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The Last Gunsmiths of the Khyber Pass
- sparrish 6y agoThat's some incredible skill, especially with such limited tech.
- 082349872349872 6y agoLimited? When they say CNC, I'm imagining something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfFtPFJWufs&t=170 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfFtPFJWufs&t=170 but maybe I should scale down my expectations? Edit: OK, not quite as fancy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj1qpAZf3yE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj1qpAZf3yE PS. arbhassan, any local music videos you'd recommend? is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73kBQHabhoY&t=840 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73kBQHabhoY&t=840 a good introduction? (knowing neither pashto nor arabic script, my search-fu is very weak)
- arbhassan 6y agoRegarding the music recommendation this[1] is one my favorite song. Enjoy! [1]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ksJnzQKprzc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ksJnzQKprzc [2]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZywPW8t_kUA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZywPW8t_kUA
- 082349872349872 6y agoManana! Now I'll have to also look up Hamza Baba...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 082349872349872 6y agoQs about Thama: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24396951 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24396951
- nl 6y agoSee also his post about the AK M4geries (a M4 lookalike with an AK action). https://silahreport.com/2019/05/28/2663/ https://silahreport.com/2019/05/28/2663/
- arbhassan 6y agoOh hey! I'm from that area. If you guys have any queries. :). Also the quality isn't top notch, but for the price you are paying it's ok. You are much better off buying a Russian AK-47 for $1100 like i did than buying it from Khyber for $120.
- quietthrow 6y agoQuite exotic for me. it’s just rare to find somebody from that area without visiting the place. Just out of curiosity why did you buy a weapon. Is it a customary / way of life kind of thing or Something else. Is there a way to lear about these remote region, their people and their Culture , tier day to day life without visiting the place. Do you recommmend any books?
- arbhassan 6y agoPeople here LOVE guns. Everyone owns multiple guns in their house. I think it's our pukhtoon culture and a sense of pride and security that comes with owning a gun. When i was a kid my father used to clean his AK every other week and i would sit by him silently and enjoying as he broke it down into multiple pieces and then make it into one piece after cleaning it. For me i wanted to have my own original Russian AK because having an original AK instead of one made locally is like having an iPhone 11 pro here. :)
- quietthrow 6y agoI can imagine that. So follow up q: if people love their guns how do they use it typically? Shooting random targets In open spaces and that kind or is it more like a samurai sword. You own one and then it’s pretty much caring for it. Also for a culture that loves guns what kind of gun violence does it see typically if any. I understand these days it’s different due to the region being torn by geopolitics and war but am trying to understand the culture outside of it. Also do you still live in the region or have moved. If latter how frequently do you visit And how do you typically get there?
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- averros 6y agoNow, even villages in Khyber Pass can produce modern-ish full-auto weapons. Every machine shop in the West (including a large portion of hobbyist garage ones) is capable of making production-quality firearms. Trying to prohibit tech from 100 years ago is an exercise in futility. Just don't tell that to Democrat politicians, they love to live in denial of reality.
- 55555 6y agoThe kid running in front of the guy shooting at 10:10 in the video gave me a little scare.
- smabie 6y agoIs it legal to make your own gun in most places? It's always been a fantasy of mine since I was a little kid, and I finally have the capital and attention span to do it. Do people ever make non replicas? It would be unbelievably cool to design and Smith an a original weapon.
- quietthrow 6y agoTotally my opinion - What does legal mean? It’s a relative term just like everything else. Yes there are cultures where “normal” definition of legal might not be adhered to but thst dosnt mean they don’t have laws. In some sense they live (and die ) by their own set of rules. And those rules and laws are as legal we might think of legal things in the west.
- sio8ohPi 6y agoWhere are you located? It's legal in much of the US, including California (although there are some legal hoops to jump through). Take a look at the "Gunnit Rust" posts (particularly Tier I) on /r/guns for inspiration.
- smabie 6y agoThanks, I'm in the US. Will take a look.
- sio8ohPi 6y agoI wouldn't suggest starting totally from scratch as a first project, so if you want something more challenging than an AR you might look into surplus parts kits. InrangeTV had a good series covering their CETME-L kits a couple years back.
- baybal2 6y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_Pakistan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_Pakistan > Gun laws in Pakistan allow for the wide ownership of firearms there. Only tribal areas of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa permits the ownership of heavy weaponry including the use of rocket-propelled grenades, short, medium, and long-range rockets, anti-aircraft guns, mortars, etc
- sumedh 6y agoVICE video from 2011 on the same gun markets of Pakistan, I started following VICE after I saw that video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinRqCocwGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinRqCocwGE
- 082349872349872 6y agoSimilar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borz Related: (¶31-32 p.17) https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1313661/download https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1313661/downl... (My wild ass guess is that in the twenty-first century, as in the eighteenth, it takes far more[1] than SALW to mount an insurgency against regulars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZcz589tJ5Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZcz589tJ5Q To me, the fetish for twentieth-century small arms among the various poorly-regulated US militia implies they're more likely to menace a poorly armed populace, or a BATF unit, than any of the well-regulated State units. Then again, as the affadavit above shows, using logic is not exactly the best way to predict these people.) Any bets as to whether pakistan will join Oceania (as a commonwealth country) or Eastasia (in opposition to india)? [1] US twentieth-century own goal: providing man-portable seeker missiles to a bunch of guys who had crazy ideas about visibility of women's bodies, alcohol consumption, and the relation between religion and state. Горы стреляют, Стингер взлетает / Если нарваться, то парни второй раз умрут
- thatguy0900 6y agoForgotten weapons, a YouTube channel that documents lesser known guns, has quite a few videos on khyber pass guns https://youtu.be/rZZTD3w_a5Q https://youtu.be/rZZTD3w_a5Q https://youtu.be/n5S_qmBL_KM https://youtu.be/n5S_qmBL_KM https://youtu.be/zTvxFNRLbiw https://youtu.be/zTvxFNRLbiw His videos on "Chinese mystery pistols" are also quite good
- vosper 6y agoI really like how Ian McCollum (host of Forgotten Weapons) discusses guns without glorifying them. He doesn’t seem to be a war or gun nut, and he doesn’t seem interested (or at least he presents no obvious interest) in violence, death, or destruction. It makes the videos enjoyable for me, as someone who finds the engineering, ingenuity, and historical context interesting.
- Intermernet 6y agoHe treats historical weapons like others treat historical watches. They're amazing feats of precision engineering with a bunch of interesting history attached to them. I was raised with an awareness of fire-arms, and although I'm definitely on the side of gun control and education, I really appreciate the engineering that goes into firearm design. Ian does a fantastic job of showing the design and engineering side, while explaining the history, and avoiding the glorification. Somewhat aptly, his nickname around the various fora is "Gun Jesus".
- donw 6y agoBoth "Forgotten Weapons" and "In Range" are fantastic. Forgotten Weapons introduced me to a lot of firearms history of which I was totally unaware. Things like the Liberator[1] and 2-Bore rifles[2], although with the latter, I'm going to assume that you're hunting smaller naval vessels and/or low-rise buildings. Or you're looking for the fastest possible way to bruise the hell out of your shoulder, and want to set fire to a small pile of money at the same time. In-Range -- which features both Ian from Forgotten Weapons, along with his co-host Karl -- does a lot of other interesting stuff. Tons of different shooting competitions, plus some informative Mythbusters-style segments. My two favorites are the Shockwave vs Double-Barrel[3] and the mud tests of the AR[4] vs the AK[5] platform. Both of those are worth watching, but if you want the tl;dr: (1) A double-barrel shotgun is a poor home-defense weapon, but the Shockwave is even worse in pretty much all cases; and, (2) the AR is a more reliable platform than the AK in real-world conditions. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CjndIiZyJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CjndIiZyJo [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYlDgwo52tI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYlDgwo52tI [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYjThckYqBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYjThckYqBQ [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU
- f00zz 6y agoWow. I'm reminded of De Soto's "The Mystery of Capital" when I see examples of incredible skill and resourcefulness in regions that somehow remain underdeveloped.