Many of my close friends who know me well, knows that I like old obscure weapons. The more obscure and rare, the better.
I have a champagne taste on a beggers budget. Sadly, most of the guns that I would give my eye teeth for, would be so expensive that I'd never be able to afford them. And not only that, just getting the paperwork to own an original, is out of the question because the government rarely ever would get rid of them.
In this particular case, it's an old WW2 clandestine OSS issued integrally suppressed handgun meant to assassinate targeted German officials and the wheels that were driving their war machine and scientists and sympathizers.
Oddly enough, that little gun has been pulled out of the storage cabinet and used in every major conflict since WW2. There are records of it being used in Vietnam. Afghanistan. And probably a lot of places you'll never hear about.
And the most widely known one, was captured by the Russians when Mr. Gary Powers was shot down in his U2 spyplane in the 1960's. This incident was my main driving factor to want one. Mostly because I think Mr. Powers got a bad rap by the US Government. But as an equally personal importance, it's because he was born in the next county over from me and I've done work in the house he was raised in during his childhood. I've always had a large amount of respect for him. Not that my town has also had Medal of Honor recipients and a deep community pride but I have a lot of respect for those folks who risked it all. There was even a gentleman that was in the first Navy Frogman team assembled (later the underwater demolitions) that the navy seals later stemmed from.
Anyway, I don't want to sound disrespectful to all of those who weren't the first or got the most medals because I know that each one risked everything to do the right thing. There are countless numbers of men who did equally amazing things that we'll never know about.
I guess with no further jabbering, I wanted to introduce my High Standard HD-Military host gun that my wife got for me for our 20th wedding anniversary. That is the basis for how this gun started out. During WW2, the war department ordered some 2800 guns made that were integrally suppressed so they could carry out their missions as quietly as possible. Bell Labs designed the suppressor.
Ironically, the "baffles" were nothing more than rolled up wire mesh screen. Since US gun laws are the way they are, I was unable (unwilling) to use wire screen in mine due to the screen needing to be replaced every 250 rounds or so. Mainly because I would need to send the gun/silencer off to an SOT licensed manufacturer and pay them to replace them for me. So, I used a more modern internal baffle that will last a lifetime and should never need replaced, barring something catastrophic from happening.
I was concerned about only having around 4 inches of room to add baffles in front of the muzzle, especially considering the inside diameter was under .800" to the inside of the silencer tube. But it worked out better than I had expected.
The hardest thing about the project was being able to pull the old barrel. I'm not going to lie. That was tough. The portion of the barrel inside of the receiver had some high spots in it that made it very difficult to remove. I finally resorted to sandwiching the receiver between some pine planks and getting it in a vise and using channel locks to get the barrel loose. Which obviously scratched up the exterior of the barrel pretty bad. But all of that was inconsequential to me because I was going to put the barrel in a lathe and reprofile it anyway. Yep. You can see the scuffs and marring on the barrel.
I turned the barrel down so up next to the receiver was the proper diameter to make 5/8-24" threads (the same as what's on most 30 caliber rifle barrels) so I could make a rear mount to screw onto it. And I threaded the front of the barrel at the muzzle 1/2-28 (which is what most 22 caliber barrels are threaded) so I can make a support piece to go in the front. This not only helps support the outer tube, but it keeps the gas that's ported out of the barrel that bleeds off some of the gas and bullet velocity to drop below supersonic levels, it also gives the modernized baffles and expansion spacer a place to seat against. So while it's not historically correct, I'm not kissing government ass no more than I have to. So, I designed it how I wanted it to be.
Here's a quick picture of how the barrel looked after I took it off of my lathe and before I ported it and reblued it.
When I got the barrel put back on the gun, I did some testing to see what the velocities were with several common brands of ammo. The long story short is that Remington and Winchester supersonic bullets stayed well below the speed of sound, making even them pretty quiet to shoot. The CCI Standards (which are rated at 1070 fps from the factory) were shooting near 750 fps which is along the lines of what their CCI quiet bullets are rated at, and after I smoothed the action, even they cycled, so I was very happy with that.
That was basically all I could do with the project until after I got approval besides thinking about how I wanted to make it.
One other internal change that I did from the original, was incorporated a way to use a rubber wipe in the suppressor. After hearing it both with and without the wipe, the wipe does decrease the sound of the shot, even without the wipe, it's very pleasant sounding and I doubt I'll ever use it. But, there were other guns in the period (like the Welrod) that used wipes, so while not historically correct for this particular gun, I figured why not?
Here's the wipe material and how I mark it with the aluminum. It creates a little circle that I cut out with scissors.
Here's the piece that I made that holds the wipe in place. It sandwiches between the front endcap and the final baffle skirt.
And the front view after putting a few shots through it
Alright, enough about the internals, now about the external. I made it so that it's essentially the same diameter and length as the original. If you look at the picture above though, I didn't use a blade front sight. I initially used a 3-56 winchester shotgun fiber optic bead because it was simpler and there was really no need to reinvent the wheel trying to made a blade that I would need to solder in place. I suck at welding, so take my word for it. Using the shotgun bead thread was a better way for me to do it.
It turns out, the fiber optic bead was a little too tall and was causing me to shoot a little low. So, I ended up replacing it with a small .130" brass shotgun bead, which brought the point of impact/aim much closer together. Now, it was shooting about an inch low. I can live with that. Before, it was a couple inches low at 25 yards. I don't have any pictures of the brass shotgun bead, but I don't think any of you would not be able to picture in their head how that looks.
The originals had an indexing screw on the bottom of the tube. This was mainly used so the tube wouldn't come loose and your sight picture would change. Originally, their indexing screw was on the bottom and hidden and more aesthetic I'm sure, but I put mine at the 12o'clock position so it doesn't vibrate loose and fall out with gravity. I'm sorry, but I just believe that putting it on the bottom was asking for trouble. While putting it on the top, makes more sense to me. The little tiny #4-40 allen screw goes through the silencer tube, through the rear mount, and seats into the barrel threads. This prevents the tube from movement entirely. I don't have the screw in it in this pic below, but does show where it goes into the parts. It seats flush with the external surface of the silencer and doesn't stick out at all. So, you don't notice it while shooting whatsoever.
Like the original, I used a steel tube for the body. Mainly so I could use bluing on it and match the rest of the gun. I could've saved some weight and work by using aluminum, but I didn't want to do that.
Pic below is how it looked with it's other OSS kin.
I have a champagne taste on a beggers budget. Sadly, most of the guns that I would give my eye teeth for, would be so expensive that I'd never be able to afford them. And not only that, just getting the paperwork to own an original, is out of the question because the government rarely ever would get rid of them.
In this particular case, it's an old WW2 clandestine OSS issued integrally suppressed handgun meant to assassinate targeted German officials and the wheels that were driving their war machine and scientists and sympathizers.
Oddly enough, that little gun has been pulled out of the storage cabinet and used in every major conflict since WW2. There are records of it being used in Vietnam. Afghanistan. And probably a lot of places you'll never hear about.
And the most widely known one, was captured by the Russians when Mr. Gary Powers was shot down in his U2 spyplane in the 1960's. This incident was my main driving factor to want one. Mostly because I think Mr. Powers got a bad rap by the US Government. But as an equally personal importance, it's because he was born in the next county over from me and I've done work in the house he was raised in during his childhood. I've always had a large amount of respect for him. Not that my town has also had Medal of Honor recipients and a deep community pride but I have a lot of respect for those folks who risked it all. There was even a gentleman that was in the first Navy Frogman team assembled (later the underwater demolitions) that the navy seals later stemmed from.
Anyway, I don't want to sound disrespectful to all of those who weren't the first or got the most medals because I know that each one risked everything to do the right thing. There are countless numbers of men who did equally amazing things that we'll never know about.
I guess with no further jabbering, I wanted to introduce my High Standard HD-Military host gun that my wife got for me for our 20th wedding anniversary. That is the basis for how this gun started out. During WW2, the war department ordered some 2800 guns made that were integrally suppressed so they could carry out their missions as quietly as possible. Bell Labs designed the suppressor.
Ironically, the "baffles" were nothing more than rolled up wire mesh screen. Since US gun laws are the way they are, I was unable (unwilling) to use wire screen in mine due to the screen needing to be replaced every 250 rounds or so. Mainly because I would need to send the gun/silencer off to an SOT licensed manufacturer and pay them to replace them for me. So, I used a more modern internal baffle that will last a lifetime and should never need replaced, barring something catastrophic from happening.
I was concerned about only having around 4 inches of room to add baffles in front of the muzzle, especially considering the inside diameter was under .800" to the inside of the silencer tube. But it worked out better than I had expected.
The hardest thing about the project was being able to pull the old barrel. I'm not going to lie. That was tough. The portion of the barrel inside of the receiver had some high spots in it that made it very difficult to remove. I finally resorted to sandwiching the receiver between some pine planks and getting it in a vise and using channel locks to get the barrel loose. Which obviously scratched up the exterior of the barrel pretty bad. But all of that was inconsequential to me because I was going to put the barrel in a lathe and reprofile it anyway. Yep. You can see the scuffs and marring on the barrel.
I turned the barrel down so up next to the receiver was the proper diameter to make 5/8-24" threads (the same as what's on most 30 caliber rifle barrels) so I could make a rear mount to screw onto it. And I threaded the front of the barrel at the muzzle 1/2-28 (which is what most 22 caliber barrels are threaded) so I can make a support piece to go in the front. This not only helps support the outer tube, but it keeps the gas that's ported out of the barrel that bleeds off some of the gas and bullet velocity to drop below supersonic levels, it also gives the modernized baffles and expansion spacer a place to seat against. So while it's not historically correct, I'm not kissing government ass no more than I have to. So, I designed it how I wanted it to be.
Here's a quick picture of how the barrel looked after I took it off of my lathe and before I ported it and reblued it.
When I got the barrel put back on the gun, I did some testing to see what the velocities were with several common brands of ammo. The long story short is that Remington and Winchester supersonic bullets stayed well below the speed of sound, making even them pretty quiet to shoot. The CCI Standards (which are rated at 1070 fps from the factory) were shooting near 750 fps which is along the lines of what their CCI quiet bullets are rated at, and after I smoothed the action, even they cycled, so I was very happy with that.
That was basically all I could do with the project until after I got approval besides thinking about how I wanted to make it.
One other internal change that I did from the original, was incorporated a way to use a rubber wipe in the suppressor. After hearing it both with and without the wipe, the wipe does decrease the sound of the shot, even without the wipe, it's very pleasant sounding and I doubt I'll ever use it. But, there were other guns in the period (like the Welrod) that used wipes, so while not historically correct for this particular gun, I figured why not?
Here's the wipe material and how I mark it with the aluminum. It creates a little circle that I cut out with scissors.
Here's the piece that I made that holds the wipe in place. It sandwiches between the front endcap and the final baffle skirt.
And the front view after putting a few shots through it
Alright, enough about the internals, now about the external. I made it so that it's essentially the same diameter and length as the original. If you look at the picture above though, I didn't use a blade front sight. I initially used a 3-56 winchester shotgun fiber optic bead because it was simpler and there was really no need to reinvent the wheel trying to made a blade that I would need to solder in place. I suck at welding, so take my word for it. Using the shotgun bead thread was a better way for me to do it.
It turns out, the fiber optic bead was a little too tall and was causing me to shoot a little low. So, I ended up replacing it with a small .130" brass shotgun bead, which brought the point of impact/aim much closer together. Now, it was shooting about an inch low. I can live with that. Before, it was a couple inches low at 25 yards. I don't have any pictures of the brass shotgun bead, but I don't think any of you would not be able to picture in their head how that looks.
The originals had an indexing screw on the bottom of the tube. This was mainly used so the tube wouldn't come loose and your sight picture would change. Originally, their indexing screw was on the bottom and hidden and more aesthetic I'm sure, but I put mine at the 12o'clock position so it doesn't vibrate loose and fall out with gravity. I'm sorry, but I just believe that putting it on the bottom was asking for trouble. While putting it on the top, makes more sense to me. The little tiny #4-40 allen screw goes through the silencer tube, through the rear mount, and seats into the barrel threads. This prevents the tube from movement entirely. I don't have the screw in it in this pic below, but does show where it goes into the parts. It seats flush with the external surface of the silencer and doesn't stick out at all. So, you don't notice it while shooting whatsoever.
Like the original, I used a steel tube for the body. Mainly so I could use bluing on it and match the rest of the gun. I could've saved some weight and work by using aluminum, but I didn't want to do that.
Pic below is how it looked with it's other OSS kin.