LIBERATOR .45

Kodiac,

Please don't take me wrong. I was kidding about the Liberator as a shooter. It is a great collector's item. Even though there were many made, it is is scarce; that is part of the mystery.

Many collector guns were "crappy" as guns. Witness: Colt Paterson, Volcanic, Henry, Gyro-Jet, Dardick, Collier, etc.

They all were "bad" guns, unreliable, fragile, underpowered, inaccurate, and so on, and are scarce because they didn't sell worth a darn. But who wouldn't like to have any of them in the collection today.

I see someone may know of one for sale. What'd I tell you?

Jim
 
:)
The Gyro-Jet...

Oh Heck Yeah! I would LOVE to get one of those!

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Every man Dies.
Not Every Man Truely Lives...

FREEDOM!

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
 
For what is worth, I have a friend that has two that were NIB when he bought them. One he opened and the other he had x-rayed or something to make sure it contained what he was buying. I am sure that he does not want to sell either. LOL

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Jim V said:
For what is worth, I have a friend that has two that were NIB when he bought them. One he opened and the other he had x-rayed or something to make sure it contained what he was buying. I am sure that he does not want to sell either. LOL
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According to Koch and Haugen, there is only one single example of an unopened Liberator in existence. If this is a second one (rather than the one mentioned in the books), its value is CONSIDERABLE. (Easily well into the five figure range)

Jim Keenan said:
They sure weren't made to stand up to a lot of shooting; that ten rounds was probably the pistol's life expectancy.
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According to the books by Haugen and Koch, samples were regularly taken off the assembly line, and test fired 50 times with standard .45acp ball. These samples were essentially unusable at the end of the tests. For its intended use, a few of the ten rounds may have been fired to find the point of impact at ten feet or so, then a final single round when it counted.

SHOOTING THE LIBERATOR
 
I know I am adding to a very old thread, but I erred in saying the barrel was rolled sheet steel; Jim V is correct - it is seamless tubing.

Jim
 
I know this thread has some age on it, and prices of $400-$500 have been mentioned, but I haven't seen a Liberator for less than $1500 in quite some time. A decent original box, ammo, and instructions can easily add 50-100% to that, and I've seen some top notch examples w/accessories priced at over $4000. HERE'S ONE listed on Guns America for $2950 with what appears to be a reprint instruction sheet and nothing else.
 
Liberators in the $100s in the mid-80s? I don't doubt you, but they certainly weren't offered in my neck of the woods. :( I would have bought a couple.:rolleyes:
 
Another bit of trivia about the Liberator pistol.

General Motors set up an assembly line to produce these guns and they managed to complete assembly of a gun every 7 seconds. That means it took longer to reload the gun than it did to manufacture it! :eek:

The Liberator gets my vote as the ugliest gun ever produced.
 

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There are still a few liberators floating around out there. This one was retrieved by my uncle during WWII.

liberator.jpg
 
And you have the correct ammo too, neat! It took me a full year of scrounging to find ten original FA42 rounds for my first one, and now I'm looking for more for the second one.

My first one showed signs of having been fired before, so I made up some light loads with Trail Boss and put a few more through it. Read about it HERE. I made up one more to let a good friend of mine shoot it in August of '06, making him, to the best of my knowledge, the last person to ever fire a Liberator pistol. This one came with an original instruction sheet in very good condition, which is worth a few hundred by itself.

My second one is a cut-away that was used at the factory to show workers and military liaisons how it went together and functioned, and was owned after the war by George Hyde, the designer of the gun. Mr. Hyde sold the pistol in the mid-80's when he was getting on in years to a man in Salt Lake City, who eventually sold it to me.
Liberator2.jpg
 
schwantz - wow! nice picture!
Nicer story. :D

Hrmm.. rather odd it hasn't been commercially reproduced, now that I think about it. It seems the unique history combined with a comparatively paltry production cost would make it worthwhile.

Has anyone ever given it a go?

-K
 
A reproduction would have to have a rifled barrel and the machinery to produce these would be very expensive. They were designed by applying General Motors technology to a war-effort design.
Bill
 
Yep, the originals had a smooth bore, but have been exempted by ATF and placed on the C&R list. Also consider that the originals were in essentially unusable condition after only 50 rounds. These guns were meant to be shot only ten times, max. Perhaps a few practice rounds to learn the sighting and point of impact characteristics, then once when it counted.
 
They were another example of a wartime "wonder weapon" that sounded good when someone said it fast, just like the Pedersen device.

Cost a lot of money when a second thought would have shown the idea to be impractical. (The inspiration actually came from a work of fiction, and should have stayed there.)

Jim
 
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