6 Badass Improvised Weapons

DIY Weaponary Used in Battles

War is horrific and sometimes you have to take the life of your fellow man in the most brutal and creative ways…where there is a will there is a way. Some folks have fashioned weapons from Playstation controllers to explosive devices.
Many of these weapons that were home grown is due to their lack of economy but great in innovation to bring the fight. Guess thats why they strap every weapon they have and hope that physics is in a good enough mood today to let them fire knives out of their machine gun. The following are groups in no particular order that were fanatics in their cause while launching their own DIY wrist rockets at each other:

Blyskawica Submachine Gun

Błyskawica was the backbone of the Polish underground weapons used during World War II. Used by the Polish Underground State, an umbrella organization for all resistance movements in Poland during the war. The Home Army used partisan and urban guerrilla warfare to fight the occupation with sabotage and small scale skirmishes with German forces in the countryside.
The gun was designed by two Polish engineers, Wacław Zawrotny and Seweryn Wielanier, they combined the exterior of a German MP-40 sub-machine gun and the interior mechanism of the British Sten. All parts of the weapon were joined with screws and threads, rather than bolts and welding.
This allowed easier production for less capable engineers. The similarity with the German sub-machine gun enabled the use of captured ammunition, as it used the same caliber and the magazine was identical. It fitted the needs of the Home Army high command since it was easy to construct and it could be made out of different improvised materials that were available.
Filipinka and Sidolowka Hand Grenade

Filipinka, also known as Perelka, was an unofficial name for ET wz. 40 hand grenade, manufactured in the Home Army underground facilities in 1940. The Filipinka was cylindrical in shape and used a fuse located on the upper part of the shell. It was an offensive impact grenade, which means it exploded when hitting the target. Roughly 4,000 were produced in the first series alone. First, they were made out of Bakelite, which shattered after explosion without producing fragments like a metal-bodied grenade.

Filipinka used a variety of home-made explosives. Sometimes the engineers extracted the explosives from German air bombs and artillery shell and sometimes they used plastic explosive delivered via air drops by the British RAF.
The improved version of the Filipinka hand grenade had an improved version manufactured in 1942, ET wz.42, commonly called Sidolowka. It was named after Sidol, a metal-cleaning agent from Henkel, packed in bottles suitable for grenade use. Besides from being an easily-available improvised shell, it was also a good camouflage, for the grenade resembled the Sidol pack.
Molotov Cocktail

A Molotov cocktail, also known as a petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, bottle bomb or a poor man’s grenade. This term is also shortened as Molly, is a generic name used for a variety of bottle-based improvised incendiary weapons. Due to the relative ease of production, Molotov cocktails have been used by street criminals, protesters, rioters, criminal gangs, urban guerrillas, terrorists, hard-line militants, anarchists, anti-fascists, anti-communists, communists, irregular soldiers, or even regular soldiers short on equivalent military-issue weapons.
They are primarily intended to ignite rather than completely destroy targets, and are often used just as much to cause chaos as to actually do damage.
A Molotov cocktail is a breakable glass bottle containing a flammable substance such as petrol, alcohol, or a napalm-like mixture, with some motor oil added, and usually a source of ignition such as a burning cloth wick held in place by the bottle’s stopper. The wick is usually soaked in alcohol or kerosene, rather than petrol.
In action, the wick is lit and the bottle hurled at a target such as a vehicle or fortification. When the bottle smashes on impact, the ensuing cloud of fuel droplets and vapour is ignited by the attached wick, causing an immediate fireball followed by spreading flames as the remainder of the fuel is consumed.
Improvised Sten Gun

The use of the Sten as a blueprint by Loyalist Paramilitaries for a homemade design was a common feature of firearms produced across occupied Europe and indeed by loyalists in Northern Ireland. The reasons for this are simple as Russian firearms writer Max Popenker explains, “Open-bolt SMGs are the simplest and cheapest form of full-automatic weapon; they offer much more firepower than any handgun, yet are much simpler to build than any rifle, especially semi- or full-automatic”.
Open-bolt SMGs are so simple to produce they can be assembled without any sophisticated tools. The designs of the late Yorkshire amateur gunsmith Philip Luty reduced the SMG to sheets of folded steel and plumbing supplies, and Luty-inspired guns have appeared in the hands of Australian biker gangs and even Chechen separatists. Many loyalists were members of Ulster’s skilled working class employed in heavy industry, aerospace, and shipyards.
The types of weapons produced filled almost every niche. .22 pen guns that fit in a shirt pocket without attracting attention. .410 and 12 bore shotguns, in both single and double-barrelled configuration and of folding or “trombone” actions (detailed later)…single-shot .303 rifles and crude .22 “zipper guns” wielded by the Tartan gangs. Silencers were also made and existing weapons adapted to accept them by cutting threads into their barrels. But 9mm Sten/Sterling-type sub-machineguns were by far the most prevalent and practical.
Anti-Tank Sniper Rifle

When the Nazi war machine rolled into Stalingrad, they had no idea what was in store for them: Crazy ass Russians. We know better now. We know that Russia is mad in the weirdest ways – like an ultra-violent Japan – and you shouldn’t even look them in the eye, much less try to invade the bastards. But it took 5 months of brutal, unrelenting warfare in a bombed out frozen Hell to teach the Nazis that lesson. Nonchalantly strolling around this bombed out wasteland was legendary sniper Vasily Zaitsev.

The Red Army’s elite sniper teams, when not busy killing Nazis, used their spare time to think up new and interesting methods of killing Nazis. In one of these epic brainstorming sessions, Zaitsev, probably after frantically sketching something in his notebook while making explosion noises with his mouth, came up with the idea to take a scope from a Sniper Rifle and attach it to a giant 14.5 mm PTRS-41 Anti-Tank Rifle. He wanted to use it to blow up bunkers.
Just straight up murder a fortified concrete fortress.
See video way below.

The idea was to fire the huge explosive shells through the viewing slits on Nazi bunkers, exploding them from the inside out, which was roughly the equivalent of successfully performing eye surgery with a chainsaw. It’s probably also worth mentioning that the PTRS-41 had a nasty habit of breaking the user’s shoulder when they pulled the trigger, so we guess it’s more like performing eye surgery with a double-sided chainsaw. Madly, awesomely, terrifyingly – it worked.

Flamethrower Fougasse

In the dark days of WWII (the part before America moseyed on in and just totally saved everybody, all by themselves, no foolin’,) the British were anticipating a full-on Nazi Blitzkrieg to come rolling right over the White Cliffs of Dover. Short on weapons, but well-stocked with fuel and moxie, the British decided to kill two birds with one inferno. Yep, they jury-rigged themselves some giant, tank killing, flamethrowing landmines (“Fougasses” was their technical name, but all the other weapons would make fun of them on the playground if they knew.)

Luckily, for all fans of activities like ‘having skin’ and ‘not roasting like a chicken,’ they were never actually used…

In Britain.

Not the case in Russia: According to this order signed by Field Marshal Georgi Zhukov, a Soviet “FOG Static Flamethrower” destroyed 4 tanks and an entire company (around 150 men) of submachine-gunners, causing the survivors to understandably flee in panic, seeing as how the mouth of hell opened up and melted their god damn tank and all. The Germans, possibly inspired by the effectiveness of the device (or just to silence the screaming in their heads) designed their own Flamethower Landmines later in the war.

Finally, in the Korean War, America took what was already a spectacular weapon and Michael Bayed the shit out of it. The Russian and German Flamethrowers had an 8 Gallon canister full of oil, and they melted tanks. The American version had a 55 Gallon barrel full of napalm, and they melted Gods.

The Drip Rifle

WWI was when the planet lost its World War Virginity. As with all such experiences, it soon became clear that nobody knew exactly what they were doing, and a bad time was going to be had by all. A prime example of this confusion can be seen in the Gallipoli Campaign, which amounted to thousands of Allied troops sitting on the side of a rock for a year, not really achieving much. After months of stalemate, the Allies decided that sustaining 60 percent casualties to hold a pile of stones in the middle of nowhere wasn’t really worthwhile, and decided to pull out.

As a general rule, when an army tries to leave the battlefield, the enemy is obliged to inflict as much damage as possible, to make sure they don’t come back. This is called the Where The Good Lord Split Ya maneuver, and the Allies knew full well that it was about to be used against them. So ANZAC Troopers William Scurry and Buntie Lawrence took a break from performing the juggling Vaudeville routine their names suggest they toured with, and instead built what they called ‘Ottoman Bafflers.’ Using bits of string and old ration tins, Scurry and Lawrence MacGyvered up a gun that fired all by itself, using drips of water falling between two cans, or taut strings being burnt through by candles.

Everyone had expected appalling casualties in the withdrawal from the aforementioned kick in the ass on the way out, but due to the Drip Rifle, the whole army managed to escape with only a dozen or so killed or wounded. For context, you couldn’t make a sandwich in World War I without a dozen or so killed or wounded.

Syrian DIY Mortar & Missiles



Syrian rebels prepare missiles for launch near the Abu Baker brigade in Albab, 30 kilometers from Aleppo, seen here rigging a video game controller to fire this rocket.

Slingshot Pipe Bomb

Syrian rebels improvised many of their weapons due to limited resources and fundings.

DIY Grenades



Grenades are weapon that is a must have in an urban environment, if you don’t have real ones, make one. You can throw it yourself or going back to medieval days, build a catapult to launch one or some.

HomeMade Peace Keeper Vehicle

Don’t have a Peace Keeper vehicle or an APC, no problem we’ll make a “Sham2“.

A Syrian rebel uses a videogame controller to activate the machine gun of “Sham 2,” (named after ancient Syria) a homemade armored vehicle made by the rebels’ al-Ansar brigade, in Bishqatin.

Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosives Devices (VBIED)

The Islamic State was adept at turning various makes and models of cars into vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs). Armor is fixed to large and small vehicles alike in order to make it more difficult for Iraqi and American forces to destroy them before they reach their target.

The US has been able to take out dozens of VBIEDs before their drivers could complete their missions. But the video showcases some of the jihadists’ more successful bombings. In one instance, one VBIED is driven into a security checkpoint and then a second snakes its way through an apartment complex until reaching the target. The footage is recorded from above, likely using small commercial-style drones, which was the common tool for both the Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Drones Carrying Rockets

Similar to its use of VBIEDs on the ground, the Islamic State has modified drones such that they can carry and deliver a small payload from above. The Ninawa province’s video dramatizes such attacks, showing the drones hovering over their targets and then dropping their bombs. In one short scene, a jihadist mans what appears to be a control station filled with computers and screens that allow him to guide the weapons to their drop sites.

DIY Shotgun/Grenade Launchers


Most rebels do not have access to an M-203 grenade launcher, so they improvise like this modified shotgun/grenade launcher.

Locally made Anti-aircraft Rockets


Shooting down aircrafts can be hard especially with a 50 cal. So why not use rockets and program the sights with your smart phone.
Here’s Free Syrian Army fighters use the electronic compass of a smartphone to help them aim a locally made anti-aircraft weapon.

Yeh, there’s more than 6 improvised weapons of war here and unfortunately there’s lots more out there.

Sources: StumbleUpon, Omsbom Youtube, Tony Pilgrim, The Atlantic, Alan Taylor,
Photos by Herve Bar/AFP/Getty Images