The Firearm Blog

Backyard Safari has scanned in a collection of tacti-cool AK-type rifles from a Russian gun magazine.

Gun blogger Top of the Chain got himself inked for his birthday.

I think it looks awesome!

For those of you not familiar to the phrase "ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ", it means "Come and take them!". The Spartans were said to have said it in reply to the Persian order to surrender their weapons.

Happy Birthday buddy, I hope you have a good one.

Between 22 October and 11 November I am not going to have much time to blog. Please get in touch with me if you able to write a guest blog post for The Firearm Blog.

Posts do not need to be long, just a few paragraphs and some photos. If you want to write an essay, you are most welcome, But it is not necessary.

Choose a subject you are passionate about. Some ideas ...

• Your favorite shooting sport.
• Your favorite hunting / plinking / tactical rifle.
• Your experiences with an interesting weapon in Iraq / Afghanistan.
• An interesting gun you own.
• Hunting with an interesting / unusual gun.
• Your CCW rig.
• An overview of the legality of shooting, hunting and gun ownership in your country.

Topics that are not appropriate ...

• Writing about a product made by the business you work for.
• "Glock vs. 1911"
• "AR-15 vs. AK"
• ... etc.
• Anything controversial that will require me to do a lot of comment moderation!

If you have an idea for a guest blog post you would like to write please email me and I will tell you if it is appropriate or not.

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."

Page 446. An autobiography: the story of my experiments with truth By Gandhi (Mahatma), Mahadev Haribhai Desai

I love this quote. Gandhi, the iconic pacifist, recognized that free people require arms to defend themselves and their ideals. He did not believe arms were inherently evil or that the world would be better without them.

Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 and would have turned 140 this year.

The above image comes from Ecorazzi.com, a "green" blog.

Bizarrely the short promotional video for the Beretta Xplor features a dinosaur foot?!?!? While I would applaud research into dinosaur guns, I wonder if there will be much demand for them from the general public Or at least until Wooly Mammoths are bred for hunting.

While watching a video of the MetalStorm 3GL 40mm Grenade Launcher I was blown away by the incredible technology¹ that these Australians have developed. I have blogged about the 3GL before, but I had not imagined it worked so well in practice. The video is worth 1000 words ...

The MetalStorm technology allows multiple rounds to be loaded into, and fired from, a single barrel. This makes a much more compact weapon than competing MGL² systems such as the Milkor. The weapon has been designed to be within the same tolerances as the M203/M320 and so achieves similar range, velocity & accuracy. It makes use of standard 40x46mm grenade warheads which are inserted into the MetalStorm 'tail assembly'. This would make the system much more attractive to nations which currently use the standard 40x46mm rounds.

The grenades are fired electronically as fast as the trigger can be pull and the barrel is capable of 720 rounds per minute! I asked Mark, MetalStorm's armorer, about battery life and he told me that the 2xAA batteries is uses will last as long as the barrel does.

What really impressed me was how fast it could be reloaded. In the video you see the operator remove the rifle's magazine when reloading - this was for safety and it not required in the field.

In its stand-alone configuration (not attached to a rifle and with its own stock) it weighs 5 lbs - less than half the weight of the 11 lb Milkor MGL!

Milkor MGL / M32

MetalStorm have also been working on a bullpup version of the 3GL. Aside from the shorter overall length, it allows the system to be used with rifles, such as the AK variants, which require the magazines to be rocked into place. The pistol grip of the non-bullpup version would get in the way during magazine changes,

3GL Bullpup. It is tiny!

As I said before, I am very impressed with this weapon. It offers a lot of power in a very small package.

Many thanks to David for answering my questions and providing photos and videos for the blog.

DS Arms are now selling half-assembled AR-15 receivers. Half assembled means no bolt, bolt carrier or charging handle.

• Forged 7075T6 A3 Flattop Upper Receiver
• Forged Front Sight Base with Bayonet Lug
• A2 Flash Hider
• 16 Inch 5.56mm NATO Nitride Treated Chrome Moly 1:9 Twist ZM-4 Barrel
• M4 Style Handguards
• Aluminum Delta Ring
• M4 Style Feed Ramps

The introductory price is $275.

Guy Sagi, the Editor in Chief of Shooting Illustrated, has written about his experience hunting antelope with an AR-10.

It is great to see semi-automatic rifle hunting going mainstream.

Another car dealer, this time in Ohio, is now offering shotguns, rifles or crossbows with the purchase of a truck.

With the hunting season starting I think we will be seeing a lot more of these offers.

Many thanks to Jonathan for the info.

Stag Arms's newest AR-15 is the piston operated Model 8 carbine.

Model 8 Piston Carbine

Stag have not released much information about the rifle. It looks much the same as their M4-style Model 3 carbine. I am not sure if the piston system is their own design (if you can identify, please do in the comments). It looks like it could be a long-stroke design, but I am not sure. UPDATE: See below.

Piston system can be seen when upper handguard is removed.

Lefties will be pleased to see that a left-handed model will be available.

UPDATE: David from Stag told me that it is a short-stroke piston that Stag Arms designed.