#Misc

Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments is a U.S Army test and development program that takes test products from government research agencies and private industry, works with them over a two year period, culminating in a final report that could possibly lead to adoption by various elements within the U.S Army. Products include everything from small arms ammunition to network command & control systems. It has a field component of active duty Infantrymen and for a limited time British Army soldiers that work with the products in field environments for evaluation purposes.

Earlier on TFB we wrote about how in the Ukraine an arms company was modernizing the Mosin Nagant platform with picatinny rails, bipods, etc… as an attempt to make it a somewhat viable modern day designated marksmen’s rifle. From India we also have an attempt in bringing the Lee Enfield into the 21st Century as well. In this case we have a much smaller scale of modernization, and instead of a factory we have a backyard operation in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region of the world. A firearms enthusiast has taken a No.4 Lee Enfield, removed the .303 barrel and replacing it with a 7.62x54Rmm PKM barrel, surrounded with what appears to be a Firefield 12 inch quad rail handguard. The stock consists of various AR buffer tube compatible telescoping polymer stocks, some are even foldable. In fact the only thing that remains from the original Lee Enfield action is the magazine, receiver, and trigger assembly! I’m not very clear on how the designer matched a .303 bolt head with a 7.62x54Rmm case, but there are videos of the rifle firing so apparently it works, semi safely at least. Enfield 10 magazines will fit 7.62x54R but some work does need to be done to the bolt head. This is a video of a fellow in the United States that successfully converted a .303 No.4 to a Mosin Nagant barrel.

Iraq may not have the best manufacturing resources among countries that produce small arms, but that hasn’t kept one Iraqi designer from trying his best to bring locally made firearms for the fight against Daesh, now coming to a climax in the ongoing battle of Mosul.

A seller on Gunbroker has recently posted a very peculiar and unique weapon system, a civilian legal 40mm reproduction of the China Lake pump action grenade launcher. The receiver, stock, and pump are registered under a Title 1 firearm, while the barrel is registered as a destructive device. So too is each individual 40x46mm Low Velocity grenade, but the sale of those is not included. The seller claims that this is one of the few reproductions in existence (even fewer originals exist). At the time of this post, the current bid on the launcher is $9,500 while the minimum bid is $9,525. By the time this post is published, the item will probably have ended on Gunbroker, so the link might be broken. Weaponsman has also written up an in-depth report on the post.

The story of the M1 Garand in Iran highlights a tale of interwoven politics that spans decades and is still being seen today. More than just the story of a service rifle in the Middle East, North Africa, (MENA)/Central Asia region, it crosses political and historical intrigue throughout. Mixed in is the history of American foreign military aid propping up the Shah’s regime, the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the ensuing Iran-Iraq War, and then the dissemination of the rifle into nearby Iraq and Afghanistan, possibly even Syria as some recent examples from various rebel groups there show.

A recent news article has highlighted the efforts of a company in Oklahoma in replicating the Iraqi Tabuk service rifle, a Saddam Hussein era Iraqi Kalashnikov. The Tabuk is readily identifiable from the myriad of other Kalashnikov copies from the Yugoslavian pistol grip, the extended three vent handguard, grenade launching flip up sights, and the reinforced trunnion of an RPK receiver. In fact, if any of these reminds you of the Zastava Arms M70, then you would be correct, as the two rifles are virtually identical in terms of design. The news article further states the companies rifles were used in American Sniper because of their authentic features.

The battle for Mosul in Iraq is going on right now, being fought by Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga, and some Turkish elements against entrenched Daesh right now. However, there is a significant amount of international coalition SF groups that are helping these local forces call in air strikes, direct close air support, and otherwise facilitate assets that various nations are bringing to the table against Daesh.

Photographs of the rebel group Free Syrian Army have been circulating around since September that show a group of soldiers firing what appear to be Soltam K6 120mm mortars (Israeli origin, M120 in the U.S) at enemy positions in the vicinity of Aleppo Province. The odd part about the photos is that some of the troops firing the mortars don’t appear to be FSA troops at all. They certainly aren’t Syrian, as their equipment doesn’t relate to anything the FSA is using, with Berettas in Safariland holsters (depending on unit, but can be standard within U.S forces), and Glocks in what appears to be 1957 Radar holsters (standard issue within the British Army), MSA headgear, Meindl boots, in addition to British MTP Multicam scheme in use with many international forces rather than indigenous FSA soldiers. One of the soldiers is also wearing Turkish camouflage as well. The pictures have appeared on various Turkish and Arabic news websites, all from the a Getty Images source, which also appears to have been taken by a Turkish photographer from the Anadolu agency. Alongside them seem to be normal FSA troops. They could possibly be Turkish forces, but Turkish SF has a different camouflage scheme other than Multicam. Turkey is known to be helping the FSA in a number of covert ways.

One of the interesting finds pointed out to me by an ammunition collector at Knob Creek is this interesting tidbit of history. The .5 Vickers is a semi rimmed round that was invented in the last year of World War One by necking down a .600 Nitro Express round. It was intended for the water cooled Vickers heavy machine gun and was initially needed for anti-aircraft gunners to take down German bombers over London that could sustain multiple hits from the .303 cartridge being fired by Vickers anti-aircraft crews at the time. Although the round is the same caliber as the 50 BMG, the two are not interchangeable.

The St. George Arms Leader A1 .50 BMG rifle is the creation of Charles St. George, based off of his previous design, the Leader 50 rifle. It is a semi-automatic .50 BMG magazine fed bullpup rifle with a 24 inch barrel that uses a short stroke gas piston system. The bolt is made out of Maraging steel, which the company claims is an extremely strong material to be used within small arms design (indeed, simple stock prices of the steel are very costly). Magazine is a 10 round Serbu magazine, pistol grip and selector switch are both AR compatible and thus can be switched out. The top rail is a picatinny rail that extends over the extrusion that is the receiver of the rifle. Non reciprocating charging handle is on the left side of the rifle above the pistol grip. There is a picatinny rail underneath the charging handle that bipods can be mounted on, in addition to a picatinny rail behind the magazine for a monopod. The compensator is massive, held together by what appears to be hex screws. The rifle is in full production form and the company is currently taking in orders. It comes in at an overall length of 39.5 inches and an unloaded weight of 18.5 lb.

No matter how diverse and separated the firearms community is from muzzle loading to action 3 Gun, NFA to concealed carry, I think one thing that every single one of us can agree on is that happiness is a belt fed machine gun. This year at Knob Creek, it was hard to conceal the enthusiasm that filled the range and gun show, with crowds not becoming smaller and smaller every year, but instead just growing and growing. I went to the show on Saturday, and would personally advise anyone planning on attending, if you can only make one day, or even a couple of hours, make it Saturday evening. I’ve noticed that on Friday, the show is really just starting, warming up, similarly with Sunday being the opposite, everyone is starting to break down, and the crowds are moving towards going back to work on Monday. But Saturday is certainly the most packed day of events, especially with the crowning night shoot (there were two this year).

Acadiana Gunworks is a small firearms manufacturer and training company based out of Scott, LA. At Knob Creek the company occupied a booth in the gun show section and displayed their new cut down, semi-automatic SBR and automatic Post Sample variant of an RPD. The Post Sample version is only allowed to be sold to LE agencies or other Class III dealers, but the semi-automatic SBR can be purchased from them after completion and acceptance of NFA paperwork. Essentially the RPD has been converted to semi-automatic, and the barrel and gas system have been cut down, with a new gas system fastened into place because of the shorter length. Thus turning the full length RPD into something the size of an M249 “Para” SAW, weighing less as well. The forward grip is also built up with a piece of metal protecting the hand from the gas tub for when it gets hot. Chambered in 7.62x39mm, both versions take linked ammunition belts placed in drums, mounted underneath it. I wasn’t able to see how the fully automatic version worked on the main line at Knob Creek, as the owner was up there shooting it and I wasn’t able to get ahold of him. Final price for the SBR is $3250, and the Post Sample is $3000.

One of the vendors at Knob Creek had this piece all neatly put together. We reported on these demilled SCARs back in the summer with a POTD, with a crate filled to the brim with them! These particular rifles seem to have been contracted out by the DOD to a civilian company to get torched, and later found their way to market, such with this piece right here. In August of this year there was a SCAR 17S in FDE recall, specifically of 417 rifles shipped from FN Herstal on the dates of July 28-29. I’m curious as to maybe this batch of civilian SCARs coincides with the military issued ones (the problem was with the bolt head hardness that could result in a catastrophic failure), and this was why the military ones were torched.

We reported on the M40A6 back in November last year. Remington won the competition for the M40A6, which is the Marine Corps’s standard issue sniper rifle within the Fleet Marine Force and Reserve Forces Scout Sniper Platoons.The new rifle is essentially the same Remington 700 action but in the upgraded stock. In fact, there probably isn’t much “new” about these rifles other than the stock, as is usually the case Marine Corps Systems Command has the Fleet platoons send their M40A5s back to the Precision Weapons Shop in Quantico. Here, the older McMillion stocks are taken off, and the new modular stocks are put back on. It also looks like the rifles are coming with 10 round Accuracy International magazines instead of the older 10 round magazines. Optics are staying the same with the Schmidt & Bender M8541, and the Surefire Suppressor system.

Ritter & Stark is a newly formed firearms manufacturing company in southern Austria. At the recent AUSA 2016, the company unveiled their flagship product, the SX-1 Modular Tactical Rifle (MTR). The rifle is an Austrian take on the PSR style rifles that are currently sweeping the tactical precision long gun world. By that I mean a convertible barrel system from .308 Win, .300 Win Mag, and .338 Lapua, in addition to having a folding buttstock and modular components.