The Firearm Blog

If anyone else is interested, I am still looking for guest blog posts. Posts would need to be emailed to me by 19 October (but please email me your topic ideas first). More information here.

I won't be away, but I will have very little time between 20 Oct and 11 Nov to write blog posts.

UPDATE: I was wrong. This is the QBZ-95B (The sailors white gloves are covering the barrel).

Earlier this month there was a huge military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of People's Republic of China. I was astounded to see a photo from the event of what appears to be a sub-carbine version of the QBZ-95 being carried by Chinese sailors.

Photo originally from O.cn via. MP.net

To the best of my knowledge the existence of this weapon has never been reported. The barrel is definetly shorter than the 14.5" of the QBZ-95B (Carbine) that was developed for use in the Navy. I suspect the sub-carbine / PDW has a 10" or 11" barrel.

QBZ-95B Carbine. Photo from Wikipedia.

Has anyone here heard of a QBZ-95 PDW?

Thanks to Caleb for sending me the link to the Chinese parade photos.

Yesterday I blogged about the M4 reliability controversy story that was originally reported by the Associated Press. At best the writer of the AP article exaggerated many the points. The leaked draft of the of the analysis of the Battle of Wanat reads quite differently.

The M4 Carbine

The AP infers that the barrels of many of the weapons were getting white hot. From the AP article:

The platoon-sized unit of U.S. soldiers and about two dozen Afghan troops was shooting back with such intensity the barrels on their weapons turned white hot.

There is only one reference to a gun getting white hot in the draft report, and it is a SAW not a M4 Carbine:

Specialist Bogar fired approximately six hundred rounds at a cyclic rate of fire from his SAW when that weapon became overheated, and eventually jammed the bolt forward. Specialist Stafford noted, “Bogar was still in our hole firing quite a bit. Then Bogar’s SAW jammed. Basically it just got way overheated, because he opened the feed tray cover and I remember him trying to get it open and it just looked like the bolt had welded itself inside the chamber. His barrel was just white hot.”

In fact, it is not even possible that an M4 barrel can heat up to the point of being white hot. M4 barrels are made from Alloy Steel 4150. The melting point of this steel is 1426 degrees Celsius. For steel to go white, it needs to be over 1400 degrees Celsius.

The Ground Precautionary Message ACALA #97-03¹, from November 1996, clearly states that if an M4 barrel reaches just 737 degrees Celcius, the barrel will be weaked to the point where burst.

(3) BURST BARRELS RESULT WHEN THE WEAPONS ARE FIRED UNDER VERY EXTREME FIRING SCHEDULES AND THE BARREL TEMPERATURE EXCEEDS 1360 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. WHEN THE BARREL REACHES THESE EXTREME TEMPERATURES, THE BARREL STEEL WEAKENS TO THE POINT THAT THE HIGH PRESSURE GASES BURST THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE BARREL APPROXIMATELY 4 INCHES IN FRONT OF THE CHAMBER. THIS CONDITION CAN RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY.

You are not going to see an M4 barrel white hot because by that point it would have exploded!

The AP also infers that the M4 Carbine is designed to handle a high rate of fire

The high rate of fire appears to have put a number of weapons out of commission, even though the guns are tested and built to operate in extreme conditions.

This is also not true. From the Ground Precautionary Message[^1]:

(B) FIRING 140 ROUNDS, RAPIDLY AND CONTINUOUSLY, WILL RAISE THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BARREL TO THE COOK-OFF POINT. AT THIS TEMPERATURE, ANY LIVE ROUND REMAINING IN THE CHAMBER FOR ANY REASON MAY COOK-OFF (DETONATE) IN AS SHORT A PERIOD AS 10 SECONDS.

...

(D) SUSTAINED RATE OF FIRE FOR THE M16 SERIES RIFLES AND M4 SERIES CARBINES IS 12-15 ROUNDS PER MINUTE. THIS IS THE ACTUAL RATE OF FIRE THAT A WEAPON CAN CONTINUE TO BE FIRED FOR AN Indefinite LENGTH OF TIME WITHOUT SERIOUS OVERHEATING.

No operator should empty more than 4 magazines rapidly. The AP quotes the draft report:

My weapon was overheating. I had shot about 12 magazines by this point already and it had only been about a half hour or so into the fight. I couldn’t charge my weapon and put another round in because it was too hot, so I got mad and threw my weapon down.”

I sympathize with the solider and would not dare to presume to question his actions in combat. He did what he had to do in the heat of the moment, but I cannot think of any current weapon in the M4 class that can sustain continuous fire. To make such a weapon it would need to have a heavy quick change barrel and maybe also include a heat sink. I doubt any soldiers will want to trade in their M4 for a heavy automatic rifle.

Many thanks to Jay, aka. jdun1911, for his research into this controversy. He should get all the credit for this blog post.

UPDATE: I just want to clarify a point mentioned by commenters below. If the solider fired his 12 magazines evenly over a 30 minute period he should have had no overheating problems (assuming the Army GPM info is correct). What we do not know is the period of continuous fire. As Bram, who has seen combat, said "Time moves very differently while under fire. It’s impossible to judge how fast those soldiers were actually firing.".

RobArm has started shipping XCR pistols to dealers. I have discussed the pistol previously on the blog. It is essentially a semi-auto XCR PDW without the butt stock. This allows civilians to own it without having to pay BATFE tax.

A very mean looking pistol. Note the nifty sling attachment that replaces the butt stock.

Many thanks to Armando for the info and photos.

Each year, around this time, Remington holds their new product seminar. Fellow blogger Murdoc confirmed that this year is no exception and that it will be held later this week.

Don't quote this as fact, but I think there is a good chance we will finally see the launch of the civilian Remington / Bushmaster / Magpul ACR at this seminar.

Why do I think this?

Firstly, Remington unveils their exciting new products at this event. In October 2007 we saw the launch of the Remington R-15. October last year was when the .30 Remington AR cartridge was launched.

Secondly, a few months ago Magpul said we would see the rifle unveiled late this year.

And my final reason for thinking it will be unveiled this week is that a semi-automatic version of the ACR is already in the hands of a civilian. At the recent AAC Silencer Shoot, AAC (now owned by Remington) auctioned off an ACR. The proceeds went to the Wounded Warrior Project.

In a few days we shall see if I was right ... or not.

Many thanks to Jay for emailing me the video link.

The Sig P238 has been given the "Rainbow Titanium" treatment. This model will retail for $751, about $200 more than the standard "Nitron" model.

I am sure many of you have fond memories of GeoCities, the website hosting site. While most of the websites on it were eyesores, with far to many animations and blinking text, there is still hordes of gun information hosted there.

Yahoo has announced that in exactly two weeks GeoCities will go offline.

Please search through your bookmarks and post any high-quality GeoCities-hosted gun websites in the comments below. I will try to mirror as many of them as I can and host them on my server.

A leaked US Army report about the Battle of Wanat criticizes the reliability of the M4. On July 13, 2008 200 Taliban fighters attacked 48 US and 24 Afghan troops. Outnumbered 2.7 to 1 the M4 Carbines, which the troops were carrying, could not function reliably under the sustained fire they were required to put downrange. Fox News reports:

The platoon-sized unit of U.S. soldiers and about two dozen Afghan troops was shooting back with such intensity the barrels on their weapons turned white hot. The high rate of fire appears to have put a number of weapons out of commission, even though the guns are tested and built to operate in extreme conditions.

...

"My weapon was overheating,” McKaig said, according to Cubbison’s report. "I had shot about 12 magazines by this point already and it had only been about a half hour or so into the fight. I couldn’t charge my weapon and put another round in because it was too hot, so I got mad and threw my weapon down."

Snowflakes In Hell, via Michael Bane's blog, correctly points out that assault rifles are not machine guns:

No assault rifle is going to stand up to sustained automatic fire. They aren’t machine guns, and even a machine gun needs to have its barrel changed out if it’s been firing a lot.

The M4 has a very short 14.5" barrel and a relatively lightweight barrel profile. This allows the barrel to heat up much faster than a longer and heavier rifle or machine gun barrel. When the barrel of a closed-bolt gun gets very hot, cook-offs,when a round is ignited from the heat in the chamber, become a significant problem ... not to mention the fact that a soldier cannot fire a gun that is to hot to hold!

The Marines have been criticized by many for their plans to introduce an Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) into the mix of weapons issued to their troops. The IAR is not intended to replace the SAW but would be deployed alongside it, giving some riflemen a light weight weapon that can sustain automatic fire.

FN IAR. Switches from closed-bolt to open-bolt when automatically when barrel temperature increases.

The Army would do well to look into the concept.

At the end of last year the Marines announced they were awarding contracts for the development of IAR prototypes to Colt, H&K and FN. Since then I have heard nothing about the IAR.

There are discussions about the M4 failure at Wanat over at Snowflakes In Hell, via Michael Bane's blog and SaysUncle.

Many thanks to Jerry, Caedis, Lee and Lance for emailing me links about this story.

Stupidity and poor intel knows no limits. The Sydney Morning Herald reports ...

Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy's 18,000-tonne flagship in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the French military says.

The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two lightweight skiffs and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.

"The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," Admiral Christophe Prazuck said in Paris.

A friendly word of advice from The Firearm Blog.

Sig Sauer is now producing an "R" model of their .45 ACP chambered SIG P220 Compact pistol. The P220R Compact does away with the beaver tail, reducing the frame length by 0.5", and adds an accessory rail.

SIG P220R Compact (Two Tone model).

SIG lists two models, a blued model and two-tone model, although no price is given for the two-tone which I suspect means it is not yet able to be purchased.