far lower specifications. This means it can heat up without jamming, with virtually no need for lubricants. So the Gyrojet seems like it’d make a dandy sidearm for the USSF. Bump it up to .75 caliber and you have yourself a light bolter. And perhaps best: home manufacture of Gyrojets would be *easy.* A 3D printed Gyrojet, with some *basic* metal parts, would not only be easy to make, but with vastly lower forces imparted on it than a conventional firearm, it’d be far less likely to explode.
So… where are the new-manufacture Gyrojet rounds? At $200 a round for the vintage stuff, you can start off *real* expensive and still undercut the current market.
11 responses to “$200 a round rocketgun”
3D printed shells with a rocket motor inserted and a glued on end cap with the primer and the nozzles should be something easy to do.
or…with a multi-nozzle 3D printer you may be able to make everything but the primer/nozzles as one unit. print the shell out of one material, and the rocket at the same time.
I keep hearing about being able to print the solid rocket motor. maybe something like the metal or wood filaments..where the plastic is a binder, but the actual fuel is just mixed in as a powder.
sure, it would be lightweight, and not suitable for anything but making a gyrojet gun go FWOOSH. but that’s the point, right? giving people who have these guns the ability to shoot them again at some fairly reasonable prices?
I’ve got to wonder if a “next gen” GyroJet could include warheads, or laser guidance.
I would hope not. My preference would be for a Next Gen Gyrojet round to be stamped out by the *billions* to be both cheap and reliable. The video showed a shocking percentage of squid rounds; this is doubtless due to them being ancient, but you don’t want *any* to fail to go off.
Once they’ve nailed “six nines” reliability and “thirty cents a round,” *then* we can start in on guided rounds with enthusiastic payloads.
I would have it shot by airgun…to provide initial boost to the early fps. Kicker-charge… something..
@John W Nowak: Laser, IR, or some sort of inertial, These were IIRC 13mm untill the ’68 gun control act, and the EXACTO guided round is 12.7mm so you could make a new version that did away with the inaccuracy issue. But that would probably be more that $200 a round.
Keep in mind Gyrojet rounds burned out within sixty feet. So guidance out to impact would require *additional* control systems such as fins, because the nozzles would no longer be of use. In which case, standard ammo is probably a better place to start.
Larry Niven mentioned the Gyrojet a couple of times in science fiction stories he wrote in the 1970s. Interesting to learn that it was real, and still around.
Gyrojets were also employed in the Bond film “You Only Live Twice.” It was an obvious “cool futuristic space gun” idea.
Gyrojets may have been used in Moon Zero Two, as well.
Of course, the real problem is that most defensive use of firearms take place within thirty feet, so a Gyrojet won’t even be at its top speed on impact most of the time.
That’s one areas that should be improved upon. While rocket propellants haven’t improved a lot since Gyrojet, the design of the grain can be greatly improved, boosting acceleration a *lot.*
And now that I think of it, Buck Rogers was using a rocket gun back in 1929. Well, in 2429, but you know.