#Scratchbuilt

During a routine traffic stop, a man from Tennessee was caught transporting two illegal homemade fully automatic assault rifles. While that sounds like the leader for a poorly written article about perfectly boring semiautomatic assault rifles, in this case it is accurate! Among other (apparently legal) weapons, two rifles, complete with three-position selectors and auto sears, were seized from the vehicle of one Scott Edmisten, who was stopped after driving 25 miles an hour over the speed limit on a suspended license.

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.

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:

The technology of 3D printing has begun to proliferate in the firearms world, and designs that were once essentially novelty project guns have evolved and been further refined into actual working, shooting firearms of reasonable effectiveness. 3D printed guns have come a very long way from the first 3D printed handgun released by Cody Wilson in May of 2013. 3D-printed AR-15 lower receiver designs have been perfected through new materials selection, dimensions better suited to those materials, and more creative use of 3D printing and other manufacturing techniques. 3D printing has proven suitable for making some basic components of firearms, such as housings, receivers, and furniture, but not others, like fire control groups and, of course, barrels. For those parts, makers turn to existing firearms components, most popularly the AR-15 fire control group, and, in the case of the Shuty MP-1, Glock barrels:

Hognose at his home website WeaponsMan.com takes a look at the fascinating process of plastic casting utilizing a 3D printed plastic pattern to create, over and over again, firearms receivers that hopefully should last longer than existing 3D printed lowers: