Deadeye

Has anyone here ever tried to build one of those water pipe guns that they are always showing in survival manuals & Poormans Janes Bond sort of stuff?

You know, the ones where you use steel gas or water pipe for a barrel etc.

44s Rock

Nope but I would think you would want heavy wall seamless rather than standard sch 40 welded water pipe.

Deadeye

I was wondering about stainless.

Deadeye

It would have to be bedded to the stock & wire wrapped for reinforcement.

Machinist

The only schedule 40 pipe sizes that normally will telescope are 1 1/4" and 1". These do not fit shotgun shells. A 3/4" sch40 pipe is .824 ID which fits the .800" to .809" base diameter of a 12 gauge shell. Nominal chamber ID at the base for 12 gauge shotguns is .815". The rim diameter is .886".

The ID of 1" sch40 pipe is 1.049" which is a slight interference fit with the 1.050" OD of the 3/4" pipe. This would require removing a small amount of material from the bore of the shorter outside pipe or from a portion of the outside of the inner pipe. The fit needs to be only close enough that the firing pin, which is fitted to a cap on the 1" pipe, will center on the primer of the shell. Either of these modifications could be done by hand or with a hand drill, though a simple lathe would be better.

The man who is supposed to have come up with this, in the Philippines in WW2 I think, tried to sell a more refined version after the war, if I recall. They were inexpensive and simple but I don't think the company lasted long. I'm sorry but my memory is very fuzzy on this part.

Machinist

In it's simplest form there is no stock. The outer pipe is held in one hand and the inner pipe is rammed home, firing it. In the commercial version the outer tube was fastened to the stock. The stock was shouldered and the inner tube was pulled back like the slide on a pump shotgun, with the gun firing at the end of the travel.

Bountyhunter

I would think it would be ilegal.

sheepdog

...MAKE LOVE NOT WAR...if I wanted an illegal weapon, I'd just go to a gunshow...or a garage sale...or an evil pawn shop...making your own's too much work....

tx gun runner

When you finish it , post a pics of you holding it so the BATF can get a search warrant for your house super easy ....

Deadeye

Yeah, I don't think I'd ever get comfortable enough to shoot it by hand anyway. Just wondering if they actually work with out blowing up. It would seem to me that they would be like a time bomb. Everytime you shoot it, would be one time closer till it blows.

44s Rock

Mac, How would 1" sch 160 work, it would have an ID of .815, too tight?

Machinist

44s, I must plead ignorant. I have never seen sch 160 in the sizes I dealt with, under 2". The ID, .815 is right for the chamber ID if the surface is smooth and true. What would the OD be?

I would not want to use these with regular pipe but the wall thickness is more than a shotgun barrels and the bore is oversized. It was originally a weapon of desperation. I would hope the commercial versions used better materials.

44s Rock

With steel pipe the OD remains the same and as the schedule changed the ID decreases so 1" is always 1.315", sch160 has a .25 wall.

Machinist

You're right of course. That should work in 1 1/4" schedule 40. the firing pin could hit .032 off center but it probably would work and it would not be hard to tighten up. The thicker wall would seem safer as well.