a subgun without a magazine is far and away from being deactivated! you load a round into the chamber, pull the trigger and BANG.
not later than 5 rounds and you are faster than a bolt action magazine rifle.

there is a story with General Lettow Vorbeck, he was on a hunting trip in south - west in the early 1960s and with the farm owner in an area where he was fighting against the herero terrorist in 1905.
he was remeber the fighting very well finding a big stone where he was shooting from once.
says "it was here where I was and than bury the brass in the sand because the herero take them and reload". he start to dig in the sand and old 8 mm brass came to surface.

we had this problem before - where to get the components? http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=323494&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
the herero could got them from britisch dealers in Bechuanaland then.
with no european dealer around anymore you have to be clever. dont believe that bedoine's cant count but most times being illiterates do they have a concept about 7,62mm and 8mmS bullets and the difference? we don't know.
since ww 2 there are modern guns floating across africa because every war left over some and the locals take them. borders are no problem and they overcome them.
hope I don't do wrong when saying the locals there are not very forward looking. when they get a handfull of ammo to the gun its ok for them.