[Philip]

Having grown up in Hawaii, we had servicemen passing through since the SpanAm War and over the years a lot of ethno weapons from the Philippines made it to our shores. Most of it was knives, central and norther islands, but there were some guns like this. A guy I knew had a small collection of them. Amazing variety, there's no limit to human ingenuity. Gas pipes were the usual choice for barrels. The most primitive type was a muzzle loader, ignited by the shooter's cigarette (I believe Stone's GLOSSARY...OF ARMS AND ARMOR has a picture of one). Others, like the ones on this thread, were breechloaders of one kind or another. Nails or bolts served as firing pins. There were sliding breechblocks and tip-open actions, the better ones had cocking mechanisms with triggers and spring-driven hammers that worked pretty well. Considering the materials and loose tolerances, I always wondered who was in greater danger -- target or shooter.

Then, in the early-mid 60s, GIs coming back from Vietnam brought some interesting home-made VC guns. Mostly a tad more sophisticated than the early Philippine items, but still looking awfully rickety. The post museum at Schofield Barracks had a nice assortment on display years ago, and if you go to the Military Museum in Hanoi, they have several showcases full of them. If there wasn't so much supervision in the metals shop class I had to take in jr. high school, my buddies and I would have cranked out something like these. In fact, we used to trade sketches of various designs during lunch hour!