Priebe told us that he took his inspiration from the K-Volt weapon, featured in the game Crysis 2. While he liked the look of the game’s version of the gun in first-person view, he wasn’t as keen on how it looked when placed on the ground ... so, he made his own version.

The 400-volt semi-automatic Gauss Rifle is what’s known as a multistage coilgun. It shoots 5.7-mm steel ammunition, from a built-in 8-slug clip. Priebe did his best to explain to us non-weapons-makers just how that ammo is fired.

“You charge a capacitor (high voltage preferred), and discharge it through a coil made of copper wire,” he said. “You will get a short electromagnetic pulse, which pulls the slugs through the coil. My rifle holds four banks of capacitors and four coils ... at the entrance of the last three coils are contacts made of spring-wire, reaching into the barrel. When the projectile touches, the pulse discharges and the coil accelerates the projectile, pulling it through to the next coil.”