The Firearm Blog

Birmingham is the first British city to install the Shotspotter Gunshot Location System, which is in use in 50 US cities. BBC News reports ...

The £150,000 system records an audio clip and sends police a GPS location.

...

The system, funded by the Home Office through Birmingham Safer Partnerships, has an 85% accuracy rate, Ch Supt Chris McKeogh said.

It can tell if multiple shots were fired, or if they were fired from a stationary or moving location, the number of weapons used and in which order they were fired, according to the manufacturers.

The system has been introduced in more than 50 US cities since 1995.

A recent article at MassLive.com about the Springfield, Massachusetts deployment had this to say ...

Since its installation in July 2008, ShotSpotter has detected 4,158 gunshots, and contributed to 25 arrests and the seizure of 23 illegal firearms. In three instances it has alerted police to what would turn out to be homicides before the Police Department received a single 911 call.

All of this occurred in the roughly three of the city’s 32 square miles, the area covered by the ShotSpotter system.

“We’re getting spoiled by those three square miles,” said Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet. “Cops are getting used to it. It is something officers rely on.”

ShotSpotter, installed at a cost of $450,000, is designed to locate the scene of gunfire through a process called “acoustic triangulation.”

Based on these statistics, would the money have been better spent on paying for more sworn officers? Maybe some current or former LEOs can tell us what they think of the system in the comments.

[ Many thanks to Rolf for emailing me the link. ]

Slide Fire Solutions has developed a stock for the AR-15 that facilitates bumpfire shooting. It is reminicint of the ill fated Akins Accelerator that was initially approved by the BATFE but later deemed a full-auto device and banned.

I am not sure quite how this works, but the BATFE approval letter and the Slide Fire website indicate that there are no mechanical parts. It seems to be using the buffer spring to provide the forward "bumping" force UPDATE: It requires the operator to provide muscular forward force . This is unlike the Akins Accelerator which had its own spring system. The lack of any mechanical parts may be why the BATFE approved it.

SSAR-15 Stock

Side Fire have it listed for sale at $319 on their website.

BATFE says its legal ...

[ Many thanks to jdun1911 for emailing me the link. ]

This really made me laugh ...

[ Many thanks to Sven (Defense and Freedom) for emailing me the the info. ]

"Sir Jeff" at Survival HQ writes ...

Close to 4 years ago I placed this cache. The gun was lightly oiled and placed with a desiccant pack in a mylar pouch. The magazines were also given the same treatment in their own mylar. Ammo was packed in ziplocks with desiccant also. Then a few extra desiccants thrown on top, the seal of the ammo can greased, and it was shut. The can was wrapped in a heavy garbage bag.

There were no failures whatsoever. No rust spots or discoloration. Even all the brass looked new.

Mylar seems a good idea.

[ Many thanks to Todd for emailing me the link. ]

Rob at the Personal Armament Podcast has written two blog posts listing gift suggestions for shooters. The first is Gift Guide for Shooters (22 gifts under $50) and Gift Guide for Yuppie Shooters.

Battle Bears: Because everything looks better in camo.

Many readers kindly sent in photos from the on-going police/military operations in the Rio slums. These two photos in particular caught my eye.

This police officer is uses a 90 degree mounted EOTech. I have seen small red dot sights mounted on the side of competition rifles, but never before a large EOTech mounted like this in the field.

Thanks to William for the link.

This photo shows a tacti-cool (note forgrip) Madsen machine gun. Despite officially being retired in 2008, it looks like at least one is still in service with the Brazilian police.

Many thanks to Mark for the image.

[ Many thanks to all the readers who emailed me info about the Rio situation. ]

[ Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat wrote the following for the silencertalk.com forum. rsilvers, who runs Silencer Talk, gave me permission to repost it here. ]

Got our first Wilson Combat 300 AAC BLACKOUTs together last Friday.

Spent most of Sat and Sun on the range doing load development and accuracy testing. Shot over 700rds thru 4 uppers. Settled on the Barnes 130gr TTSX over 18gr H110, 2.160" OAL as my hunting load which gives me 2050fps MV out of my 11.3" SBR. So far I've taken 1 hog and 4 deer all with excellent down range terminal performance.

Bobcat at 40yds, amazing based on the exit wound we had good bullet expansion.

172# sow taken at 85yds, both with 130gr TTSX at 2050fps MV, one shot DRT with massive spine/lung damage on hog.

It's like shooting a pop gun, minimal report and no recoil...................

We shot several bullets into the hog in the am and recovered some bullets to see what kind of expansion we're getting.

Bullets recovered after passing thru the shoulder area (12" thick) of a 172# hog shot from 75yds. We did not recover the TTSX bullet that killed her last night, it penetrated 19" and exited.

Barnes 130gr TTSX penetrated the hog and approx 8" of water behind it, expansion is .502" at the widest point, 100% weight retention. We shot 3 more from 125yds and penetration was a little more, 1 went thru both the of the first two 5" thick water jugs and into the third, but expansion dropped down slightly to .479", .488" and .490". Load was 18gr H110, 2.160" OAL, MV was 2050fps.

Nosler 125gr Ballistic Hunter penetrated the hog and approx 2" of water, core and jacket were seperated and both combined weighed 108gr, was suprised at the amount of penetration with this fragile bullet. Load was 18gr H110, 2.160" OAL, MV was 2075fps.

Based on what I've seen so far I think the 300 AAC will be adequate for deer and hogs with the 130gr TTSX out to 150yds, which is about as far as I normally shoot anyway. The Nosler Ballistic Hunter should work fine for smaller hogs and deer, but I wouldn't want to stick one in a 200+# tough old boar. The Ballistic Hunter would be one heck of a home defense round................

Bob has the opportunity to try the Ultimate Training Munitions (UTM) training ammunition that the Army uses for training with the M16, M4 and M249.

"bowhunter4e" has created a video tutorial on DIY. camo dipping (Hydrographing). I am inspired to give it a try. About half the items in my office, from my sunglasses to my stapler, would look better in camo

The DIY kit used in the video is the My Dip Kit which costs $99.

Part 1 and 2 are embedded below.

[ Many thanks to jdun1911 for emailing me the link. ]

Weapons Blog has a list of guns competitions running this month.