# Ever heard of this pistol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059 "2005-01-28T05:08:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/1 "2005-01-28T05:08:46Z")
When I was a teenager, I knew a gun collector who had a pistol that said was given (dropped, IIRC) to Filipino resistance fighters during WWII. It looked similar to a .45 but was cheap-looking stamped sheet metal. The guy said it came loaded with a single magazine (.45’s) and was meant to be used only once. I saw the gun several times, and it looked like a toy but did have a rather large bore. The slide was definitely functional too. I googled a lot, but found nothing. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/2 "2005-01-28T05:12:59Z")
I don’t know if this is it, but the [Liberator Pistol FP-45](http://www.nfa.ca/nfafiles/cfjarchive/firearms/liberator.html) fits the bill pretty well. The only difference is that it is a single shot. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/3 "2005-01-28T05:15:55Z")
Here is more information on it. You could fire it multiple times but it was cheaply made and designed to be disposable. [http://usgi1911.tripod.com/liberator/](http://usgi1911.tripod.com/liberator/) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/4 "2005-01-28T05:21:56Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I don’t know if this is it, but the [Liberator Pistol FP-45](http://www.nfa.ca/nfafiles/cfjarchive/firearms/liberator.html) fits the bill pretty well. The only difference is that it is a single shot. Quite possible. I do remember a slide, but that could be the, uh, breech thingy on the back of the gun. It _has_ been about 45 years, and teenage boys are pretty impressionable about guns. It looks right, stylewise. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/5 "2005-01-28T05:35:46Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Here is more information on it. You could fire it multiple times but it was cheaply made and designed to be disposable. > > [http://usgi1911.tripod.com/liberator/](http://usgi1911.tripod.com/liberator/) Ok, after reading your second article I’m convinced. The bit about the 10 rounds in the butt is what did it for me. That’s where I got the magazine idea. That, and that the article mentions the Filipines. Pretty interesting stuff. They tried _anything_ in that war, didn’t they. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/6 "2005-01-28T07:22:19Z")
I am retired from the factory that made the Liberator. It was long before my time, as I was hired in 1971. There was a firing range in the basement, and I was shown the sealed-off doorway to that. Guide Lamp also made the “grease gun,” a cheapo submachinegun. According to rumor, there are many Liberators and grease guns, packed in cosmolene and buried in backyards around town. I never met anyone who claimed to have a cache in the yard, though. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/7 "2005-01-28T08:31:50Z")
Where can I find more info on the deer gun? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/8 "2005-01-28T14:03:30Z")
The thing about the Liberator is that it hasn’t been proven that they were actually distributed anywhere. Their rarity today is because the most were lost when the ships carrying them were sunk or that they were destroyed in lots by the US government following the war. The few specimens that turn up today, and sell for $$$$, seem mainly to have been “liberated” from the factory or shipping containers by US personnel. During WWII itself, those supplying the partisans found that it was very nearly as cheap and far more effective to supply them with something like a Sten gun. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/9 "2005-01-28T14:10:54Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Ok, after reading your second article I’m convinced. The bit about the 10 rounds in the butt is what did it for me. That’s where I got the magazine idea. That, and that the article mentions the Filipines. Pretty interesting stuff. > They tried _anything_ in that war, didn’t they. 😛 Yeah but I still think [incendiary bats](http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/batbombs/) is the winner in anything goes in war time. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/10 "2005-01-28T15:02:23Z")
Thanks for the link don’t ask. That stuff is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/11 "2005-01-28T15:03:48Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > They tried anything in that war, didn’t they. War does tend to bring out people’s [creativity.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=279280) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/12 "2005-01-28T15:11:00Z")
My dad used to say, ‘It was hotter than a two-dollar pistol.’ Is this the gun? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-of-this-pistol/287059/13 "2005-01-28T16:00:42Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > My dad used to say, ‘It was hotter than a two-dollar pistol.’ Is this the gun? No. I ran accross an article a long time ago that talked about the famous “two-dollar pistol”, and there were pictures. My gun terminology pretty much sucks, but IIRC the thing was very lightweight revolver and broke open near the trigger guard. It looked like two dollars, remembering that two bucks got you a lot more back in the day. I think it was in the cowboy days. I am, again, relying on memory here. 😉 Maybe I’ll google.