The Firearm Blog

If bright red handguards grips or stocks are your thing, Coal Creek Armory are selling them cheap. More info here.

The M1028 is a 120mm shotgun shell for the M1 tank. The shell holds 1100 10mm tungsten balls. They are apparently lethal up to 700m (765 yards). Here is a video of the shell being fired in slow motion. It shows the shot breaking the sound barrier and the shot pattern (H/T to Sebastian).

I tried to calculate the weight of each ball. It depends on how pure the balls are. My calculations, based on a company that makes tungsten balls that weigh 18 grams per cm3, indicate that each ball will weigh about 145 grains. That is a combined weight of 159,500 grains / 10 kilograms / 22.8 pounds!

(4/3) x pie x 0.5cm ^ 3 = 0.52 cm3
0.52 * 18 = 9.42 grams (145 grains)

Please correct me if I am wrong.

The requirements of the round were:

• Defeat >50% Advancing Squad w/ 1 Shot
• Defeat >50% Advancing Platoon w/ 2 Shots
• 200-500M (threshold)/100-700M (objective)
• Muzzle Action (i.e. No Fuze)
• No orientation of the projectile
• Vulnerability no worse than current fielded

The M1028 cross section.

Here is a before and after shot taking during the testing of the round. I am not sure of the range.

Before

Two dummies survived, the wall did not.

The concept of shot is not new. Grape shot or loose stones, metal and glass have been used for as long as cannons have.

American Revolution grapeshot

Sources of information:

M1028 - GARM Final (PDF)
Military.com
PSMVCC (PDF)
JinJu Powder Metallurgy

The mythbusters use a 7.62mm Dillon M134D minigun to chop down a tree in 45 seconds.

From Dillon Aero

The Dillon M134D Gatling Gun is the finest small caliber, defense suppression weapon available. It is a six barreled, electrically driven machine gun chambered in 7.62mm NATO and fires at a fixed rate of 3,000 shots per minute. Gatling Guns typically feed from a 3,000 or 4,400 round magazine. They are capable of long periods of continuous fire without threat or damage to the weapon making them an excellent choice for defensive suppression.

Dillon Guns are reliable. The M134D has system life in excess of one million rounds and an average time between stoppage of 30,000 rounds. In the unlikely event of a stoppage the weapon can be serviced and made operational again in under a minute. The multi barrel design means that each barrel only experiences a 500 round per minute rate of fire. This allows for repeated long bursts of fire and a barrel group life of 100,000 rounds.

Hat Tip: Gizmodo

Steve over at Subguns.com posted photos of his side by side 12 guage SBS.

Started out as a project last fall. Bought a Remington Spartan Gun Works side by side 12ga w/external hammers (love those). Posted here about who was good for converting as an SBS. Got an e-mail from Chuck Smyder at LRM in Florida. We discussed what I’d liek to have done and sent it to him. In the mean time I got the idea to have the side plates and trigger guard color case hardened, sooooooo I found a guy in Montana who uses cyanide instead of charcoal (side plates too thin for charcoals heat). Had Chuck send him the parts.

While that was being done, Chuck shortened the barrels, filled in the void in between, installed the oversize ivory bead and applied a beautiful job of molycoating to the metal. This is what I’m getting back…..

Wow! This shotgun is amazing. Click to expand the images.

More info here.

Hat Tip: Says Uncle

Wodger Wabit over at RFC machined a suppressor adapter for a Volquartsen carbon-fibre wrapped barrel threaded for a .22 muzzle break so that both can be used. Neither the suppressor nor the muzzle break need to be modified. Very cool.

The muzzle break and the threaded barrel

Threaded barrel with adapter


Adapter screwed in, ready for the suppressor.

UPDATE:

The creator of the adapter, Roger, just sent me an email. Check out his website. It contains lots of interesting information on suppressors and air gun hunting.

Have you ever wondered how much big bore ammo cost? Here is a list of cartridges from a few manufacturers. It is not a scientific sample, I have not taken into account quality of the brass or bullets. I am sure by hunting around you could find cheaper prices (ha, no pun intended).

The reason many are very expensive is that they are not mass produced, unlike the .405 Winchester and .375 H&H.

* Cost of bullet+brass unloaded, includes shipping cost.

Sources:

Winchester
The Firearm Blog
Kynoch Ammunition

From MP.net:

However, although the 13,000 Steyr rifles which have been in service for 20 years, would not be replaced, they would be a significant part of the upgrade programme.

The study would look at modifying about 3000 of the 13,000 5.56mm rifles so they could take more fittings on the top rail, instead of the factory-fitted 1.5 magnification sighting system

The Australians already use a mixture of the AUGs with 1.5x sights and the ‘railed’ AUGs. I have always thought that the 1.5x scope was a bad compromise on an assault rifle. The target acquisition speed is less than a non magnified red dot sight (I have no experience with magnified red dot sights) but lacks the benefits of a more powerful scope. It must be working for the New Zealanders because they are only thinking about converting 23% of their rifles.

Australian Solider in Iraq with ADI Austeyr A3 that
comes fitted with a rail.

These photos were taken in Pakistan. The rifle appears to be a custom job that probably came from the gun markets of Durra. It looks like a AKS-74U thats been modified.

AKS-74U

It lacks the distinctive AKS-74U cone shaped flash hider. Instead it has a standard/”basket” style flash hider, yet the flash hider does not extend past the muzzle, so it must be there for decoration. The magazine looks like it is the standard 5.45×39mm magazine.

5.45×39mm magazine on AK-74M

Interesting what some people cook up!

Hat Tip: MP.net

Over at HuntingNet.com a user claimed to have converted a mint condition original Remington Rand 1911A1 pistol, worth a fair amount, into an ugly 1911 with no historical value knocking at least $1000 off the price. This made a lot of people angry. It turns out the user is a known troll.

From this

To this. No one is that stupid… I hope.

The thread can be read here.

Hat Tip: Xavier

The BAM XS-B3 is a really cheap air rifle loosely patterned after the AK.

Click to zoom in on the images

For shooting birds in tight spaces

More info on the rifle here.

Planeman has done an analysis on Iran’s air defenses. I recently mentioned his NKorean analysis. The article includes many original drawings and lots of diagrams.

ZU-23-2 Light AAA

It is interesting how much reliance is still placed on manned guns. I was under the impression that most of the world had moved to surface to air missile systems. It is also interesting to note the ease at which the Israelis bypassed the new Syrian radar systems that were purchased from Russia.

Well worth a read.

The Remington MasterBlaster is a big suppressed 8 Gauge kiln gun.

The MasterBlaster system is the most productive and cost-efficient way to remove virtually any type of build-ups in boilers, kilns, silos, quarries or mines. Both the gun and the ammunition provide superior power, accuracy and dependability, shot after shot, at distances up to 300 feet

“Rapid Firing” nice

It fires special remington 8 gauge slugs weighing up to 3 oz. / 1312.5. 8 gauge has a caliber of 0.835″ / 21mm.

Zinc Build-Ups With Hard Exteriors and Soft Interiors

Perfect for self defense
More info here.

30mm rounds from an A-10 land close to British troops in Afghanistan.

That cannon sure makes a cool sound, I can see how the whole “Show of Force” thing would work. The sound would be enough to make me run. I would not like to be on its receiving end!

The A-10 fires the 30×173mm round:

Compared to 7.62×51mm
(photo by ekranoplan)

Hat Tip: MP.net

Great for the range on a cold day, but defiantly not something to wander around in public with! Sold here.

Hat Tip: The Breda Fallacy