I like “dumb” guns. In fact I downright love dumb guns. Mix dumb with cheap, and you’ve guaranteed yourself at least one sale. Any time I find a dumb but cheap gun, I will inevitably purchase it. That’s how I acquired what’s easily the dumbest gun I’ve ever seen, purchased, or shot.
This thing didn’t start out as a gun, at least a real gun. Instead, it was a flare gun, specifically a German Hebel flare gun.
Hebel?
Hebel wasn’t really a manufacturer but a name that was applied to a flare gun design produced by almost 30 companies during and after World War 1. Hebel means lever, and the flare gun has a lever forward of the trigger guard to open the action. The Hebel flare guns are very common and popular among flare gun collectors. Yes, flare gun collectors actually exist, but I guess that isn’t any more strange than guys who collect ridiculous and dumb guns.
I know flare gun collectors exist because a major collector downsized his collection. In that collection was the Hebel flare gun I picked up for $100. The Hebel was a 26.5mm flare gun that was massive in size. The length measures out to a little over 14 inches in total and it weighs a hair over four pounds.
Jammed into that 26.5mm barrel is a .22LR conversion insert. It’s not a removable conversion and it fills the entirety of the 26.5mm bore from front to rear. The massive gun is impressively heavy and wildly unbalanced. It’s superbly front-heavy, and you naturally want to use two hands to grip the gun. Put one on the pistol grip and one on that long barrel.
Working the Hebel
The big flare gun breaks open to reveal the tiniest little rimfire chamber. There appears to be an extractor, but as noted in the auction when I bought it, the extractor doesn’t work. You need a cleaning rod or something to knock out the empty cases.
The Hebel has a set of iron sights installed on the top of the gun. The flare guns weren’t built with sights. Who needs to really aim a flare? Finally, to finish killing any historical value of the gun at all, the gun is also nickel-plated.
Whoever turned this 26.5mm conversion into a .22LR pistol did some serious work to the weapon. That’s what stuns me most. Why did someone do a lot of work to convert a giant flare gun into .22LR? Was it a joke? A serious attempt to create a .22LR pistol? What’s the purpose of a .22LR pistol that weighs four pounds and shoots a single shot? Plenty of rifles weigh less and handle a lot better than this massive rimfire gun.
It could have been a labor of love. At the very least, it is a project that someone took some serious time to finish. Everything about the gun is massive, making it downright ridiculous-to-shoot a .22LR through through it.
Blasting Away
Speaking of, the pistol is at least somewhat fun to shoot. Its main downside is that the non-working extractor. I have to run a punch rod down the barrel to pop the case out. The hammer also decimates the rear of the cartridge. It slams into it, splitting it and igniting the rimfire primer on every shot. No light strikes here.
That massive hammer is easy to cock, and the trigger is a fairly heavy single action. Trying to fire the gun with a traditional pistol grip is a chore. It’s so front-heavy and unbalanced that it pulls downward to the point of hurting your middle finger. The awkwardly shaped grip doesn’t help either.
This is a two-handed gun, one hand needs to be held forward of the trigger. As you’d imagine, there’s no recoil. I can’t even detect the faintest hint of movement when firing. I’d say it’s like shooting a BB gun, but it’s actually even less than that. It’s a tickle at most.
Hitting Targets
The accuracy surprised me. It’s quite accurate as long as the rear sight is aligned properly. That looong sight radius is nice, and you can steer .22LR wherever you want. I can create 3-inch groups with bulk-pack ammo at 15 yards. Out to 25 yards, I can ring a steel gong, and I even landed a few shots at 50 yards on a full-sized IPSC target.
Unfortunately, the rear sight is a little loose and can move around if you aren’t paying attention. Flare gun Bubba didn’t attach the rear sight very securely. If it moves, well, you’ll obviously have problems. Still, if I want to hit a squirrel, I feel like I could do it quite well.
A One Off?
This big beefy gun can be charming to shoot, but it’s not something I see myself shooting often. It might literally become a wall-hanger for how absurd it is. The few gun people I’ve shown think it’s hilarious. It really has more value as a conversation piece than an actual firearm. I’d love to know the why behind whoever converted a giant Hebel flare gun into a rimfire pistol.
I can’t seem to find any other converted models or conversion sleeves on the internet that fit inside the barrel. The sleeve likely predates the internet, but you’d think there’s be some reference somewhere to converting Hebel flare guns to actual firearms. Did some madman fabricate this entirely himself? If so, I hope he rests easy knowing the gun is in the hands of someone who really appreciates it.
Get it bored-out and chamber it in .45LC/.410, there’s plenty of ‘meat’ to do that…
Posted faster than I could type. Great minds think alike!
{Patting self on own back…}
Interesting read (& find)! Thanks for sharing.
Granted the ammo would cost more but…
1) Rechambered & rebored to shoot .22 WMR?
2) Rechambered & rebored to shoot 5.7×28?
That is pretty cool, Travis. I would have bought it also, unless my wife was there with me, and even then I’d try to BS it through.
That rear sight resembles one that my brother made for the ancient, rusty Diana springer pellet rifle that our grandfather brought back from Germany during WW2. It worked, as a pile of dead starlings and sparrows back at the farm would confirm. We ran a couple pounds of lead through that thing as kids.