Pipe-Gun
Definition
Single-shot improvised firearm built from a steel water pipe as the barrel and a sliding sleeve as the firing mechanism. Used as a one-shot disposable weapon in dacoity and contract killings.
- Barrel
- Section of steel water pipe, often threaded
- Mechanism
- Sliding outer sleeve strikes a percussion cap
- Capacity
- Single shot, reloaded manually each time
- Rifling
- Absent, since the pipe bore is smooth
- Typical use
- Disposable weapon in dacoity and contract killings
Common questions
Why is a fired bullet from a pipe-gun hard to match to a specific weapon?+
The smooth pipe bore leaves no rifling marks, so class characteristics used to compare rifled firearms do not apply. Examiners instead look at breech-face and firing-pin impressions on the cartridge case, which vary with how crudely the sleeve and striker were filed.
How does a pipe-gun differ from a katta or tamancha?+
Kattas and tamanchas are usually built around a hinged or block-action breech copying a factory pistol shape, while a pipe-gun is a straight pipe length closed at one end, fired by a sliding sleeve. Both are country-made and unlicensed, but their firing mechanisms and internal ballistics differ.
Related terms
- Arms Act 1959
- Principal Indian statute regulating manufacture, possession, transport and sale of firearms and ammunition. Possession of an unlicensed country-made firearm is punishable under...
- Country-Made Firearm
- An illicitly manufactured firearm, fabricated in unlicensed cottage workshops without quality control, typically smoothbore and chambered loosely. Generic Indian umbrella for katta,...
- Katta
- Single-shot crude pistol, usually.315 or 12 bore, with a break-action or screw-plug breech and a nail-head striking pin. Dominant illicit firearm in...
- Mikrosil Casting
- Two-part silicone casting compound used to make a negative replica of a chamber, breech face or tool-mark. Standard at Indian CFSL ballistics...
- Obturation
- The gas-sealing function of the cartridge case during firing, in which the case wall expands outward under propellant pressure to seal the...
- Smoothbore
- An unrifled barrel with no spiral grooves. Gives little or no stria on a fired projectile, which makes comparison microscopy of country-made...
- Tamancha
- Generic Urdu / Hindi term for a small improvised pistol. Often used interchangeably with katta in case papers and FIRs.