Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
Nope.
Not a fancy trap gun. In fact nothing at all fancy about it. In fact, its original versions were home-made out of pipe, if the record is accurate.
It's a sliding- barrel 'slam fire' single shot known in the P.I. as a 'paliuntod' or sometimes as a 'paltik.' You might recall the 'Liberator' pistol that was dropped into occupied Europe- well, here is the shotgun equivalent. Ran across it following some C&R links from another thread here, and given the recent thread on the $1000 single shot, I thought this might be interesting to the C&R types or military history buffs.
From Swearengen's _World's Fighting Shotguns_ (p. 36- 37)
"In their modern form, Philippine guerrilla guns are alleged to be the invention of Ensign Iliff D. Richardson, USNR, who improvised this type of firearm for his Leyte- based guerrilla band. It is suspected that an old- time Philippine Scout showed Richardson how to make the Paliuntod-type guns because they were identical to earlier models.
...
The gun was loaded and fired by pulling the barrel out of the breech guide tube and inserting a shell into the breech end. The loaded barrel was then re-inserted into the receiver and aimed at a nearby target. Firing was accomplished by pulling the barrel forward a few inches, then abruptly slamming it smartly rearward against the fixed breechblock. This caused the stud firing pin to crush the shell primer, discharging the gun.Effective breechlocking occurred simply through the inertia of the rearward moving barrel.
...
It should be mentioned that Illiff Richardson attempted to manufacture versions of his slam-firing Philippine guerrilla guns in the United States in the postwar period. These guns were typical Paliuntod types, but were constructed of proper materials and were well finished. Needless to say, the Richardson guns did not enjoy good sales, even though they were quite inexpensive. The entire enterprise was a dismal failure. The American market would not tolerate such a primitive firearm, even as a curio."
=====
This particular model seems to be the postwar commercial version, according to the information in Swearengen's book. Perhaps the American firearms market is now ready to support this curio... ?
An interesting peice of history at any rate, and an idea that still gets repeated from time to time BTW. Not too many years ago a 7th SF Group friend showed me pictures of a line of porters in Peru toting bundles of inexpensive single shot shotguns being sent to folk in remote villages to help them protect themselves against SL, the Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path guerrillas. If all you had was a machete or a hoe to defend yourself, a SS shotgun would look pretty darn good... .
lpl/nc
==========================================
http://www.militarygunsupply.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=CRUSLIB
Name:
US MADE LIBERATOR SHOTGUN
Item#:
CRUSLIB
Price/ea:
Wholesale Price: $3,500.00
Only a handfull known to exist in the world. Only mentioned in a few books. Dropped into the Phillipines and the like in WWII. NRA excelent condition. Marked "RICHARDSON INDUSTRIES, INC. --NEW HAVEN, CONN. U.S.A-- MODEL R-5-12GAUGE-PAT PEND.
Not a fancy trap gun. In fact nothing at all fancy about it. In fact, its original versions were home-made out of pipe, if the record is accurate.
It's a sliding- barrel 'slam fire' single shot known in the P.I. as a 'paliuntod' or sometimes as a 'paltik.' You might recall the 'Liberator' pistol that was dropped into occupied Europe- well, here is the shotgun equivalent. Ran across it following some C&R links from another thread here, and given the recent thread on the $1000 single shot, I thought this might be interesting to the C&R types or military history buffs.
From Swearengen's _World's Fighting Shotguns_ (p. 36- 37)
"In their modern form, Philippine guerrilla guns are alleged to be the invention of Ensign Iliff D. Richardson, USNR, who improvised this type of firearm for his Leyte- based guerrilla band. It is suspected that an old- time Philippine Scout showed Richardson how to make the Paliuntod-type guns because they were identical to earlier models.
...
The gun was loaded and fired by pulling the barrel out of the breech guide tube and inserting a shell into the breech end. The loaded barrel was then re-inserted into the receiver and aimed at a nearby target. Firing was accomplished by pulling the barrel forward a few inches, then abruptly slamming it smartly rearward against the fixed breechblock. This caused the stud firing pin to crush the shell primer, discharging the gun.Effective breechlocking occurred simply through the inertia of the rearward moving barrel.
...
It should be mentioned that Illiff Richardson attempted to manufacture versions of his slam-firing Philippine guerrilla guns in the United States in the postwar period. These guns were typical Paliuntod types, but were constructed of proper materials and were well finished. Needless to say, the Richardson guns did not enjoy good sales, even though they were quite inexpensive. The entire enterprise was a dismal failure. The American market would not tolerate such a primitive firearm, even as a curio."
=====
This particular model seems to be the postwar commercial version, according to the information in Swearengen's book. Perhaps the American firearms market is now ready to support this curio... ?
An interesting peice of history at any rate, and an idea that still gets repeated from time to time BTW. Not too many years ago a 7th SF Group friend showed me pictures of a line of porters in Peru toting bundles of inexpensive single shot shotguns being sent to folk in remote villages to help them protect themselves against SL, the Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path guerrillas. If all you had was a machete or a hoe to defend yourself, a SS shotgun would look pretty darn good... .
lpl/nc
==========================================
http://www.militarygunsupply.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=CRUSLIB
Name:
US MADE LIBERATOR SHOTGUN
Item#:
CRUSLIB
Price/ea:
Wholesale Price: $3,500.00
Only a handfull known to exist in the world. Only mentioned in a few books. Dropped into the Phillipines and the like in WWII. NRA excelent condition. Marked "RICHARDSON INDUSTRIES, INC. --NEW HAVEN, CONN. U.S.A-- MODEL R-5-12GAUGE-PAT PEND.
