David Wirth is one of the founders of Arcflash Labs, a small company developing "ultra-high energy pulsed power supplies", which have applications in a variety of fields - but today we are talking about electromagnetic weaponry. Arcflash is currently shipping out their first batch of commercial GR-1 "Anvil" shoulder-fired gauss rifles. They brought one down for me to try out, and I figured it would be best to start with some background discussion. So today, David and I are talking about how coil guns and rail guns work (and what the difference between the two is), how Arcflash came about developing the GR-1, where they expect the technology to go, and the applications for this and future mass accelerators.

(For the record, I love being able to write a description like this and legitimately use terms like "rail gun" and "gauss rifle"...)

So, check it out! And stick around for a detailed look at the GR-1 Anvil on Friday, and the lunacy of me taking it to a Backup Gun Match on Saturday...