recoil is strong but not excessive, and the .303 round is a dose-range killer. The .303 pistol sells for $150, Krcma says. These hardy folks of the Northwest Frontier were never really subjugated by the British. The natives kept the regular British army pinned down for nearly a hundred years, such that this colonial frontier was regarded as a finishing school to test the mettle of the empire's soldiers and officers at that time. At first, the hill tribesmen were armed with matchlocks and flintlocks, which they had copied and built from Persian and Afghan weapons. They pitted these weapons against British pack cannons, machine guns, and boltaction rifles, battling the regulars to a stalemate. When they acquired battlefield samples of modern repeating rifles, like Martinis and Enfields, they copied them, too. Scrap iron, charcoal forges, hand lathes, hammers, and files, coupled with the tribesmen's keen eye for detail and mechanical ability, created a cottage industry for building firearms. Ted Kale, a free-lance journalist who visited several village gunsmiths in the late 1960s, reported seeing craftsmen who turned out expert copies of existing weapons. He was in awe of what these supposedly simple men did with their crude tools. 'They are truly artists and were quite proud of their handiwork,' he said. 'Although, they did hint rather darkly at the use for these weapons, I never saw anyone actually shot, but I heard pops at night and saw one lad who was brought in wounded early the last morning I was in the village.' Kale, who had served in the area during World War II, told me that even the bond of military service and the universal camaraderie of combat did not totally melt the strong suspicion and distrust he felt. 'It was rather like feeling that I had a constant bull's-eye painted on the back of my jacket, you know,' he explained. It wasn't that the fierce tribesmen hate only the British; they fight everyone. The neighboring tribes and armed car