#Improvised

Closely associated with ‘juvenile delinquency’ of the 1950s, ‘zip guns’ were often fabricated by youngsters who could not afford to purchase or were forbidden from owning the genuine article. A mechanically inclined youngster might upon obtaining ammunition, most often widely available .22 rimfire, find that such rounds will fit into a section of suitably sized steel tubing, often a section of the salvaged car radio antenna. From then on it is a simple matter of fabricating a means of striking the rear of the cartridge while ensuring the entire assembly is held firmly together.

Wooden handguards fitted for an M16/AR15-patterned rifle are nothing new in the United States among the boutique custom build community. Some folks prefer the older, more nostalgic look of the solid wood grips that used to be so common on firearms of all types prior to the switch to polymer within small arms of all types throughout the world.

A YouTube channel called WarDoc has published a video where they show a rifle grenade launcher made in self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. This device is basically a tube attached to the muzzle of an AK-74 rifle. Instead of purpose made rifle grenades, it uses the projectiles of 23x152mmB autocannon rounds. As in the case of many other rifle grenades, in order to shoot it, one must load a blank cartridge into the rifle, load the grenade (the 23mm projectile) from the muzzle and shoot the gun. Let’s watch that video then discuss some design aspects of this launcher:

Creating improvised firearms is one thing, but a recent propaganda video released by the Yemeni rebel and terrorist group Ansar Allah (better known as the Houthis) threw the spotlight on some weapons that take this to the next level. 20mm, 23mm, and even 30mm caliber improvised cannons are being produced by the Houthis in makeshift workshops, representing some of the largest and most powerful improvised small arms ever produced. Footage of the cannons firing, as well as their manufacture was included in the video. Despite their large caliber, the cannons appear to be quite crude indeed, with many parts shown being ground with dremel tools, and with scope bases and muzzle brakes simply being welded together. The barrels for the cannons appear to come from military autocannons. The barrels of 20mm Hasem cannon bear the distinctive “hump” towards the muzzle of M61 Vulcan cannon barrels, for instance – which may be an indication that the barrels are being supplied to the Houthis by the Iranians, who have stockpiles of Vulcan barrels for their F-4 and F-14 fighter aircraft.

The war in Syria and Iraq has seen the development of a whole range of scratchbuilt and improvised weapons that are as ingenious as they are destructive. Recently, a kind of serially-produced rocket launcher has come to light as part of Da’ish (ISIS) propaganda, which appears to demonstrate a capability to serially produce clandestine weapons of a fairly high degree of sophistication. The weapon, a multipurpose missile launcher with a high explosive warhead, is unassuming and appears roughly equivalent to the US AT4, though cruder. It is a simple tube with almost no fittings or sights, a carrying/support handle, and a safety pin securing a fold-out firing grip.

Improvised and camouflaged firearms can be some of the most interesting weapons around, and the best ones combine inventiveness, creativity, craft work, and a sort of apocalyptic chic together into final products that are compelling far beyond the sum of their parts or their actual capabilities and practicality. Mark Serbu – one of the big names in big guns, and Royal Nonesuch – a YouTube vlogger with a penchant for the improvised and dangerous, joined forces together with Serbu’s daughter Valerie ( 50CalVal), and Mark’s friends Mike and Mike (“Beardo”), to bring to the world the fire extinguisher shotgun. As the video below illustrates, that’s pretty much what it says on the tin:

The Rahman Corps is a Syrian Rebel group operating in the Damascus region. It is independent of the Free Syrian Army, but is on friendly terms with the opposition group. Via the group’s Youtube channel, some videos have been released showing what appears to either a century old cannon or an improvised construction of one, fired by a lanyard, mounted on truck with a complex hydraulic assisted system. It is hard to tell at this time if it is muzzle loaded or breech loaded.

A few months ago, the Military and Police Forces of Santa Catarina, Brazil, posted a Facebook video of an officer describing how an improvised 12 gauge sledgehammer would be fired. Like many home built weapons, the action is a simple spring loaded design that uses the handle as a barrel. The user unscrews the tube handle, places a single shell into the “chamber”, screws it back on to the head of the tool and cocks the firing pin.

What is the simplest gun you can possibly make? When you hear this question, the kind of gun that comes to mind is probably a simple zip gun, like the one below, which has a forward-moving mass, a trigger, a barrel, and not much else:

We’ve seen AKs fitted with all manner of 1913 pattern rail farms, but what about the other way around? AR-15s with Soviet-style side rails, would anyone really do that?

Brazil is a beautiful country, but man does it seem like a lot of crazy stuff happens there. From cops shooting at bad guys from a helicopter and soccer refs pulling guns on players to interesting customized guns and even guns that shoot on their own! Check out this improvised 12 gauge shotgun that Brazilian police seized recently in Rondonia State, Brazil. It has a pretty interesting paint job, in case you’re wondering the letters CVRJ on the stock are the initials of a local gang. I wonder if it’s more reliable than a Taurus?

Following on our earlier article about improvised and homebuilt weapons, Brazilian gun writer Ronaldo Olive emails us this article he wrote for Harris Publications in the 1980s about some of the simple underground improvised submachine guns seized by Brazilian police during that time. The article is copied below, but for those who prefer, they can download a PDF version I created at this link.

Earlier this week, we blogged about an AR-15 that had seen half a century of service; a weapon originally made by General Motors between January of 1969 and the end of 1971. Recently, pictures were circulated on Facebook of a rifle even older than that firearm: A Colt XM16E1, still in use in Cambodia. The XM16E1, made between the 16th of May 1966 and the second quarter of 1967, was found in Cambodia by Steve Lee, the singer and songwriter for the unofficial TFB theme song “I Like Guns”:

The state of 3D printed guns continues to improve. Hognose of WeaponsMan.com covers some of the recent developments:

Defense Distributed’s project to produce and sell machines that can create firearms receivers for individual hobbyists is now being realized. “Ghost Gunner” miniature CNC machines are, after several delays, finally shipping. From WeaponsMan: