Tag: Guns Throughout Time

One Shot Stop Handgun Caliber

Most of us with any knowledge in firearms agree that no handgun caliber can be relied upon for a one shot stop. For those unfamiliar with the phrase it simply means having a very high probability of stopping a bad gun with only one shot. Well this notion isn’t correct because the Germans came up with a pistol caliber that can stop a man in one shot and The Firearm Blog has a piece on it. Hit the link and check out the German grenade pistol.

Vltor Weapon Systems Acquire Bren Ten Name

Good news courtesy of The Firearms Blog…

http://vltor.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/but-i-read-it-on-the-internet/

For those of you out of the loop Vltor has been working on a project they dubbed the Fortis Pistol. This was a recreation of the Bren Ten which was a pistol made for the newly introduced 10mm cartridge. Many companies have tried to bring back the Bren Ten and because of these failures there is a joke about the curse of the Bren Ten.

I’ll be honest here I’ve been watching the Bren Ten because I watched way too much Miami Vice back in the day. The Bren Ten was the gun carried by Sonny Crocket in the first few seasons (actually it was a modified Bren Ten). Anyways it looks like Vltor is taking this project very seriously which is good to see.

Source: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/07/28/baby-the-bren-ten-is-back/

Want John Moses Browning’s Home?

Now you can and for the low low price of $374,900…

http://www.countertopchronicles.com/2009/07/22/in-the-real-estate-market/

I’m surprised this building hasn’t been declared historical and run by a museum. Needless to say I’d love to have this house but of course I can’t afford it and I don’t really want to move to Utah.

Source: http://www.saysuncle.com/2009/07/23/for-the-gunny-who-has-it-all/

Happy Birthday AK-47

It’s that time of year again where we say happy birthday to the worlds most famous rifle, the AK-47. Wired did a long write up on the iconic rifle…

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2009/07/ak-47/

I think everybody should own an AK-47. They are amazing rifles with a lot of history behind them. And I know many people consider Mikhail Kalashnikov a death dealer for making the rifle but I consider him an engineering genius who made a device with the intention of driving an foreign invader from his country.

Overkill Defined

Every time I mention I want to eventually get a .50 BMG or a machine gun people tell me they are overkill. Well they apparently don’t know what overkill is. THIS is overkill…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-388_Davy_Crockett

I present for your amusement the M-388. The M-388 is a system involving a recoilless rifle that shoots a nuclear warhead. No this isn’t some exotic weapon from the Fallout series of games, this is a real weapon that was actually produced during The Cold War.

The idea was to have a bunch of soldiers with these and various other nuclear weapons between the border of The Soviet Union and Europe. If Russia tried to invade the idea was to make the border a total radioactive wasteland for at least 48 hours, enough time to get NATO forces into position.

The M-388 could propel a projectile with up to half a kiloton payload to a distance of two and a half miles. The radioactive fallout would be instantly lethal to all people within 500 feet. Of course the recoilless rifle was dreadfully inaccurate so the three man team operating it more or less just lobbed the projectile at the largest Soviet group they could find and figure the concept of blast radius would take care of the problem. Certainly a most interesting weapon.

All I can say is overkill in a semi-portable weapon has been defined.