Thursday, October 29, 2015

Bad gun! Back in the box!

Back to the drawing board: The worst firearms ever made - Photos - Washington Times: See the most ill-conceived weapons of ever made.

Okay, okay, I see your point, WaTimes.   A lot of guns built for 'special purpose' not only didn't prove appropriate for "general use", but didn't even prove effective for their (usually very limited) purpose.

The slide show is amusing and the author does a good job (mostly) of making his point.

But I do have a quibble with the second choice:


The FP-45 Liberator was a pistol manufactured by the United States military during World War II for use by resistance forces in occupied territories. The Liberator was never issued to American or other Allied troops and there is no documented instance of the weapon being used for its intended purpose, though the intended recipients, irregulars and resistance fighters, rarely kept detailed records due to the inherent risks if the records were captured by the enemy. The FP-45 was a crude, single-shot pistol designed to be cheaply and quickly mass-produced. It had just 23 largely stamped and turned steel parts that were cheap and easy to manufacture. It fired a .45 caliber pistol cartridge from an unrifled barrel. Due to this limitation, it was intended for short range use, 1–4 yards (0–5 m). Its maximum effective range was only about 25 feet (7.6 m). At longer range, the bullet would begin to tumble and stray off course.

As I recall, the "Liberator" was specially designed as a single-use assassins' gun.  It was dropped by airplane in occupied territories in hopes that on resisting civilian would pick it up and use it to shoot one unsuspecting Nazi.

I've read anecdotal evidence that it was used for its designed purpose, but I've never found any story which had been independently collaborated (excuse the expression) by reliable authorities.

Yes, the design was to make a cheap throw-away belly gun.  The lack of believable sights was a give-away ... nobody cared if the gun was inaccurate at any distance beyond a belt-buckle.

Perhaps the Nazi occupiers were aware that these throw-aways were being airdropped by the thousands and being picked up by resentful restless natives, and perhaps they weren't.

After all, as the Liberal Matra can permissibly be perverted here:

If it kills just ONE Nazi .....!

By The Way ...

There is a Wiki link to the gun,



... and even some videos! Like this one ...

.... which doesn't speak well of itself.

But it's not the reliability of the knucklebuster that counts, it's the romanticism!
Hell, you can buy one right now for $630 (on back-order).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good idea to me. After all they only cost a couple of $$ to manufacture.
Just Call Me Anon