One of the more interesting plans to provide weapons to the irregulars and resistance fighters during World War II involved airdropping around a million crudely made single shot pistols over occupied territory. Most shooters and history buffs are rather familiar with the FP-45 Liberator but have never shot one. Our friends Ian and Karl at Forgotten Weapons take a reproduction out to the range for some first shots that look painful as all get out.

They are shooting a reproduction Liberator with a rifled barrel made by Vintage Ordnance, not one of the original production guns that featured a smooth bore for cost savings. After shooting with Ian when he was in town a while back, I found him to be reasonably good with a firearm. Watching him take shot after shot with the Liberator and miss was enough for my to wrap my head around how crude and near useless the Liberator design was. Karl even had a hell of a time trying to hit their steel German, rather unusual seeing as Karl typically proves to be the better shooter of the two.

The surprising part and something I hadn’t thought about before was the recoil generated by the little gun. During the slow motion shots, you can see exactly how flippy the small steel pistol is. Both Ian and Karl’s painful howls make me want to shoot a Liberator once, and only once.

Check out Vintage Ordnance for more info on their reproduction Liberators and check Ian and Karl’s video out below.