The Firearm Blog

James has an interesting post on cyclist’s guns which were used by cyclist’s to keep dogs at bay back in the late 1800s.

Well worth a read.

An interesting holster made by Stellar Rigs:

These were announced by the manufacturer on rec.guns recently:

Our Kel-Tec neck chain concealment rigs were developed originally for
LEOs to carry the back up gun under their vests. Over time a number of
“civilian requests” had us make a vertical version for better
concealment. Now comes the “Extreme Duty” evolution. The most popular
question by phone or email is “how well does it hold?” Our standard
answer is “fine for cruising around in you car or walking but not well
enough to jump out of helicopters or off fences - is that what you want
to do?” The answer is usually no - but just in case.
We are now making “Extreme Duty” versions in Black and the sexy carbon
fiber laminate and they hang on almost as well as the NAA mini-revolver
models. In fact, You nearly have to “force load” them. Yeah, they hang
on good !

Personally I think the chain looks too thin and I could not carry a gun pointed to my chin, holster or not.

You may say that is superstition, and maybe it is, but I know of many cases of people shooting themselves in the foot while practicing for IPSC when drawing from holsters. I just would not feel comfortable.

UPDATE: I posted this in a hurry. Links to the manufacturer and rec.guns discussion are added.

Gunner’s Journal has a very in depth post about the Hi Power pistol. Highly recommended.

Browning Hi Power Mk III

As much I as I like these handsome pistols for informal target work, small game hunting, or just knocking around in the woods, their original purpose was for “serious” matters in one area of the self-defense arena, military service. Like its Browning-born predecessor, the 1911, the single-action Hi Power’s initial reason for existence was as a military sidearm and not individual civilian self-protection. It is nice that both readily lend themselves to this, however.

Read it here.

Click to enlarge

This Enfield would fire when enough water dripped (along the wire, I think) from the top can into the bottom can. It was used by the ANZAC forces at Gallipoli (WWI) to make the Turkish forces think they were still in the trenches while they were retreating.

Very clever. I want to make one! (With blanks, of course).

H/T: MP.net

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NCIS contract calls for over 2,000 pistols to replace the aging fleet of refurbished M11 (SIG P228) pistols purchased more than 15 years ago. The contract represents the first “new” pistol procurement for NCIS agents since the agency’s inception. The new P229 and P239 models will be chambered in .40S&W and fitted with SIG SAUER’S exclusive DAK™ trigger system.

SIG SAUER P239 (photo from wikipedia)

The press release is after the jump:

Continue Reading »

If you have been following this blog you know the Chinese have been in the news recently.

A Chinese ship carrying 3 million rounds of 7.62×39mm and 1500 RPG rounds destined for land locked Zimbabwe tried to offload in the South African port of Durban.

Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party have been arming militias to drive out farmers and terrorize opposition supporters since the election they probably lost (but refuse to announce the results). Despite this the South African Defence Secretary approved the shipment: “This is a normal transaction between two sovereign states and we don’t have to interfere”. Not that surprising since the South African president openly supports Robert Mugabe.

Luckily for the people of Zimbabwe the dock workers have refused to offload the cargo.

Read the article here.

Poster from SearAndHammer.com

(and yes … I am aware this post does violate my non political rule

President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev visited the Dubna Institute for Nuclear Research yesterday:

It has all the aesthetics of Russian pistols

I wonder what that is.

I first saw the image here. Confirmed it was not a fake here.

Murdoc, of Gunpundit, interview Kyle Cassidy author of “Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes”

Very interesting.

Read it here.

I was emailed this. It apparently was made in New Zealand but I do not have any other information. It uses a conventional zip gun design: a bolt in a tube with a threaded barrel.

What makes it interesting is that it looks like both barrels can be fired at once by pressing on or pulling down the rod (on the left side of the photo).

Click to expand the photo

I came across this chart showing over 260 powders form 15 different manufacturers.

The chart of relative quickness of powders below is intended as a guideline only. Powders within three lines of one another are similar in relative quickness but cannot be directly substituted without due regard for safe reloading procedures.

It is a South African website so you may not be able to get hold of some of these powders.

The Chinese reported that Tibetan monks have been hoarding vast quantities of arms …

“In the past two days, local police found three rifles, 571 bullets, 10kg of dynamite, five detonators and 38 satellite receivers in 11 key monasteries in Jone and Xiahe counties, and Hezuo City in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,” Xinhua reported.

I would not call 571 rounds a “cache” and for all we know they could be .22LR or guns kept from any of the past centuries wars. Satellite receivers probably means GPS devices.

I think the majority of the readers of this blog have more arms in their safe than all monks in China.

Citizens are not allowed to own firearms in China. Foreigners will be allowed to bring in their firearms in for the Olympics.

More at BBC

Italian police caught gangsters trying to purchase half a million AK-47s from Norinco (the Chinese state arms exporter) on behalf of a Libyan.

Apparently they were only purchasing 10 million round of ammo. Thats 50 20 rounds per gun - less than two one magazines worth.

They obviously did not watch that educational firm “Lord of War” which made it clear to all would be rebels that guns need
ammo.

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) negotiating the
purchase (theft) of Ukrainian AKs in “Lord of War”

More at GunPundit

Market Watch has listed SWHC (S&W) as …

“misleading earnings,” a situation where a company appears to have growing profits but where statements and footnotes in filings shows that the real bottom line is falling.

Beware.

.

James reported on this last week, but I thought I should mention it:

From Strategypage.com:

The world’s first light machine-gun, the Danish Madsen has finally been retired from service after over a century of use. The State Police of the Brazilian state of Rio De Janerio were the last users of the twenty pound weapon…

The Madsen required some precise machining, but it was not exceptionally costly to make. It was reliable, although it used an awkward top loaded magazine, carrying 25, 30 or 40 rounds. Over its long career, it was equipped to fire ammunition from 6.5mm to 8mm. The Brazilian Madsens fired NATO 7.62mm (.30 caliber) ammo. It’s rate of fire was 450 rounds per minute.

Firearms last a long time!

These photos of of a replica of the 8mm model which can be bought here. They are the best photos I could find and are probably close to the original.

Click to expand the images.