i believe there is a small plug at the end of the barrel and a steel plug in the center of the barrel. Can center steel plug be removed? how is it in there, is it welded?

say you removed it, in theory you could then shoot homemade ammo that fits the caliber of your gun.

also i saw this thing on some website, its basically a starter's pistol that can fire .22 blanks OR .22 tear gas ammo. Im assuming this means the barrel is not plugged since it has to be able to release the tear gas projectile.

Even if you managed to modify a blank firing gun to shoot live ammunition. I sincerely doubt it would be reliable or safe. The tear gas they are refering to is most likely not a projectile. I have what looks like a ordinary fountain pen that utilizes a tear gas cartridge about the size of a twenty two caliber cartridge. There is a barrel (or channel) for the gasses which propel out, the gas has a range of about six feet. Blank firing guns or tear gas guns can cause serious injury and or death if used inproperly. There is still significant pressure being releaseed, although very minimal in comparison to a actual firearm. What is the website you are refering to?

this is the website with blank guns and the tear gas gun.

http://www.maxsell.com/tear_gas.htm

After doing a little more research from my understanding all of the barrels are permanately plugged. To make the firearm operable again the barrel would have to be replaced.

From my understanding there is either no rifling in the barrel and or removing the plug would damage the rifling.

You can use a drill press to drill out the barrel and cylinder of many of those cheap tear gas guns. It may not have rifling anyway; why would they have put in rifling? It would be smooth, lousy long-range accuracy but oh well, a snake gun. (which is what people do this for, even now--they WANT a smoothbore pistol, to use with them little .22lr shotshells. And the shotshells actually work pretty well that way. You don't want rifling for those)

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But if I had done this (for some reason-?) I would be very hesitant to put anything more powerful that standard 22LR ammo in it. You might end up being able to fit 22 mags in the thing, but I wouldn't do that.

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[This message has been edited by Bullwinkle8357 (edited 07-16-2003).]

If the receiver would really be an original one, you'd have no problem. as only the Receiver is seen as a firearm (in USA at least), you can buy as much barrels and anything else you want without any kind of license. only the receiver can need licenses.

edit: If you really want a rifle or anything, buy a part-kit without receiver, and buy an unfinished receiver (requires som drilling and stuff) but because the receiver isn't finished yet, it doesn't require licenses. only works in USA though, they can't export those kits, cause they're military equipment or something...

[This message has been edited by Zip_artist (edited 07-17-2003).]

Sorry for rambling, I was in a hurry:

Firstly,

I got to hold a starter pistol once when I was in high-school years ago, and it looked just like a (plain steel) very-small-frame .22LR revolver. The main difference was that each of the chambers in the cylinder had some kind of metal "X" thing rammed into them halfway through, leaving just enough room in the back to load a blank, but not a real bullet. The barrel itself was unobstructed, but I don't remember if it had rifling or not. ~~~~~ So, if that was how they are still made, all you'd have to do is drill out the "X" thing in each cylinder, or maybe push it out somehow. I don't recall if it looked pushed in or cast in place. The rest of the parts of the gun appeared to be a casting, with the surface left rough (cheap).

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Get a phone book out and call around to sporting goods stores. Sports Authority sells regular guns, they may have starter pistols or maybe can order them (ya probably have to be 18 tho). Johhny Brock's sells high-school type team-sports stuff, they might carry them also....

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very true; I hope noone listened to me. Very stupid post... (now deleted)