Zip Guns

There are probably several reasons a person should have one or two zip guns in his collection. First off is that if your locale is of the sort that allows "gun buy-backs" one could easily turn $5 worth of plumbing supplies into $50-100 worth of groceries. A good return on your investment. Of course it won't do to lash together 5 or 10 slam-fire shotguns and ask for one coupon each. The event sponsors will figure out right away that you're gaming the system and turn you away empty-handed. Keep it to one, and put some effort into it. Make it look like someone actually meant to use it.

Second is that in the event your regular shooting irons are confiscated, you can gin one of these up and don't have to be completely defenseless.

The rare collectable classic is the WWII Liberator, a 45ACP zip gun manufactured in an actual factory and intended to be used once or twice to ease the transfer of a Mauser from a German to a Frenchman, then discarded. Today the things command premium prices.

In the '50s this

sort of thing was easily whipped up in high school shop class and used to settle some hash between Vinnie and Rocco in the alley behind the drug store in Brooklyn. Chambered in 1/4" pipe .38 spl, you got one shot, best taken up close and personal, then you tossed it in the dumpster and departed the scene. Reload time is right up there with revolutionary war muskets. Of course in the '50s, every kid past the 5th grade knew that the lower section of a car antenna would accept a .22 cartridge and .22 was vastly more economical if noticeably less lethal.

Make one of these and fire a blank or two through it and it will have that "air of authenticity" that will improve the odds of the buyback people actually giving you anything for it.

Of course the journey is as important as the destination, and if you're looking at a long, cold winter and need something to keep you from going stir-crazy, you could put a bit more effort into the job just to see how much time you can waste. Now here

is a 3-barreled version of the above. 3 hammers on a common trigger

and quick-reloading break action. I'd hold out for at least $200 for something like this. $150 if you let me shoot video from a safe distance while you fire it.