The Firearm Blog

Greg Brush, an Alaskan fishing guide, was ambushed with no warning by a charging bear. All he had time to do was pull out his .454 Casull and fire as fast as possible, while falling backwards after tripping on a branch. The Anchorage Daily News reports:

He drew a Ruger .454 Casull revolver. There was no time to aim, barely time to squeeze the trigger. He’s not sure whether he got off two shots or three, but one proved fatal.

“Total luck shot,” he said.

“It doesn’t get any closer. He slid by me on his chin when I shot him,” Brush said. “I was backpedaling as fast as I could. I wasn’t even aiming. I tripped over my own feet as I pulled the trigger.”

He estimated that the animal weighed 900-plus pounds, and was 15 to 20 years old. It had grass packed in its molars and little fat on its bones.

“It was starving to death and saw an opportunity,” Brush said.

I sometimes get asked what should be carried in bear country. I always say the same thing: “I know nothing about bears but if I was in bear country I would want a .44 Magnum by my side”. I despair when people say they would rather carry their 9mm or .40 S&W Glock because they can get off more shots! This story perfectly illustrates that you may only get off one or two shots at a charging 900 pound beast! A 9mm round is not going to do much good.

Greg was most likely carrying a Ruger Super Redhawk. The Low-Glare Stainless model has a 7.5″ barrel and is available chambered in .454 Casull or .45 Colt. It has a MSRP of $992.

Big thank you to Don for emailing me the link.

UPDATE: Commenters point out that he was using the Super Redhawk Alaskan. This snub nosed .454 Casull has a 2.5″ barrel . It also has a MSRP of $922. Thanks guys for the correction.

Tom Gresham has an interview with Greg on his Gun Talk show. Thanks to Jake for the link.

Joe Huffman has had some pretty nifty photos he took of pistols recoiling published in an Italian magazine.

During the past few years India’s Armaments Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) have been developing an interesting Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) called the Modern Submachine Carbine (MSMC).

Modern Submachine Carbine

The firearm chambers a round developed in India called the 5.56x30mm. This round is sometimes referred to as the “5.56x30mm INSAS” after the first gun to chambered the round, the INSAS Carbine.

5.56x30mm MARS

Those of you who follow the industry closely may recall that Colt developed a round named the 5.56x30mm MARS during the 90′s as part of their now defunct Mini Assault Rifle project. I imagine the INSAS cartridge is very similar. The Colt patent describes the MARS cartridge:

The MARS cartridge is designed as part of the weapon system and exploits the high energy densities of modern ball powders. It for the first time uses magnum pistol type powders burned at rifle pressures to achieve high rifle velocities in a short rifle barrel. It uses a fast ball powder to achieve 2600 ft/sec with a 55 gr full metal jacket projectile in only an 11 inch barrel.

The MARS cartridge/rifle was able to achieve similar ballistics as a ultra-short barreled 5.56x45mm NATO rifle (I use the term rifle loosely, sub-carbine is more correct), but with less muzzle flash, noise and weight. The Indians went with the 5.56x30mm over the 5.56x45mm for these exact same reasons as Colt.

Out of a 11″ barrel, the MARS Rifle was able to push a 55 grain bullet at 2600 fps, generating 825 ft/lbs of muzzle energy. For comparison, according to Wikipedia, the original Colt Commando (11″ barreled sub-carbine) could push a bullet (presumably a 55 grain M193 Ball) at 2750 fps.

Colt M4 Commando (current model)

While the 5.56x30mm has advantages over a pistol cartridge such as the 9mm NATO, to wit, less weight and kevlar vest penetration, it has in my opinion one fatal flaw. 5.56mm bullets were never designed to operate at such low velocities. While 2650 fp/s may seem fast, that is at the muzzle, not 200 meters downrange where the target is situated.

A graph I generated. Numbers are estimates for illustration only.

Col. Martin L. Fackler, MD famously did a study which determined that a 5.56mm bullet (M193 and M855) would fragment only slightly ,or not at all, when hitting flesh below the speed of 2500 fps. Low fragmentation results in a .22″ sized hole in the target – less damaging that a .38″ (9mm) or .45″ hole.

Col. Martin L. Fackler, MD results

It will be interesting to see how this new sub-carbine and perform in real life, and what official nickname the cartridge is given. I think 5.56mm India or 5.56mm Short should are much better named than 5.56x30mm INSAS.

Hat Tip: 8-AK Defense News and Ammoland

Tag: 5.56×30

I did not like it. The trailer makes the film out to be about Nazi hunting but the “Bastards” seem less interested in finding Nazis than they are in mutilating any German solider they can find.

Many of you have probably seen this revolver before, but I had not. The gigantic wheel gun measures four feet in length!

It was build by Ryszard Tobys and was modeled after the Remington Model 1859 revolver. It is 28mm in caliber (1.1″)!

Thanks to Sven for the link.

Hat Tip: Weapons Blog

UPDATE: Added corrected information and photos. Thanks pauloos for the link.

ZeroHedge via. WSJ report that investors in the Cerberus hedge fund want out.

Cerberus Capital Management has been swamped with redemption requests with the Wall Street Journal reporting that investors are asking to pull out $5.5 billion or 71 percent of assets from its hedge funds.

Cerberus last month tried to entice investors into staying with the firm, but found that its clients overwhelmingly wanted to leave, the newspaper reported.

…

Last year, when the average hedge fund lost 19 percent, Partners lost 24.5 percent on investments.

I am not sure how this is going to effect the other assets owned by Cerberus. According to Wikipedia Cerberus have $24 billion in assets.

Among their assets is the Freedom Group which owns Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and other gun manufacturers.

Freedom Group’s gun businesses

Thanks to jdun1911 and Brian info about this story.

On Point Firearms have just started selling a great looking over-sized charging handle for the Benelli M1, M2, M3 and M4 shotguns. It is machined from aluminum and simply bolts onto the existing charging handle.

Benelli M4 with Extended Charging handle.

On Point are selling them for $30.

Earlier this month Serbian police discovered a weapons cache hidden inside a buried oil tank. The weapons were found outside a village that was a former stronghold of an ethnic Albanian militia. It is quite impressive how much hardware and ammunition can be packed away in a relatively small space!

Investigative Judge with the Vranje District Court Staniša Mihajlović said that 100,000 bullets, a recoilless cannon, three mortars, six RPGs, three machine gun stands and 21 anti-tank mines were recovered from the tank.

Hat Tip: MP.net

The Daily Mail reports:

It promised to stretch reality television to the limit: one man pitting his wits against the Yukon wilderness with just a camera for company.

But hopes for an epic three-month contest between man and nature were dashed when adventurer Ed Wardle failed to go the distance.

Seven weeks after striding out into the rugged forests of western Canada armed with a rifle and a fishing rod, Mr Wardle had to be airlifted back to civilisation suffering from starvation.

This first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the photo was the fact he was using an extended magazine tube on this shotgun. What use is that in the wild? I have no idea. Seems to me like extra weight and one more aftermarket part to break.

Jim Downey has also blogged about it.

There is an interesting article at Human Events about the US Army culture favoring the M4, while the Marines culture being pro-M16A4.

Two years ago when I was in Iraq, I noticed there were essentially two different primary infantry weapons (the M16 automatic rifle and the also-automatic M4 carbine) carried by America’s two primary ground forces — the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army.

Marines for the most part were carrying the M16. The Army on the other hand was primarily carrying the M4: a shorter, lighter version of the M16 with a collapsible-stock.

Hat Tip: Say Uncle