Weapons Man

This sentence, In the G&A Book of the AR-15, Daniel Defense Edition — which is a DD-oriented magazine one way, and if you flip it over, a 2014 DD catalog.

Many companies develop products to sell, but Daniel defense only sells products that have been developed.

I know what Eric Poole is getting at. Sucks when you open a new-gun box and it’s full of iron ore. Oh, wait… we make similar mistakes, unfortunately, but then we’re a blog. We’re supposed to be unfiltered. (We do try, but…).

While the first is just a simple error by a usually-good gunwriter, the next is something like propaganda — or self-delusion. In a long thumbsucker on why appeasing Iran is wonderful because they really have policy goals in common with the US (what, hanging gays? Enslaving women?), the New York Times:

The thaw presents dangers to Mr. Obama and Mr. Rouhani, who will remain vulnerable to

We mentioned previously the Gun World magazine crew’s take off on RECOIL, the magazine that beclowned itself by taking an anti-gun position and then doubling down on Teh St00pid™. Gun World’s version is called World of Firepower. We missed the first issue, but the Guns & Ammo editors (who also have had some experience with anti-gun gunwriting lately) have their own version of image-rich, text-light, ADHD-ready gun magazine, Trigger.

They’re not going all-in with it — they’re only going to publish two more issues in Calendar 2014. But if those issues are well received, well, you know the deal: if you buy something, people will line up to sell you more.

We’re a bit surprised there’s so much depth in demand for flashy pictures and minimal text, but the publishers aren’t doing this for the grins: they think they can make money slaking this demand. It may just be a sign of how much the gu

RIght, in Texas it’s an affirmative defense that, “he needed killin’,” innit? And nobody will charge a cuckold for blowing away the rake who put the horns on him, right?

Er, far be it from us to get so far out of our lane as to dispense legal advice (read Andrew Branca’s book!), but we’d say that’s wrong. In fact, it’s just the kind of thing that gets you in deep peanut oil — or, perhaps, deep in a building with many locks, to which you have none of the keys. And being on the “right” side of the Thin Blue Line isn’t going to save you.

That’s the take-away from the fate of a Border Patrol agent who capped his wife’s beau and then led his fellow law-enforcement agents on a merry chase.

SAN ANTONIO — A border patrol agent was in custody at a Hondo hospital Thursday evening after his wife’s lover was shot to death and police were led on a high-speed chase, aut

The Big Picture was a TV series produced on 16mm film by the Army Pictorial Center in New York from approximately 1951 to 1971. This episode is believed to be from 1961 and is called Assignment: Iran. It tells the story of 1LT, later CPT, Paul Wineman and his training as a Special Forces officer and then as a Military Assistance Advisory Group member, and his deployment to Iran to serve as an advisor to the Iranian Special Forces Group.

It may surprise people to know that the USA and Iran were once allies, but we were; and the alliance was based upon mutually compatible national interests, during the Cold War.  The Iranian forces had to fight, from time to time, infiltrators from the USSR (often Baluch separatists), as well as separatist Kurds. In the Kurds’ singleminded pursuit of a homeland, they played Iran, Iraq, and Turkey against each other, sometimes with support from other nations including Britain, the USA, the USSR, and Israel; none of those nations’ support could be depended upon, because a diplomatic volte-face would inevitably lead to the sponsor

For some 500 years it’s been known that rifling would impart spin and therefore stabilization to a ball or bullet. Spiral grooves probably evolved from straight grooves only intended to trap powder fouling; by 1500 gunsmiths in Augsburg, Germany, were rifling their arquebuses. This gave rise to an early attempt at gun control, according to W.S. Curtis in Long Range Shooting, An Historical Perspective: 

In the early 16th Century there are references to banning grooved barrels because they were unfair. Students of the duel will recognize this problem arising three hundred years later.

– Curtis, 2001. Curtis notes that why rifling was twisted is unknown, and that it may have been incompletely understood. He has quite a few interesting historical references, including one to a philosopher who explained that if you spun the ball fast enough, the demon (who dwelt in gunpowder, which was surely Satan’s own substance) couldn’t stay on and guide your ball astray. (Curtis’s work is worth beginning at the beginning, which is here).

By the mid-19th Century, the Newtonian physics of the rifled bore had been s

Even a unique and special snowflake must obey the laws — of physics.

Have you ever been seized with a desire to lick a telephone pole in subzero weather, just to see if your tongue will really stick to it? No, we neither. But they walk among us. One of them, sixth-grader Maddie Gilmartin, now knows the answer.

She might do other foolish things in her life, but it’s a safe bet she’s never going to do that again.

[T]here was no dare involved. Maddie’s a kid who was just curious and learned the hard way.

Her parents hope other kids will realize the dangers and not make the same mistake their daughter made.

“It was just completely innocent,” Shawn said.

Maddie said her tongue now aches and feels like it was stung by a bee, but otherwise she’s doing fine.

via

We could have told the guy, there’s a difference between “just being a pain in the neck teenager” and “possessed by a demon,” and although the difference is not always readily apparent, going with the “demon” thing can lead to suboptimal results.

Particularly when it means you take an axe to your kid.

The crime alone is probably evidence enough, but there are other indicators in Gary Sherrill’s behavior that he was seriously mentally ill. But as Clayton Cramer points out, the mentally ill not only don’t get help, they don’t even get attention until they do something that’s more than just attention-worthy. Something that people just can’t ignore.

Like this.

The victim’s mother called police after her ex-husband, 51-year-old Gary Sherrill, did not return the boy to her home on New Year’s Eve.

When officers arrived on scene, Sherrill told them his son was not home. Officers asked more questions and the suspect allowed officers

Boston’s outgoing mayor, Thomas “Mumbles” Menino, was known for two things: a below-average intellect that manifested itself as incoherence of speech, and extreme anti-gun positions (he was a cofounder of Illegal Mayors Against Guns with Mike Bloomberg).

Boston has a new mayor, the union-label Marty Walsh (and already, the organized crime and gambling interests — but we repeat ourselves — trying to put a casino in Revere have promised to use union labor. ROI for the pinkie rings). In addition to his unionism, Walsh marks a change from stupid incoherence and extreme anti-gunnery. Instead, he offers extreme anti-gunnery (his first public position was to oppose AR-15s… for the police) and stupid incoherence. Viz, his inaugural speech (.pdf) Monday, in which he inveighed against “a life … torn by violent crime.” On concrete (?) anti-gunnery, he said a top priority is:

Improving public safety and stopping senseless gun violence;

Because, God knows, it’s “gun violence,” not “parolee and probationer violence” or “welfare r

From PS Issue 702 in 2011, a tip about the M14 EBR.

PS Magazine has been the US Army’s maintenance bulletin for over 60 years, delivered every month in a comic-book format. It reaches soldiers, with corny humor and illustrations in the same styles (and sometimes by the same artists) as the super-hero comic books of the day. Indeed, one artist was comic pioneer Will Eisner.

PS magazine (which we called PM erroneously in yesterday’s teaser) was a “Post Script” to official maintenance publications, mostly Technical Manuals and Technical Orders. It contained all the little things that didn’t make it into the official pubs. Sometimes it would be new information, such as new tools or new ways of changing a tank’s spark plugs. Sometimes it would result from field input, especially questions and suggestions from operators and maintainers in the field. In other word

Jonathan Stevens in a familiar pose — facing a mugshot camera

Look at Florida, where the bad cops ain’t necessarily cops:

Police say 24-year-old Jonathan Stevens was arrested in Tampa over the weekend after flagging down a police officer. He had flashing red and blue lights on his SUV, and had a gun and a badge around his neck.

“The officer was suspicious. It just didn’t seem right to her,” said TPD spokesperson Andrea Davis.

Stevens’ car was not from a government agency, and he was not a government employee. Police say he admitted to making the whole thing up, and it’s not the first time.

In September, the Manatee Sheriff’s Office says he pulled over a driver in the parking lot of the Ellenton Outlets. He a

There are several mantras one learns in Ranger School. These include:

1. “Planning, Reconnaissance, Control, Security”
2. The 5-point contingency plan
3. “All TTPs are flexible if you don’t violate any of the principles.”
4. “Rangers lead the way!” (for a while, among the children of 1st Bat, it was “Rangers Slay the Gay!” — long story — but that bit of humor is no longer operative).
5. “I wasn’t sleeping, sergeant!”, which might be the one that holds the record, except for:
6. “Don’t mess with Mr. No-Shoulders.”

That No. 6 is some powerful good advice, Rangers and Rangerettes. Your larger snakes don’t quit

Any of you former Army types will remember PM Magazine, which used a comic-book format (and until recent outbreaks of PC, attractive women) to preach the maintenance gospel to the actual operators and maintainers.

(We’re using “operator,” there, in the sense of someone who operates something, and not in its current, “overused like ‘tactical’ is these days” version).  Here’s a spread preaching the maintenance gospel of small arms magazines, circa 1963 or 64.

(It embiggens with a click, for all you Stevie Wonders out there).

Boy, the contents of your arms room was a pretty straightforward thing in 1964. Not like today where you might have to stock mags for Beretta, SIG, Glock, M4A1, SCAR Mk 17, M110, M82A1/107, and we’re probably leaving off a few things.

Interesting to see the M1A1 carbine was still on the list. Of these weapons, the M12 was the first replaced (by the M1200, although individual 12s weren’t replaced till they w

In the comments from yesterday’s post, What did Kalashnikov ever do to these guys?, historian Daniel E. Watters had a key insight into the hand-wringing and pearl-clutching that crept into almost every Mikhail Kalashnikov obit:

[E]very small arms design the Soviets adopted was handed out like cheap party favors. If Kalashnikov’s design wasn’t selected, the journalists would have been decrying the ubiquitous nature of some other Soviet engineer’s rifle.

via What did Kalashnikov ever do to these guys? | WeaponsMan.

He’s got a point. If Sudayev, who died at age 33, had lived, or if Bulkin’s AB had edged out the AK  (instead of having a lot of its internals form the bolt carrier and piston, and recoil spring, of the final AK), people who bemoan the butcher’s bill of the AK-47 might be weeping over the AS-47 or AB-47 instead. (You can see some of the contenders here at Max’s).

Given Russian history and capabilities, they were going to come up with a pretty good gun, or keep trying until they did. And given Soviet ideology and for

It’s generally understood that weapons that fire from an open bolt are less accurate than those that fire from a closed bolt. It’s certainly logical that both the weight of the moving bolt, plus the inevitably longer locktime, will increase dispersion. An interesting controlled experiment the US Army conducted in 1978 confirmed the existence of, and tried to quantify, this increase in dispersion. Additional findings were that:

• Not just the dispersion, but also the precision of the shots suffered. That is to say, not only their separation one from the next in the same group, but their separation from the intended point of aim.

• Comparing prone unsupported to the less accurate and consistent offhand position, the penalty for using an open bolt was greater in the offhand (this might be predicted logically).

• Right-handed shooters were consistently off target to the right, and this increased when firing from an open bolt. Lefties erred in the opposite direction.<

No, wait. Let’s let the undergraduate and grad students do it themselves.

http://lolmythesis.com/

Some of them make us wonder if there’s a Department of Interspecies Sadism at Little Rock:

And some of them are things that any SF trooper (CA trooper, Foreign Service officer overcome by a rare fit of honesty, etc.) could have told you:

Then, there are some that are old news to us in the military-American community:

Clifton Chatman of San Francisco just became, in the strange calculus of Illegal Mayors Against Guns, a “child victim of gun violence.” One of his fellow gang members wass just doin’ the usual — executing a robbery victim — when the bullet glanced off the victim’s hard head and struck young Clifton.

He won’t be down for breakfast.

The incident happened Dec. 14 near the Alemany public housing complex in Bernal Heights. Police said a group of suspects accosted a man at about 11 p.m., and that as they dug through the victim’s possessions and took his phone, one of them pulled out a handgun.

The victim did not resist and complied with all demands, police said, but the gunman still opened fire. The bullet, though, glanced off the victim’s face and struck Chatman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

via SFPD: Teen was shot dead by fellow robber – S

1. In combat, never concentrate on picking your nose to the exclusion of maintaining situational awareness of what’s happening around you — like your buddy about to touch off an RPG with the backblast horn aimed upside your haid.

Yep, he’s DRT. (Dead Right There).

Here you see a couple of worthies cleaning an RPG with improvised cleaning gear. At forty-odd seconds into the video, they’re setting up to take a shot. Then — kB! (at about a minute in). The video’s very grainy but it looks like the warhead blows, or the booster charge shatters the muzzle end of the RPG launcher, as well as doing the operator no good at all. So another couple of lessons:

2. When you clean your weapon, make sure all your cleaning stuff gets back out; and,

3. Never use ammo your enemies helpfully leave around for you to pick up. If they wanted to help you, they wouldn’t be your enemies. Q.E.D.:

Yep. DRT.

Two possibilities on this — they left some foreign matter in the 37mm bore o

It’s well known that we’re AR adherents around here, but we have a great appreciation for the firearm equivalent of the tractors that the hero got (instead of the girl) in the classic trope of Soviet Socialist Realism filmmaking: the AK. It turns out, not everybody does, and the occasion of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s passing brought out the H8R contingent in Third Shock Army strength.

So, reverting to old 10th Group stay-behind days, allow us to snipe a couple of them.

The New York Times perhaps whined the most about the AK, in a piece written by Marine turned media apparatchik C.J. Chivers. To Chivers, AK’s were:

…a marker of conflict that has endured for decades. The weapons also became both Soviet and revolutionary symbols and widespread instruments of terrorism, child-soldiering and crime.

Sunday sunfish sundy Son of Sun God

Simple Simon’s simple Sunday

Salmon Sandwich Signal Sender

Sense? No.

This post does not make any.

See you tomorrow.

This week brought about the launch of a new year. That’s a good thing.

We were hoping to get a new look for the blog for the new year, but that didn’t happen.

This week also had a first for us — our first threat, and from a real agent of the Iranian terror state, no less. In SF you haven’t really arrived until there is a price on your head. So Shahzad Mir Gholikhan’s threat of a lawsuit for telling the truth about her looks pretty lame next to the $20,000 the FARC put on our head in Ecuador, or even the rather insulting $6,000 the Taliban was willing to pay for an indirect fire attack in 2002. (They did get a retarded kid to throw a grenade in another team’s Russian UAZ jeep, and they did pay some fool to motorcycle-bomb us, but he just took the money and the motorcycle and they never saw him again… so who’s the fool?) Anyway, the lovely