GatorFarmer
Member
You will see these all over the world. Brand Z, the roll your own 12 gauge, likely one of the most common makes in the world. Designs vary, but these can be found with natives in the Amazon, all over Central and South America, Thailand, Africa, and is almost a national arm in the Phillipines. Early in yhe days of the Army Special Forces, guys learned to make them, taught from living memory of guys who had been guerillas in the Phillipines during the Japanese occupation.
If West Germany or even Philadelphia ended up over run by the Red Army, the idea to build these up in gararges and basements and use them to liberate better weapons.
Long used in the Phillipines, where among other regional names they are known as the palintude (sp?), these were once known, and even commercially made by a former Navy officer turned guerilla, in the United States as "guerilla guns". They can still be found in the Phillipines today.
In the early days of resistance to the Japanese, arms were in short supply. Thus homemade shotguns were used in jungle ambushes to gather a nice new Arisaka, or just to put a lot of buckshot on Japanese patrols.
In those days, shotgun shells were paper and the jungle was humid. So the guerillas would just flip the water pipe bbl around, stuff a fresh shell in what has been the muzzle, and blast the empty out with the new round... These also turned up in Guam during the days when rural farmers had to worry about Japanese hold outs.
Later still, Che Guevera wrote of using these weapons in Cuba and elsewhere and many types of homemade arms were seized from the Viet Cong in the early days of the Vietnam war.
My Kindle takes blurry photos, but that is just as well here. Obviously there is the disclaimer of don't try this at home. I made these two examples over the weekend. Donor stocks were gathering dust in the closet and consisted of an SKS stock and a broken and glued together M1 carbine stock. Tools used? A dollar store saw, a Swiss Army knife, and a file.
Note that in the United States these are legal to make FOR PERSONAL USE so long as bbl length and overall length are legal. State law can vary. Wyoming law sort of encourages folks to make their own guns. Texas law meanwhile bans zipguns. Yes, a gun illegal in Texas...go figure...
There is a bit of art to getting the firepins set so as not to pop primers. An empty hull loaded with just a primer helps while you tinker.
Both of these guns work. One even has a nice bead sight made from a Tootsie pop stick. Sloppy fit of the shell and a dual wall design means they probably won't explode....Did I mention that caveat of don't do this?
Some evidence suggests that these were used in this country by the poor and very poor alike from circa 1880 on, or whenever 12 gauge center fire shells became available.
A much better and safer shotgun can be easily purchased in most of the United States. That is not always the case in many places. Thus these defend against river pirates on the Amazon, put monkeys and lizards in stew pots, and fight off bandits all over the world.
Youtube has many videos of domestically made examples in action. Preppers like them to bury on the back 40. Others make them more of a hobby that is also a political statement. A few people even make them for subsistence hunting when nothing better is affordable. (I saw my first long tube "duck gun" version in SC. The owner, a very old Black man, had been using it to kill small game and birds for a very long time.)
I will probably make myself a musket next. I think a part of me likes to see what I can come up with given a few parts and basic tools.
