The Firearm Blog

John Snow has the latest:

This gorgeous beast won’t be ready for some months yet according to Skip Patel, Bushmaster’s executive vice president for research and development. Among other thing, Skip told me, was the need to trim some weight from the rifle, which tips the scales at about 15 pound right now.

Not surprising since Bushmaster acquired Cobb Mfg. last year but still cool.

Cobb MCR 400 .338 Lapua. Photo from SecArms.

John also says that a .416 Rigby may be on the way!

More @ The Gun Shots

Later this year Remington will be selling the Model R-25, an AR-10 type rifle chambered in .243, 7mm-08 and .308.

Click to expand all images.

With the hunter in mind, the new R-25 modular repeating rifle boasts the most advanced design aspects of AR 308 Win. style rifles available today. For peak accuracy, the R-25 features a precision-crafted 20 inch barrel with recessed hunting crown that’s free-floated within a machined-aluminum fore-end tube for the ultimate in shot-to-shot consistency. Six longitudinal flutes forward of the gas block provide increased rigidity and weight reduction while promoting rapid barrel cooling.

Koelbl Single-Rail Gas Block

Specs:

- Free-floated button-rifled 0.680″ Muzzle OD ChroMoly barrels with recessed hunting crown

- Fluted barrel design (fluted ahead of gas block)

- Koelbl Single-Rail Gas Block

- Single-stage hunting trigger set to 4.5-5lbs

- Receiver-length Picatinny rail

- Ergonomic pistol grip

- Front and rear sling swivel studs

- Full Mossy Oak® Treestand™ coverage

- Includes 4-round magazine

- Compatible with aftermarket AR 308 Win. type magazines (AR-10 I assume)

- Comes with a lockable hard case

All three models have a 20″ barrel, 10″ rate of twist and weight 8.75 lbs and carry a MSRP of $1532.

According to John Snow @ Gun Shots Remington have already sold out this years quota!

More at Remington.com and Gun Shots

Tam has written about the history of the French MAS-49/56. It is very interesting, well worth a read.

A handy, compact weapon, the MAS-49 was roughly the same size as the contemporaneous Soviet SKS. Also like the SKS, its prewar heritage was evident in its elaborately machined steel receiver, designed before metal stamping technology had become a tool in the gun maker’s box. Unlike the SKS, it fired a full-power round, with much the same ballistics as the later 7.62×51 NATO, the famed .308 Winchester.

Photo by Oleg Volk.

More here.

AccurateShooter has written about a couple of very interesting benchrest rifles made by Gene Beggs. A picture says a thousand words …

The two discs can be rotated to tune the rifle.

Two of these rifles have been made and are chambered for the custom 220 Beggs and 6mm Beggs, both of which are based on the 220 Russian.
More about it here.

I came across this post at RFC by “_Shorty” showing photos of his Limbsaver Barrel De-resonator. It is a rubber thing that slips onto a rifle barrel that, in theory, dampens the muzzle vibration improving accuracy.

When I looked at the photo I though it must be a joke. I mean look at it … remind you of anything?

Deresonator on CZ 453 Varmint

It’s not a joke, they sell it. Maybe it is just me, but I could never put something like that on the end of my rifle.

Wide variety of firearms!

Apparently these are Ogadeni minority tribespeople who are being killed by the majority tribes in Somalia. They arm themselves to keep from being slaughtered.

Found at GunsNet

Before you have a heart attack I should point out that this is an airsoft gun!

More photos here.

Because magazines also like to keep warm…

CAR-15 featuring the MagSock®

Looks great when used in conjunction with your iPod sock:

Hat Tip: MP.net

Click to enlarge

This Enfield would fire when enough water dripped (along the wire, I think) from the top can into the bottom can. It was used by the ANZAC forces at Gallipoli (WWI) to make the Turkish forces think they were still in the trenches while they were retreating.

Very clever. I want to make one! (With blanks, of course).

H/T: MP.net

Gun Blobber, a new gun blogger, has posted videos of an M1A firing in slow motion

Wow. Some guy has been at work with a high-speed camera and a couple of M1A’s. He was looking to settle a dispute as to whether the action starts cycling before or after the bullet has exited the barrel:

Go check out his blog here.

I spotted this rifle over at longrangehunting.com. Is it anti-air artillery or a deer rifle?
Built by a New Zealander … they sure know how to build a cool rifle.

Click to expand the photos

Beautiful scenery

The rifle has a custom suppressor with a muzzle break! Here is a close up:

I assume the “404″ refers to the 404 Jeffries.

my suppressed 7mm/404 which weighs 20 pounds all up, and pushes a 180 grain Berger at 3350 fps.

I didn’t know they used shot line adapters. When I saw the photo I thought he was using a suppressor.

PACIFIC OCEAN (March 24, 2008) Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Aan J. Doscher, assigned to the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), fires an M-14 with a shot line adapter toward the Military Sealift Command combat stores ship USNS San Jose (T-AFS 7) during a refueling-at-sea. Harpers Ferry is assigned to the Essex Expeditionary Strike Group. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua J. Wahl (Released)

Full sized photo here.

Hat Tip: Navy.mil via. MP.net

QBZ-95 rifle

The above photo shows Chinese UN peacekeepers performing during a medal ceremony in Lebanon. It is interesting to see how they hold the bullpup to use the bayonet.

Hat Tip: MP.net

Very interesting article on reading the wind when hunting. Most articles on wind tend to focus on bench rest shooting.

If you are new to long range hunting or an experienced veteran, most will agree that the ability to accurately read the wind is what separates a fair shooter from an exceptional one. Let me say that reading the wind is like most anything else; a lot of people have a lot of ideas about how to do it and how to apply it.

I have had a fair number of successes in long range competition and in long range hunting and I will cover what I do and what works for me. The way I read wind and apply that info to my shooting may not work for everyone but check out the information and use it as you see fit.

Read it here.