What on earth is the gun in this picture?
It’s the cover of a single by the band Everthus the Deadbeats. There is a child holding some strange firearm. It almost looks like some kind of very heavily modified version of a scoped Mauser C-96 pistol with a long barrel, stock and flash-suppressor. At least, the pistol grip visible near the bottom looks as if it is “ribbed” in the manner of the “broom handle” pistol. What is the deal with that stock and barrel?
Does anyone know?
It kind of looks like an FN-NAL, but I don’t think it is one.
Ha, you got me stumped. My first thought was Beretta AR-70, but now I’m not sure. Whatewer it is, it looks modded and badly cropped on the picture, so it’s hard to take a good look.
Well, I’m fairly certain that at least the rear portion of it is derived from a Mauser C96. See this image I created for the sake of comparison - the proportions and angles of the Mauser pistol seem to fit with the gun in the image. But the rest of it is what confuses me. I’ve seen Mauser C96 pistols with buttstocks and extended magazines and various other modifications, but never one with such a huge barrel and what appears to be some kind of rail running along the top of it, and a wood grip beneath.
Well, the barrel is clearly that of assault rifle. By design, not by modification. Those rings near the muzzle are for launching rifle grenades.
Maybe there are two pictures in superposition one over the other? Or there is some kind of device (folded butt-stock?) obscuring side of the rifle.
What I’m sure, is what it isn’t - C96 similarity, while exist, seems to be only superficial.
The assault rifle barrel is unrecognizable to me. You can tell from the way it tapers off that the wood stock underneath it does not belong to a FAL, CETME or G3. The shape of that stock does not look like any assault rifle that I can think of - it looks more like the stock of a hunting rifle. I still maintain that the rearward part of the gun is at least partially made up of a C96. Whatever that thing is must be a very highly modified piece, or else something that I’m not familiar with at all. I’m hoping one of the experienced gun people here may know more.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been in the assault rifle business, but ISTM the critical component to recognize is the receiver. Pistol grips, barrel covers are all pretty cosmetic.
The receiver of that weapon looks very unlike any I could recall handling, or could Google up. It is too short fore/aft versus its height. There’s no reason to make a modern one shaped like that.
The thing which hangs below the receiver & very vaguely resembles an old Mauser clip is montaged in; I believe the actual clip would connect to the receiver right at the front, and would overlap with the thing shown.
IMHO: Photo montage of gun- and gun-like chunks, not a real weapon.
Judging by how the gun is approximately the right size for the kid to handle, the fact that it is no production automatic rifle I’ve ever seen, and the goofy looking scope, I expect it is a toy gun. The whole photo is a montage of images clipped from elsewhere. The kid looks like he was taken from a late 1960’s or early 1970’s advertisement. Research toy guns from that time period and you may find your quarry.
Good point about toy gun. Although I’m pretty sure I’ve seen actual weapon with very similar looking scope/handle. I have to skim through a few books when I get home. It’s puzzling. Details of it looks familiar, but doesn’t add up to whole.
The toy gun in this auction looks like it might be the heart of the gun in your photo. The longer barrel and other details may come from other photos.
That was going to be my suggestion. Something photoshopped together or grabbed out of a studio prop department.
I’m definately not the Cecil of firearms, but that doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen in production. Pieces, yes. The whole, no.
I agree that the receiver looks like a Mauser C-96, but it’s hard to tell because you can’t seen the bottom of the grip. ISTM that the barrel of the pistol would be lower than the barrel shown in the photo, but it would be a simple matter to build a box around it (and to extend the trigger guard and add a rifle stock, etc.). Only I wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of getting a C-96 and then covering up everything except the grip? It could be that someone liked the C-96 and just made a prop with a couple of general features from it.
Speaking of real guns being used as science fiction props, it always amused me that the stormtroopers in Star Wars used essentially stock Sterling submachine guns, Han Solo’s blaster was a gussied-up C-96, and Boba Fett used a Webley flare pistol. I think it was Escape From New York where they ‘updated’ M-16s simply by removing the handguards. Not that anyone notices; just little things to pick out.
There is a rare carbine version of the C96. The front stock looks like the one in the photo, but the barrel is different. I vote for it being a toy. http://www.northwest-denture.com/mauser1896/
Thanks for all the responses. Weird. I think I may contact this band and ask them where they got that photo - they’re from around here so they shouldn’t be too hard to reach.
I am not sure that the black thing that you are referring to below the receiver is even intended to be part of the gun at all. Aside from that, it doesn’t look like any of the gun is photo-montaged - it looks like a real, physical object that was photographed.
I just got off the phone with the drummer and art designer for the band. He said that the photo-montage on that album cover was taken from a 60s-era Playboy magazine. He didn’t have any more details than that, and couldn’t remember the specific issue. Even if he did, it’s unlikely that contacting Playboy would yield any results.
Bump. Any more ideas about this (toy?) gun?
I didn’t know that back in the 60s they made toy guns that were realistic enough to have flash-hiders and grenade launchers and scopes. If it is indeed a toy, it’s one weird-ass toy, combining elements from random weapons. Either that, or it’s some bizarre prop that someone cobbled together from various gun parts. Is there any chance at all of it being a functional weapon?
I looked in some books, but found nothing similar. Couple of thoughts, though:
Wait a second. I had some kind of epiphany right now. Does anybody have photos of AAI prototypes of their flechette rifle? Sixties would be right time and place, and what I remember would be vaguely similar.
Is there any chance that one of our gun fans such as Martini Enfield and others who are already registered on gun forums, could pose this question and a link to the thread and picture on one of those forums? Maybe someone there would know the answer. I’m not convinced that this is a toy - it seems too complicated to be a toy, especially now that I know that the photos were taken in the 60s or earlier, and not in the current day when there are more realistic toy guns for kids.
Well, gun fans, according to the good folks at The High Road, this rifle is a SIG AMT. . A rare and obscure rifle, it is now a collector’s item and quite valuable. This is going on the list of future guns to buy someday. I think that is one hell of a sweet-looking piece.
