The Firearm Blog

Oddly enough the below ‘rocket’ is actually a rifle chambered in the 7.62×39mm cartridge! It is used in a RPG launcher for training purposes. I assume that it would be used in an actual RPG launcher and not a training replica.

I came across this link a PFOA post. From the website that sells it:

Used by the Czech military as a training aid to simulate firing a rocket propelled grenade using 7.62×39 ammunition. Features blued-steel construction with a rifled barrel, bolt assembly, knurled grips and yellow rocket head. The push-button type trigger assembly is designed to be fired while inside the RPG launcher itself (launcher not included or available), but it can be fired manually by depressing a small lever and pressing a recessed button in the rocket body.

Here is a video of it being fired:

Have you ever heard of a punt gun?

A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations. Punt guns were usually custom-designed and so varied widely, but could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches and fire over a pound (.5 kilos) of shot at a time.

(From Wikipedia.org)

2 inches is over 50mm!

20mm is considered a cannon in the military! Unfortunately not many punt guns exist these days and most are not capable of being fired.

Here are some photos of punt guns and two videos showing one in operation.

Bushmaster has a great flash animation showing how an AR-15 bushmaster functions. It allows you to make some of the parts transparent so you can see inside.

A screenshot of what the animation looks like:

A great article from the Shooting Times about the evolution of magnum handgun cartridges from the .357 Magnum developed in the 1930’s to the colossal .500 S&W Magnum.

In the 1930s, handgunners were looking for ways to extend the power of the popular .38 Special cartridge…. because cars had replaced horses as the getaway of choice, officers wanted a handgun cartridge that would penetrate the steel bodies of automobiles. These requirements resulted in the development of the .357 Magnum cartridge.

Hat Tip Airborne Combat Engineer.

Students in Svalbard, Norway, are taught how to use a shotgun and ammunition to fend off polar bears at the beginning of every school year.

Since polar bears can outrun a human in a matter of seconds, every student at the University Center undergoes weapons and arctic survival training, Aftenposten reported Monday.

“It’s absolutely necessary,” said UNIS director Gunnar Sand.

(From UPI)

The Svalbard University is a very remote college:

The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) is the world’s northernmost higher education institution, located in Longyear at 78º N. UNIS offers high quality courses at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level in Arctic Biology, Arctic Geology, Arctic Geophysics and Arctic Technology.

The student wiki offers some humorous advice to prospecitive students:

It is also illegal to carry weapons in shops and cafés.

Students can borrow rifles and other safety equipment at Fred’s office.

So PLEASE!!!!! - give your rifles back as soon as you are finished using them

The top photo shows a student of the university. I cannot make out what rifle he is carrying. A Mauser? Any ideas? Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Hat Tip to Bitter

David continues his ‘African Shooting Lessons’ entry here.

“A good shot develops a sense of how much time he has–and uses that time.”

(Photo from wikipedia.org)

B.B. Pelletier has just completed a long 6 part series on the air gun sport of Field Target

Field target began in Great Britain sometime in the early 1980s. According to the British Field Target Association (BFTA) field target manual, the year was 1981. They say there that the original purpose was a hunting simulation, but I have been told by many veteran shooters that FT was just another sport that happened to use animal silhouettes as targets.

It is worth a read if you enjoy shooting air guns.

Part 1 - How it all began
Part 2 - Targets
Part 3 - Targets - Part 2
Part 4 - Squads
Part 5 - The spring guns
Part 6 - The precharged guns

Bitter, on this blog entry, had this to say about my attempt to find out who pays too much for firearms:

A) The laws aren’t consistent. If only members of the military and law enforcement can purchase firearms, it’s hardly an open market.
B) Culturally, it’s not a big thing in most other countries and that will also influence the market.
C) There is no such thing as “paying too much,” and important premise in his attempt to study prices

I am going to try to answer her 3rd point. I will try not to make this a full economics lesson. Here is an open market for guns, with no government regulation:

Ignore the diagram on the right. I have only included it for the sake of completeness.

This shows a perfect competitor, a gun dealer named Steve, and the local gun market.

The S curve shows supply. As price increases suppliers/producers are willing to produce more.

The D curve shows demand. As price decreases consumers are willing to purchase more.

The eventual price is the agreed price between suppliers and consumers. In other words where Supply=Demand (S=D). This is called the equilibrium point.

The point P is how much you should be paying for a gun.

Here is the market for a gun dealer after government regulation and compliance costs:

For anyone who has studied economics at a college level, this is showing the long term effect, I do realize that negative economic profit will be made in the short term.

As you can see above, supply decreases from S to S1 therefore driving up the cost

On the unregulated market you would pay P. Now you are paying P1.

I am sure I have made some mistakes on these diagrams. I am not trying to blog a course in microeconomics. I will leave that to the college professors!

To answer Bitter’s other points:

A) I am looking at what consumers, not the military, pay in other countries. I am really trying to find out how much government interference there is in other countries.

B) Yes, demand certainly influences price, you are right about that. Some countries will import more than others which will in turn decrease the costs per item.

I may do another post showing how world price effects gun supply and prices.

I hope that I have made sense.

This is why I am a big supporter of small government and the deregulation of all things, including firearms.

If you found this post interesting I highly recommend reading The Undercover Economist (non affiliate link).

I have been having problems with my blog and posting comments sometimes does not work. If it does not work for you please try it again.

Hi Gun bloggers and gun enthusiasts,

I am trying to compile a “Global Gun Price Index” to see how the price of firearms compare in different parts of the world.

If you are able to help me or have suggestions please feel free to email me. My email address is on the top left sidebar of my blog (The Firearm Blog) or you can post a comment on the blog.

Unfortunately I only speak english. Finding the gun prices of non english speaking countries is not easy. Nor is it easy in foreign english speaking countries as I do not know the best online gun stores to get prices from.

So far I have been researching the Remington .308 700 SPS (blued). I chose the 700 SPS because I thought it would be a common gun found world wide. I would like to expand this to many other types of guns such as the Mossberg 500 shotgun, Ruger 10/22 rifle and Glock 17 pistol.

I have found prices for the Remington 700 SPS rifle in the following countries:

• USA
• Canada
• New Zealand
• Australia
• UK

Here is a graph showing my findings for the Remington 700 SPS .308 (blued):

Below is a picture of the spreadsheet I have been using. I will be uploading the actual spreadsheet soon. I am busy tidying it up and may use Zoho to host it so anyone can edit it. Once I upload it I will update this page.

If you have catalogs, knowledge of overseas gun websites or know people in another country who can look up prices then please let me know.

I am especially interested in the following countries:

• South Africa (an english speaking country but I could not find any prices online!)
• EU Member States
• Russia
• Israel
• Middle Eastern countries

Any information I received and publish on the “Gun Price Index” will be freely available to the entire online gun community under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License so that everyone benefits.

Thanks for any help.

UPDATE: Unfortunately although many people have wished me luck none have been able to give me gun prices. If you are able to supply me gun prices from your country please contact me.

I came across this post by RUDY850 on the PAFOA forum showing a very clever way to save space in your gun rack by mounting pistols on the gun safe door.

A humorous blog post from Dave Petzal:

If you are not familiar with the 8-bore, it shoots a 1,250-grain conical bullet at about 1,500 fps, or an 860-grain round ball at 1,650 fps ….. This year, one of the .375 shooters got the chance to try it, and asked me if he should.

“Sure,” I said, “it will take you into a whole new world of pain that you never dreamed of.”

The round ball shot out of an 8 bore has a diameter on .820 inches! That is just over 20mm!

In one of the comments ThreePutt wrote:

“You teach a good lesson: One mans kick is another mans recoil.”

Very well said, I could not put it better myself!

Some of the other comments pointed out the dangers of both perceived recoil (how bad it feels to you) and actual recoil. I recommend reading the comments.

Below if a picture of an 8-bore rifle, it may be a Greener, but I am not sure:

I have been getting many visitors coming to this blog looking for SKS manuals. I thought this was strange as I only had one small post linking to an SKS manual.

It turns out that SKS manuals are very hard to find! Many sites are selling the PDF versions of old manuals that have either had their copyright expired, in which case should be free, or they in face do not have the right to sell and are selling illegally.

I have decided to post a comprehensive listing of SKS Manuals and websites detailing SKS disassembly/assembly information.

Manuals

Russian SKS 45 Semi-Auto Carbine manual

This manual for the SKS 45 Carbine looks pretty good compared to some of the others.

This 12 page manual covers the following topics:

• History of the SKS
• Safety
• Specifications
• Loading
• Unloading
• Sight Adjustment
• Cleaning

The PDF can be downloaded here.

China Sports SKS Semi-Automatic Sporting Rifle

China sports was a US importer of Chinese firearms.

This 19 page manual covers the following topics:

• Operating Instructions’
• Safety
• Loading
• Unloading
• Disassembly instruction
• Assembly instruction
• Cleaning
• Sight Adjustment

The PDF can be downloaded here.

US Army SKS Rifle Manual (Simonov Type 56)

This US Army 22 page manual covers the following topics:

• Operation
• Disassembly
• Assembly
• Trigger
• Accessories
• Malfunctions
• Training
• Maintaining the SKS
• Function Checks
• Cleaning

You can download the PDF here.

Inter Ordnance M59 / 66 Yugoslavian (Yugo) SKS - 7.62×39mm Semi-Automatic Rifle

This manual appears to be virtually identical to the above China Sports SKS manual.

This 12 page manual covers the following topics:

• Operating Instructions
• Safety
• Loading
• Unloading
• Disassembly instruction
• Assembly instruction
• Cleaning
• Sight Adjustment

The PDF can be downloaded here.

Cheaper than dirt SKS manual / pamphlet

This is more of a pamphlet than a manual. It covers the following topics:

• Safety guidelines and proper handling of the SKS
• Disassembly
• Cleaning
• Removing trigger and magazine
• Mounting the bayonet

The PDF can be downloaded here.

Online Manuals

There are some great webpages listing SKS instructions:

Will england :: SKS disassembly : This site offer good instructions on disassembly, sight adjustment and cleaning.

surplusrifle.com : surplusrifle.com has a great webpage on disassembly/assembly of the SKS 1945 carbine. This page has many high quality videos and two videos:

Cleaning the SKS Carbine video
The SKS: Disassembly/Reassembly video

Additional Information

Here is a parts listing of the SKS:
1. Piston
2. Handguard and gas cylinder
3. Piston extension
4. Piston return spring
5. Front sight
6. Front sight seat
7. Handguard catch
8. Bayonet screw
9. Bayonet assembly
10. Hold open latch pin
11. Hold open latch spring
12. Hold open latch
13. Receiver and Barrel
14. Takedown latch
15. Trigger guard latch
16. Latch pin
17. Rear housing
18. Bolt carrier
19. Bolt
20. Firing pin retainer
21. Firing pin
22. Extractor spring
23. Extractor
24. Recoil spring
25. Spring retainer
26. Large spring guide
27. Small spring guide
28. Stock assembly
29. Trigger guard spring
30. Magazine
31. Magazine follower
32. Follower spring
33. Hinge pin
34. Magazine cover
35. Cover latch
36. Latch spring and sear spring
37. Sear
38. Latch stop pin
39. Trigger guard
40. Disconnector hinge assembly
41. Trigger pin
42. Safety catch
43. Safety catch spring
44. Trigger
45. Safety catch pin
46. Trigger bar
47. Trigger bar pin
48. Trigger spring
49. Disconnector
50. Rebound Disconnector
51. Hammer
52. Hammer strut pin
53. Hammer strut
54. Hammer spring
55. Cleaning rod

(Photo at the top of this post is from Wikipedia.org)

From Australian International Arms (AIA):

Australian International Arms have manufactured the 5th generation of Lee-Enfield, for target shooting, military match and sporting markets. However, unlike the 4th generation, this is not a ‘converted’ Lee-Enfield. The AIA rifles are redesigned with modern techniques

The below photo shows the current models on sale. They are all .308.

This photo comes from the Canadian company Marstar who sells them in Canada. The official AIA website is not very informative.

If you are not familiar with Enfields (from Wikipedia):

The Lee-Enfield was, in various marks and models, the British Army’s standard bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle for over 60 years from (officially) 1895 until 1956, although it remained in British service well into the early 1960s and is still found in service in the armed forces of some Commonwealth nations. In its many versions, it was the standard army service rifle for the first half of the 20th century, and was adopted by Britain’s colonies and Commonwealth allies, including India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

The below photo shows what I believe to be are prototypes and are defiantly not sale at this point in time. I have read about AIA 7.62×39mm which suspect is what the below rifles are chambered in. They may in fact be using AK magazines! AIA only offers rifles in .308 at this point in time.

According to the Orlando Sentinel the so called missile launcher was nothing more than a carrying case for an anti-tank weapon. Not exciting after all. Below is a photo of the carrying case: