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Ever heard of the Rally Fighter? It's made by a company called Local Motors.


From Wikipedia:

Local Motors is an open source automobile company founded by John "Jay" Rogers and Jeff Jones, bi-located in both Wareham, Massachusetts (founded) and Chandler, Arizona (facility). They co-create vehicles with their community of auto designers, engineers, enthusiasts and customers. Local Motors is in production with their first vehicle called the Rally Fighter, an off-road race vehicle designed to also be street legal which customers buy as part of a build experience with Local Motors engineers in a Local Motors Micro-factory.

People who love cars submitted their own car designs and kept doing so for every iteration of the car's conception.

Why can't we do the same thing with a gun?

I'm just throwing this out there, because I don't think I can pull it off alone. Maybe someone else can take the idea and develop it. It would be awesome if I was kept in the loop, but if I'm not, that's alright. I'd rather give the idea away so that it might be useful.

For example, I love my Ruger LCP, but it isn't perfect. For one thing, it lacks an automatic slide lock after the last round. Second, it could come integrated with a laser and no iron sights. Third, it could have less branding and hard lines on it.

However maybe people will want to design a full-size handgun. It's up to the voters.

I thought that's how we ended up with the Glock 21SF.

I saw something like that on a custom 1911 contest. Voted on each part of the gun (sights, grips, bobtail) the average response got built and rewarded to a random person I think.

Except this gun would probably be designed in CAD and milled out.

What if the gun we designed turned out to be the exact dimensions of a 1911?

heh. Then we wouldn't bother making it unless people wanted to have an exclusive brand.

Hobie Kayaks pretty much did that with at least 2 models they make, most recently the Hobie Revolution 11 (I so want one. but then 2 years ago, and last year, I pretty much put in the suggestions they used)

Interestingly enough, it would actually be easier to open/crowd source a firearm than an automobile with the advent of modern CNC machines. Buy a piece of serlin for a polymer frame, a few pieces of stainless steel to make the slide and internals from and the only real issue you would have is getting a quality barrel designed specifically for you but there are aftermarket units for other firearms that could be used.

I think so too. The only thing would be the legalities of becoming a manufacturer. I don't have a personal shop or anything to do so. If someone else does and wants to work together, I can do the analysis to make sure the design is safe before building it.

I might be tempted to help in an open source firearm design, some things that I think would need to be addressed from the start:
Barrel: design something that can be machined on a CNC system, custom ordered, or use an existing solution.
Magazines: Initially I think that a common magazine would need to be used, think 1911, Glock, XD, M&P, Beretta M9, ...
Springs: lets face it its cheaper to buy existing springs than to make-your own.
Sights: A common and readily available sight cut should be used so that sights are easy to acquire.

G.A. Heath wrote:I might be tempted to help in an open source firearm design, some things that I think would need to be addressed from the start:
Barrel: design something that can be machined on a CNC system, custom ordered, or use an existing solution.
Magazines: Initially I think that a common magazine would need to be used, think 1911, Glock, XD, M&P, Beretta M9, ...
Springs: lets face it its cheaper to buy existing springs than to make-your own.
Sights: A common and readily available sight cut should be used so that sights are easy to acquire.

Barrel: I think it should be machined, that way the gun can be built from the ground up and not require to fit around something existing.
Magazines: Good idea. It wouldn't be too difficult to make custom magazines, but compatibility in general is a good idea.
Springs: Agreed, no reason to re-invent the wheel.
Sights: Good idea if it's not going to be a part of the slide (like it is in the LCP).

Thomas wrote: Second, it could come integrated with a laser and no iron sights.

No irons? I think you're trying to go for a sleek, easy to draw from concealment type design and I get that....

But lasers can fail, batteries can die....

I wouldn't carry any gun that doesn't have iron sights on it (at least as a backup).

my .02

74novaman wrote:

Thomas wrote: Second, it could come integrated with a laser and no iron sights.

No irons? I think you're trying to go for a sleek, easy to draw from concealment type design and I get that....

But lasers can fail, batteries can die....

I wouldn't carry any gun that doesn't have iron sights on it (at least as a backup).

my .02

That's why it's crowd-sourced, so everyone gets to decide and vote. I think most people would prefer iron sights of some kind, so it would most likely end up with them.

It should have an internal laser, and when I say "internal" I mean internal. It should be integrated into the barrel or slide so that the laser dot is less than 0.1" from the the muzzle plane.

It should have fold down rear ghost site, and a fixed fiber optic front site.

And it should be built on a 1911 frame in 45ACP.

We need to use a small inductor to harness the energy of the slide (like the shake-charging flashlights) to keep the laser charged! Make it big enough and it will take some of that spare recoil off your hand (and jump start your car?)

More seriously I don't know why nobody uses a small hydraulic damper imbedded in the recoil spring assembly. Just over the last 25% of travel or so.