Category Archives: weapons

Sherman, arriving for last time

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The Honolulu-based Coast Guard Cutter Sherman (WHEC 720, shown here as she returned home Sept. 20, 2017, after a 94-day, 16,000-mile patrol in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by USCGC Sherman/Released)

The 50-year-old Hamilton-class 378-foot high endurance cutter USCGC Sherman (WHEC-720) has returned from her final trip under a U.S. flag last week following a 76-day patrol in the Bering Sea. She is scheduled to decommission in March.

From USCG Public Affairs:

During the three-month patrol, the crew supported the safe transit of a disabled vessel over 800 miles to Dutch Harbor, enforced fisheries regulations in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. They also provided a command and control platform capable of embarking a helicopter, thus providing search and rescue coverage to those operating in the Bering Sea.

Sherman has a storied history including being the last remaining U.S. Warship in the Coast Guard or Navy to have sunk an enemy vessel. It is also one of only two cutters to hold the Vietnam Service Award and the only cutter to hold the Combat Action Ribbon for action in the Vietnam War.

In 2001 it became the first cutter to circumnavigate the world, after conducting U.N. sanctions enforcement duty in the Persian Gulf and goodwill projects in Madagascar, South Africa and Cape Verde.

Adding to Sherman’s history, in March of 2007, a boarding team dispatched from the cutter discovered 17 metric tons of cocaine on the Panamanian-flagged freighter, Gatun. This seizure remains the largest drug bust in U.S. history with an estimated street value of $600 million. As the record holder, Sherman proudly wears the Golden Snowflake.

The crew rounded out the cutter’s storied career in the Bering Sea; conducting 16 fisheries boardings, issuing four fisheries violations and one safety violation, ensuring the integrity of the $6 billion fishing industry. As the primary search and rescue asset in the region at the time, Sherman also ensured the safe transit of the crew of the Resolve Pioneer, a Dutch Harbor-based ocean-going tug, following a severe casualty at the far end of the Aleutian chain, restricting their speed and maneuverability.

“As Sherman and her crew return home from this final patrol, it is humbling to look back on the history and the accomplishments of this crew and the previous,” said Capt. Steve Wittrock, commanding officer of Sherman. “This final patrol has been significant in that the Bering Sea mission is one of the most demanding and historically important in the Coast Guard and I am very proud of the way that the crew has performed throughout the last two challenging months.”

Sherman is one of the Coast Guard’s four remaining 378-foot high endurance cutters still in operation. The 1960s era fleet of cutters is presently being replaced by the 413-foot national security cutters, which will soon serve as the Coast Guard’s primary, long-range asset. Honolulu will serve as a homeport to two of the national security cutters, replacing Sherman and the already decommissioned Morgenthau.

So far, the State Department has passed on three of the stricken “378s” to the Philippines (USCGC Hamilton, Boutwell, Dallas), two to the Nigerian Navy (Gallatin and Chase) and two to the Bangladesh Navy (Jarvis and Rush). Morgenthau went to the Vietnam Coast Guard last year. With Sherman decommissioned, only USCGC Mellon (WHEC-717) and Midgett (WHEC-726) based in Seattle, and Munro (WHEC-724) in Kodiak remain in U.S. service and are expected to be replaced by the National Security Cutter program by 2021.

SHOT Show hits and misses

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Made it back alive (though the flight back from Vegas was full of walking wounded) so you neither have to avenge me nor get the opportunity to split up my gear.

Here are some of the more interesting developments, though I will circle back around later in the week with a couple of tales of interesting people I met on the way.

Franklin Armory’s BFS III-equipped Revelation “firearm” seems like it would be an SBR, but it only seems that way. (Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

So I got to check out the Reformation by Franklin Armory, and like I called it, it uses a non-rifled barrel (straight lands and grooves) with rifle ammo (.300BLK/5.56mm) to give you a non-NFA short barreled rifle (because, duh, it’s not legally a rifle!). I made contact on the range with it at close distances and it shot well but is billed with an accuracy of just 4 MOA at 100 yards, which is better than the old Brown Bess– or your typical SKS for that matter– but sill is generating a lot of hate as something as a Stormtrooper rifle. More on that in my column at Guns.com here.

Would you like to know more? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Then there was the new Tavor TS12 shotgun, which looks like low-effort Starship Troopers cosplay but brings 15 shells of 12 to the party in a bullpup design that is just 29-inches overall (and 10 high!). Recoil impulse was…different. Meh, bullpups. More here.

Mossberg points out that their new 590M series, shown with a 20-round mag inserted above, allows for quick reloading in a smaller package than the other guys’ single-stacks. A pair of 10-round mags, standard to the shotgun, is seen to the left (Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The surprise of the party was Mossberg’s HUGE double stack 12 gauge mags for a dedicated series of 590 shotguns. Sure they are expensive ($100) and giant (like a loaf of french bread for the 20-rounder big) but they are still smaller than comparable single stacks from Remington and Black Aces while being similar in price to Saiga mags. More on that here.

Cannon Row at Fort Moultrie

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(Photo: NPS/Johnson)

Via the National Park Service:

Cannon Row at Fort Moultrie is home to eight pieces of heavy artillery original to Charleston Harbor. Each piece has a story to tell of ingenuity, technology, and resourcefulness. Cannon Row includes a 13-inch seacoast mortar, two 10-inch Rodmans, a 10-inch Confederate Columbiad, a 10-inch Columbiad that was rifled and banded during the war, an 8-inch Parrott, a 10-inch Parrott, and the 7-inch triple-banded Brooke Rifle. Of the 8 pieces, the rifled and banded Columbiad and the Brooke are the most unique.

The modified Columbiad was originally a Union piece and then was captured by the Confederates during the surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861. At a later date, the gun was hit at least twice by artillery and became unserviceable. Beauregard sent the piece to be rifled by a private firm in Charleston. It was outfitted with a bronze trunnion band bearing the initials “CS.” When the gun was recaptured by the Union, they very crudely carved a “US” into the band.

The triple-banded Brooke, now at Fort Moultrie, is the only one surviving of the three ever cast. Thanks to its hard-hitting, iron-penetrating bolts, the gun became a favorite for the soldiers on Sullivan’s Island and a terror for the Union Navy.

Pictured above is Fort Moultrie’s cannon row with an impending thunderstorm in the background.

 

Rifleman, attention!

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Observe the following recruiting poster found in Maine in the summer and fall of 1861, during the early months of the War Between the States.

Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.02703700/. (Accessed January 09, 2018.)

Riflemen, ATTENTION!

A COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED MEN to be selected from the BEST RIFLE SHOTS, In the State, is to be raised to act as a COMPANY OF SHARP SHOOTERS through the War. Each man will be entitled to A BOUNTY OF $22,00, When mustered into the service of the United States, and 100,00 DOLLARS at the close of the War, in addition to his regular pay.

No man will be accepted or mustered into service who is not an active and able-bodied man, and who cannot when firing at a rest at a distance of two hundred yards, put ten consecutive shots into a target the average distance not to exceed five inches from the centre of the bull’s eye to the centre of the ball; and all candidates will have to pass such an examination as to satisfy the recruiting officer of their fitness for enlistment in this corps.

Recruits having Rifles to which they are accustomed are requested to bring them to the place of rendezvous.

Recruits will be received by JAMES D. FESSENDEN, Adams Block, No. 23, Market Square, PORTLAND, Maine.

Sept. 16, 1861. Bridgton Reporter Press,—S. H. Noyes, Printer.

The above broadside, is, of course for Col. Hiram Berdan’s U.S. Sharpshooters.  Tasked in 1861 with recruiting of 18 companies of marksmen, from 8 states, which were formed into two regiments (1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters) later year. Company “D” of the 2nd USSS was raised in Maine on November 2, 1861.

Their distinctive green uniforms served them well until they were replaced with more standard Union blue by 1863.

1st USSS Rgt early in the war, by Woodbridge

When the Sharpshooter brigade was disbanded altogether in late 1864, the remaining Mainers of the company were rolled into the 17th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment and ultimately mustered out on June 10, 1865, after the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomatix Campaign.

 

Humint, 1978

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(U.S. Navy Museum Number: 428-GX-USN 1172664) Soviet strike bomber Tupolev Tu-22M (Russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) Photograph received by U.S. Naval Intellegence, July 1978.

Though the type first flew in 1969 and was operational by 1972, it’s existance was not widely known in the West until it popped up over the Baltic on an excercise in 1980 during the international heartburn over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the footage appeared on state-run TV.

 

So I’m in Las Vegas for SHOT Show

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Found this on the range and, despite it’s odd recoil impulse and sometimes confusing weapon manipulation, is very interesting in a 1960s High Standard HS10 kinda way. I give you the IWI Tavor TS12, a bullpup semi-auto shotgun with a 15-shot capacity.

The Israeli shotgun uses a trio of 5-shot (using 2.75-inch shells) tubular magazines that automatically loads the next round in the 3-inch chamber when the mag is rotated into place. When using 3-inch shells, the capacity drops by one shell in each mag. The 18.5-inch barrel is threaded for Benelli or Beretta chokes and one is included. Weight empty is advertised as being 8 pounds. The shotgun includes a one-piece Picatinny top rail and M-Lok slots on the forward handguard. The ambi design allows the user to swap out for left or right controls and ejection.

And there is also this thing, which shoots very well, but they still aren’t letting on how it is done. I am still on record that it uses a form of rifling that isn’t considered such by BATFE. We shall see.

Franklin Armory promises 11.5-inch barreled non-NFA firearm, with a stock

Also, no Warship Wednesday tomorrow. Sorry gang. Will rejoin WW already in progress next week. The past two weeks have been swamped. If I don’t make it back alive, you know the drill: avenge my death.

Mexico may be getting some decent surface asset firepower

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The Armada of the Mexican Republic awhile back contracted with the Dutch (Damen) to build a series of four Sigma 10514 POLA (Patrullera Oceánica de Largo Alcance, eng=Oceanic Long Range Patrol) ships to replace the elderly 1960s steam FFs bought from the U.S. and augment their locally-produced light (read= lightly armed yacht) OPVs.

The 344-foot, 2,000-ton frigates are pretty nice and are really comparable to the German MEKO 200s (and frankly better than the LCS). While Indonesia is getting some that are pretty tricked out, the Mexican Navy has opted for a Bofors 57mm, 25mm secondaries (Mk38s), RAM, Harpoon, and Mk. 32 ASW tubes. Check out the below to get a fix on them and how the work will be split into modules between Holland and Mexico.

DSCA approved the following sale earlier this month to help give these ships a little bite. Though the quantities suggest that the outlay is for the first ship only:

The Government of Mexico has requested to buy six (6) RGM-84L Harpoon Block II surface launched missiles, twenty-three (23) Block II Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) tactical missiles and six (6) MK 54 Mod 0 lightweight torpedoes. Also included are eight (8) MK 825 Mod 0 RAM Guided Missile Round Packs (GMRP) tri-pack shipping and storage containers; RAM Block 2 MK 44 Mod 4 Guided Missile Round Pack (GMRP); two (2) MK 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes (SVTT) triple tube launchers; two hundred and fifty (250) rounds of AA98 25 mm high explosive and semi-armor piercing ammunition; seven hundred and fifty (750) rounds A976 25mm target practice and tracer ammunition; four hundred and eighty (480) rounds of BA22 57mm high explosive programmable fuze ammunition; nine hundred and sixty (960) rounds of BA23 57mm practice ammunition; containers; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; publications and technical documentation; personnel training and training equipment; U.S. Government and contractor representatives’ technical assistance; engineering and logistics support services; installation services; associated electronics and hardware to control the launch of torpedoes; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated cost is $98.4 million

What a strange bird, 78 years ago today

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A Tommy with 2nd Battalion, the Warwickshire Regiment is perched in a tree taking aim with his rifle. The photograph was taken during an exercise at Rumegies near the Belgian border, on the 22nd January 1940, during the eight-month “Phoney War” or “Sitzkrieg” period between the fall of Poland and the invasion of France.

His rifle is the Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle No.1 MkIII.

The Warwickshires were originally formed in 1685 in the Netherlands by James II as the 6th Regiment of Foot, changing their name to the 1st Warwickshire in 1782. They fought in the Napoleonic wars, both World Wars, the Boer War and other assorted conflicts around the globe for 283 years when amalgamated finally as a single battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers, they lost their name and were folded into the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in 1968 with their current RHQ in the Tower of London. Today they field an active duty armored infantry battalion (1st) equipped with Warriors while a TA unit, (5th bn) is equipped as light infantry.

FM 1-1

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“Manual Exercise of the Musketeers”

Click to big up 1200×1800

Plate from a 17th-Century manual of arms step-by-step procedure in the “handling of the musket by ranked men was essential to avoid fatal accidents.”

Pretty important with lit matches around firelocks…

Nighthawk Custom’s stuff really does make you want to cry

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Berryville, Arkansas-based Nighthawk Custom has a very impressive 1911 Commander-sized handgun in 9mm or .45ACP they hope will appeal to female gun enthusiasts. The niche specialty gun maker’s Lady Hawk 2.0 builds on their legacy design and pairs a Rose Gold TICN finish on the surface controls and barrel with custom obsidian, abalone and zinc grips, topped with lots of high-speed tweaks and Heine night sights.

Still, you almost hate to shoot it.

 

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