The Firearm Blog

You might remember that in 2008 George W. Bush was presented with a beautiful engraved CZ 550 rifle chambered in .308 Win by the Czech prime minister. Last year the Jordanian King Abullah II was presented with a nifty SA 58 automatic rifle with a special finish and high-quality walnut furniture.

Other heads of state presented with a Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod (CZ) firearm recently include the president of the United Arab Emirates who was also given a CZ 550 and the President of Kazakhstan who only got a CZ 75 pistol (I guess he now knows where he stands!).

Keen-eyed reader Lance spotted these photos on Wikipedia ...

Vietnam People's Army Marines

Vietnamse ready to perform their 1000th anniversary march (that would be the 1000th anniversary of Vietnam, not the Army)

They could be captured Colt Commando carbines, but given the condition that appear to be in, I think it is more likely that they have been purchasing Norinco CQ 5.56mm carbines.

[ Many thanks to Lance for emailing me the pics. ]

UPDATE: They may have been manufactured by this factory.

Narco-gansters gave 77-year-old Mexican rancher Alejo Garza Tamez an ultimatum, move out in 24 hours or die. Instead of capitulating he heroically made a last stand. NY Post reports ...

He shot so fast and furiously that the confused cartel assumed there were several people inside. Dropping their assault rifles, the thugs lobbed hand grenades into the ranch house until the shooting stopped.

When the Mexican army finally showed up after the gunfight, they found four dead and two injured gang members piled in a heap outside the shelled, bullet-pocked farmhouse.

Inside, amid a pile of rubble, was the lifeless, bullet-riddled Garza, two weapons at his side.

The unassuming timber businessman was given a hero's burial last week in his native Monterrey, Mexico.

The man is a hero and an inspiration. I hope his story is made into a movie.

[ Many thanks to the reader who emailed this in ]

They do exist!

For decades gun aficionado's have been wondering what the story was behind the strange short-barrel FAL used by actor Ian Yule (formally a member of the SAS and later a mercenary before becoming an actor) in the 1975 movie The Wild Geese. Earlier this year I blogged about the mystery.

Ian Yule pictured with the short barreled rifle.

I was surprised, delighted and honored to get an email from Elize, a friend and former manager of Mr Yule, who promised to pass on my questions about the guy. Yesterday Elize replied with a message from Ian himself! It turns out it was an experimental British SLR and not, as many thought, an experimental South African R1. Moments like this is why I blog!

Elize's and Ian's emails are below ...

Hi Steve

In response to the questions regarding the weapon IAN YULE used in The Wild Geese, herewith a letter from Ian. It was written by hand and I’m typing it word for word - hope I manage with the handwriting! Ian is currently 76 years old. Any further questions, please feel free to mail me at elizelabu [at] gmail [dot] com

Best regards

Elize (friend and former manager of Ian)
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

FROM IAN:

Dear Steve

I apologise to you and your readers for the delay on my part for responding to the many questions on the subject of the weapon I used on The Wild Geese. As you know, I only received your query about a week ago, so I hope I’ll be excused from an appointment with the firing squad!

The overall question is was that weapon experimental and the answer is yes.

Second question, where did it come from? Answer: The U.K. England.

Third question, what was it? Answer: It was an updated S.L.R. complete with an attached single point dot reflex sight and 4 X 40 round magazines, as well as a special rifle sling, flash eliminator and bayonet attachment.

The rounds were standard NATO 7.62 Long (with crimped ends – for blank firing). The barrel was engineered to fire blanks, not live ammunition. It was not a detachable choke as used by the South African Military for blank firing. The cocking hammer was slightly smaller than the standard S.L.R. was, but more refined and robust.

I had no input into the allocation of the weapon being issued to me, only that I was asked to assess the weapon’s performance from a certain source. I did of course point out that I was only firing blank ammunition and my assessment could only be based on those findings because the load in the blank ammo would not be the same as the varring loads used with live ammo which could vary in special operations.

My assessment of the weapon was as follows:

Because of the short barrel, the special sight was unnecessary because you would not engage a target in a so-called snipers capacity. On sustained automatic fire the barrel and stock became very hot. However, the rate of fire was abnormally high. The only weapon I’ve used with an equal rate of fire was a German Spandau Machine Gun - the version with the reduced rate of fire. But I was using live ammo on the German weapon.

Did I like the weapon and would I use it on an operation?

Not on the knowledge I gained firing blanks on a film. But after firing live ammo with varring types of ammo and cartridge load – maybe? The load in the cartridge may affect the barrel temperature but the altered load may compromise your intended purpose and operation. The weight of the ammunition could be a problem for a single operator. It has to be carried and would of course affect his speed and mobility in carrying out his operation. Without a full capacity assessment, I would choose the HANOK, which is tried and tested (HECKLA KOCK – HECKLER & KOCH?) sub-machine gun.

A film of the nature of the nature of The Wild Geese, given the subject matter and the political and international climate at the time, would have made it for a South African experimental weapon to appear on such a film extremely unlikely. Apart from that there was an arms embargo in place at the time.

I would like to thank all your interested readers for their enthusiasm shown towards the film (which I fully agree with) and private comments about me as an individual. I trust this will put to bed any further confusion regarding the experimental S.L.R.

Steve, should you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Regards

“Tosh”

Ian Yule

[ Many thanks to both Elize and Ian for helping solve this mystery! ]

CMMG has developed a .22 LR conversion kit for the PN P90 and PS90. It takes just 30 seconds to swap in this kit (no barrel swap is needed).

The current design uses Ruger 10/22 magazines (somewhat defeating the point of the P90) but a high-cap model is planned.

No release date has been announced.

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

This would make a nice stocking stuffer, although at $35 is it pricy.

As recently seen in Shooting Illustrated UPDATE: My mistake, they showed another product form the same company.

A patent application has recently been published for a novel cartridge case design. The inventor proposes a three part case with a metal base, spiraled polymer center and brass or plastic head.

The inventor claims that the spiraled case will reduce friction when extracting. I guess, in theory, the case would revert to its previous shape after being flattened by pressure during firing. The flutes would help reduce friction during extraction and reduce heat being transferred from the chamber wall to the plastic.

What this design does not address is one of the major advantages of brass cases. Heat from the gun and from the burning propellent is transferred into brass cases which are then ejected. Plastic cases cannot transfer this heat. To counteract this, some sort of heat sink would need to be added to the weapon. The reason plastic cases are only commonly used for shotgun shells is that because military firearms firing full-auto generate a lot of heat, the heat eventually builds up to a level that causes the cases to melt. Plastic then sticks to the chamber and causes reliability problems.

UPDATE: A photo of this case from a presentation given at National Small Arms Conference '09 by Colt Defense and BML Tool & Mfg. Corp.

Thanks to Mark for the link.

An article, author unknown, has been circulating on Danish internet forums. It claims that the AK-47 design should be attributed to Danes, rather than Russians.

Rødgrød aka. strawberry porridge with cream

Personally I do not buy this theory. Guns have evolved over hundreds of years since the cannon was invented. Each new development has been an improvement of one that proceeded it. There are few, if any, 100% original designs. If we attributed a design to the inventors of each concept that preceeded it, the AK-47 would probably have been invented by the Americans, British, Germans, French, Chinese and [insert any country here].

Still, you may be interested in reading the theory and making up your own mind.

Many thanks to Mark for translating the article into English for the blog. Continue Reading »

Sig Sauer, the masters of product differentiation with so many models it is hard to keep count, have introduced a new magazine for the P238. The extended length magazine holds one extra round (seven vs. six rounds) and has a pinky finger rest. Strangely, they are not selling them individually but only with certain model P238s.

UPDATE: Photo added:

[ Many thanks to John @ Sig Sauer Blog for emailing me the info. ]