Coilguns and railguns (electromagnetic launchers) are an interesting area of technology that has much potential for small-arms scale designs. For example, several hobbyist projects shown on the internet (see below) demonstrate kinetic energies up to 50 J (36 ft-lb) and muzzle energies around 120 m/s (393 ft/s). That’s way short of a firearm, but actually within the realm of bows or crossbows, as well as low-velocity launchers like flare launchers. Coilguns and railguns aren’t really electrically complicated either, since they’re directly analogous to some common types of rotary electric motors in how they produce a force or torque. Hopefully people find these interesting.

Examples of well-performing hobbyist coilguns include: (1) https://youtube.com/shorts/5vRxPeuDqeQ (2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a4ZcsGYLRs https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G4_D2fhIGVg