I think that the spirit of the thread assumes a thoroughly occupied country, sort of like Nazis running Germany, or America in 'Red Dawn', that sort of thing. And I think the author was implying that they didn't need to be airdropped by a foreign power, they could be manufactured by locals.
plexreticle said:
NEF rifle in .223, short barrel and take down wire stock would almost be perfect.
Yea that's the stuff. And some sort of lumps on top to sight by. Maybe single-shot rifle, with a receiver just made out of a chunk of steel. You cut a slot straight through it so you can feed a cartridge into the chamber by hand, and then secure it with a bolt that's a door that slides horizontally into place by hand on tracks cut into the receiver, you could even flip it over for right or left hand use. Have a little hole cut into the 'bolt' over the primer, and have the hammer and firing pin combined to a single unit like old revolvers. You could even eliminate a trigger, just holding the hammer back and releasing it when you got sights on the target. That would make a total of two moving parts and one spring.
Not sure about extraction, but considering the nature of the weapon circumstances suggest that you either won't need or get to make a second shot right away.
MikeJackmin said:
The purpose of a Liberator pistol was to allow a civilian to kill an enemy soldier at close range and take his weapon. The gun had to be cheap, easy to conceal, reliable, durable, mechanically obvious, and powerful. It did not have to be accurate, pretty, or quick to reload.
Many inexpensive guns sold now can meet or exceed those requirements, but none are available in the five dollar range.
Korean and Vietnam war flak vests were resistant to .45ACP. No occupying army is going to be unarmoured against pistol calibers.
Hence you have to bump it up to an intermediate rifle cartridge, and even then you may have to aim carefully.
And is a US soldier in Iraq going to let an unknown civilian get within 3 yards while his hands are reaching for something? That might be a failing of the Liberators, they're TOO short range. The hole principle is damed near suicidal. Hell, the best uses is probably for when the Nazis are kicking down the door, so you can take a shot or two at them and then finish yourself off before they can take you away to spend the last few days of your life in unbearable torture and then die hanging on a meathook.
Hence a modern Liberator should be able to fire accurately at targets closer to 50m away. Instead of the rolling French countryside, you've got rolling suburbs, and any tactic would likely involve picking off patrolling soldiers on the other side of a street, then ducking behind a house and running like hell.
Even the threat of such attacks would necessitate less frequent patrols with greater numbers of soldiers, so it's really a great boon to any resistance movement. (since 1 or 2 soldiers patrolling an area would get murdered quickly) Eventually the resistance might get weapons off the dead, but you shouldn't count on it.
