The Firearm Blog

I am away until the 7th. Blogging with resume then.

Related Posts

• No Related Post

SAI (Special Interest Arms), who have been previously mentioned on the blog, have developed a replica Gardner Gun.

Click to expand

From Wikipedia:

The Gardner gun was an early type of machine gun. It had one or two barrels, was fed from a vertical magazine or hopper and was operated by a crank. When the crank was turned, a feed arm positioned a cartridge in the breech, the bolt closed and the weapon fired. Turning the crank further opened the breechblock and extracted the spent round.

From “The Machine Gun” By Chinn Naval Bureau of Ordnance Publication

The original Gardener gun could have as many barrels as the customer desired although the two barrel variety is most common. Never used by the US during wartime the Gardener was popular with both the British Army and the Royal Navy.

The SIA “Model of 1885″ .45-70 Gardner Gun is the two barrel, water cooled, variety and is capable of firing 500 rounds/minute. SIA expects to be able to take orders between Feb and March this year. The gun carries an estimated price of $29,950.00.

A while back I wrote about what I would want to carry at sea. I have changed my mind. I want a Gardener gun. If it worked for the Royal Navy I am sure it would work for me

This video is an interesting 5 minute documentary on the Gardener Gun:

Related Posts

• FN IAR
• Marine Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) program
• US Army looking for lighter .50 machine gun
• ATK gets $50 million contact to upgrade army ammo plant

Jay emailed me an old CDNN catalog from 2001. It is hard to believe the prices listed were the norm only 8 years ago. Click to expand images.

Good luck finding a used Mateba for under $1200


Saiga 12: $600+ today if you can find it in stock.

Thank to Jay for the history lesson.

Related Posts

• MD-20: 20 round drum magazine for Saiga-12 shotgun
• Bullpup Saiga Shotgun
• Chinese reporters shot at police anti-gun briefing
• What is a Saiga?

I came across a Russian firm called DAC / Demyan who manufacture a bullpup conversion of their T-4 Carbine PCP bolt action rotary magazine repeating air gun.

T-4 Bullpup


T-4 Carbine

The conversion to a bullpup configuration is straight forward. Initially I was confused by what appears to be a double set trigger but after looking at the below diagram is seems to be a simple safety that prevents the trigger from moving.

If you have ever wondered how bullpup rifles work then take a look at this cutout. I have annotated the diagram so that it is comprehensible by those with less technical knowledge of firearms. The parts needed to move the trigger forward, the trigger linkage, are plain to see.

Click to expand (warning: it is a big file)

Another interesting feature of this rifle is the built in suppressor. This probably prevents it from being imported into the US and any another other country that regulates suppressors. The Gamo Whisper, which also includes a built in suppressor, is apparently legal because its’ suppressor is made from plastic and would be blown up by the gas from even a .22 LR cartridge.

The T-4 is available in .177, .22 and .25.

Specs:

Weight: 2.8 kg : 6.1 lbs
Length: 680 mm / 26.7″
Barrel length: 420 mm / 16.5″
Trigger pull: 1.5 kg / 4.4 lbs
Magazine Capacity: 8 pellets
Operating pressure: 30 MPa (300 bar)
Verification pressure: 45 MPa (450 bar)

Price (Carbine, bullpup price not listed): 40000 Rubles (currently US$ 1371.88).

The stock seems to have been through a variety of evolutions. These are other photos I found:

I prefer the P90 inspired stock, although the pistol grip looks a bit square.

A cursory google search did not reveal a US distributer. Demyan is going to be at SHOT Show 2009 so either they do have distributor lined up or are looking for one. The SHOT Show description of the company:

Original research and manufacture of sportguns. Our company produces high-quality air rifles for Fild Target, BenchRest, as well as compact powerful air rifles for hunting by caliber 4.5, 5.5, 6.35.

10, 2nd Donskoy Lane
Moscow, 119071
Russian Federation
Business Phone: 011 74959847629
Business Fax: 011 74959847629
www.demyan.info

Booth : 2080

If you are going to SHOT and come across their booth I would be interested to know who their distributer is, if they have one, if the T-4 carbine is going to be exported to the US, and if so its’ price.

Related Posts

• Building a .22LR P90 replica cheaply
• Outside lock air rifle
• New Croatian VHS assault rifle
• Izhmash will launch new AK line in 2009

Battenfeld (Caldwell) have done an incremental upgrade of the Lead Sled and named it the Lead Shed Plus.

The main improvement is the elevation ram which has been redesigned to prevent movement. No word on pricing or availability.

The Lead Sled is designed to be used when shooting magnum rifles. The sled is packed with weights, such as lead shot, which decreases the effect of recoil. Below is a screen capture from a Caldwell promotional video of a guy shooting a rifle with an egg between his shoulder and the lead sled.

Related Posts

• No Related Post

Stag Arms have a new 6.8mm hunting AR-15 called the Model 7 (Hunter).

Model 7 (Hunter). Click to expand.

The rifle features a 20.77″ 1:11 twist barrel, 2 stage match trigger, 5 round magazine and a Hogue pistol grip. Stag Arms has the price listed as $1,055.

Although I have not read an evaluation of hunting performance for commercially available 6.8mm SPC, the round produces similar energy to the .30-30 at the muzzle and offers significantly better downrange performance than the .30-30 or 7.62×39mm. Whitetail deer should be no problem.

More info @ Stag Arms

Related Posts

• Remington Model R-25: New AR-10 in .243, 7mm-08 and .308
• New TangoDown ARC AR-15 Magazine
• Has Colt chosen the MWG 90 round magazine for the IAR?
• Tip of the day: Don’t fire a waterlogged AR-15!

SayUncles’s new suppressor. I want!

Related Posts

• No Related Post

Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Co., LLC is a subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) who among other things manufacture military and commercial ammunition. They own the CCI and Federal premium brands. In the fiscal year 2008 ATK’s annual report says “military small-caliber ammunition business again delivered more than 1.4 billion rounds to our nation’s armed forces.”.

ATK won the government owned Lake City Army Ammunition Plant operating contract in 2000 and took over from Olin (Winchester) in 2001 who were the operating contract since 1985.

DefenseLink.mil (December 30 2008):

Alliant Lake City Small Caliber Ammunition Co., LLC, Independence, Mo., was awarded on Dec 29, 2008 a $49,236,000 firm fixed price requirements contract for modernization and upgrade of small caliber production equipment. Work will be performed at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, Independence, Mo., with an estimated completion date of Sep 30, 2009. One bid was solicited and one bid received. U.S. Army Sustainment Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (DAAA09-00-D-0016).

ATK is sure doing well!

Related Posts

• Insurgents using Chinese armor-piercing bullets
• Afgans been getting bad ammunition
• Taiwan replenishing US 5.56 ammunition stocks
• .45-70 Gardner Gun replica

James Yeager wrote a fascinating article for SWAT Magazine and has cross posted it on the The Survival Podcast Forum.

So what happens to a bunch of ARs, AKs and various pistols when you subject them to 12 very intense days and nearly a quarter million rounds of ammunition? Everything! In a recent 12-day span we have 22 students in a Fighting Rifle course, a High Risk Civilian Contractor Shooting Package and a High Risk Civilian Contractor Medical Package. I decided to document the things that went wrong as we pushed men and machines through 12 very harsh days of training. This was no make-believe “Torture Test” it was actual sweat and ammunition combined to make “Training Torture”. If these classes aren’t the toughest in the world they are close.

I highly recommend reading it. Some of the malfunctions they had are bizarre. In one such malfunction an empty 7.62×39mm (or possibly 5.45mm) case got stuck *behind* the bolt of an AK!

Also make sure you read forum replies by James. I was interested to see that he offers all his classes to civilians:

I will NEVER teach a class that isn’t open to civilians. NEVER. I am a Life NRA member and a proud supporter of the 2nd Ammendment.

Read the article here.

A big thanks to Jay for emailing me the link.

Related Posts

• Cowtown Cop’s Carbine Training
• SayUncle’s building an AK series
• James Yeager’s Fighting Rifle Tactical Shooting Course Review
• Izhmash will launch new AK line in 2009

Indonesian police officers display confiscated arms during press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia on 30 December 2008. Indonesia police seized dozens of arms, 8,5 kilos of heroin, 1,5 tons of marijuana, and 16,000 methamphetamine pils in several operations in the end of the year. Indonesia has tightened security in the country ahead of the Christmas day and New Year Eve. Indonesia was hit by a series of major terrorist acts from 2000 to 2005, including the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, hotel explosion in 2003 and the Australian embassy bombing in 2004, killing more than 250 people.

Those sneaky drug dealers! The police think they have confiscated guns and all they have is paintball markers and cheap airsoft toys. I bet we find that those 16k methamphetamine pills are cleverly disguised aspirin
H/T MP.net

Related Posts

• KGB ultra-silent pistols still in active use
• Veritas Mark IV
• Taser just sold 3000 units to undisclosed country. My guess: Australia
• Machine-gun shaped liquor bottle leads to arrest

Wheel gun aficionados are likely to be appalled at these “21st century” single action Shooting Master series revolvers from USFA (U.S. Fire Arms) that will be on sale next year (2009).

There is not much information out there but they will be available in 2009 for an MSRP of $899. Calibers offered will be .357 Magnum, .41 Short Magnum and .44 Magnum. Customers will be able to choose from six colors: Coyote Tan, Sage Green, Forest Green, Federal Brown, Sniper Grey and Black Graphite.

Hat Tip: CASCity

Related Posts

• When is a pistol not a pistol?
• New NAA “The Earl” .22 Magnum revolver
• New Charter Arms Rimless Revolver (CARR)
• Ruger Blackhawk Flattop 44 Special

The below photo comes from an article about the AAC Cyclops suppressor that Andy posted on the official AAC blog. The photo illustrates the size really well.

Looks similar in size to a massive custom 12 gauge suppressor I saw on a Remington 870 recently.

Related Posts

• Suppressed .50 photo
• Homemade .50 BMG rifle
• Custom .50 BMG rifle confiscated from Mexican gang
• Slow motion video of scope and barrel flexing

Blackfork is trying to develop subsonic loads for his .223:

I looked on the Hogden site and found a subsonic load: 3.1 grains of Titegroup and a 55 grain bullet. I tried 3.1 grains of Titegroup under a Nosler 69. It works, doesn’t cycle the rifle but it’s quiet. The gun kind of rattles a bit when it goes off. Kind of a beefed up .22lr. About six inches under the zero for my normal ammo.

As he said, a problem is that a subsonic 55 grain has about the same muzzle energy as a High velocity .22 Long Rifle. On the other hand a heavy 77 grain bullet will not give great accuracy unless the correct barrel twist is used. The Shooting Times says a 1:8 twist rate is the minimum need to stabilize a 77 grain Sierra MatchKing.

I look forward to following BlackFork’s progress.

More at BlackFork

Hat Tip: Snowflakes in Hell

Related Posts

• Winchester announces lead free .22LR and .22 Magnum and .223
• Time to buy gun shares?
• ST15: .22 LR Short Barreled Rifle
• 6.8×45mm Kramer “Urban Combat Cartridge”

The man was a professional hunter. Spiegel Online reports:

Evidently charades or board games weren’t exciting enough. A 52-year-old man in Cologne who had drunk too much on Christmas Day last Thursday picked up his revolver, loaded one bullet into the barrel and spun it, declaring “Now we’re going to play Russian roulette!”

Very sad for his family.

Related Posts

• Massive underground WWII battery discovered
• Airsoft and paintball popular with Indonesian criminals
• Photos of confiscated guns at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort
• Rem/Marlin/Bushmaster owner also owns Chrysler