Yeah, I know I don't do enough of it. That is, of course, why Bitter spends her time with this guy instead of here. Well, that and the fact that I once taught the Sainted Bride how to shoot a rifle.
And a pistol.
Thank goodness I never taught her to shoot a shotgun.
Where was I? Oh yeah, gun blogging. Right. Let me tell you about the funkiest gun I ever saw. I would say "weirdest" gun, but does anyone in the this vast audience remember Winslow rifles? Years ago, I would see them in Gun Digest and Shooter's Bible. Them was some weird-ass lookin' rifles, I tell you what. I can't seem to find more pics than the one a David Petzal's site so when you get a chance go to the public liberry and pic some old (pre-1996) copies of GD and SB to see what I'm talking about.
Where was I? Oh yeah, gun blogging. Right. Let me tell you about the funkiest gun I ever saw.
The funkiest gun I ever saw was owned by my Sainted Uncle Jack. For all I know, it may still be somewheres around the ranch but I haven't seen it in years. Could be he or my beautiful Auntie got rid of it. I just don't know.
Anyways, it was a Phillipine Guerrilla Gun. In essence, it was a single shot shotgun intended to be cheap to produce and to be used exactly once per customer (by which I mean, to kill exactly one Japanese soldier for the express purpose of taking his rifle and ammo so as to fight properly equipped).
This particular shotgun consisted, excluding ammo, of exactly two parts, the first being a metal tube in 10 gauge. The Phillipine guerrilla would insert a shotshell into this tube.
The second part was another metal tube attached to a very crude wooden stock, and having a firing pin at the rear end of the tube. The guerrilla would insert the tube with the shell into the other tube. When a suitable enemy soldier was close, the guerrilla would "aim" the gun at him and yank back the inner tube with the shotshell so that it fired and killed the soldier. The guerrilla would then take the soldier's rifle and ammo and (presumably) run like hell to get away from the rest of the soldier's unit.
Uncle Jack once (exactly once, I suspect) fired this bad boy. He said it was the "kickin'est' son of a bitch" he'd ever fired. I hefted it once or twice, weighed about five pounds (soakin' wet) at most. I don't doubt it would give a mule headaches. Though I would love to try it just for "laughs". If you can call it that. And assuming it's still around somewheres...
Posted by Ken S at June 29, 2007 08:40 PM | TrackBack (0) |A modified pipe gun then. Gangs and criminals have been making 'em since shotgun shells have been around. Very popular among gangs of the '60s and '70s.
Posted by: Cullen at June 30, 2007 10:11 AMYeah, Cullen - the firing mechanim was sometimes something hard glued to a heavy gauge rubber band. They called them zip guns in Baltimore, where I first heard of them.
And my second date with my now wife was to the range, pistols and rifles.
Posted by: John at June 30, 2007 01:52 PMZip guns have been around since the 50s or earlier. Always .22 so far as I know, but possibly some used shot shells too. .22 was popular partly because the ammo is cheap and plentiful, and partly because zip guns were commonly made from car radio aerials (of a very convenient diameter).
I've never seen or heard of a "pipe gun" but I'm not surprised. Seems like an obvious invention, like the Phillippine gun.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at June 30, 2007 02:52 PMI've heard of those "pipe guns", Ken, but I've never seen one. At 10 gage and the weight you describe, it would certainly kick hard. To put it mildly.
Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at June 30, 2007 03:03 PM