Monthly Archives: January 2013

The Ljutic Space Gun: For aliens who shoot trap…

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Is it a Swiffer Sweeper? A Stormtrooper bring-back from Tatooine? A spud gun for carrots? All of the above are incorrect. This beauty of simplicity is the Ljutic Space Gun. With a name like that, it could only come from California.

Al Ljutic was a renaissance man of the 20th century. A California native of Croatian heritage, he was a rifle maker, competition rifle shooter, and heavyweight boxing champion. He was a member of the ill-fated 1940 US Olympic Team and designed several firearms for other manufacturers including Winchester’s Model 100 rifle.

Working with his father who had similar talents, the two ran the Ljutic Gun Company in the Fresno area. One day in 1955, a close friend and Remington field rep by the name of AA Reil called to invite Ljutic to go trap shooting with him the next day. It was only after he agreed that Ljutic figured out that he didn’t have a shotgun at his disposal, so rather than go back on a promise, he designed and built one by the end of the day.

It was a basic single shot firearm and was ugly, but it worked and would become the basis for the Space Gun.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

ljutic_space_gun

Warship Wednesday, January 23, 2013

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  January 23, 2013

sms_erzherzog_albrecht_1872

Here we see the Austrian navy ironclad screw corvette SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max as she appeared in the height of her service in the 1870s.

Laid down in Trieste during 1863 from lessons learned from the British Warrior and the ongoing US Civil War, she was named for the brother of then-Emperor Franz Joseph who we know today as the last Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian. Commissioned 24 May 1865, just six weeks after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, the Max was the lead ship of a four-vessel class. She was supposed to be armed with a pair of 8″ Krupp guns but these were embargoed by Germany due to the looming war with Italy. She left port without all of her armor, and carrying a number of dated 48-pounder guns that were found lying around the yard from old ships.

Tegetthoff on the bridge on the MAX during Lissa, standing like a boss. The Italians fired more than 1400 shells during the battle but fell far shot of causing any real damage to the Austrian Fleet

Tegetthoff on the bridge on the MAX during Lissa, standing like a boss. The Italians fired more than 1400 shells during the battle but fell far shot of causing any real damage to the Austrian Fleet

As the flagship of the 39-year old Kontreadmiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, head of the Austrian battle fleet, the Max charged headlong into fleet combat near the disputed island of Lissa in 1866.  Lacking her large 8-inchers, Tegetthoff ordered the ship to use its ram bow to good effect sinking the proud Italian ship Re d’Italia. The Italian ironclad suffered a 18-foot gash in her side and sank within two minutes. Her crestfallen master shot himself in the head with a revolver. The Austrian use of this desperate tactic at Lissa led to battleships keeping ram bows for a half-century although they were never used in fleet combat again.

519934Re.Italia_vs_Ferdinand.Max

Both Tegetthoff and the Ferdinand Max became household words in Austria for decades. She was kept around as a training ship in Pola until 1916, one of the last US Civil War era ironclads afloat.

She was broken up in 1917.

Modell-SMS-Erzherzog-Ferdinand-Max-im-HGM
Specs:
Displacement:     5140
30’4″ x 42’0″ x 20’8″
Installed power:     3500SHP steam, coal fired. Three masted bark rig auxiliary.
Propulsion:     1 shaft, 1 steam engine
Speed:     12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement 489 men
Armament: (16) 48-pdr SB, (4) 8-pdr SB; (2) 3-pdr (at Lissa) 2x203mm Krupp guns added later

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

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Zombie Ben Franklin Mystery

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Austin is a pretty cool place. Back when I worked as a tech trainer for a large telecom company I did training there a few times and just really loved it. 6th Street during SXSW is an experience.

So it doesn’t surprise me that someone found, the day after Ben Franklin’s birthday, a cake decorated with a Zombie Ben left on their porch.

In Austin they sell shirts that say, “Keep Austin weird” and they mean it.

Zombie Ben Franklin Cake

May Tear Washer

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I passed through Athens, Alabama a few days ago and if you ever get a chance, check out the museum there. Its a great collection. In the back room they have something that I promise no other museum has… the maytear.

“Maytear” Washingmachine at the Alabama Military History/Veterans Museum in Athens, Alabama. Is a reproduction of a machine built by the 1343rd (Combat) Engineer Battalion of the Alabama National Guard during the Korean War. Built from a gas engine, a belt, a few wheels, and two 55-gal drums, it was pretty effective, but “May Tear”

DSCN3881

 

 

The Welrod Assassin Gun: WWII’s Phantom Plinker Supressed Pistol

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In the dark days of World War II, the British SOE and American OSS ran a myriad of operations behind the lines in both Nazi occupied Europe and Japanese occupied Asia. They set up resistance groups of local insurgents and supplied them with weapons, training, and equipment to help set the Axis rear aflame. One of the weapons they supplied was meant especially for assassination. This mysterious suppressed pistol was known (we think) as the Welrod.

The firearm developed by the SOE was not a traditional pistol fitted to a silencer—it was a pistol built around a silencer. To keep gas from escaping from a cylinder like on a revolver or a cycling action like on a semi-automatic, the Welrod was bolt action. The simple and effective bolt action could be worked rapidly for a follow-up shot if needed, and doubled as a safety device. The integral suppressor built around the barrel was made up of 12 thin metal washer baffles separated in groups by three leather wipes.

The baffles would start to deteriorate with use and typically was no longer suppressed after about 15-20 rounds. The nose cap of the suppressor was hollowed out to allow it to be pressed into an intended target without undue back blast. The magazine itself, encased in a rubber sleeve like a bicycle handle, formed the pistol grip. With few moving parts, it could be broken down and stored in pieces that did not resemble a firearm. In fact when disassembled it rather looks like a bicycle pump…

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

Welrod mk 1 pic

The Giant Gasser Revolver: the BFR of 1870

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Today, there seems to be an arms race to make exceptionally large revolvers that fire huge rounds—as witnessed by the S&W 500, the BFR and others. However this is nothing new as something very similar to this occurred over 140 years ago. The location was central Europe, the time was the 1870s, and the gun that started the ruckus was a behemoth known as the Gasser.

The Austrian Army in the late 1860s was coming off a brutal defeat at the hands of Prussia in the Seven Weeks War. Looking for new firearms to modernize their forces, the hunt was on for a modern revolver. The revolver needed to be able to fire a down-loaded version of the standard Werndl cavalry rifle’s cartridge adopted at the same time. The firm of Mr. Leopold Gasser gave it a stab and the rest is big wheelgun history.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

gasser marine revolver M 1870

Patton’s Hardware

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General George Smith Patton, Jr. (11 November 1885 21 December 1945), is a legend in US military history. In his 60-years of life, he spent the majority of it wearing one uniform or another and died on active service. Forever the warrior, he is fittingly buried in a military cemetery in Europe, not far from where he died.

As a soldier, he carried many guns, but one of these is almost as famous as he was.

patton colt right
His Colt .45.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk

6 Rifles That Were Ahead of Their time

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Literally thousands of firearms have been designed over the past several centuries. Most of these guns are simple improvements or copies of existing arms but every so often a gun will come along that is so visionary, so head of its time, that it permanently alters gun designers understanding small arms. These six rifles are virtual unknowns even among diehard collectors but their impact on firearms development is seen every day.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

ferguson

Vytis and Vladas: The Post Soviet Guns of Lithuania

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Firearms Innovation in newly independent countries in the face of potential aggression from your next-door neighbor is not new. During the Croatian War of Independence (1991-94), a small firm called IM Metal started making new design pistols for the Croatian army. This led eventually to the HS2000, which you may know better as the Springfield XD. In 1990, the small country of Lithuania broke away from the crumbling shell of the Soviet Union and reclaimed their lost independence and a few ugly but effective homegrown firearms may have helped keep it free.

Among these were the Vytis and the Vladas

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

Room brooms, Lithuanian style

Room brooms, Lithuanian style

The Maxson Meat Chopper: M45 Browning .50 caliber Quadmount

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The Browning M2 .50-caliber is about as perfect as you can get in terms of a heavy machine gun. The only thing better than a single “fifty” is two of them, and the only thing better than a pair of M2s is… four of them. This is what the Army got when they contracted for the Maxson M45 Quad turret.

While World War II stretched across Europe, one of the hallmark battle tactics of the 1939-41 Nazi Blitzkrieg were close attacks by low-flying aircraft. German fighter planes would fire machineguns just a few hundred feet off the ground in strafing runs, all the while flying as fast as they could in an effort to (and too often successfully) avoiding return fire. In most cases these Messerschmitt planes carried 13 mm (.51 in) synchronized MG 131 machine guns or 20mm cannon / .30-caliber rifle combos and light auto weapons of the ground pounders had a difficult time breaking these attacks up. What was needed was something that had some more kick to it, and the W. L. Maxson Corporation of New York aimed to provide it.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

quad 50

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