The legendary sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio has responded to the shooting of one of his people by issuing each and every sworn deputy in his office an AR-15. Not only will they have them, but also they are under standing orders to take them everywhere.
Read more in my column at Firearms Talk
400 Smith and Wesson M&P-15 MOE’s anyone?
Come on, seriously…..
It looks like a rifle large enough to part a meteor, sink a battleship, or down a MIG with one shot. The reason is, it’s actually a shotgun, which explains the huge barrel but not the action. Yes, it has a bolt-action, and Mossberg has been the master of these oddball guns for decades.
In the 19th Century, most shotguns were break action single or double barrel type jobs. Towards the end that century the first pump and lever-action, repeaters came on the market but the newest rifle designs of the early 1900s were bolt-action rifles with detachable box magazines. After World War 1, several Model Gew 98 German Mausers were converted to fire shotgun shells and these became seen as a very modern idea for a very modern age. Oscar Mossberg, a shrewd engineer and businessman, decided to jump on this concept with both feet and introduce a new shotgun designed from the ground-up as a bolt-action.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
Remember that reactionary gaps kiddies!
A tip from Uncle Chris
Mort Künstler is one of the most respected military art masters in modern US history. Odds are if you have ever stopped and admired a Civil War painting, it may have come from Mort.
You may recognize his art from this painting of the CSS Hunley just before its last mission
You can almost feel the tension in the air for those brave submariners on this human powered submersible
Or in his more modern works such as this one of the Alaska Air National Guard
Guarding for polar bears while your C130 on skies unloads supplies. I’m cold just looking at this…
But what you may not know is that he cut his teeth on a whole ‘nother category of military art.
Born in 1931, he started off doing covers for men’s adventure magazines (aka pulp fiction type books) in the 1950s and 60s. Although he often used pen names, some of his better works he signed his own to and they are just really great stuff.
Nothing like a M1 Garand, a M1918 BAR, pineapple grenades, and belts of 30.06 LMG food to put some swagger on your cigar
With that in mind, what follows is a few of his works from back in the pulp days. You see a lot of Tommy Guns, and a good bit of guest appearances from BARs, M1s, M3 Grease guns, Short Magazine Lee Enfields, and of course, Luger P08s.
Enjoy!
Today everyone remembers Sheridan as a player in the airgun market, with many of us having cut our teeth on one of their pump .177 guns as youngsters. What not everyone knows, however, is that the company at one point tried to move into the actual firearms market and in the 1950s came up with a 22-rimfire pistol that was well received for what it was: the Knocabout.
Founded by Mr EN Wackerhagen, Racine, Wisconsin-based Sheridan Products started in 1945 with the stated purpose of giving the founder’s son a ‘better airgun than anything then on the market’. Soon their Super Grade, Bluestreak, and Silverstreak models of pneumatic air rifles were the glimmer in the eye for both kids and dads alike. Why such cross-generational interest? The Sheridan products had been designed by a gunsmith, rather than an airgun maker, which gave them the feel of actual rifles.
In 1951, the company was looking to expand and decided that a safe bet would be a rimfire pistol. At the time, semi-auto target pistols by Colt, Smith and Wesson, and a new upstart known as Ruger, were popular. The best way to compete with these makers was to offer a ‘beginner’ level pistol, for a good price.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
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
El Monassir/CSS Mississippi foreground being watched by the HMS Majestic while the El Tousson/CSS North Carolina sits at the rear
Above we see the mighty armored steam turret ship of the Sultan of Egypt, the El Monassir as she lies fitting out in England. Laid down in 1862 at Laird, Son & Co., Birkenhead, her North African identity was a ruse as her actual owners was the Confederate States Navy and she was to be the CSS Mississippi.
Built to an innovative amalgam that combined armor plate, a ram, movable armored turrets and steam propulsion with an economical full-rigged three masted sailing suite to enable her to cross the oceans on only the coal in her bunkers, she was an interesting design. Three times the mass of the US Navy’s USS Monitor and with a comparable armor, she carried four 9-inch naval rifles in two twin turrets vs the Monitor’s pair of larger 11-inch (280 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns. Yet, she was almost twice as fast as the union ship. Even compared to the 1864-designed Canonicus-class monitors, she was still faster and better armed. Had she been taken over by the Confederacy, the Union navy was in trouble.
But alas, it was not to be. The British government, after the shattering Vicksburg and Gettysburg defeats in the summer of 1863, saw that the tide was turning against the greycoats. With the writing on the wall, they seized El Monassir/CSS Mississippi and her sistership the El Tousson/CSS North Carolina in October. They were completed on the Queen’s dime and put on the Royal Navy List in 1865 as the HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion respectively.
The wivern, is a legendary winged creature with a dragon’s head, reptilian body, two legs (sometimes none), and a barbed tail, which may be said to breathe fire or possess a venomous bite.
The ships, even though advanced for their time, were quickly outclassed by later naval developments and hindered by their heavy weight and low freeboard. By the 1880s they were in reserve. The Wivern was sent to Hong Kong where she performed harbor duties such as barracks duty and brig boat until she was scrapped in 1922. She outlived her sister Scorpion who had spent the last three decades of her life as a guard ship in Bermuda before being sunk as a target in 1901.
Still, unless I can find otherwise, I think the El Monassir/CSS Mississippi/HMS Wivern was the last serving Confederate naval ship in the world when she was scrapped, having a lifespan of some 57-years.
Specs;
Displacement: 2,751 tons
Length: 224 ft 6 in (68.43 m) p/p
Beam: 42 ft 4 in (12.90 m)
Draught: 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) light, 17 ft (5.2 m) deep load
Propulsion: Lairds horizontal direct action; 1,450 ihp. Inoperable by 1910.
Sail plan: Ship-rigged
Speed: 10.5 knots
Complement: 153
Armament: Four 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles (disarmed 1904)
Armour: Belt 4.5 inches, 3 inches at bow, 2 inches at stern
Turret faces 10 inches
Sides 5 inches
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)
They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
I’m a member, so should you be!
One of oddest weapons ever carried by the US military looked like a massive sawn-off shotgun. With the improbable nickname of the ‘bloop gun’ this handy little grenade launcher has had an impressively long life.
After World War 2, the Army decided to usher in a new series of weapons. During the previous war, soldiers had carried rifle grenades, simple handheld bombs that could be fired from a cup attached to the standard M1 rifle out to about 150 yards with sloppy but effective accuracy. Three soldiers in each squad were trained to carry and use these devices, and the Army thought they could do better. Originally called Project Salvo, then finally Project NIBLICK, the concept was that a dedicated grenade launcher that could fire faster and more accurately than the WWII rifle grenades, would just tie down two soldiers per squad rather than three, and still be more effective.
Project NIBLICK begat the weapon later designated the M79 Grenade Launcher.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
“For sale only 16 rnds. Fired through it like new. Sorry no box or paper work . WIFE SAyS it has to go before I shoot up the house. It’s a sweet shooter smooth action and will never let you down just ask my pets they hide whenever they see it . Really looking for 22lr.”
