Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
Readers asked us to revisit the infamous homemade gun.
by Bobby Dee
Talk about a blast from the past. Readers asked us to check into an old story that recently found new life in a chat room. Users posted pictures of a bizarre-looking, one-of-a-kind gun. It was funny, but was it real? Someone suggested asking Soldier of Fortune. One enthusiast sent us a note: “Bust it for being a whopper – or confirm it!” Our verdict: The gun was real. Its prospects were another matter.
The strange weapon came to light in 2022 when Iowa’s Meskwaki Nation Police Department seized a homemade firearm from a suspected meth dealer. The man was barred from possessing guns because he had a prior felony conviction.
Officers dubbed the contraption the “Smith & Methson.” The firearm had no connection to any manufacturer. But someone at the department had a good day naming evidence.
(Evidence photo, Meskwaki Nation / Iowa Police Department)
Photographs circulated online, attracting the attention of firearms enthusiasts. Wyoming gunsmith Brian Dimoff, a former law enforcement officer, scrutinized the design.
“It looks like it’s probably a hand grenade waiting to happen,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
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Other gunsmiths who examined the design also had concerns about its open breech, they told Soldier of Fortune.
“What he created would have been a gas jet pointing back toward himself,” Dimoff said.
One active duty Army armorer responded to questions about the materials with a text that read only, “Smh.” He followed up with, “It couldn’t withstand the rounds.”
These are significant shortcomings in a product whose basic appeal depends on trouble coming out of the other end.
“The cops did him a favor when they took that from him,” Dimoff said. “He would have ended up seriously injuring or even killing himself with it.”
Some homemade projects belong on the workbench. This one found its home in an evidence locker.
Bobby Dee rides the range in the wilderness of Southwest Texas. He writes about the Old West, the Southern wilderness, and the characters who make both worth exploring.
