DIYer’s air cannon can fire a Nerf dart right through an empty aluminum can

By Luke Dormehl March 2, 2017

World's Fastest NERF Dart

Remember that time you shot your kid brother in the face with a Nerf gun and he cried? Well, you should both consider yourself lucky that you didn’t have YouTuber Giaco Whatever’s terrifying homemade Nerf dart blaster at your disposal instead.

In his latest video, intrepid inventor Giaco Whatever, aka Giacomo Di Muro, shows off his do-it-yourself Nerf-firing air cannon, which is capable of launching foam Nerf projectiles with a whopping 400 PSI of pressure. To put that in perspective, it’s about the level of pressure you’d feel 870 feet underwater. To put that in even more alarming perspective, it’s enough pressure to drive a Nerf dart through an aluminum soft drink can.

“I had this crazy idea to test if it’s possible — and in how many ways — you could make a Nerf gun lethal,” Di Muro told Digital Trends, reminding us of why we’re only going to say nice things about him in this post. “[It was] pure curiosity, I guess, and since I have a YouTube channel, I feel like I even have a reason to actually do it in case someone else was wondering.”

The resulting video is intriguing to watch, as well as weirdly ominous — with its close-up, methodical, jump-cut style ratcheting up the tension before we get to see to Di Muro’s poor, unwitting Red Bull can meet its maker. We wish he’d invest in a slow-motion camera, though!

Di Muro said that building the air cannon was very straightforward, and is something he’d done plenty of times off camera — although not necessarily for this application.

So what’s next for the man whose previous home builds have included a frightening spinning top attached to a bunch of razer blades? First up, he wants to extend the barrel of his latest air cannon to achieve even more power (he’s already ordered an additional 100 Nerf darts from Amazon).

“I now wanna try to do different projectiles,” he continued. “I’m really excited to see if I can make an ice projectile.”

Did we mention what a great, handsome, benevolent friend Giacomo Di Muro is. We heartily recommend that you subscribe to his YouTube channel. Please. And maybe alert the authorities just in case.

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I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…

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