Star Wars build: Crafting a working Ruger DT12 Heavy Blaster Pistol (PHOTOS)

By Chris Eger

Connecticut-based Mad Pig Customs was recently tapped to put the finishing touches on classic space opera blaster. While most of the guns used in the follow-on films are purpose-made resin fantasy guns, a lot of the hardware in the original Star Wars trilogy were working firearms visually modified by the UK’s famous Bapty prop-house to resemble something from “a galaxy far, far away.”
For instance, Imperial Stormtroopers carried British Sterling sub guns and Lewis LMGs while Princess Leia’s long-barreled “DDC Defender” was actually a customized Soviet Vostok Margolin .22LR pistol. Space smuggler-turned-Rebel-icon Han Solo, himself well-armed with a model C96 Broomhandle Mauser, controversially faced off against green-skinned bounty hunter Greedo in Episode IV over a bad debt — with said ant-eaterish skip tracer spending all of his on-camera time brandishing a BlasTech DT-12 Heavy Blaster Pistol.
The DT-12 itself, according to IMFDB, was a “Ruger Mk I modified with a short barrel, finned flash hider, slightly modified grips, and several apparently targeting-related devices.”

To do Greedo’s Mos Eisley hog leg justice, custom gunsmith Phil Larocca started with the same type of venerated rimfire pistol and cut the barrel down to 2.5-inches, threaded it to accept the custom muzzle device, and machined the bolt

Source: Guns.com