Your military smallarms knowledge ...pass it on

[Mike Irwin]

HK,

Yep, that's very true, but the Type 56 is a straight copy of the Soviet SKS in functioning.


Telewinz,

I'm not meaning to dog you, and I apologize if that's what it seems that I'm doing. That's not my desire. I've just got serious doubts about the source's facts.

You're correct that the Soviets engaged the Japanese, but only beginning in August 1945. The Soviets broke the non-agression treaty, which had been signed in April 1941, but other than small skirmishes, nothing happened until the Soviets invaded Manchuria August 9, 1945, after declaring war on August 8.

It's entirely possible that the SKS did see acation in the Manchurian invasion, but I have to question how many, if any, were captured by the Japanese, and of those how many made it into Chinese hands.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Oops, sorry Mike. I meant to say, "In addition to the Type 56 carbine, China did make a SKS looking carbine that..." IIRC, the Type 56 carbine was a copy of the Soviet SKS version introduced in 1946, so the Japanese could not have captured a copy.

 

[telewinz]

Sorry for the confusion, next time I will document any "new" information.

 

[Mike Irwin]

OK, back to the races, with a little history of weapons designed by generals...

This carbine, considered to be one of the best of its type, was designed by a General who was considered to be one of the worst of his type.

The Burnside, designed by Ambrose Burnside.


The last cavalry saber adopted by United States forces was designed by this hard charging American icon.

Gen. George S. Patton

 

[Apple a Day]

According to Jane's:
The Chinese type 56 carbine is a near-exact copy of the SKS.
The type 68 "...in general appearance it resembles the Type 56 (SKS) cabine but the barrel is longer, the bolt-action is based on that of the AK-47 and the rifle provides selective fire. It has a two-position gas regulator. It normally uses a 15-round box magazine but if the bolt stop is removed, or ground down, the 30-round magazine of the AK-47 and AKM can be used." There's no mention of a Type 73 or 81, but those could be omissions since they're mods of the same rifle.

Q.:Which sidearm replaced the S&W .44 in the Russian army? What was unusual about it?
A.:The Nagant revolver replaced the S&W, began production in the Tula arms factory in 1898 but not the first Nagants made. The cylinder not only rotates but moves forward, closing the gap between cylinder and barrel. The cartride walls extended past the bullet and helped for the gas seal as it fired.

Here's an easy one. Which handgun was Han Solo's blaster modeled after in Star Wars? On what submachine gun were the stormtroopers' blasters modeled?

 

[jsalcedo]

Mauser broomhandle and sterling respectively

 

[Mike Irwin]

Did anyone see the Lewis Gun in Star Warts?

 

[BigG]

Who designed the Model 70 Winchester, which was introduced in 1937?

Who designed the .338 Win Mag?

Who designed the .41 Magnum?

Answer: All were credited to Elmer Keith.

 

[Rob62]

Interesting thread

Here's some softball questions.

Who is credited with the development of the 1911 .45 ACP pistol and M2 .50 caliber Machine Gun: John Moses Browning

What does "ACP" in the caliber designation .45 ACP stand for: Automatic Colt Pistol

Who started Ruger Firearms along with Bill Ruger: Alexander Sturm

What does Parabellum as in 9mm Parabellum mean: Made for War

And for those classic military firearm fans.

What does .45-70 mean in reference to that caliber's original designation: .45 caliber bullet that uses a charge of 70 grains of black powder.

Rob

 

[cdbeaver]

Mike Irwin:

You said the .45 Colt was the first centerfire cartridge. Where do the .50-70 rifle and .50 Remington pistol cartridges (both inside primed centerfire) fit into the historical picture?

I no longer have my cartridge collection or associated books, so I'll rely on your always good answers.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Beaver,

Actually, it was the .44 Colt, which was adopted in, I believe, 1869 or 1870 and used until the .45 Colt was adopted in 1873.

That was the first centerfire REVOLVER cartridge, I neglected to use the word "revolver" in my initial message.

The .50 cal. Remington (two variants, one for Army, one for Navy) and it's single shot pistol may have preceded the .44 Colt by a few years.

I'll give you a better run down when I get home this evening and consult with a few of my references.

 

[T.Stahl]

Did anyone see the Lewis Gun in Star Wars?

I've only seen MG42s so far.

What does Parabellum as in 9mm Parabellum mean: Made for War

No, it doesn't.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Maybe it was an MG 42.

I remember seeing a blaster obviously based on an old machine gun.

Now that I have my DVD player I need to rent the Star Warts movies again.

 

[telewinz]

And we can make it even harder! What about the Pin-fire cartridges? They predate any centerfire cartridge and they worked quite well in shotguns, rifles and revolvers. More than a few diagrams show the primer being located in the center of the case

Or due you mean the first berdan or boxer primed cartridge?

 

[Sean Smith]

An easy one...

What disaster of a light machine gun did the U.S. Army use instead of one of Browning's designs during World War I? The Chauchat.

What Browning designs took its place? The BAR and (depending on how you defined "light") the M1917.

What design defect made all Chauchats unreliable in the trenches? The magazine had a huge cut-out "window" that mud got into.

What made it especially unreliable in U.S. use? The French bungled the re-chambering of it in .30-06.

What was the original caliber? 8 x 50R Lebel.

What were some oddities of its design? It operated on a long-recoil principle. Its rate of fire was only 250 rounds/minute.

Why make the rate of fire so low? The Chauchat had particularly violent recoil. Even at 250 rounds per minute it was hard to control.

What is its main claim to fame? It was the most widely manufactured automatic weapon of the war.

How was this possible? It was made almost entirely of stampings.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"And we can make it even harder! What about the Pin-fire cartridges? They predate any centerfire cartridge and they worked quite well in shotguns, rifles and revolvers. More than a few diagrams show the primer being located in the center of the case

Or due you mean the first berdan or boxer primed cartridge?"

Telewinz,

I'm not sure if you were directing this at me or not...

But, if you were, the United States never officially adopted a pinfire round as a martial cartridge.

Some WERE used during the Civil War, primarily for revolvers in the South. I guess they must have gotten through the blockade.

You're right, though, the pinfire system did work well, it was pretty popular for about 30 years in Europe (shotgun ammo was made up to WW I, I believe), and believe it or not, there were even reloading kits sold for the system!

 

[Mike Irwin]

Sean,

there were some really good posts about the Chauchat over on The Firing Line.

I'm probably one of the few people here who has actually shot one of these guns.

Contrary to popular opinion, the design is actually pretty solid and straight forward.

It was one of the first attempts to make a military firearm "cottage industry style" though, and there was little uniformity of the parts. Even though the intent was for the parts to be interchangable, there was so much variation that in essence each one had to be hand fitted.

The first machine guns issued to US troops were actually Lewis Guns, which were very popular, but they were withdrawn in favor of the Chauchauts for political reasons.

US troops were first issued guns in 8mm Lebel. Those weapons had been used hard, and were essentially worn out by the time our boys got them.

The guns that were manufactured in .30-06 weren't much better.

All in all, most of them were "lost in action" fairly quickly.

 

[Sean Smith]

What designs was the M60 machine gun largely based on? The German MG42 and FG42 from World War II.

What it was replaced with? The M240.

What is peculiar about this? The M240 is based on an even older design than the M60 (an "upside-down" version of the 1918 BAR action adopted for belt feed). The Army used it as a coaxial machine gun on tanks for decades before adopting a variant as a replacement for the M60.

 

[Sean Smith]

What did NOT, contrary to popular myth, ban hollow point bullets? The Geneva Convention.

What actually DID ban expanding bullets? The Hague Peace Conference of 1899.

Was the U.S. a signatory? No.

What WAS the U.S. a signatory to? The Hague Convention of 1907.

Did THAT ban expanding bullets? No, though it did ban "arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering."

What hollow-point bullet has the U.S. military made wide use of? The MatchKing bullet (in 168gr and 175gr) in loads for sniper rifles.

How has the U.S. justified this? It produces similar wounds to the full metal jacket version of the round, and so does not cause unnecessay suffering.

 

[Mike Irwin]

The Match King doesn't act like a hollow point, either. The "hollow" is simply a byproduct of the case drawing and sealing process.

They're probably more correctly called open-nose solids.

 

[Fly Navy]

What machinegun was used as the Smart Gun in the movie Aliens? MG42

What was the harness system for the Smart Gun? Steady Cam rig

When can the US "legally" use hollow-points? Counter-terrorist operations. Terrorists are not considered legal combatants and therefore any weapon can "legally" be used against them.

 

[Tamara]

T.Stahl,

I'm embarrassed to admit I know this, but there was indeed a Lewis gun being dragged around by one of the stormtroopers on Tatooine.

 

[Mark Tyson]

Mike Irwin,

Is there a real difference between a hollowpoint and an open-nosed solid?

 

[Sean Smith]

Semantics.

Also, if you've seen the bullet, the hole is way too tiny to do any good as far as wounding goes, though it makes the bullet more accurate for some wierd reason.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Is there a real difference between a hollowpoint and an open-nosed solid?"

There is if the hollow point is designed to promote expansion. As used most frequently, expecially in the civilian arena, when someone says hollow point, I'd bet that virtually everyone familiar with ammo types thinks "expanding bullet for personal protection/hunting use."

Sean, the accuracy thing is pretty straight forward.

The open nose in the Sierra bullets is there for one reason, and one reason alone -- to make the base of the bullet as perfect as possible.

Military FMJ bullets have an opening at the base because of the way they're made, and that naturally leads to imperfections in the base.

Research has shown that a perfect base is FAR more important to overall accuracy of a bullet than the nose. That's why the military uses open-nose solids.