chinese revolving shotguns
August 4, 2013 1:45 PM Subscribe
If you google "chinese revolving shotguns" you will find lots of forum/blog posts about like these - basically "Neat pictures, I have no idea of the back story". OK, what is the back story? (Possibly related?)
Response by poster: I'm not sure what back story you mean
I mean, it looks like a large number of illegally made guns were confiscated - when, who, where (details that would be in the original story)? Someone tooled up and made a new design and dozens of guns - was it a criminal gang, terrorists, a lone nutbar?
posted by 445supermag at 2:03 PM on August 4, 2013
I mean, it looks like a large number of illegally made guns were confiscated - when, who, where (details that would be in the original story)? Someone tooled up and made a new design and dozens of guns - was it a criminal gang, terrorists, a lone nutbar?
posted by 445supermag at 2:03 PM on August 4, 2013
The pictures you linked to all come from different places, so there's no "backstory" -- someone just collected a bunch of random pictures of guns and posted them together. For example, in your "like" link, the second picture is from Taiwan, the third from mainland China, and the fourth from somewhere else entirely. In your "these" link, the first and second pictures are from Taiwan, but the last picture is from Brazil.
posted by bradf at 3:07 PM on August 4, 2013
posted by bradf at 3:07 PM on August 4, 2013
Guns are simple. To discharge a .22, you need a steel tube and a hammer. Ditto on a shot shell. The magic is mostly in the shell, and everything that is outside that is a combination of features for safety, reliability, durability, accuracy, cost, ease of manufacturing, etc.
It's no different than a bar of soap, except of course, for things like chamber pressures. Many rural kids have many stories to share about setting off rounds in a vise, or making their own marble cannons, or salvaging smokeless powder from a box of shells. (Note that I did not use the word "safely".)
You want to make a revolving shotgun? Any decent machinist could pull it off. One in a row of anything usually isn't hard.
Want to make it safe and optimally light? Now you need a designer, not a fab tech. Want to make a million? Different set of problems, few of which are related to physics.
So, if I wanted to make some short range lethal hardware, a shot pistol would be a good choice. The difference between a well constructed shot handgun and an amateur effort evaporates after the first successful discharge, which is probably all you'd need anyway. They aren't aiming weapons, they are shell holders with a firing pin.
posted by FauxScot at 4:58 PM on August 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's no different than a bar of soap, except of course, for things like chamber pressures. Many rural kids have many stories to share about setting off rounds in a vise, or making their own marble cannons, or salvaging smokeless powder from a box of shells. (Note that I did not use the word "safely".)
You want to make a revolving shotgun? Any decent machinist could pull it off. One in a row of anything usually isn't hard.
Want to make it safe and optimally light? Now you need a designer, not a fab tech. Want to make a million? Different set of problems, few of which are related to physics.
So, if I wanted to make some short range lethal hardware, a shot pistol would be a good choice. The difference between a well constructed shot handgun and an amateur effort evaporates after the first successful discharge, which is probably all you'd need anyway. They aren't aiming weapons, they are shell holders with a firing pin.
posted by FauxScot at 4:58 PM on August 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
The Chinese word for a homemade gun is 土枪 tǔ qiāng (土 - literally 'soil' or 'earth', means 'local', 'rough-and-ready' and 'down-home' etc by extension). People would/do make them for hunting (saw something that was for all the world like an old ball musket in one village I worked in) and of course you get them made for criminal purposes。 As has been said, not sure exactly what back story to give other than that people will try all sorts with what they have to hand AFAICT.
posted by Abiezer at 6:39 PM on August 4, 2013
posted by Abiezer at 6:39 PM on August 4, 2013
Response by poster: I want the story behind the 50 or so identical guns in the first picture here. Definitely not hunting, and look factory made. It is just so puzzling to me - if you had a factory at your disposal, why not copy a successful design? And if it were for criminal purposes why something that is so hard to conceal, yet only has the range of a concealable pistol.
posted by 445supermag at 7:03 PM on August 4, 2013
posted by 445supermag at 7:03 PM on August 4, 2013
I see the measuring tape in the second picture says Hsinchu Police Department, which is a county of Taiwan. This story from 2012 says police there caught a man called Wang who was running an "underground ordnance factory", selling his guns for NTD10,000 a pop. Can't find a report with pictures to see if it's the same case. Wang claimed to police that he'd adapted the design himself to make them better for hunting, it says, and was only doing it to make ends meet rather than anything nefarious. Oh aye.
posted by Abiezer at 7:41 PM on August 4, 2013
posted by Abiezer at 7:41 PM on August 4, 2013
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Revolving shotguns
The revolving part is a rotary magazine--the chamber for the extra ammunition.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:58 PM on August 4, 2013