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I remember back in the late 1960's Gun World had an article about a 1911 Colt pistol handmade in Vietnam or Cambodia, the Cao Dai pistols. I don't have a photo of it but it is mentioned in SMALL ARMS OF THE WORLD by Ed Ezell, 1977 Another interesting book is ZIPS, PIPES, AND PENS by Truby published by Palladin Press. It is loaded with various zip guns. Then there is WEAPONS OF THE AMERICAN UNDERGROUND with aricles on home made sub machine guns. In the 1980's there was a magazine FIREPOWER, which built and tested many of these machines. That is when LICENSED NEW machine guns were still legal to buy.

I remember reading an article about Vietnam in one of the gun magazines some time around 1970 that showed a bolt action rifle that was a copy of a chinese WWII rifle that had been hand made with files and not much else. Once the knowledge of firearms is out there, it cannot be suppressed.Can you imagine making a gun out of a file? How about Carbine Williams making the M1 Carbine in prison? It just isn't possible to stamp out guns, regardless of what liberal a**hats tell us.

How about Carbine Williams making the M1 Carbine in prison?

There is a yes and no answer to that question. Williams exhibited an enormous amount of mechanical ability while he was in prison and had an early out because of it. He had an idea for the floating chamber and the short stroke piston while he maintained the prison armory. The legend lead a lot of people into thinking he hacked out the M-1 Carbine while he was in a jail cell.

After his release, he further developed his ideas and had an audience with the ordnance review boards with General Hatcher. His work on the M-1 carbine was with Winchester.

Later, he parted ways with Winchester because of suspected theft of his designs while the company president considered Williams a difficult man to work with.