The Firearm Blog

Caleb of Gun Nuts Media has produced a video demonstrating a moving/shooting drill.

Good job Caleb!

Future Weapons recently demonstrated a fascinating prototype less-lethal shotgun from Beretta. What is interesting is that the kinetic energy expended on the target from the rubber bullet is constant regardless of the range. This fixes a common problem with less-lethal ammunition: they are often powerful enough to kill at close range and to weak at long range to stop the target.

View though the LTLX7000 scope.

The range is configured using the holographic scope. The distance is set by moving two red dots in the scope until the bottom dot is at the feet of the target and the top dot it at the top of the head of the target. Because the approximate height of people in the region will be programmed into the scope, it can easily calculate the distance to the target. This method of calculating distance is similar to how hunters and snipers calculate range using mil-dot scopes.

The round is then fired by pulling a trigger. In the video we see a round hitting a target placed at 50 and 230 feet away at the same speed ( 309 fps).

The video:

The only way I think this could work is by venting gas from the barrel. The amount of gas vented would depend on the range selected. The more gas vented, the lower the gas pressure behind the projectile, and so the speed is reduced. The slower the projectile, the lower the kinetic energy expended on the target.

When watching the video you can see a puff of smoke coming out of the action after each shot is fired. This is not a semi-automatic firearm so it cannot be coming from the action cycling automatically. It must be coming from a vent.

I did some patent searching and I managed to find a patent entitled “Variable velocity weapon system having selective lethality and methods” that describes almost this exact system:

The present invention relates to weapon systems that accelerate projectiles using gases generated by the rapid combustion of a solid propellant, in particular, such a weapon system is able to vary the barrel exiting velocity of the projectile through a barrel venting means. In one embodiment, a front venting means exhausts gas generated by combusting propellant from behind the accelerating projectile and redirects a portion of the exhausted gas either to at least one fixed volume, to the front of the projectile, or to a combination of at least one fixed volume and to the front of the projectile. Redirecting some of the exhausted gas to the front of the projectile restrains the projectile, thereby slowing the projectile, and thus further decreasing the muzzle velocity of the projectile. In another embodiment, gas from behind the projectile is exhausted into a fixed volume, thereby decreasing projectile acceleration, and thus, the muzzle velocity of the projectile. One can use a…

Venting system proposed by patent.

The patent suggests venting gas in front of the projectile in the barrel to increase the air pressure and slow it down.

I saw this over at Snowflakes in Hell. An armor piercing incendiary .50 BMG round is fired from an Armalite AR-50 rifle at 18 hard drives.

The round passes through 16 and it embedded in the 17th.

The infamous fake news / satire website The Onion have made a video entitled “Manufacturer Recalls Hollow Point Bullets That Fail To Explode Inside Targets”.

It is pretty funny, even though it is making fun of us and that they do not know the difference between handgun and rifle ammo.

Thanks to David for the link.

This is awesome:

Derek writes:

I have designed and patents pending on this.. Its a beltfed 12 gauge upper receiver for a ar-15 or m16 lower receiver. It uses your lower receiver, so if you have a ar15 its a semi auto shotgun, however if you have a registered m16 lower or a drop in auto sear it becomes a full auto 12 gauge machine gun. This is a prototype model and all the bugs arent worked out quite yet. Most of the problems that I have encountered revolve around the shotgun sheels not being consistent enough to eject sometimes.

I will be doing a brief interview with the Derek soon.

Hat Tip: Say Uncle

Miguel Caballero, a Colombian, is a designer of ballistic vests for military and police and “bullet proof” fashionable clothing. Apparently he requires all new employees to be shot while wearing one of his ballistic vests! Here is a video showing blogger Erik R. Trinidad of The Global trip being shot point blank by a .38 Special revolver.

Even through I posted that impressive video of a guy being shot point blank with a .44 Magnum and .308 Win., I am still amazed at what little effect on the target the bullet has when it impacts a ballistic vest. Sure, I do understand the physics, but still!

More videos of people being shot by Miguel are here.

Someone from Bulletproofjackets.net posted the info about Miguel Caballero. Thanks.

20 year old Briana was shot at by her former boyfriend. The bullet, reported as “.40 caliber” presumably .40 S&W, passed through her windscreen and hit her at the back of the skull. Her hair weave prevented the bullet penetrating her skull. Her only injuries were minor and she never lost consciousness.

What can we learn from this?

* Well for a start having your guardian angel around is a great way to survive a shooting!

* Pistol bullet are low powered especially after penetration of other materials (the window).

* Skulls are hard, hunters with high powered rifles can testify to that.

* Again, pistols are low powered! Tell that to most people and they don’t believe you. Hollywood says otherwise.

Thanks to Jay for the link!

So it is pointless … but y’all know you want to try it

Thanks to Jason for twittering me the video.

Pretty quickly it turns out. James Yeager TASERed three of his students to find out. They had to complete a simple course of fire as fast as possible after being zapped. The first two guys did very well. The last guy was definitely a little shaken.

Video here.

This is a pretty amazing video. Four men, one armed with an AR-15, attempt a daylight robbery in Tucson. In no time they are quickly running for their lives as the homeowner defends his home with a gun firing two or three shots into the drivers side of the getaway car’s windscreen.

LiveLeak reports:

The robbery happened in broad dayligh More..t at a home on West Vande Loo Street. All the action was caught by the homeowners outdoor surveillance system.

The victim was able to get back inside his house, close his door, semi barricade it, reach for a weapon that was easily accessible.

The homeowner shot at the suspects.
He even put a bullet through the windshield of the suspects car, which is also caught on camera.

No doubt that guy had at least some training. There is a discussion about this at ar15.com

Reader of the blog, Jay, reckons this may be related to the crime that has crossed the border. Phoenix, two hours drive further away from the Mexican border, is now the #2 city in world for kidnappings!

Big thanks to Jay for the links.

Always wear safety glasses! A few videos from YouTube illustrate why.

[ Definition: Firing out of battery: when a round is fired before it is fully chambered. Instead of the expanding gas being forced out the barrel it wrecks havoc inside the gun) ]

AR-15 blows up, not sure that happened. Out of battery?

12 Gauge single shot shotgun blows up. A home made shell apparently caused the problem.

He seems to have a problem fully closing or cocking the shotgun. Maybe the shell was to long and it protruded slightly out of the chamber, causing the explosion. Anyone got a better explanation?

The slide is blasted off a blank firing pistol.

A homemade pistol blows up. The barrel shoots off and the shooter gets the steel primer cap embedded in his arm.

AK-47 blowing up. Out of battery. This is an old one I have posted before on the blog.

Safety glasses are your friends. These are WileyX tactical glasses.

UPDATE: A bonus video. The bolt action barrel is plugged causing the barrel to split. [ Thanks to UraniumHead for the link ]

TaylorWSO @ ar15.com dropped a loaded Magpul polymer PMAGS onto concrete in -30 degrees, feed lip first:

So to the drop test. I wanted to see what they could do in the cold. I dropped it from the same table (3′ high) I have dropped metal mags from on the range. If you drop a metal mag on concrete from the same height it will damage the feed lips as to be unuseable-but you can bend them back. I was planning on dropping them on all sides but it broke before I could try it. From the table, fully loaded, no cover, both feed lips shattered when they hit the concrete. I expected it to break/crack but these things shot off and rounds went everywhere. I stopped the test right there as didn’t want to try it with any others on the other sides. You can see in the AK HTF that if empty they do fine in the cold.

So what does this mean.

IF you drop ANY mag loaded on the feed lips it will be useless. The Pmags might survive during the summer but all metal mags will bent hot/or cold. The metal mags can be bent back.

The plastic shatters when cold (duh) it doesn’t just crack.

I finally got a answer as to what these can do.

This test was dropping on concrete in cold weather. I had to clean off a spot to get down to the concrete. If the mags are dropped in the snow vs just concrete they do just fine. So the possibility of hitting on the feed lips in cold weather on a hard surface-very unlikely

The covers are great to keep out the snow – huge plus.

Overall they do just fine. I was surprised at the complete breaking vs. cracking buts that’s what cold can do.

The result: cracked/split feed lips:

uafgrad tried a simular experiment in even colder weather:

Ok Back to tougher in Alaska
…
Here is where it set for a period of about 18 hours. This was the “hi” temp for the period
…
The mag was fully loaded and dropped from a height of 36″ directly onto the feedlips (as previously requested) striking bare concrete.

Once it hit the ground, all but 6 of the rounds exited the magazine on to the ground.

Some plastics becomes become brittle in cold conditions, so this is not surprising. The good news is that Magpul are not sitting on their laurels. Their latest version of the PMAG can survive a drop from 5 feet onto concrete feed lip first, fully loaded in -30 F. See this video shot with a high speed camera:

A big thanks to Jay for the link.

SAI (Special Interest Arms), who have been previously mentioned on the blog, have developed a replica Gardner Gun.

Click to expand

From Wikipedia:

The Gardner gun was an early type of machine gun. It had one or two barrels, was fed from a vertical magazine or hopper and was operated by a crank. When the crank was turned, a feed arm positioned a cartridge in the breech, the bolt closed and the weapon fired. Turning the crank further opened the breechblock and extracted the spent round.

From “The Machine Gun” By Chinn Naval Bureau of Ordnance Publication

The original Gardener gun could have as many barrels as the customer desired although the two barrel variety is most common. Never used by the US during wartime the Gardener was popular with both the British Army and the Royal Navy.

The SIA “Model of 1885″ .45-70 Gardner Gun is the two barrel, water cooled, variety and is capable of firing 500 rounds/minute. SIA expects to be able to take orders between Feb and March this year. The gun carries an estimated price of $29,950.00.

A while back I wrote about what I would want to carry at sea. I have changed my mind. I want a Gardener gun. If it worked for the Royal Navy I am sure it would work for me

taofledermaus has published a video tutorial on how to fit a Ruger 10/22 receiver, trigger and barrel into a $30 airsoft P90 stock and how to hook up the airsoft trigger to the 10/22 trigger at the rear of the stock. A very clever idea.