Made entirely by hand using old age blacksmith tools and files. Brought back from Afghanistan by my nephew two years ago. He said the shop had no electricity or modern tools such as a drill press or bench grinder. Note the artifical aging and the detail, even down to the proof marks!

In the knife making world that method is called
neo tribal.

I would not shoot it (everything is functional) but it is a neat wall hanger for the den.

Thinking about taking it apart to look at the lockwork.

One has to wonder how many "antique" guns of that ilk are proudly offered for sale to unsuspecting/ill-informed buyers.

Realistically..that's pretty darn impressive

quote:

Originally posted by WoodHunter:
I would not shoot it (everything is functional) but it is a neat wall hanger for the den.

Thinking about taking it apart to look at the lockwork.

I'd shoot it.

quote:

Originally posted by gnoahhh:
One has to wonder how many "antique" guns of that ilk are proudly offered for sale to unsuspecting/ill-informed buyers.

-saw a table full of such at what used to be a huge flea market in Manhattan, the 25th St. and 6th Avenue area- various British pattern pistols. Their condition was as the photo, all with the same amount of wear, same condition from pistol to pistol. I was suspect of their age due to this consistency, but to tell the truth the seller didn't represent them as original or otherwise.

Now I know where they came from.

Also saw two floor lamps made of Vetterli rifles, items which were available in furniture stores in the late sixties.

I attended the flea market religiously every weekend for many years, and you'd be surprised at what was to be found there

Quick story- I read where Norden bomb sights cost the government around 70,000 dollars each; I saw one at the market about ten years ago for, I believe, 50 dollars.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe:
Realistically..that's pretty darn impressive

-yes it is, as are the functional copies of SMLE's and AK's they produce. Uncanny.

Two years ago at SHOT there was a Pakistani booth showing locally produced guns - including a London style sidelock 12 ga that, at least from the outside, would easily qualify as a best grade gun.

pretty neat

There was a special on 60 minutes or 20/20 years ago and it was either pakistan or afghanistan. This shop, they showed would show you a catalog you picked a firearm and they made it right there in front of you if you wanted to stay and watch. It took them about a week to build a 1911A1 right down to all the makers marks. they hardened it made the barrel fit all the parts and test fired it right there.
No electricity just hand powered tools, hand crank drill press, hand cranked grinders
Absolutely amazing work.

Now if we could get them to sit down with us and argue over which is better Texas BBQ or Memphis BBQ bring in a few hundred pounds of each of their finest pork baby back ribs and some Brisket. They'd convert for sure

IIRC I read years ago that Afghans would reload .303 cartridges using thin-cut strips of celluloid(photo film).

I'm more than willing to be corrected on this

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:
IIRC I read years ago that Afghans would reload .303 cartridges using thin-cut strips of celluloid(photo film).

I'm more than willing to be corrected on this

Didn't that practice spawn the current crop of suicide bombers?

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:
IIRC I read years ago that Afghans would reload .303 cartridges using thin-cut strips of celluloid(photo film). The whole reported purpose of that ban was to cut down on the reloading of cartridges by who we would today call "insurgents".

I'm more than willing to be corrected on this

MANY years ago, photo film WAS nitrocellulose sheets, carrying the photosensitive silver/chemical wash which became the photo when exposed to light, then "fixed" by the darkroom chemicals.

That is what the Afgans (or Aphgans) and lots of other industrially challenged areas of the world had available to them to protect their homes from unwanted colonial domination. So, yes, they manufactured their own weapons, and loaded their own ammo with nitrocellulose. They loaded mainly .303 British and .500/.450 Martini cartridges. It was especially done after the Brits banned the export of .450 hunting cartridges to the east Indian and some African colonies (which led to the introduction of rounds such as the .470 Nitro, et. al.).

For lots more info on that, just Google Khyber Pass Regions, and you'll get linked to lots of historical sites dealing with precisely that subject. That is some of the most fought-over real estate in the world's history, and is also known as the Hindu "Kush", even though today most westerners consider it mainly Muslim. The whole area is still virtually awash in Martini-Henrys and Martini-Enfields, both original and home-made copies.

Their home-made guns and ammo are kind of like what we did in our own territory/country when we made our own flintlocks mainly in New England, and our own blackpowder mainly in New York, 100 years earlier. Necessity IS the mother of invention.

BTW, it has been many years now since film was made of nitrocellulose. There may come a time when we shooters wish it still was.

There's all kinds of homemade guns built in different parts of the world. Some years ago, a friend sent me pictures of pistols made in one of the shops in Central India by Naxalite Communists who have been fighting the Indian government. I sent the pictures to a friend who blogs about guns: link.

My guess is that under better circumstances, some of these workers could be trained and hired to make decent guns if good metal and wood were supplied to them.

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
There was a special on 60 minutes or 20/20 years ago and it was either pakistan or afghanistan. This shop, they showed would show you a catalog you picked a firearm and they made it right there in front of you if you wanted to stay and watch. It took them about a week to build a 1911A1 right down to all the makers marks. they hardened it made the barrel fit all the parts and test fired it right there.
No electricity just hand powered tools, hand crank drill press, hand cranked grinders
Absolutely amazing work.

Now if we could get them to sit down with us and argue over which is better Texas BBQ or Memphis BBQ bring in a few hundred pounds of each of their finest pork baby back ribs and some Brisket. They'd convert for sure

Nat. Geographic did a segment on the Gunmakers of Darra several years back also.
I do remember one using old oil base paint brought to a slow boil as a tempering bath.

The testing range was to simply step into the street in front of your shop, and let loose into the air with your latest build.

Crude but familiar surroundings from our perspective, it was a dangerous place even then for Westerners.