This pistol, chambered in 6.5x50mm Arisaka, was purportedly found in a South Vietnamese rice paddy. I cannot tell if the photo it is real or a fake. The front sight is far to low, unless there is a hole drilled into that metal block above the chamber.
[ Many thanks to Sven (Defense and Freedom) for emailing me the the info. ]
I thought I read about that thing 20 years ago in a German gun journal – then I noticed the German filename of the picture. If it’s a fake it at least has reached legend status by now.
0 
0Reminds me of the Liberator single shot .45. A simple weapon used to get another better weapon.
0 0Wow. I bet this gun would have been produced in more numbers if we hadn’t dropped the A-Bomb.
0 0Some time back I saw a Sunday Morning travel show about people treking through either Afghanistan or Pakistan in the 1960′s. One segment was on the Village Gun Building Programs. The point they made was the fact the villagers copied existing firearms on the outside, but the innerds were crap.
I mention it because one of the guns they showed was a broom handle looking single shot pistol. Don’t recall the calibur. Steve’s blog has shown us that home made guns are found all over the world.
0 0That would make a mess of some one close up or a mess of the shooters hand
0 0Do you even know if the action is still inside?
0 0I would fire a fillipino homemade pistols made in Cebu than that………..!
0 0You folks are missing the point of hand-made firearms by assuming that if they are chambered for a certain cartridge, then they were fired using said full power cartridge. Much like a Khyber Pass Special, the ammunition for these guns is also hand made from available (and often recycled) components, but as seriously reduced loads. It’s all a matter of using what is available to you.
0 0I wonder if the sights were originally another type of metal, and rotted away because of galvanic corrosion?
0 0Vietnamese version of the .45 ACP “Liberator” handgun is my guess. Probably the only ammo the gunsmith had access to and was (again IMHO) meant to be used at very close range.
0 0Well i’ll say that’s a Viet-Minh custom. They were quite fond of this kind of things “back in the day” when they shot at French troops for fun.
I’ll say that’s late 1940s, at that time they had lots of Japanese ammo and rogue Japanese military “consultants”. That fits the bill.
0 0Looks like it has seen better days. Maybe those are just the mounts for the sights and the sights had broken off?
0 0the Viet Cong were known to take weapons damaged beyond repair and make new weapons out of them. That was obviously once a Chinese mauser that died and converted. But what I can remember of Viet Cong homemade guns you couldn’t pay me to shoot that thing
0 0The VC often built single-shot firearms meant to look like something more intimidating, one in particular I saw on a discussion forum was mocked up to look like a BAR, but was actually a bolt-action shotgun using cut down .50 BMG casings for the shotshells.
0 0I can believe it.
Given that it’s a single-shot pistol, I don’t think accuracy was deemed crucial. This is probably an execution/ intimidation gun, or last ditch defense weapon. the fact that it has sights at all is optimistic.
0 0I bet that made an impressive fireball from the muzzle.
0 0Oh man, what did those mean people do to that poor, innocent Mauser 96?
0 0that would probably be more dangerous to the shooter than the target
0 0The mere thought of shooting an old rusty Asian homemade break-open pistol that fires a rifle cartridge is thrilling.
0 0With a lot of those “village blacksmith” guns, the only reason it has sights at all is because, well, guns have sights. They don’t actually do anything, mind you, but they’re there.
The sights on my “village blacksmith” .38 sure aren’t regulated to anything that would resemble the point of impact, not that I’m likely to shoot the thing to confirm it…
http://cosmolineandrust.blogspot.com/2006/10/filipino-blacksmith-revolver-fruit-of.html
0 0Tam, good point. ha, your village blacksmith is awesome.
0 0Wow, now that would be a ‘Blaster’….
My guess would be that it isn’t a fake. And that it is that particular shape to take acount of the ability to fit the Broohandle’s Stock/Holster. Kind of makes sense to me, not so much a pistol as a very short carbine that can be carried in its own holster/butt. BATFE would love it!
Cheers – Rusty
0 0
Do you even know if the action is still inside?
I would fire a fillipino homemade pistols made in Cebu than that………..!
You folks are missing the point of hand-made firearms by assuming that if they are chambered for a certain cartridge, then they were fired using said full power cartridge. Much like a Khyber Pass Special, the ammunition for these guns is also hand made from available (and often recycled) components, but as seriously reduced loads. It’s all a matter of using what is available to you.
I wonder if the sights were originally another type of metal, and rotted away because of galvanic corrosion?
That would make a mess of some one close up or a mess of the shooters hand
Some time back I saw a Sunday Morning travel show about people treking through either Afghanistan or Pakistan in the 1960′s. One segment was on the Village Gun Building Programs. The point they made was the fact the villagers copied existing firearms on the outside, but the innerds were crap.
I mention it because one of the guns they showed was a broom handle looking single shot pistol. Don’t recall the calibur. Steve’s blog has shown us that home made guns are found all over the world.
I thought I read about that thing 20 years ago in a German gun journal – then I noticed the German filename of the picture. If it’s a fake it at least has reached legend status by now.
Reminds me of the Liberator single shot .45. A simple weapon used to get another better weapon.
Wow. I bet this gun would have been produced in more numbers if we hadn’t dropped the A-Bomb.
Vietnamese version of the .45 ACP “Liberator” handgun is my guess. Probably the only ammo the gunsmith had access to and was (again IMHO) meant to be used at very close range.
Well i’ll say that’s a Viet-Minh custom. They were quite fond of this kind of things “back in the day” when they shot at French troops for fun.
I’ll say that’s late 1940s, at that time they had lots of Japanese ammo and rogue Japanese military “consultants”. That fits the bill.
that would probably be more dangerous to the shooter than the target
The mere thought of shooting an old rusty Asian homemade break-open pistol that fires a rifle cartridge is thrilling.
With a lot of those “village blacksmith” guns, the only reason it has sights at all is because, well, guns have sights. They don’t actually do anything, mind you, but they’re there.
The sights on my “village blacksmith” .38 sure aren’t regulated to anything that would resemble the point of impact, not that I’m likely to shoot the thing to confirm it…
http://cosmolineandrust.blogspot.com/2006/10/filipino-blacksmith-revolver-fruit-of.html
Tam, good point. ha, your village blacksmith is awesome.
Oh man, what did those mean people do to that poor, innocent Mauser 96?
I bet that made an impressive fireball from the muzzle.
Looks like it has seen better days. Maybe those are just the mounts for the sights and the sights had broken off?
the Viet Cong were known to take weapons damaged beyond repair and make new weapons out of them. That was obviously once a Chinese mauser that died and converted. But what I can remember of Viet Cong homemade guns you couldn’t pay me to shoot that thing
The VC often built single-shot firearms meant to look like something more intimidating, one in particular I saw on a discussion forum was mocked up to look like a BAR, but was actually a bolt-action shotgun using cut down .50 BMG casings for the shotshells.
I can believe it.
Given that it’s a single-shot pistol, I don’t think accuracy was deemed crucial. This is probably an execution/ intimidation gun, or last ditch defense weapon. the fact that it has sights at all is optimistic.
Wow, now that would be a ‘Blaster’….
My guess would be that it isn’t a fake. And that it is that particular shape to take acount of the ability to fit the Broohandle’s Stock/Holster. Kind of makes sense to me, not so much a pistol as a very short carbine that can be carried in its own holster/butt. BATFE would love it!
Cheers – Rusty