Slightly off Topic Idea

[Lord Soth]

I apolgize in advance if this is not the right place for my post. Anyway, I was wondering if it is possible to make an effective gun sword like in the Final Fantasy game. Now I know it is far fetched and this weapon would probably be considered an AOW requiring all the paperwork, etc. but please hear me out. I was thinking that one could take say an Angus Trim sword (which comes apart) and make a new hilt for it incorporating a cylinder in it like the gun/knife here: http://www.impactguns.com/store/grad_rs1.html.

Could this be an effective weapon (both as a sword and as a gun)? Would the sword balance properly? Any other comments?

Thanks!

 

[Jim March]

The correct URL is: http://www.impactguns.com/store/grad_rs1.html

You "broke it" when you added the period at the end.

In US legal terms, the big issue is "does the gun part LOOK like a gun?". If it does, and it's registered as a handgun due to the short barrel length, it's legal.

Second major issue is concealment.

Third is balance. I've seen museum single-shot flintlock action swords from the 1700s. That's fine. But the moment you run a magazine or cylinder you're in a whole 'nuther ballpark in terms of weight and balance. Mount a cylinder behind the grip and run the blade tang and barrel through the grip with the trigger on some kinda DA linkage, and you've got one way-over heavy pommel.

Dunno, it'll take a better bladesmith than me to work out the issues. And that still doesn't address concealment.

 

[JShirley]

I know China made a fighting knife with 4 .22 barrels some years ago. I think Gary has one.

 

[Don Gwinn]

I would imagine this is more to have a weapon like the one in the game than to create a serious weapon, right? I wouldn't worry overmuch about balance and such unless you intend to use it.

If you intend to use it, I would advise that you don't. I don't normally set much store by the idea that handloads or custom touches on a gun could cause problems in court, but if you put out the money and time to have a sword/gun custom-made and carry it, I think some prosecutor really might make a big deal of it. Besides which, it would be hard to build one that would be terribly effective. Better off with a good gun, good knife or both.

I used to have a roommate in college who wanted me to make a sword like Cloud's from Final Fantasy VII. If you haven't played, the sword is roughly twice the size of Cloud. In real life, it would probably have a five-to-six-foot blade about twelve inches wide and maybe an inch thick at the spine. There'd be a LOT of metal in that sucker.

 

[hso]

You could make something that had a working "gun" in the handle, but would be useless as a sword because you would have had to remove the tang from the sword to get the parts of the "gun" in place. No tang means no strength. If you had huge hands you might be able to build something that worked as both and you could get the balance "right", but I would expect it to be heavy. I wouldn't use a blade as expensive as one of the ATs for the project.

 

[CyberGOP]

There have been gun sword combos , I saw one on Tales of the Gun , though not quite as sophisticated as Squall's gunblade . Final Fantasy 8 is a good game , but it doesn't have anything on Final Fantasy 7 .

 

[Bruz]

Think that thing may be considered a zip gun here in Kaifornia!