Monthly Archives: January 2025

Brown Water C-rat Can Assist

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Official caption: “Mekong Delta, Republic of Vietnam. US Navy Gunner’s Mate Third Class Barry Johnson returns enemy fire with the M-60 machine gun on board his US Navy River Patrol Boat (PBR). The enemy opened fire on the PBR as it moved along a canal near Tan Dinh Island during Operation Bold Dragon III, 26 March 1968.”

U.S. Navy Photo 428GX-K46404

Note the C-ration can used to keep the ammo belt in line without an assistant gunner, a common hack in Vietnam.

There is also another from the same angle.

U.S. Navy Photo 428GX-K46403

Note the locally-made River Div 532 (Navy River Division Five Three Two) patch, a PBR group of 10 boats that typically worked from moored gator mother ship USS Harnett County (LST-821) in the Mekong Delta.

Marolda and Dunnavent mention 532 at least twice in their work on the Brown Water Navy, most notably in this section, covering operations in Feb. 1969’s Operation Giant Slingshot on the Vam Co Dong River:

River Division 532 commanded by Lieutenant George Stefencavage was one of the most successful units in Giant Slingshot. Between 8 February and 4 April, the PBR unit killed more than 100 of the enemy while suffering the loss of two PBRs and four Sailors. Stefencavage and over half of the men in his command were wounded during the period. On 28 February, in a typical action, the PBRs surprised and dispersed a Viet Cong ambush force but then took heavy fire from another position nearby. Without hesitation, Stefancavage, even though he was already wounded in several places, led his command against the threat and silenced the remaining guerrillas. The Navy awarded him a Silver Star for his bravery.

CDR Stefencavage (Moorhead ROTC ’52) retired from the Navy in 1984, with his last command being the XO at Philadelphia Naval Base. He passed in 1990.

Smith & Wesson Getting Back to Wheelgun Roots

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Smith & Wesson is playing the classics at SHOT Show when it comes to bringing back popular revolver lines including the Model 629 and 686 Mountain guns.

The company previously announced it is adding a trio of J and K frame “No Hole” classics— sans the oft-detested internal lock system– to its catalog for 2025. Joining these three new variants at SHOT Show will be a pair of great-looking Mountain Guns including an L-frame .357 Magnum and an N-frame .44 Magnum.

The original Mountain Gun series dates back to the late 1980s. Designed with a tapered 4-inch barrel, a large bore caliber (.357 Mag., .41 Mag., .44 Mag., .45 ACP, .45 LC), adjustable rear sighs, and a stainless steel frame, these were intended for use in the field while being capable of defense against a large predator on two or four legs if needed. While the old MGs of the past, such as the Model 625-6 and 625-9, have faded into history, deleted from Smith’s catalog by 2005, that is changing.

Lipsey’s has partnered with S&W to offer two new Mountain Gun models this year, a 686 Plus (7 shot .357) and a 629 (6 shot .44).

True to the old ways, they will have one-piece 4-inch tapered barrels, adjustable rear sights, and stainless steel construction. Standard features will be a partridge-style front sight with a brass bead insert, Tyler Gun Works high-grade walnut Bear Hug grips on a round butt frame, a beveled cylinder front edge, and chambered charge holes. Likewise, there is no detested internal lock.

The new Smith & Wesson Model 686 Plus Mountain Gun. We were able to lay hands on this thumper at an event with S&W on Sunday night just before SHOT Show. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The 686 Plus Mountain Gun weighs 35 ounces. The 4.13-inch barrel yields and a 9.75-inch overall length. It is a 7-shot .357 Magnum that will also accept .38 Special cartridges. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Both of the new Mountain Gun revolvers from Smith have an adjustable rear sight as well as a partridge-style front sight with a brass bead insert.

We also managed to spend some time with two of the gunmaker’s new Classic No Lock series revolvers, which look more akin to wheelguns the company produced in the 1950s than current models.

The S&W Classic Model 36 No Lock. Note this J-frame .38 Special +P 5-shot revolver has the very old-school half-moon sights seen on early Chief’s Specials as well as walnut medallion grips.

The S&W Classic Model 10 No Lock. This 6-shot K frame .38 Special +P revolver has a set of smooth TGW grips that give it the feel of a WWII Victory model.

Nice to see Smith is getting back to its roots.

Stay tuned for more from SHOT Show.

Of Giant Mittens and Broom Jockeys: BoBo’s Flying Circus

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For the men of Patrol Bombing Squadron SIX (CG) who spent their entire stint in WWII in Greenland, the care and maintenance of their PBY-5A Catalinas was a bit different from the experience had by “Catmen” serving in the South Pacific.

Original caption, 23 February 1944: “A bearded U.S. Coast Guardsman clears snow from the wings of a PBY patrol plane assigned to a Coast Guard-manned air base on the bleak coast of Greenland. The plane is kept in top running order for its sky sweeps against enemy craft daring to penetrate into the northern wastes.” NARA 26-G-02-23-44(6)

Original caption. February 23, 1944: Purr of a sewing machine gives a domestic touch to the life of this Coast Guardsman on duty at a U.S. Coast Guard airplane patrol base in Greenland. He is making wing covers to protect the plane against the winter storms that blow out of the Atlantic. NARA 26-G-02-23-44(2)

Established 5 October 1943 at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, as a dedicated USCG-manned squadron under the Navy’s FAW-9 (NorthLant) operational control, they took over from the Navy’s VB-126 and immediately began operations out of Narsarssuak, Greenland (Bluie West 1). With ten aircraft (one designated as a spare), 22 officers, and 145 enlisted, including eight enlisted pilots, operational flights from Greenland began on 13 October after the first three PBYs arrived at BW-1.

As noted by the DANVS:

These aircraft and crews were rotated frequently to allow maintenance and repair work to be done on the other seven. At Narsarssuak all the squadron’s aircraft sat outside and all maintenance, refueling, and arming took place in the open regardless of weather conditions because it was found that moving aircraft from warm hangars to the cold outside resulted in condensation and subsequent freezing in fuel pumps, controls, and instruments. Herman Nelson F-1 portable heaters were needed to warm the engines and the aircraft interiors before starting. Crews were relieved every 12 months, with relief crews staggered every four months. The U.S. Army provided aerology support and daily weather briefings.

Maintenance was done outside – If a hangar was needed the aircraft was flown to Argentia.

Greenland Patrol USCG PBY Catalina crew refueling in the water, note the rubber suits on the fuel men. NARA 26-G-10-07-42(4)

The Squadron’s patch, a frozen cat on a depth charge. Their nickname was “BoBo’s Flying Circus”

By November 1944, in searching for German U-boats and weather teams, CG Bombing Six had flown 638,99 miles in 6,325 hours, covering over 3 million square miles of frozen ocean and ice.

One of their most important finds was the disabled British trawler HMT Strathella, which was floating disabled west of Cape Farewell with a damaged shaft and dead batteries. With the crew down to their last tin of bully beef after drifting for weeks, they were spotted in the nick of time, and the USCGC Modoc was vectored to their rescue.

USCG PBY Catalina of Bombing Six Bluie West-1, Greenland 1944

VBP-6 gave hard service, often sending planes on detached service throughout the region, and effected multiple air-sea rescues for bomber and fighter crews lost on trans-Atlantic ferry flights over Greenland’s unforgiving remote ice cap.

Original caption: May 19, 1944. “Over the barren expanse of the 2,000-foot-high Greenland Ice Cap speeds a Coast Guard PBY Flying Boat. Thousands of years old, the Ice Cap looms as a forbidding menace to fliers. One of the most daring plane rescues in history was recorded in the winter of 1942, when Coast Guard Lieutenant John A. Pritchard, Jr., of Burbank, Calif., landed his PBY on the treacherous surface of the Ice Cap and took off successfully to rescue two of three Army fliers, stranded there when their Flying Fortress crashed. The next day, attempting to rescue the third Army airman, Lieutenant Pritchard’s plan was wrecked. The pilot, his co-pilot, and the Army flier were killed.” NARA 26-G-05-19-44(2)

VPB-6 was transferred to the USCG on 10 July 1945 and was subsequently disbanded.

The service kept flying the type on SAR missions from U.S. bases through 1956. 

Getting Greasy

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Just 40 years ago this week.

Official caption: “Private First Class (PFC) Jose Ledoux-Garcia of Company C, 5th Battalion, 77th Armor, guards his M60A3 main battle tank during Central Guardian, a phase of Exercise REFORGER ’85. He is armed with an M3A1 .45-caliber submarine gun. Base: Giessen, West Germany (FRG), 22 January 1985.”

How about that open bolt on the M3! Note the short receiver M85/T175 (M19) .50 caliber machine gun in the tank commander’s copula, as identified by its crimped flash hider. It was distinctive for being one of the most unreliable machine guns ever adopted by the U.S. DF-ST-85-13234

It is hard to believe that only 40 short years ago, M60 Pattons and M3 Grease Guns were still on the front lines of the Fulda Gap. Both would linger on through Desert Storm.

As for the “Steel Tigers” of the 77th Armor, formed originally as the 753rd Medium Tank Battalion on 25 April 1941, they trained at three different bases in the south that have all been renamed since then and, receiving their first M4A1 Shermans in early 1943, shipped out for North Africa attached to the 45th Infantry (“Thunderbird”) Division.

Just missing the end of the Afrika Corps in Tunisia, they were soon fighting in Sicily (Operation Husky) under Patton’s command and their tanks spearheaded the first Allied unit into Messina, losing six tanks to 28 enemy tracks claimed. They fought for Naples and Rome, earned a French Croix de Guerre for the liberation of the Vosage in 1944, and continued on into Germany through the Ardennes and the Rhineland for VE-Day.

The Sherman-equipped 753rd fought in Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Southern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe, typically in platoon and company-sized elements spread out through the 45th ID. 

Post-war, they were redesignated as the Japan-based 77th Heavy Tank Battalion, equipped with M-26s and M4A4E8s, and saw much service in Korea, earning six campaign streamers with the 7th ID.

Then came eight campaigns in Vietnam with M48s in 1969-70, equipped with M60s, continued Cold War service first with the 5th ID and then with the 4th ID, including deployments back to Germany.

Eventually upgrading to the M1 Abrams, they deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo, then moved heavily from Schweinfurt, Germany in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2012 to the sandbox in support of the 1st Infantry Division and then the 1st Armored Division.

They are one of the few Army armor units to carry a Navy Unit Commendation, on the recommendation of the Marine Corps Commandant, earned during Operation Iraqi Freedom VI-VIII in support of I MEF.

Today, the Steel Tigers remain as part of the 1st ID’s 3rd BCT at sunny Fort Bliss, Texas, but, in true globetrotter fashion, they are currently on a rotational deployment to Poland, getting some snow time in.

Their official unit motto is Insiste Firmiter (To Stand Firm) and their battle cry is “Blood on the Axe” for obvious reasons.

5-inchers got a Lot more use than you’d expect in the Red Sea (and an LCS got in on it)

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As detailed by the head of Naval Surface Forces, VADM Brendan McLane, during the annual Surface Navy Association conference this week, warships expended some 400 pieces of ordnance in defense against incoming threats from Iranian/Houthi rebels over the past 15 months.

  • 120 SM-2 missiles.
  • 80 SM-6 missiles.
  • 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and SM-3 missiles.
  • 160 rounds from destroyers and cruisers’ five-inch main guns.

The last one is great news, as the anti-air capability of the MK 45 5″/54 and 5″/62— especially when using proximity (VTF and IR) rounds– has been often overlooked. I mean they have a published effective AA range of 23,000 feet and can fire 20 rounds in the first minute of going hot.

Datasheets inbound: 

LCS Combat!

One interesting tidbit not included in the above table is that an LCS has been bloodied in battle as well, with the USS Indianapolis (LCS 17) recently earning a Combat Action Ribbon and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the first for her type, “after shooting down Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea.”

Indy, a Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, just completed an 18-month deployment, which included two exchanges of command between LCS Crew 112 and LCS Crew 118.

While traveling as a Surface Action Group with the destroyers USS Spruance and USS Stockdale through the Red Sea, the ships “successfully detected and defeated a combined 23 Ballistic and Anti-Ship Cruise missiles and one-way attack drones fired from Houthi Rebels in Yemen” across three days from 23-25 September.

Now, unclear is if Indy got in shots on said incoming vampires, and if so was it from her 57mm gun, her Sea-Ram, or her embarked MH-60 from HSC 28. It was also recently detailed that a Seahawk downed a Houthi drone via its 7.62mm door gun last month, so that’s a possibility.

“What this team of amazing Americans achieved over the course of this deployment will pay dividends in the maintenance planning and tactics development arenas for years to come,” said Cmdr. Matthew Arndt, USS Indianapolis’ Commanding Officer. “As the workhorse of the Arabian Gulf, Indy executed the lower tier missions necessary to maintaining good diplomatic relations in the Middle East which allowed Standard Missile shooters to reposition to deal with bad actors in the Red Sea. I think it’s pretty special that we were able to provide the 5th Fleet commander with more tools and options to aid in the free flow of commerce through a contested waterway.”

Et par Saint Antoine,

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On this January 17, we wish a good “Saint Antoine Day” to all legionnaires, wherever they are.

And by St. Antoine…

Seen as a Patron of ailments, illness, and dangers who spent much time suffering in the Sahara desert– he is often referred to as “Anthony of the Desert”, the Legion has a particular affinity for the Egyptian Coptic saint.

French Foreign Legion 2e REI legionnaires during Operation Promethee in Algeria, 1960, note the “lizard” camo pattern

 

The Magpul Folding Gun is Real, and it’s Coming

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It has been teased for decades but it looks like the Magpul and ZEV FDP, in both carbine and pistol format, will be headed to market in 2025. It’s real, and we’ve shot it.

If ever a gun was wish-cast into existence, it is this one.

This strange path, of producing an innocuous-looking box that could transform as if by magic into a PCC, started with Francis Warin’s boxy ARES project in the 1970s – which used a German MP28 magazine, of all things – then quickly moved on to Utah Connor’s “boom box” (complete with collapsing antenna) style Undercover 9 or UC-9, and James Boatman’s companion DEB M-21.

The latter gained everlasting fame in the 1990’s “Robocop 2.”

Connor called his one-of-a-kind weapon the “Undercover 9” or UC-9 back in the day and people have been chasing it for 50 years.

In 2008, Magpul reimagined the UC-9/M-21 in a concept gun that dropped the dated portable boom box disguise and updated the look to that of an extra laptop battery (which was a thing at the time).

Dubbed the FMG-9, it remained vaporware until Magpul succumbed to public demand in 2021 and announced what was then termed the Folding Defensive Pistol-9 and a Folding Defensive Carbine-9, using a ZEV OZ9 operating system inside a Magpul chassis.

While Magpul brought prototypes to the last three SHOT Shows since then, the FDP and FDC have yet to appear, which is something of a bummer.

But 2025 is set to be a year of sweet, sweet fulfillment as the now FDP-C carbine and FDP-P pistol are headed to market.

The full update in my column at Guns.com.

The Littlest Wren

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Some 82 years ago this week, the official caption: “WREN Nancy Jackson asking the sentry’s permission to go onboard a destroyer to deliver a message in Harwich, Essex, England – January 15, 1943. At 4 ft 7 inches tall, Nancy Jackson was the shortest WREN (Women’s Royal Naval Service) in the Royal Navy during WW2

Davies, F A (Lt) Photographer, Admiralty collection, IWM A 13976
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205147218

The gangplank sentry is armed with the classic Great War era “Smelly” (SMLE Rifle #1 Mark III*).

As for the WRENS, formed originally in 1917— at about the same time as the sentry’s rifle was made, by the end of the war they counted 5,500 members. However, they really came into their own in WWII, with some 74,000 women– all volunteers– involved in over 200 different jobs within the Royal Navy, concentrating on clerical, workshop, and communications taskings.

WOMEN ON THE HOME FRONT 1939 – 1945 (A 13209) The Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS): Wren Armourers, whose jobs included the overhaul, maintenance and serving of guns, pictured testing a Lewis gun at Lee-on-Solent Naval Air Station. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205193235

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12187) A QO Wren removing a 0.5 Vickers machine gun turret for servicing. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145632

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12193) A QO Wren stripping and cleaning a Lewis Gun on board a coastal craft. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145638

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12198) Installing the 0.5 Vickers machine gun into the gun turret after servicing it. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145643

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12189) A QO Wren stripping and cleaning Lewis Guns on board a coastal craft. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145634

WRENS working a pom-pom, and not the cheerleading kind

A WREN serving on a harbor launch in Portsmouth during World War II. Photo by Cecil Beaton, via the Imperial War Museum. (click to big up)

Sadly, 102 lost their life during the conflict.

Curiously, the WRENS remained a separate corps of the RN until 1993 while comparative U.S. Navy (WAVES), USCG (SPAR), and Army (WAC) all-female units were integrated into the main force much earlier (1948, 1946, and 1978, respectively).

Of note, however, both the WAVES and SPARS had a minimum height requirement in 1943 of 5 feet (without shoes). The WACs, meanwhile, let ’em run a couple inches shorter, with the requirement of “standing at least fifty-eight inches tall, weighing at least 100 pounds, and possessing good vision.”

When is the last time that you saw a new top-fed pistol?

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One of the biggest engineering problems of early semi-automatic “self-loading” handguns was the magazine and how to load it rapidly.

While the detachable box magazine today is a staple, in the 1890s it was commonly only seen in rifles such as the Lee-Metford. Hugo Borchardt’s C93 was one of the first commercial detachable magazine-fed pistols and, while Georg Luger picked up Borchardt’s design for his own Parabellum pistol series a few years later, another take on semi-auto pistol loading and reloading was the Feederle brothers’ wildly popular Mauser C96 which used a 10-round internal magazine fed through the top of the action via a stripper clip, much like the Mauser bolt-action rifles of the age.

With Luger’s and Browning’s turn-of-the-century designs taking over the market after 1900, the way forward was clear and the C96 eventually faded into history.

Well, KelTec announced Wednesday it is blending tradition with innovation in its newest carry pistol, the top-fed internal magazine PR57.

The KelTec PR57 is fed via 10-round stripper clips or one round at a time in a pinch. The internal magazine holds 20 rounds. The company argues the minimalistic approach reduces room for error while deleting the detachable magazine trims parts and streamlines the design.

Chambered in 5.7 NATO, the “R” in the PR57 comes from its use of a rotary barrel design. Ditching a detachable box magazine in favor of a clip-fed top-loading design similar to the old C96 Broomhandle Mauser and KelTec founder George Kellgren’s circa 1988 Grendel P10, the company says the PR57 is the lightest pistol in its caliber on the market, with the full-sized handgun hitting the scales at just 13.86 ounces, unloaded.

More in my column at Guns.com.

CMP Raises Gun Limits

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Official caption: “Group of men surround the last M1 .30-caliber rifles off the production line. Col. Hurlbut stands on the left. Lt. Col. Septfonds stands second from left. John C. Garand stands second from right and he holds the last rifle.” (Springfield Armory National Historic Site Photo 12808-SA.1)

Apparently, the CMP is either (A) not getting the same sort of demand for M1 Garands as they have been in the past or (B) is super flush with guns that fewer people want and is running out of space because they have just all but abandoned the rationing of rifles to its members.

I’m betting they are getting a lot of old Garands (along with smaller lots of Krags, M1917s, and M1903s) turned in by local VFW and similar units that are closing their doors. Today’s vets just don’t join those groups as their dads and granddads did in the 20th Century. Plus, in this economy, not a lot of folks have even the modest $1,150 for re-barreled Expert Grade and $900 for Navy 7.62 NATO M1s to spare.

Of note, the previous limit was 8 Garands per year– but that was back when Field and Service grade rifles were available for $650-$750 just a few years back.

Via CMP:

  • Effective January 7, 2025, customers are allowed to purchase up to twelve (12) surplus rifles (any type) per year. This limit excludes .22 rifles.
  • Surplus Ammo Limit: 2,000 rounds per caliber per year.
  • Commercial Ammo Limit: None
  • Please note: The CMP strictly enforces the limits referenced above. The CMP, at its discretion, reserves the right to ban from all future sales any attempts made by customers to circumvent these limits
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