When I was a kid, I made a small pistol out of a piece of fiberglass tubing with a cap on the back just behind a hole in the top into which I'd firmly slide a single firecracker (which happened to be the perfect length and didn't stick out). I would stand at one end of the garage and shoot two-liter pop bottle caps half-filled with wax through pizza boxes on the other. It was fun and sounded really cool.
Fiberglass tubing??????
At least the galvanized pipe was fairly thick-walled steel.
When yound we did some crazy stuff.
I have seen tiny Colt Open-Top .22 Black Powder revolvers after firing modern Smokeless cartridges - the frames exploded -
The same with antique BP muzzleloaders that were fired with Smokeless powder - many pieces!
Some early firearms designers made their first firearms of hardwood wrapped with wire when kids.
Amazing they lived to be adults!
A galvanized pipe pistol will hold a "two (2") incher" (magnum I reckon) as we used to call them - fat suckers
A "steelie" wrapped in paper and away she went.
More adventure than brains!
I've got a custom oversized forged-steel frame Colt Walker custom revolver I built a a few years back. Weight over 5 pounds - 9" barrel
The original Model 1847 Colt Walker .44 (.454") had a heavy magnum length extra-long percussion cap ignition cylinder
With full BP load the velocity of the bullet or ball used would exceed that of Dirty Harry's "Most Powerful Handgun In The Whole World" .44Magnum S&W
Massive lead bullet, enormous BP charge - deadly in 1847 - the Model 1847 had a shorter cylinder to save weight - and fingers
Some troopers had tried loading conical lead bullets backwards - as "shaped-charge" resulted in the Colt Walker blowing apart
It is "rumored" that some custom Colt Walkers have been modified with bored-thru cylinders to allow firing rifle cartridges such as the Marlin .444
Many Colts were sent back to Hartford and modified for metallic cartridge use - Springfield also modified Colts - their cylinders had 12 bolt notches to act as safeties much like Remington safety cylinders
Don't try this at home - precision design and machining is required and a double-handful of brave pills is helpful.
It is also "rumored" that the modern solid-propellant pellets can be made into one-piece caseless cartridges with the right adhesives
All still legal antique pre-1898 firearm and cartridge designs - exempt from FFL restrictions