The Robinson Arms XCR rocking out on full auto:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Gv1-PYTaEIw[/youtube]
Damn you Congressman Hughes! Damn you!
Full Auto Day – Affordable Full Auto
If you only have a couple grand to spend, there are some choices out there for you. In this post I’m featuring my friend Jason’s Cobray M11 9mm machine pistol. He got his a few years ago for $1500 bucks, plus the $200 NFA tax. Prior to 1986, I believe these could be had for $400, plus the $200 NFA tax. Today they are going for more than 3 grand.
I’ve actually shot this particular machine pistol. Compared to an MP5, it’s a little rough to shoot, and difficult to control, but with a little practice you can get pretty decent with it. If you use the metal magazines, and use decent ammunition, it’ll function pretty reliably. With the metal mags inserted, the stock won’t go all the way in like it will with the plastic ones, but the plastic mags don’t tend to be as reliable. Like I mentioned, it’s also finicky about ammunition. We’ve had bad luck with Sellier and Bellot and Wolf. Domestic or quality import works well. The M11 has a high rate of fire, so it empties the magazine quickly. There are kids that can reduce the cyclic rate though, and also kits to convert it to .22LR for cheaper full-auto fun. Here’s Jason shooting the M11:
[googlevideo]-5915823085654945068[/googlevideo]
I have the CM11, which is a semi-auto carbine version of the M11 with a fixed stock. It’s not nearly as much fun to shoot though ;) The CM11 is pretty much the same, except it fires from a closed bolt. The ATF generally won’t approve open bolt designs for semi-autos because of the ease of conversion.
UPDATE: Sorry folks. I didn’t realize the video would autoplay. I changed it to a google video.
Full Auto Day – AN94 Abakan
The Russian have developed a very novel replacement for the AK74 assault rifle, known as the AN94 Abakan. If there would be any rifle who’s existence makes me want to strangle Congressman Hugues (more about him later), it’s the AN94.
It’s chambered in the same 5.45x39mm round the AK74 fires, but it’s mechanics are totally different than the Kalashnikov. The operating system is called “blowback shifted pulse”. It uses a pulley mechanism, in addition to a standard gas system, to chamber and fire another cartridge for a single stroke of the piston. This allows the AN94 to have a selective rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute, or 1800 rounds per minute. It can also fire semi-automatic, or two shot burst. But the cool thing about the Abakan is that it puts the shots so close together, that the muzzle has no chance to climb before the second shot leaves the barrel. This puts the two rounds so close to each other, that it effectively strikes the same place twice, which is apparently quite effective at defeating body armor. The Abakan has not yet proven itself in combat yet, but just for sheer novelty of the design, I’d love to own one.
Here’s one in action with a Spetsnaz commando.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=9u5n0BSzVt0[/youtube]
On burst mode fire, you can barely distinguish the two shots, but I’m pretty sure this is burst mode fire, because it doesn’t quite sound clean enough for single shot.
Full Auto Day – SG44
No full auto day would be complete without talking about the rifle that set the pattern, giving meaning to the life of we Evil Black Rifle shooters. The Sturmgewehr 44:
The SG44 was the first assault rifle, and the concept was later adopted by the Soviets in the famous and ubiquitous AK-47. Unfortunately for the Germans, and fortunately for us, they weren’t able to produce them in large enough numbers to affect the outcome of the war. The SG44 was originally called the Maschinenpistol 43, but Hitler canceled the project, but the army wanted it badly enough that they saved it by renaming it Sturmgewehr, or “Assault Rifle”. The SG44 fires a medium power version of the German 8mm, the 7.92 ‘Kurz’ round.
Here’s some crappy video of a lucky bloke firing one.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=r1xVQg9suPA[/youtube]
I think if you ever have the opportunity to shoot a rarely encountered piece of history such as this, you should take care to get good video!
Full Auto Day – The Maxim Machine Gun
Of course, what good is a historical post about Hiram Maxim and his machine gun, if you don’t get to see one in action.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=unp8aOQSwS8[/youtube]
I love the sound of machine guns in the morning.
Full Auto Day – Hiram Maxim
Ask people on the street who the most influential people of the 20th century were, you’ll probably get a lot of answers; Hitler, Stalin, Marx, Lenin, etc. I have a different answer:
Hiram Maxim With His Machine Gun
Maxim’s invention of the belt-fed water cooled machine gun would spell the end of Europe’s geopolitical significance by the end of the 20th century. From 1914 to 1918 the great empires of Europe made suicidal charges into the wall of lead laid down by Maxim’s invention, and lost entire generations of young men in the process. World War I greatly weakened Britain, and laid the foundation for the rise of the Third Reich in Germany. World War II finally killed off the British Empire, along with every other colonial European power. The face of the world would never be the same again.
Full Auto Day
I’ve decided that today is going to be Full Auto Day here at Snowflakes in Hell. Today, our posts will be dedicated to one of the most influential inventions of the 20th century: the machine gun. I’ll have lots of video, pics, and commentary. Fun for the whole family. Posts will come out about once an hour, and I’ll wrap up the day with a post about The Hughes Amendment, why it sucks, and why we really have to figure out a way to get rid of it.
Those of you with RSS feeds got a preview, because I was an idiot and forgot to check the “Edit Time Stamp” checkbox in WordPress. I hope you will enjoy.
A Reply to Karen Heller
I will take up Bitter’s challenge on dealing with Ms. Heller of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Rather than a fisking, I think a nicely worded letter is in order. Something that will hopefully at least make her think a little. Here goes:
Ms. Heller,
I read your article entitled “Where’s the Outrage About Gun Violence” in Sunday’s online edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer. I would like you to know that we’re all outraged by the gun violence that’s plaguing the City of Philadelphia, and I believe it a bit unfair of you to insinuate that those of us who enjoy the shooting sports, gun collecting, hunting, and those of us who own firearms for lawful self-defense, simply don’t care about the problem. This is not true. We simply have a difference of opinion about effective ways to deal with violence.
You support gun control, no doubt. We believe that is ineffective, and instead suggest that the focus be on putting more police on the streets, and getting violent individuals off the street. The City of Philadelphia does not have a gun problem, the City of Philadelphia has a criminal problem, and focusing your attention on inanimate objects, which can be used for good or ill, depending on what’s in the heart of the person possessing it, will not help make things better.
I ask you to think for a minute about how laws restricting firearms will affect people who have such callous disregard for human life that they will murder and terrorize their fellow citizens. Will such a person be any more willing to obey a gun control law, when they refuse to obey even the most sacrosanct laws of a civilized society? Would we be able to keep criminals from obtaining guns on the black market any more effectively than we currently keep people from obtaining drugs on the black market? What effect can gun laws have other than preventing people, who are just trying to enjoy a sport or protect their families, from obtaining them? I don’t think we are unreasonable people for asking these kinds of questions of those demanding our constitutional rights be trampled on.
I know we will probably never see eye to eye on this issue, but I would hope that you can at least afford us a little more respect and dignity than was displayed in your article this Sunday. We are not uncaring monsters. We are not irresponsible people. We are ordinary folks who get up, go to work, raise families, and try to make ends meet. Because we choose to exercise our constitutional right to own firearms for sport and self-defense, and jealously guard that right, does not mean we don’t care about the four hundred and six victims of crime this year in the city, and doesn’t mean we’re not also suggesting solutions. We just want to be treated fairly.
Respectfully,
Sebastian
Bucks County, PA
You can always get farther with honey than you can with vinegar, and always do better making someone regret their anger, rather than writing something that will help them justify it. I hope this makes Ms. Heller think. I doubt it will change her mind, but at the very least think. Thinking is a start.
Removing Cosmoline
Bruce of mAss Backwards has a great post on how to remove cosmoline from a new rifle; a problem we’ve all had to face at one time or another. I think we all remember Easy Bake Ovens. Same principle, applied to guns.
UPDATE: I didn’t try Bruce’s easy bake oven for rifles, but the oven did the trick for me. There are advantages to living alone :) I have the Mosin-Nagant nearly ready to shoot, and will have to do a range report in a few days.
Interesting Shooting Videos
Conservative Scalawag has some links to a few shooting videos, as well as some commentary. When say shooting, I mean these are actual shootings, of the self-defense variety. Most of us will never be so unfortunate to ever find ourselves in the situations these gentlemen do, but since we are people who sometimes go about armed, it’s important to study, learn, and to remind ourselves from time to time that self-defense with a firearm is a deadly, ugly business.
First the good:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3AA_dgRdDhk[/youtube]
This was a bad situation to begin with, the kid being on the counter. Truth be told, I wouldn’t blame anyone who decided, with the kid in the possible line of fire, the best thing is just to let the robbery progress and hope no one gets hurt. But we can’t see what the Robber is saying or how he’s behaving, and robberies can turn sour quite rapidly. For whatever reason, we don’t know, the clerk made the decision to shoot. The clerk smartly uses the woman to shield his draw from the robber, then surprises him, probably while his focus is on the register. Looks like his shots managed to find their mark, because you can see him covering the robber on the ground. It looks like this guy had thought about what he would do, trained, and executed it brilliantly.
Now for the not so good:
[youtube crtc7AN_Fxc]
I don’t like to ding anyone’s performance in a situation that’s fluid, charged full of adrenaline, and something that no one can ever prepare enough to find themselves in. But I think it’s important to try to look at what happened, so we can learn from it. To me it looks like he didn’t realize the guys had run off, and was taking un-aimed, blind shots over his concealment until he realized he wasn’t shooting at anything. If the robbers had decided to get into a shootout with him, he very well may be dead with an empty magazine. Wild, poorly aimed shots don’t end gunfights. Hits end gunfights. I think the lesson here is that we need to look at our environment. What’s cover, and what’s concealment in areas you frequent? We probably all need to practice shooting from cover more often that we do, and think about what we’d do in different situations. The unexpected will happen, but in a gunfight, having a gun helps, but having a plans helps more. Which one of these guys do you think had the better plan?