Electromagnetic railguns may be the military weapon of the future when it comes to firing large projectiles over very long distances but the technology itself is actually very scalable. BAE and rival General Atomics have even been demonstrating truck based railguns with immense destructive power, scaled down from their ship based weapons that are in testing at the moment.

The technology can even be scaled down further to hand held sized weapons, some of most interesting examples of which just happen to be homemade railguns, all of the danger without the gunpowder.

There are a number of excellent examples of this technology scaled down to rifle size, cleverly designed homemade examples of the power of electricity. Here at Highpants our two favourite examples come from Jason Murray and AnselmoFanZone. Two well engineered and intensely cool gadgets that will fire steel bullets, Jason’s is even capable of full auto fire mode.

Presented for your viewing pleasure are the some of the best examples of homemade railguns in action followed by the impressive impact of the full sized military grade weapon. Frankly if I was the investing type I’d be buying shares in Energizer or Duracell right now, can you imagine how many D sized batteries a truck based railgun will need? Sit back, relax and hit the play button to unleash the awesome power of electricity.