Quote Originally Posted by greenwayjames View Post
on first sight they look very nice but closer examination reveals they are very crudely made. I seem to remember the one I was shown had a removable rifled liner. Interesting.
It's part of the charm to be honest. The valve flutters horribly on firing, it's clearly an artisanal product made by people with more time than tools and training and I find that appealing.

Mainly used for hunting purposes.
I tried 8 x 0.177" BBs at 50 feet fired at a soda can, they patterned nicely in a 1 foot square and did not lack power, punching straight through 1/4" thick fiberboard - but the can was untouched. Definitely a short range weapon without a choke. Same target at the same range with 30 x #4 shot (about 1/8" diameter) resulting in a similar spread and only three hits on the can.

Apparently they are also used with explosive projectiles to hunt larger game:



From the Beeman Collection:

These devices, beautifully lathe-turned from brass, are "torpedoes", designed to be charged with shaped-charges of high explosives, such as TNT, and then fired from Philippine .38" and .50" (9 & 12.5 mm) caliber CO2 rifles, such as the specimen to the left. When he left several different versions of these rifles at our office, the factory representative presented us with these specimens. He also had some, which he took with him for trials with a relative in Southern California, that were already charged. When we asked him how he brought them, when he flew in, he replied: "In my vest pocket"!. Talk about airport security!

There are both .38" and .50" caliber torpedoes here, some with round heads for surface detonation, others with pointed heads for deep detonation. He indicated that they use them for killing animals up to the size of water buffaloes. But, he added, the problem is that they may blow away "one-quarter" of the water buffalo"!