#Rebel

Is 2020 going to be the year of the Rimfire? The new Rebel .22LR Sub Gun takes Ruger 10/22 magazines which is going to make a lot of people happy.

Is 2020 going to be the year of the Rimfire? Glock just released their .22LR pistol, and as this decade comes to an end it is time for POF USA to release a firearm in the same caliber. Does it take Glock mags? No, but the new Rebel .22LR Sub Gun takes Ruger 10/22 magazines which is going to make a lot of people happy.

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 self-proclaimed rebel Federal State of Novorossiya, the unrecognized confederation of Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic located inside Ukraine, are now manufacturing their own DIY submachine guns. The Novorussian SMG appears to fire a 9mm round, either 9x18mm Makarov or 9x19mm NATO, from a simple blowback action and a threaded barrel (with optional suppressor).

Al Jazeera  tweeted a photo of an interesting mounted weapon built by a Syrian rebel. This single shot rifle (or cannon if its chambered in a small caliber cannon round) has a floating barrel action that recoils against a spring attached to a very heavy tripod weighed down by concrete blocks. It looks like it was originally supposed to be fired from the shoulder, note the original pistol grip and trigger, but now is fired using a cable, possibly a bicycle brake, that connects its “handle bars” at the rear to the original trigger.  he muzzle brake looks like it is much to big. It is at least twice as large as the muzzle brake on the Anzio Ironworks 20mm rifle. The loading/ejection port looks slightly larger than the Anzio.

A number of DIY guns were recovered by the Philippines army after the the rebel siege of the southern city of Zamboanga. They include 40mm grenade pistols, a gun vaguely patterned after an M4 and a Mac-10 clone.

Of all the things I never thought I would write in the same sentence, “Remote Control” and “Sturmgewehr 44” must be at the top of the list. The above photo shows a Syrian rebel controlling a Sturmgewehr 44 with a wired joystick. A cheap CMOS video camera with a Component video output is mounted behind the scope (at the correct distance to account for eye relief) and is wired into a LCD screen.

One of my most valued correspondents from the Philippines is a resident of the city of Zamboanga, Philippines. He sent me the above photo. He and his family have been living with the noise of gun fire, military imposed curfew, closed shops, closed businesses, closed roads and a ban on air travel for the past two weeks.

There is an interesting video on LiveLeak (embedded below) showing Kurdish snipers in North Syria clearing out an al-Qaeda-linked rebel group from a Kurdish village. The four snipers are using identical .50 caliber rifles that are either completely hand made or at least partially hand made.

A reader sent in these photos allegedly taken of a Syrian arms bazaar in the rebel controlled city of  Deir ez-Zor. The photos show a 12 year old boy, with a 1911 pistol in a shoulder holster that is to big for him, manning a stall selling loose 7.62x39mm ammunition, gun cleaning supplies, a RPG launcher  SA7 anti-air missile/launcher, a variety of machine guns and a Mosin bolt action rifle.