Since I continue to get a lot of questions about reproductions, I figured I’d devote today’s video to looking at different elements that go into producing a reproduction firearms. Why some work out and some don’t.
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These private guys/companies do try, and some SA versions of FAs do work, ie, Ohio Ord/BAR..& I am impressed with their BAR, having both. On the other hand, the FG-42 by Smith & sons, I had for 3 years and the problem with the picked existing magazine never ended….They should have went to the BAR magazine, which has the power to push the rds into the side of the receiver, instead of the CZ mag which was designed to drop rds into the receiver of the Czech MG it was designed for.TY,Ian
“The need” may be actually met be a reproduction gun, and hardly anything else.
There is a quirk in – otherwise very restrictive – gun law in Poland.
As long as you are an adult, you can buy a replica of a black powder gun, provided it des not use a combined cartridge. Which means you cannot equip yourself with a replica Chassepot, but very much with a replica of a Colt Walker, or two for a good measure.
Many a brain has been thus blown off using this pseudo-antique contraptions.
Obviously, they meet a need.
What is your point? ‘Many a life’ is lost every day to cars too. Life should be a good deal less safe than it is. The chronically safe make a nigh insufferable world.
…my point is that the at certain legal/supply environments, a repro firearm may be a rational choice for purely utilitarian reasons. No ideology involved.
My apologies. I thought you were objecting to the accidents that sometimes occur. I like to hear rationality utility and firearms mentioned in the same sentence
I had always hoped someone more clever than I would make a Mauser C96 in 22 LR with a straight blowback action, much along the lines of the STG 44 22 knock offs.
Seems like it should be doable, but who knows, and the demand may not be there.
“(…)Mauser C96 in 22 LR with a straight blowback action(…)”
This was (sort of) made by Canto Arms https://www.ammoland.com/2024/11/blastech-industries-dl-44-hero-blaster/
I expected umarex would have done it years ago, given the C02 version they were already making and the fact that I believe they’ve already done such with IIRC the 1911 and MP-40
I’d buy two, for sure. Like the guy in the flick 让子弹飞， but his were .45 ACP like the warlords used
The Kahr Firearms Group seems to have met a number of Ian’s requirements for reproduction firearms success with the Thompson Guns in both the sub machine gun and SBR models. Also their M-1 Carbine seems to be doing well.
Waiting for Ian to use the Liberator in a BUG Match.
Slightly aside from topic. I read where both Eisenhower and Vinegar Joe Stilwell opposed the plan to distribute Liberators. Anyone know their reasons? I could think of some, but I’m interested in history not my overactive imagination
“MG34-MG42 German Universal Machine Guns” by Folke Myrvang shows the many steps in making an MG-42 receiver. Each requiring a different die. Pages 156-157.
Dies can be made cheaply using zinc alloys for short runs. But the sequence of operations is the hard part. You can only do so much in any one operation. Designing the dies for a stamped gun is a major cost. Sufficient to rival or exceed the cost of fabricating the dies.
Ian mentally struggled but lacked the word: “progressive dies”
I like the sound of that. Bad pun, but I like the sound of it.
I think a more viable path to profit where reproduction is concerned, would be reproduction cartridges for guns no longer in production, but are held in high quantity by consumers and which would still be more than safe to shoot reliably today.
While PPU and Sellier & Bellot generally make ammo for more common but out-of-production military surplus oriented firearms, or things like 9mm Largo, .30-Luger, and .455-Webley, I often see a LOT of Winchester 1907/1910 Semi-Auto rifles for sale on gun-auction sites that look nearly new (because the cartridge was made obsolete quite soon after production) where reproduction of .351-WSL and .401-WSL would sell REALLY well. I own 2 Winchester 1910s that look like they were made yesterday, with additional magazines – but it’s about the hardest ammo to find. Buffalo Bore has made it off and on over the years, but in very limited quantities. I’ve seen 7.62X39 cases used to make .401 Winchester, but the idea of it seems dubious on matching actual specs.
Same could be said for something like the ubiquitous Czech Vz-52 rifle, where 7.62X45 is relatively scarce and the military surplus that is available in limited batches that pop up for sale online from what came into the US decades ago, is costly, corrosive, and nasty. Tons of people have these and try to convert them to 7.62X39 that just doesn’t work very well, and while one could pursue the more scarce Vz-52/57 that was manufactured in dedicated chamberiing of 7.62X39, the latter often sells for 6 times the cost of a Vz-52.
One cartridge with a recent reproduction story to which I’m sure Ian can relate was 7.65X20mm (or 7.65 MAS/French .32-Long) primarily for the French Modèle 1935, in which very many surplus guns were sold in the US and can still be found for sale in large quantities on gun auction sites now; it was an excellent pistol, and yet military surplus ammo dried up quickly without a replacement source for a very long time. Ian has even discussed this in prior videos and if I recall correctly, was influential in getting it newly made as a reproduction cartridge by Steinel.
I think it would highly profitable to pursue making reproduction cartridges for good guns that sold in mass quantities for which people still hold those guns in their safes, closets and collections today – but have no source for ammo to shoot them.
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