This year Auto Ordnance started selling a Thompson 1927A-1 “Lightweight Deluxe Pistol”, complete with 50 round drum magazine!
It has a 10.5″ barrel and aluminum receiver. A total length of 23.3″ and weight 5 lbs. 14.5 oz. Not exactly light weight, and that is before you load up 50 rounds of .45 ACP!
Model TA5
MSRP is $1,117.00.
More here.
Hat Tip: A Keyboard and a .45
I didn’t know they used shot line adapters. When I saw the photo I thought he was using a suppressor.
PACIFIC OCEAN (March 24, 2008) Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Aan J. Doscher, assigned to the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), fires an M-14 with a shot line adapter toward the Military Sealift Command combat stores ship USNS San Jose (T-AFS 7) during a refueling-at-sea. Harpers Ferry is assigned to the Essex Expeditionary Strike Group. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua J. Wahl (Released)
Full sized photo here.
QBZ-95 rifle
The above photo shows Chinese UN peacekeepers performing during a medal ceremony in Lebanon. It is interesting to see how they hold the bullpup to use the bayonet.
Hat Tip: MP.net
Very interesting article on reading the wind when hunting. Most articles on wind tend to focus on bench rest shooting.
If you are new to long range hunting or an experienced veteran, most will agree that the ability to accurately read the wind is what separates a fair shooter from an exceptional one. Let me say that reading the wind is like most anything else; a lot of people have a lot of ideas about how to do it and how to apply it.
I have had a fair number of successes in long range competition and in long range hunting and I will cover what I do and what works for me. The way I read wind and apply that info to my shooting may not work for everyone but check out the information and use it as you see fit.
Read it here.
This is a very funny diet Mountain Dew commercial
Hat Tip: Kaiservontexas
Mad Ogre thinks so:
We just got in our latest order of rifles from Marlin. Everyone of them has extremely shoddy wood on them. The fitting of wood to metal and even just the finish on the wood is something I’d expect on a Puma. Overlaps, gaps, uneven and unfinished cuts, pitting, and splintering. This is a huge departure from what I am used to seeing from Marlin. The wood its self is also disappointing. but I can deal with less than steller lumber.
More here.
UDPATE: Jovian Thunderbolt has more on the topic
Hat Tip: Freedom Sight
The blackpowder cannon enthusiasts over at the Graybeard forums came up with some amazing pieces of artillery.
CU_Cannon built the “Nano-mortar”. It fires .177″ BBs. The bed it sits on is 1″ long.
Click to expand the images.
The Nano-mortar
Here is a video of it in action
Blueprints
Cal.45 built a 3mm mortar called the “Pico “Mortar”
The “Pico Mortar”
The pico mortar was build solely with a drill-press, some files and emery paper. It fires 3mm shot pellets (0.118 inch diameter) and has a maximum load of 0.2 grains of blackpowder. It has a barrel length of 8mm (0.315″) and can fire 6 meters (20 feet)
Anyways. I started with a load of about 0.2gr Swiss #2 but this did just a sizzling sound, so from the next shots on I used Swiss #1 (which is even finer in granulation: about 0.011 to 0.015 inch) which produced a nice snapping. Cheesy.
The touch hole is 0.5 millimeters = close to 0.02 inch (that makes it about 16% of the bore diameter (if one may still call it so).
Priming was done by filling the touch hole granule by granule; sweaty hands help maneuvering these tiny particlesin place.
First I wanted to enlarge the touch hole to fuse diameter and keep the rest at the smaller diameter (to keep some pressure) but the wall thickness is that small, that this wasnot possible.
Ignition with a lighter proofed to be better than trying to do it with a match: the flame produces soot but therefore does not function (kept them as size reference on the photo though).
Whatever. At first I thought that the shot would barely leve the muzzle: wrong!
Firing from the kitchen table I shot dimples into the door! This was 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) away! By the trajectory (angle of the mortar and height of impact) this means an estimated firing distance of 6 meters (about 20 feet): I would never have guessed this to be possible with a piece that has a barrel length of just 8 millimeters (0.315 inch).
The “Pico Mortar” being fired
“Pico Mortar” blueprints
Rickk built the “Nano Cannon”
The “Nano Cannon”
Now I know what only the others who have made one know… what the tremendous roar they make sounds like Grin
Bore is 3/16 (.186), so it will take a BB. Fuse is 5/64, so it will takes 1/16 fuse.
Trunions, as well as cascable, are 3/16 inch steel rod pressed into shallow 3/16 holes and then brazed in place.
All the work was done on my drill press, with some help from an angle grinder and a file for shaping.
It needs a pit more polishing, but I just couldn’t wait to fire it ! Total time into is so far is about 2 hours.
The “Nano Cannon” with carriage
I found the smoldering paper towel pieces about 15 feet away, and the gun recoils back about 6 inches!
BTW, for BB caliber, Q-tips make excellent cleaning rods.
Terry C. built the the very first micro-gonne. A hand gonne is a hand held cannon. It fires #4 buckshot.
the micro-gonne
The micro hand gonne being fired. Note the wooden rod attached.
Victor build a bigger scale hand gonne:
This company sell camo paint stencils for painting firearms. They also have lots of tips on using stencils, which are just as applicable to home made stencils.
Please don’t do this to your firearm.
Zak has written a very interesting article on “Fighting Optics for the AR-15″. He focuses on M4 type rifles and SBRs (Short barreled rifles).
Now that optics have come of age on fighting rifles, one of the most compelling reasons to have a longer barrel has been removed. With iron sights such as those on the M16A2, practical accuracy depends on sight radius; it is easier to shoot accurately with more distance between the front and rear sight. Optical sights have no sight radius; barrel or weapon length is now separated from the ability to obtain a precise sight picture. This change allows a 14.5-inch M4 to have the same sighting precision as a 20-inch M16A2 or even sniper rifle.
M4 with Trijicon ACOG 4x
Read it here.
