#Misc

A TFB reader recently sent me these photos of the “44 Bore” cartridge from Pakistan. Despite much of the Federally Administered Tribal Area’s (FATA) lawlessness, there is a significant legal firearms community in Pakistan. Pakistani law stipulates that military calibers such as 9x19mm, 5.56x45mm, or 7.62x51mm are illegal to own. Thus the Pakistani legal firearms community more or less “creates” alternative cartridges for recreation and sporting usage.

Salient Arms International has been posting trick shot videos on their Facebook page for some time now. The videos mostly seem to be of one individual associated with the company, who is awfully good at engaging moving targets, very small ones at that! I personally think the most impressive one is where he shots a drop of water out of the air, as it drips down from a ledge, at around 10 meters.

A gunsmith received this bolt action .243 Win rifle that suffered a catastrophic malfunction due to a barrel obstruction. The apparent offending agent? A cleaning patch left in the firearm. I don’t know where the patch was left, in the barrel or the actual chamber. But either way, a simple patch appears to have done some absolutely devastating work to the action of this rifle. Or on the other hand, the owner was too embarrassed to say what was really the cause of the obstruction, and simply stated it as a cleaning patch. Whether true or not, that rifle would serve as an excellent fence post from now on.

To begin with, I want to break the concealed carry world into three categories. Because we have very little relevant and legitimate statistics on Americans who conceal carry, I’m going to go off of my personal experience and interactions, which I hope should mirror the experiences of many other gun owners.

I challenge you to watch the above video, and tell me the majority of the tactics, gear, people, and location couldn’t have been easily mistaken for a large training center in the United States, such as Gunsite, Blackwater. The Erbil Training Center (ETC) claims to be the largest training facility within Iraq, and autonomous Kurdistan (northern Iraq). ETC boosts numerous short and long distance ranges, a CQB maneuver house, rappel tower, in addition to a wide variety of other establishments and shooting facilities. The Center appears to be much more specialized within the PSD and special operations capacity training than strict infantry material, or what the majority of the Peshmerga is engaged in when it comes to fighting Daesh. Indeed, with previous videos of Kurdish “SF” groups, I can recognize some of the background at this facility.

Hot on the heels of requesting an RFI for 36,000 thermal optics for GPMGs, Indian Army Infantry Procurement officials are putting out another RFI solicitation, this time for 5,000 rifles in .338 Lapua, no mention of scopes or thermal optics. In fact, the solicitation is worded very vaguely with “as light as possible for easy transport and use in varied terrain” and, “convenient to carry and operate by an average-built Indian soldier”. Defined metrics should improve to actual specifications in the competition process. I suspect these rifles are for border security against Pakistan, similar to the thermal optic RFI. Operations in Kashmir don’t seem to afford the ranges that a .338 Lapua capability would be useful at.

The Indian Army has issued an RFI for 36,000 thermal optics to mount on the services Indian Ordnance Factory licensed production of 7.62x51mm NATO MAG 2A1 General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG). Pictured is a MAG-58 6-1, lacking the picatinny rail top cover that the 2A1 would have.

E-Blanks is an interesting concept that has been around for at least the past two years. The Norwegian company makes a recoil actuating bolt that replaces a standard AR15 Bolt Carrier Group, coupled with a battery powered straight walled magazine, and a muzzle device essentially turns an AR15 into a cosmetic blank firing device. The reasoning behind this is because there are some situations where firing actual blank ammunition could not be allowed or would ease logistics. Such as if a police department wanted to train in a mall, or maybe a school, whatever the case maybe. It also reduces the logistical footprint of having to supply and carry around pallets of blank ammunition, not to mention not cleaning the weapons afterwards. According to Jane’s, the Dutch Government has acquired some of the product for testing.

Telescoping stocks designed to fit underneath a user’s helmet visor are very popular among a number of European Law Enforcement forces, and have been for some time now. Especially prevalent are Swiss response teams in Zürich, which have been in the news lately due to the violence at a mosque earlier last week. Police forces are installing these Visor profile stocks on MP5s, Sig 551s, and interestingly MP7s as well.

Most small arms development is seen as being forward thinking, with new designs leaving the older ones in the dust. But for some, the complete opposite is the case (such as the FNC and SCAR). In this example modern day riot police in Switzerland are using chopped K31 straight pull rifles converted to fire tear gas grenades or rubber bullets against uncooperative protesters. The designation is Trnengas Werfer 73 ( Tear Gas Thrower), or TW-73 for short among the police that utilize it. It is also designated as the Mehrzweckwerfer (General Purpose Thrower) MZW 73/91.

The Australian Army announced that procurement will begin for a picatinny mounted laser range finder that will supplement also recently purchased ATPIAL AN/PEQ 16s at the squad level.   The Squad Range Finder (SFR) from L-3 Warrior Systems has visible and IR laser capabilities, IR illuminator, in addition to the laser range finder. Although it lacks a white light capability, it brings to table a compact range finder accurate out to 3,000 meters. Usually laser range finders are limited to sniper teams, SF groups, and forward observers but with the SRF, an individual rifleman will be able to find the range of anything in front of him. This is not only extremely useful for engaging a point target, but also for calling in fire missions, coordinating with adjacent units, planning attacks/patrols/defenses, etc… To my knowledge this is the first time any modern professional military has pushed a laser range finder capability down to the lowest level, the private on patrol.

The following photographs are from a conversion of a .40 S&W Glock 22 Gen 3, to a 9x19mm. Although most parts are OEM, bare in mind this is in no way representative of what a stock Glock is, and is an indication to be mindful when converting a .40 S&W Glock to fire 9x19mm rounds.

Miles takes a look at some of the concerns and decisions that are important when carrying concealed on a long distance hike. What kind of holsters should be used, handgun placement, concerns of weight, actual threats on the trail, among a number of other factors all go into carrying responsibly and successfully on a long distance hike.

Due to increasing poaching efforts over the years, an number of national and private parks in Africa have become increasingly vigilant in their efforts to combat poachers. As poacher tactics have become more sophisticated, so have many of the park Rangers guarding the animals that live in these parks. Unfortunately this has lead to some deaths on the Good Guy side of things.

The phrase, “In my opinion, the M1 Rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised” is possibly one of the more enduring and iconic of all quotes to emerge out of the Second World War in relation to American small arms. The quote itself stems from a letter from General Patton to a certain General Campbell of the War Department. Campbell was Chief of Ordnance in 1945, the department that then directed the production and design of everything from hand grenades to the 500 pound bombs being dropped by B17s on Fortress Europe. However what must be noted is that Patton goes on to say in the letter that just about everything else the U.S. Army was using was without equal in the world. By the way, there is another letter attributed to Patton, but this one directly addressed to Springfield Armory, in which he says, “I consider the M1 the greatest weapon ever made”. Obviously the more poetic of the two found its way into the history books.