Maxim

 awesomeness, history, humor, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Jul 052022
 

Brandon Herrera walks us through the history and workings of Hiram Maxim’s machine gun… designed waaaaay back in 1884. The period from 1850 to 1950 has got to be the most amazing time in terms of technological advancement actually and obviously changing things, and military tech was a large part of it. Interestingly, what the Maxim did is pretty much exactly what modern machine guns do; the lead it sent downrange would be largely indistinguishable from what a modern gun would send. The difference, of course, is that a modern gun would be *far* simpler and much lighter, thus more practical. Compare to the difference between a musket from 1850 and an M-14 from 1950: there is no comparing what they did.

Which points out the genius of Moses Browning, and why we need a Federal holiday – nay, an entire *month* – to properly celebrate him and his 1911.

 Posted by at 6:24 pm

Again with the ringtones

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Hmm..., weapons, wisdom, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 292022
 

So here we have a smooth-brained genius somewhere in India deciding that the obvious thing to do is to physically assault a cop who already has his revolver drawn. One shot, followed by a lot of caterwauling. Note to Hollywood: getting shot seems wholly un-fun, and it instantly changes the mood and tone. It is unlikely to be the sort of thing one just shrugs off.

And for those other bright sparks who constantly question “why don’t the police just aim for the legs” every time some moron serves as a bullet sponge… *this* guy caught a bullet in the leg. One bullet. Take a look at how quickly he’s spewing precious bodily fluids. I don’t know any more about this story by this one video (i.e. squadoo), but if he didn’t receive *prompt* medical attention, his next appearance in the paper was likely an obituary.

 Posted by at 8:23 am

Mobile Protected Firepower

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, weapons  No Responses »
Jun 282022
 

Woo. Now… let’s see ’em actually follow through:

The Army Just Selected Its First Light Tank In Decades

The first 26 are supposed to be delivered in December 2023, with a total of 504 by 2035. Five hundred doesn’t seem like a whole lot. I hope they test the bejeebers out of it with modern anti-tank missiles… recent events have shown that that sort of thing is kinda important.

 

A fully autonomous version would seem wise.

 Posted by at 10:11 pm

The mass shootings of 1964 that weren’t

 history, Hmm..., politics, weapons  No Responses »
Jun 262022
 

In 1964, the US government dumped around a  quarter million M-1 carbine “assault weapons” onto the US market, complete with 15 or 30 round magazines. They were available to anyone who wanted one, no background checks needed, no waiting period; they cost less than $100 for most people, or $20 if you were an NRA member. And what happened? Mass shootings, schools blown to bits, synagogues reduced to bullet sponges? Nope.

 

Stephen Hunter: The Assault Weapon Massacres of 1964

Access to “weapons of war” was a lot easier then than now. Access to madness is easier now than then.

 Posted by at 6:27 pm

Failing in style

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, Hmm..., news, rockets, russian empire, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 242022
 

A Russian surface to air missile recently failed rather spectacularly, turning around quickly in flight and seemingly tried to go home.

This sort of thing is not terribly unusual. Here’s a Saudi Patriot missile taking a detour:

 Posted by at 9:19 pm
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