Zip gun

[Mutant Funk Drink]

I'm interested in building a zip gun for no particular purpose except I'm just curious how to build a working gun.

If the gun is made from steel pipe, and if I built it to shoot 38 special bullets, is there actually any danger of the gun blowing up? I keep reading that zip guns can be dangerous, but I'm wondering if that danger is in reference in how unwieldy the gun is or the potential of it injuring the shooter?

Also, is there any advantage in rifling the barrel of a zip gun? If so, then how would I do that?

[Hydroponichronic]

I think the biggest challenge would be finding a pipe that is just the right side for a .38 bullet. Too loose is better than too tight, but way too loose and that'll cause problems of it's own. Best bet, I'd think would be to check internal diameters of every pipe in the shop and then pick a caliber based on that. Alternatively, if you're over 21 and can accept packages at your place, you could just order a .38 barrel (or any caliber, for that matter) and have it shipped to your house. Not the cheapest way to do things, but it would be much less likely to blow up. To save money, one could try cheap soviet surplus parts, and just build it in 7.62x25 or something. As for the effect of rifling, it's necessary for reasonable accuracy beyond ~10 yards. Bullets are not shaped to be fired without rifling, so without it, they just tumble unpredictably.

[Groundhog whacka]

Build it to fit the 454 Casull, you shouldn't run into any trouble with too much pressure that way. No need to rifle it.

[Mutant Funk Drink]

Originally Posted by Groundhog whacka

Build it to fit the 454 Casull, you shouldn't run into any trouble with too much pressure that way. No need to rifle it.

How does the Casull make it so that rifling isn't necessary? Is it because it uses rifle primer so it has more pressure and goes a further distance? Wouldn't that mean a greater risk of too much pressure?

[Hydroponichronic]

Originally Posted by Mutant Funk Drink

How does the Casull make it so that rifling isn't necessary? Is it because it uses rifle primer so it has more pressure and goes a further distance? Wouldn't that mean a greater risk of too much pressure?

He's trolling you. I thought that would have been obvious. TBH, the easiest way would be a small pistol caliber (22lr, 25acp, 32acp, 380acp). Heck, with 22lr's you can use plastic barrels, if they're thick enough.

[ArmsMerchant]

50s zips used car antenna for barrels, used .22, single shot. usually very inaccurate and dangerous to the shooter.

No sensible person brought one to a gang fight--chains, clubs, knives--fine. But anyone showed up with a firearm, everyone on both sides disarmed the offendor.

[Mutant Funk Drink]

Originally Posted by Hydroponichronic

He's trolling you. I thought that would have been obvious. TBH, the easiest way would be a small pistol caliber (22lr, 25acp, 32acp, 380acp). Heck, with 22lr's you can use plastic barrels, if they're thick enough.

Yes, I thought so. I'm not much of a gun expert so I wasn't sure.

Originally Posted by ArmsMerchant

50s zips used car antenna for barrels, used .22, single shot. usually very inaccurate and dangerous to the shooter.

No sensible person brought one to a gang fight--chains, clubs, knives--fine. But anyone showed up with a firearm, everyone on both sides disarmed the offendor.

A car antenna doesn't sound very sturdy.

That's interesting. Though I'm not building one for any reason other than I just want to learn how to make a gun with hardware parts.

[Hydroponichronic]

Search around for 12 gauge pipe guns. I would have though that would be a good way to lose some fingers, but one of the mods on here vouched for it. They might even have written a guide.

[ArmsMerchant]

Originally Posted by Mutant Funk Drink

Yes, I thought so. I'm not much of a gun expert so I wasn't sure.



A car antenna doesn't sound very sturdy.

.

They weren't. Some were only good for one of two shots. It just happened that car antennas were the proper caliber.

[Hydroponichronic]

TBH, gun barrels are unregulated and can be ordered cheaply online. Since for automatic handguns, the barrel also includes the chamber, that's like 80% of a zip gun right there. All one would need after that is a firing pin and some kind of a backstop. I think the easiest would be to get a 12 ga flare gun (also unrestricted) and find a way to get the real gun barrel (for a sufficiently small caliber, ie not bigger than 380acp) inside the old one, or replacing it. It would have to be reloaded for each shot, but it would be hard to do a zip gun revolver or auto-loader.

[LavaRed]

Originally Posted by Hydroponichronic

Search around for 12 gauge pipe guns. I would have though that would be a good way to lose some fingers, but one of the mods on here vouched for it. They might even have written a guide.

I built several, and have issued them to the guards at my farm. They've run several boxes of ammo through them and hunted with them, without ever having experienced a failure.

[reggie_love]

What about P.A. Luty's material. Is his site still down?

[Mutant Funk Drink]

I'll look into your pipe shotgun, LavaRed. That's cool that you've been able to use them successfully.

Using a pre-made rifled barrel sounds nice, and perhaps I'd do that at some point, but I'd like to stick with making a zip from scratch if possible. What are the disadvantages of using a pipe(for the barrel) that's slightly larger than the bullet so that it doesn't get stuck and grenade the gun? What about polishing and oiling the barrel?

[reggie_love]

Originally Posted by reggie_love

What about P.A. Luty's material. Is his site still down?

I see here that his website is up, but he died of cancer. Poor guy, I hope they let him out of jail when he found out he was dying.

http://thehomegunsmith.com/index.html

The guy literally wrote the book on zip-guns. In fact, he wrote several. Most are easy to make, require minimal tooling (some designs require machining, milling I think) and can be made using ordinary pipe stock. Most are full auto SMGs.

[Hydroponichronic]

Originally Posted by reggie_love

http://thehomegunsmith.com/index.html

He was a brit? The poor bastard. No good gun-loving person should have to live outside of the USA.

[LavaRed]

Originally Posted by Hydroponichronic

He was a brit? The poor bastard. No good gun-loving person should have to live outside of the USA.

Or Guatemala

[Hydroponichronic]

Originally Posted by LavaRed

Or Guatemala

I was googling it the other day. I was shocked at how restrictive it was. I just figured everywhere south of the border mil-surplus AKs could be purchased at your local bazaars. Not so much.

[LavaRed]

Originally Posted by Hydroponichronic

I was googling it the other day. I was shocked at how restrictive it was. I just figured everywhere south of the border mil-surplus AKs could be purchased at your local bazaars. Not so much.

Oh of course not. Everything south of the border is extremely restrictive.

But as long as you don't call attention to yourself and don't do anything dumb, you can pretty much have anything you want.