Homemade Guns: Hand Crafted Problem Solvers from Around the World

Written by David Reeder
October 22, 2026

This might be the best kind of arts and crafts someone can do. Building a homemade/handmade gun has been an American tradition since before there was an America.

During the Revolutionary War, a Pennsylvania gunmaker named Jacobus "Cobe" Scout is said to have shot and killed a British soldier from across the opposite side of the Delaware River with a rifle he made himself (a range of some 900 yards). Daniel Boone's first firearm is said to have been built by his father, Squire. For a time in the latter 18th and early 19th centuries, as many or more of the guns carried by Americans were hand-made, as were those manufactured by a gunsmith.

Handmade revolver-style pistol with a wooden grip and five shotgun shells on a police station desk in Brazil

We're not talking about those sorts of handmade guns here, though. Nor are we discussing modern Privately Made Firearms (PMFs). Instead, we're going to look at a variety of firearms built and carried around the world by users as varied as local militias, criminals, and even some "professional" soldiers.

Here we call them slam (or slam-fire) guns, zip guns, and pipe guns. Elsewhere, they're called Tumberas (Argentina), Wagila (Nigeria), Tamancha (India), and many other colloquial names. Some of them show exquisite craftsmanship (the Darra and Darraie of the Khyber Pass and similar regions). Most look more like something welded together in a cave, with a box of scraps.

Homemade Guns: What They're Called (and Where)

Tumi. Also Tumee. This is a term for traditional, locally made single-shot hunting guns in Myanmar, but that's not the only firearm they build locally. Some of them have apparently heard of a certain semi-auto that "won two world wars."

Two crude handmade copies of 1911-style pistols held out in people’s hands in Myanmar — These might not have passed the 1907 U.S. Army Ordnance Pistol Trials, but I give the builder an A for effort.

Don't mess with Yemen. Ansarallah fighter in Shabwa province manages his home made 23mm gun, made for sniping Saudi mercenaries and enemy aircraft. pic.twitter.com/4eRFNSiTib
— tim anderson (@timand2037) September 2, 2026

Go big or go home.

Geringonça, Macaquinha, and More. There's a whole slew of Brazilian terms for handmade firearm types, including the Trinta e doze 12-gauge pistol that went viral after it was seized by police in Mossoró.

Rusted handmade revolver-style shotgun pistol on a police table next to four red shotgun shells — I'd be iffy about using one of these if they hadn't remembered to put sights on it. Otherwise, it looks completely legit.

Crude handmade multi-barrel firearm with a vertical foregrip held up by a police officer in Brazil

This macaquinha (a handmade submachine gun) looks like it was built by someone with steadier hands (and better eyesight).

Two handmade suppressed submachine guns, a magazine, and loose ammunition displayed by Brazil’s Polícia Civil — I'd be interested to see how well those suppressors work. And for that matter, how reliably the magazines feed. I'll bet in at least some cases the answers would surprise us.

This shotgun here is also from Brazil. Apparently Brazilians like shotguns. It's clearly the illegitimate descendant of Henry Nock's volley gun, but chambered in 12-gauge.

Security forces holding a seized handmade six-barreled shotgun, shown from the muzzle and the side — This image has been floating around the internet for about a decade now. It's a handmade, six-barreled shotgun seized from the *Comando Vermelho Rio de Janeiro* in Brazil by security forces.

Some weapons are definitely better built than others. This is (reportedly) a homemade sniper rifle from the Bosnian War in the early 90s.

Man aiming a homemade scoped sniper rifle with a long, thick suppressor-style barrel during the Bosnian War — It's hard to tell if this homemade (or at least home-modified) sniper rifle is integrally suppressed or is just thicc with 2 Cs...I'm going with the former.

Sumpak. This is what they're called in the Philippines. Also latongs, or paltik, depending on the dialect. You've likely seen this image on social media somewhere. It's a 1944 photo of Nieves Fernandez, taken by Stanley Troutman. In the picture, she's using a machete to show an American GI how she used it to attack occupying Japanese soldiers. What's less known (and what unfortunately I don't have a picture of) is that she and her guerrilla fighters also used handmade shotguns (many little more than a blunderbuss) made from gas pipes. They were loaded with black powder, nails, and whatever was handy.

Nieves Fernandez, carrying an M1 carbine, demonstrating a blade attack on an American soldier in 1944 — She's carrying an M1 carbine in the Troutman photo, but she wasn't always so well armed.

The use of gas pipe guns continues to this day. In fact, in some places (like certain neighborhoods in Manila) there is a thriving, if illicit, cottage industry in gas pipe theft and shotgun building. Some of them are very impressive. Others, well...

Two tape-wrapped homemade sumpak pipe guns, shotgun shells, and darts seized by Filipino police — A *sumpak* and narcotics paraphernalia seized by Filipino police. I'm not sure if the darts are for recreation or some sort of de facto ballistic crossbow.

A skilled carpenter turned a simple piece of wood into an incredible handmade pistol
pic.twitter.com/XK7ve7ZafJ
— 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐮 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡 (@sonucnc) October 19, 2026

Some of these work surprisingly well.

Handmade Guns: All Around the World!

That's all for now. We may go into greater detail in the future; we'll see.

In the meantime, if you're looking for more terms to expand your craft gun lexicon, check these out:

Bakakuk (Malaysia)
Carlo (Palestinian areas)
Chimba (Venezuela)
Danegan (Ghana)
Hechiza (Chile)
Katta (India)
Kecepek (Indonesia)
Paliuntod (Philippines)
Thai pradit (Thailand)
Wagila (Nigeria)

If you're interested in some excellent sources of information and imagery along these (and other weaponry) lines, I suggest:

#Thailand 🇹🇭: A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire on Thai Police officers at a checkpoint in #Narathiwat.

Perpetrator, who was later killed, reportedly armed with a .22-Caliber Rifle. pic.twitter.com/NLhYQiVwwB
— War Noir (@war_noir) September 28, 2025

Maybe don't pick a fight with the cops using a single-shot homemade .22 LR carbine.