Portuguese Homemade Revolver uses Homemade Cartridges

Gun Watch ^ | 30 June, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

This image from homemadeguns.wordpress.com appears to be from a Portugese  police agency.  Shotgun shells are often used for the clandestine manufacture of pistol ammunition.  It many countries it is much easier to obtain shotgun shells than pistol or rifle ammunition.  In countries where severe restrictions on the private ownership of firearms have been imposed, shotguns are the least restricted. 

In the extremely restrictive Soviet Union, shotgun cartridges were relatively available.  In England, the easiest firearm license to obtain is the shotgun license, as it is in Japan.

With a source of shotgun cartridges, you have everything you need to make pistol cartridges.  You have lead, from which bullets may be cast.  You have shotgun powder, which makes a good pistol gunpowder.  And you have shotgun primers, which can work for pistol primers.

In this case, the ingenious person who desired free market firearms, made a homemade double barrel shotgun.  It is a fairly simple, yet extremely effective firearm.  Improvised shotguns may be the most common homemade gun around the world. If you can obtain shotgun shells, a single or double barrelled shotgun is an obvious first choice.

But this budding Portugese Colt went much further.

Desiring a reliable, multi shot, easily concealed and portable firearm, they built their own six shot revolver and unique, homemade cartridges.

From the picture, the cartridges use shotgun primers, shotgun powder, and homemade cases and bullets.

On the lower right, you can see the salvaged shotgun primers used in the homemade pistol cartridges.  The left circular tin appears to hold gunpowder.

The bullets, in the plastic bag, are of the "heeled" design, which is what early revolvers used, to simplify the construction of the cylinder.  The chambers for "heeled" bullets are simple bored through, without a step to take into account the thickness of the case.  Caliber appears to be approximately .38/9mm.  The case seems a little longer than a .357 magnum.  I suspect energy levels and velocities on the order of a .38 special.

I do not know if the barrel is rifled or not.  As no sights are shown, it is likely smooth bored, but the person who put this together showed enough technical ability that they could have rifled the barrel.

The box to the left of the shotgun shells looks like a homemade reloading kit.  The shotgun shells seem to be typical 70mm or 2 3/4" 12 gauge.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[marktwain]

Homemade guns are pretty common. Homemade ammunition is not as common, because a few rounds can usually be scrounged, some way or another. This example shows how pistol rounds can be made from shotgun cartridges.

[Hodar]

Netflix has an outstanding documentary called Underword Inc. Episode 1 is entitled Ghost Guns. It’s a fascinating documentary about how pistols are counterfeited in the jungles of the Philipeans for $250 by hand using hacksaws and files with scrap metals. They make replicas of the Colt 1911 .45 that are then sold. These are then given fake serial numbers and a bluing finish and the level of craftsmanship is amazing!! You would never know it was a fake. Perhaps no rifling.
These are then smuggled into the ISA on container ships and sold to gangs for $800 as they are untraceable. Fake SN and no ballastic match. Use them to kill a few times and their value goes down because the ballistics can be tied to the weapon, o they are smuggled back out and sold in war zones or drug cartels for $800 again where their history doesn’t matter. Counterfeits are fascinating. Best documentary I ever saw.

[Sasparilla]

And there’s the example of an AK47 made from a shovel.

[CrazyIvan]

For several years I had full use of nearly a half million dollars of machine shop. CNC mill, lathe, metal breaks, water jet cutter, MIG,TIG, etc. When people would talk about banning guns I would show them a picture of my shop and then a picture of a Sten gun.

[fella]

I’ve been watch the videos coming out of the middle East fighting on YouTube and LiveLeak for several years and the quality of the homemade weapons has quickly improved. Large rockets, mortars and armored VIEDs have become impressive. But the most impressive thing is their logistics. The amount of equipment and supplies delivered to the front lines is amazing.

[CurlyDave]

... they built their own six shot revolver and unique, homemade cartridges.

The revolver pictured is at least 7 or 8 shot, not six. Just count the chambers in the cylinder.

[IYAS9YAS]

The revolver pictured is at least 7 or 8 shot, not six. Just count the chambers in the cylinder.

It's a hexagonal "cylinder" with a chamber at each corner. I count six holes.

[dljordan]

“I’ve been watch the videos coming out of the middle East fighting on YouTube and LiveLeak for several years and the quality of the homemade weapons has quickly improved.”

And that’s in a part of the world where the average IQ is 65. In the U.S. we have a large population of very intelligent people with very impressive skills.

[CurlyDave]

Now that I magnify the image I think you are right. Somehow they do not appear to be evenly spaced, which I think is an illusion caused by the low quality image.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Guns made behind prison walls in California. Even the cases and magazines were handmade. GUNS AND AMMO MAGAZINE 1970

[captain_dave]

One could also make an airgun almost as powerful as a pistol

[archy]

From the picture, the cartridges use shotgun primers, shotgun powder, and homemade cases and bullets.

It appears the cartridge cases, possibly of aluminum, were improvised from the individual cells found inside the common 9-volt transistor radio battery. They are also sometimes used as the body for homemade blasting caps, as used on reloaded hand grenade fuzes.

[marktwain]

You have a better eye than I do. I though they were just aluminium tubes.

Thanks for the info.

Do they use bullseye for the filler?

[archy]

Do they use bullseye for the filler?

Likely depends on what's available. Powder from pulled shotgun shell cases is common [source for primers, too] and homemade powders using potassium mitrate/saltpeter, [stump killer] finely ground ammonium nitrate and or swimming pool chlorinator calcium hypochlorate [HTH/*Shock*]mixes.

[archy]

You have a better eye than I do.

Probably not. But very similar adaptations turned up in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa until AK47 ammo became commonplace. Back then, [circa 1975-'80] shorty single-shot shotguns of around .410 caliber using the battery call cartridge cases were still seen, and it's a likely bet that those turning out such items in Portugal today had experience with them in that previous setting.