Ulrich von Bek (ulrich_von_bek@hotmail.com)
Fri, 10 Dec 1999 14:56:55 GMT
Roger Fuller <fullerfamily@sprintmail.com> wrote
>Subject: [Histrenact] - Flintlocks and muzzle-loaders
>Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 22:07:55 -0500
>
snip
> >Do paramiltaries use muzzle-loaders to 'kneecap' ?
>
>In WW2 Greece, yes, acc. to a friend I went to school in Germany with. His
>father had been active in the Greek resistance against the Germans (and
>later against the Communist guerillas after the war) in the mountains
>north of Salonika. All they had were ancient flintlocks, as the pre-war
>Greek govt. and then the Germans had taken away all modern firearms and
>ammunition. They made their own gunpowder and used various projectiles,
>whatever they could find. They would ambush the Germans individually by
>shooting them with the flintlocks, and then would take the Germans' weapons
>from them for their own use. It sounds simple, but it was not, as many
>Greeks died in horrible retribution for every German killed. Sometimes the
>old flintlocks blew up in their shooters' faces, too.
I read somewhere that in the Philippines, during WWII, a popular trick of
the resistance against the Japanese was the single shot 'gas pipe' shotgun,
wooden stock with a nail hammered into it and sharpened to make a firing
pin, gas pipe slid over the nail to make a breech, and a slightly smaller
grade of pipe as a barrel, you slide a 12g cartridge into the barrel, slide
the barrel into the breech, and wait for a jap sentry, pull the barrel
sharply backwards onto the firing pin, and pray it dont explode in your
face...
I also remember seeing an obscure documetary about Indonesian Tiger
poachers. It seems the Military govt. of the area takes a dim view of people
owning guns, they might use em to aquire democracy. So, all guns are banned.
Unfortunately, guns are an essential of the tiger poachers art, leave a
tiger to die in the snare and it ruins the hide.
As a result the poachers frequently made their own guns, smoothbore muzzle
loaders. The stocks are hand carved, barrels drilled from scrap car axles,
bullets are moulded from recyled toothpaste tubes (still lead alloy in such
places) cast into a bar in a length of bamboo and cut into individual rounds
with a machete, powder is made by crushing the heads from several boxes of
matches (non safety type), ignition by cigarette. Find the snare with the
tiger in, load your gun, light a cigarette, BANG. Enjoy your smoke while the
apprentice skins the beast...
Ulrich von Bek, gentleman adventurer.
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