[Greg528iT]

http://vintageordnance.homestead.com/index.html

Why??????


Smooth bore 45. Do you need a tax stamp on top of the $600?

[rcmodel]

The orginial OSS Liberator pistol with the smooth bore is on the NFA exempt list.

NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT WEAPONS REMOVED FROM THE ACT AS COLLECTOR'S ITEMS AND CLASSIFIED AS CURIOS OR RELICS UNDER 18 U.S.C. CHAPTER 44
OSS "Liberator" pistol, .45 ACP

For this reproduction, you would need a tax stamp if it wasn't rifled, but it is.

Our reproduction has a rifled barrel and discrete markings to comply with Federal law and hopefully prevent it from being unscrupulously sold as an original antique

At one point, they were shipped in non-firing condition.

You had to drill out the hole for the firing pin if you wanted then to work.

rc

[Greg528iT]

Thanks RC.. I read the Wiki article on the Liberator.. but not the vintage site. My BAD

So back to the question.. ummmm WHY?????
ok I know, for the poor collector who can not obtain a real one. I think it's a pretty small market though.

[rcmodel]

Well, real ones are going for $3000+ if you can find one.

I suppose a WWII military collector would rather have that one to round out a collection if he couldn't afford a real one.

Then there is the military re-enactors that have to have one of everything to play solder with.

I have shot a real one, and I'm here to tell you they ain't no fun to shoot!
Primer set-back blows the cocking piece back far enough for it to slam back shut under recoil with a chunk of your hand meat caught under it!
Yeoowww!

rc

[Greg528iT]

During the course of my testing of our prototype pistol, I fired over 100 rounds in numerous sessions. It took a day to recover enough from the pounding this little pistol gave me to go at it again and finish the testing.

From their web site. YIKES..

[spyder1911]

It would be a cool gun if it was sold at it's actual value, something like $50, but $600 for that thing?

No way

[medalguy]

The Liberator was never meant to be fired more than one or two times. The idea was to use it to shoot a German soldier and take his weapon, then throw the Liberator away.

[ApacheCoTodd]

Why the firearm? For collectors to fill a hole in their collection.

Why the price? I guess because they figure they can.

Me?... I see literally the easiest gun in the world to build on the cheap with the lowest expectations of performance (if any) from it's buyers and have to figure that I would be embarrassed to admit paying $600 for it even if I was filthy rich.

[PabloJ]

http://vintageordnance.homestead.com/index.html

Why??????


Smooth bore 45. Do you need a tax stamp on top of the $600?
Last one I have seen at LGS was well above 2K. I know vast majority of originals did not survive to our times, despite that I would not pay over $100 for one. I have no desire to ever own this and do not understand why others want them.

[Mauser lover]

Didn't these things cost less than $3.00 to make AND deliver? Why is it worth more than an Enfield? Or a Mauser, or a slightly used Springfield?

[Deus Machina]

Didn't these things cost less than $3.00 to make AND deliver? Why is it worth more than an Enfield? Or a Mauser, or a slightly used Springfield?

Essentially. They're museum pieces now, not shooters.

Unlike Enfield, Mausers, and Springfields, these things were literally never cleaned, or even issued with any care, and in fact 995 of every 1000 were left to rust away in a ditch, stream, gutter, or random field--or just torn down for scrap after the war.

It's all collector's value.

[MachIVshooter]

The Liberator was never meant to be fired more than one or two times. The idea was to use it to shoot a German soldier and take his weapon, then throw the Liberator away.

Yup, pretty much sneak up behind the enemy, put the muzzle to his peanut and pull the trigger, then take his gun.

[medalguy]

Supply and demand is what it's all about. Supply is just about zero, and the demand is somewhere above more than one or two.

[Brian Williams]

Most of the Liberators were pitched overboard before they went to Europe. Very few were actually delivered to any underground.

[Ian]

A friend of mine has one of the reproductions, and I am looking forward to shooting it sooner or later. I did a video discussing the design and manufacture, for folks who are interested:

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/the-fp45-liberator-pistol

Here's at least one reason I think they're interesting: can you imagine the government today endorsing the idea of seeding an entire country with disposable, concealable handguns designed specifically for shooting soldiers and policemen?

[Peter M. Eick]

This gun interests and irritates me.

I am interested in it as a shooter but it also is a huge irritation.

I am also interested in train engines and my favorite type is the AT&SF FP-45 so now instead of getting pictures and threads on locomotives I get liberators. I will have to start constructing better search queries.

[ApacheCoTodd]

I can't wait for the price to come down to the real world. I'd like to have one since I've got four boxes of the FA42 .45 that these were shipped with. I wonder what the reproduction will do for the value of those?

[rcmodel]

It's been out for several years now, and the price hasn't come down yet.
It's such a specialized item I doubt it ever will either.

rc

[Loosedhorse]

...

[Ian]

Yeah, the reproduction Liberator's are not going to affect the value of FA42 ammo.

[kozak6]

They probably don't have 300 GM workers doing 24 hour production on a 1 million pistol order.

It probably costs more when you have to tool up from scratch on your own buck for a run of probably just a couple hundred of them, if that.