Redneck DIY duelling pistols? Must be Home Depot specials Tom Sachs: Handmade hand guns | iainclaridge.net
During WWII General Motors mass produced the single shot FP-45 Liberator pistols that were air dropped behind enemy lines for resistance fighters in Nazi held territory. Their intended purpose was to be used in killing a Nazi soldier in an isolated position and then taking his weapon as an upgrade over the FP-45 single shot pistol. These remind me of those weapons, but they look even nicer than the FP-45's. You never know when you might be forced by circumstances to manufacture a weapon like this to defend yourself.
There were studies that indicated that the FP-45 was a very effective use of resources. An aircraft flew over and dropped a few in remote areas and the enemy had to send 100's of soldiers out for days to find them and it prevented them from doing other things and used gas and such. Same as a few firebombs in the woods, had to build fire breaks, watch towers, keep fire crews available etc. A weapon doesn't have to be effective, only has to be preceived to be effective. Would you walk through a woods that said there was a mine field?
As i understand it, few were ever used in fact, and the delivery boxes are very rare, and worth more than the guns to collectors. But yes, they were very effective at using ENEMY resources.
An extremely simple stamped metal design, the Liberator is a smooth-bore single-shot pistol chambered in .45 ACP. One million were manufactured between June and August of 1942. The idea was to give resistance fighters a way to incapacitate or kill an armed occupier and take his weapons by dumping so many of these hold-out pistols behind enemy lines that they could not possibly all be confiscated. A secondary effect was to demoralize occupying forces by picking them off in their own territory. While many of these guns found their way to the Pacific insurgents pitted against the Japanese forces, the majority of these guns were never distributed and were eventually destroyed. They are rare, valuable, and in a way, inspiring.
It is a design concept that seemed to have inspired the creator of the DIY pistols in the OP, even down to incorporating cartridge wells for additional ammo. Reloading the redneck special would probably have be as swift as for the Liberator though. Via: U.S. "Liberator" pistol FP-45 : : C&Rsenal
May be they should go into production again ,of course with modern metals and technology and have them for distribution when the time comes.