Absurdly simple close combat firearm

evilauthor wrote:I would like to point out that Cayleb once mentioned wanting to shoot his sister's pet bird with a shotgun.

Aka, shotguns exist, although I don't know what form they take.

Cheopis wrote:I was poking around on YouTube and found an interesting video.

I had never considered how simple it might be to manufacture a shotgun. Please ignore the fact that the guy is shooting a CO2 cartridge out of the weapon, and just notice how simple the construction of the weapon itself is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6zEUYl5FlY

This is something easily within the capabilities of anyone that can make smoothebore weapons of any type.

If you have some sort of percussion cap, Two pieces. A stock with a big pipe, and a bump at the base of the pipe to act as a strike point for the percussion cap. Then a smaller pipe that can fit inside the bigger pipe.

Some sort of flint and steel insert could be placed at the bottom of shells without percussion caps to generate a spark from slamming the two pipes together.

Reloading is super easy and fast. Outgassing is all down the tube, away from the face, though heavy gloves would be a definite plus. A handle and hand guard might be added to the inner barrel, to facilitate reloading, prevent the barrel from going downfield, and protect the hands from outgassing.

I could very easily see something like this used in urban fighting or naval battles. The accuracy would probably be almost useless for open field battles though.

Heck, one could simply issue percussion caps and powder charges, and direct the soldiers to put sand, pebbles, and other improvised ammunition in it. This might wear the weapons out quickly but who cares, they are so simple and cheap to make.

There would be the problem of people losing half of their weapon, or whatever, but the construction is so simple that even without unified construction methods, a soldier could probably match most inner and outer barrels together and have a serviceable weapon.

Theemile wrote:

Cheopis wrote:I was poking around on YouTube and found an interesting video.

I had never considered how simple it might be to manufacture a shotgun. Please ignore the fact that the guy is shooting a CO2 cartridge out of the weapon, and just notice how simple the construction of the weapon itself is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6zEUYl5FlY

This is something easily within the capabilities of anyone that can make smoothebore weapons of any type.

If you have some sort of percussion cap, Two pieces. A stock with a big pipe, and a bump at the base of the pipe to act as a strike point for the percussion cap. Then a smaller pipe that can fit inside the bigger pipe.

Some sort of flint and steel insert could be placed at the bottom of shells without percussion caps to generate a spark from slamming the two pipes together.

Reloading is super easy and fast. Outgassing is all down the tube, away from the face, though heavy gloves would be a definite plus. A handle and hand guard might be added to the inner barrel, to facilitate reloading, prevent the barrel from going downfield, and protect the hands from outgassing.

I could very easily see something like this used in urban fighting or naval battles. The accuracy would probably be almost useless for open field battles though.

Heck, one could simply issue percussion caps and powder charges, and direct the soldiers to put sand, pebbles, and other improvised ammunition in it. This might wear the weapons out quickly but who cares, they are so simple and cheap to make.

There would be the problem of people losing half of their weapon, or whatever, but the construction is so simple that even without unified construction methods, a soldier could probably match most inner and outer barrels together and have a serviceable weapon.

The US army manual for unconventional warfare (I don't remember the pub # off the top of my head) had instructions on how to make shotgun "traps" out of piping using a hinged board and a nail as the hammer - insanely simple, effective devices. I don't know if Id want to be holding it whe it went off or reload and fire it a second time, but as a one time, unmanned area denial weapon, it is effective.

Tom Clancey described another shotgun derived weapon in his book "Without Remorse" called a "bang stick." Pretty much a 2 piece capped pipe with a birdshot shell sitting on a nail inside the capped end - You thrust the open end into an opponent and and birdshot shell expends all its energy out the open end and into the target. A nasty, up close weapon.