Category Archives: weapons

CMP Now Scraping the Drill Rifle Bucket

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As a teen back in the early 1990s, I spent hours every week caring for and maintaining the 40 WWII vintage M1903 drill rifles we had in the armory of my NJROTC unit. They had a steel rod welded in the barrel and the magazine cut-off welded up, making it so that you couldn’t work the bolt. When we had to fire blank salute volleys, say, for Veterans Day, we used still-functional M1903s borrowed from a local VFW.

Other units I saw at regional competitions had M1 Garand drill rifles that similarly had the barrel and receiver gouge torched and bolt welded to receiver.

Years ago, such drill rifles were replaced by fully fake replicas, and the welded-up war vets were put in storage. Over the years, they have floated out via CMP and other outlets. I bought one for $150 at the Anniston location back in 2017 and still have it. Heck, the wood was worth that alone.

I thought about recovering it to make a working rifle but figured it would not be salvageable or worth the effort.

Well, CMP is apparently running so low on M1 and M1903s that they are now doing just that, but at least seem to have done the homework when it comes to making them safe.

The CMP, in conjunction with leading industry experts, completed a comprehensive engineering program to determine whether weld-repaired drill-rifle receivers for the M1 Garand and Model 1903-A3 can return to live-fire use while meeting—and potentially exceeding—the same safety and durability standards as original receivers. Heritage Arms performed the weld removal, machining, and assembly of the test rifles, while Prospector Training LLC executed the proof-firing and destructive metallography and supplied quality-engineering support. Additionally, each rifle produced will undergo testing (further described below) before they will be deemed available for sale.

The reasoning behind it makes sense:

For collectors, these efforts keep authentic U.S. receivers in circulation rather than consigning them to scrap. For competitors and recreational shooters, they sustain rifle availability without altering grades, prices, or warranty terms. Most importantly, the initiative advances CMP’s Congressionally mandated mission: expanding marksmanship opportunities, promoting firearms training and safety—especially among youth—and preserving America’s military heritage. Through technical rigor and historical stewardship, the Drill Rifle Initiative exemplifies how that mission is executed for shooters across the nation.

 

Chopping it up along the Verde Trail

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It happened 80 years ago.

8 May 1945. Caballero Mountains, Luzon. While peace of a sort had come to Europe, WWII continued to roar in the Pacific.

Here we see a M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage “Special” that, in lieu of the standard M1 37mm gun/. 50 cal combination normally seen, was modified with a 40mm Bofors. It is also shown with an M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, which is essentially an M3 half-track chassis carrying an M45 Maxon “Meat Chopper” quad .50 cal.

A closer look at the M15. During Korea, this modification was solidified in the M34 with 102 M15s converted in Japan in 1951. The M34 mounted a single 40 mm Bofors gun in place of the M15’s combination gun mount. This was due primarily to a shortage of 37 mm ammunition, which was no longer manufactured. M34s served with at least two AAA (automatic weapons) battalions (the 26th and 140th) in the Korean War.

And a close-up of the M16/50 Quad.

M16 firing on Japanese position on the Villa Verde Trail in the Caballero Mountains, Luzon, PI, May 8, 1945

All of the above tracks are assigned to A Co, 209 AAA (Aw) Battalion of the 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Division, and are being used on Yamashita Ridge during the Battle of Villa Verde Trail.

As noted by the Army’s CMH, “In brief, the battle for the Villa Verde Trail became a knock-down, drag-out slug fest.”

The 32nd– which logged 654 days of combat during WWII, more than any other U.S. Army division– suffered 4,961 casualties in the Luzon Campaign.

Army’s (Don’t Call it a) Light Tank Albatross Reappears

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The U.S. Army has had problems with not wanting, but still needing, a decent light tank for generations.

World War II showed the lesson of having a decent light track in the form of the 15-ton M3/M5 Stuart, which, armed with a 37mm gun, swathed in 50mm of armor, and capable of hitting 35 mph, still proved effective if used correctly (i.e. not in fights with Tigers) in Europe and excelled in the Pacific.

A Marine M3 Stuart on Guadalcanal, 1942 “MOP UP UNIT– Two alert U.S. Marines stand beside their small tank, which helped blast the Japanese in the battle of the Tenaru River during the early stages of fighting on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Those well-manned, sturdy machines readily mopped up strong points of enemy resistance.”

This was true enough for the Army to order the M24 Chaffee, which was a 20-ton light tank with a 75mm gun and 38mm of armor that could hit 35 mph on the road, in 1944 and then replaced it post-Korea with the M41 Walker Bulldog (23 ton, 76mm gun, 31mm of armor, 45 mph) which was replaced by the M551 Sheridan, an air-droppable 16 ton track with a weird 152mm gun/Shillelagh missile launcher tube, enough armor to stop small arms rounds, and a 40+ mph road speed.

A soldier from Co. A, 3rd Bn., 73rd Airborne Armor Regt., 82nd Airborne Div., lays out equipment for an M-551 Sheridan light tank prior to the 82nd Airborne Division live-fire exercise during Operation Desert Shield.

Sheridan, which entered service in 1969, was an oddball, but at least it gave the 82nd Airborne a battalion of tanks (err, “Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicles”) that could be Fed-Ex-ed overseas in a hurry.

Well, Sheridan grew obsolete and needed replacement, which led to the canceled M8 “Buford” armored gun system (AGS), the Stryker M1128 mobile gun system (MGS) of which 142 were build and quickly withdrawn from service, and now the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program which fielded the M10 Booker “combat vehicle.”

PD1 – Delivery of First Production Vehicle M10 Booker Combat Vehicle

Booker is a big boy, at some 37 tons, and mounts a 105mm M35 low-recoil tank gun (designed for and formerly carried by the M1128). Actually, it reminds me of the size and capability of the old M60 tank.

And with that, Booker, too heavy and too expensive, is out. The last of three (so far) vehicles that were going to replace the Sheridan, which itself was a cranky platform that nobody really liked.

But still, at least folks got paid…

Can we just pay Rheinmetall for the data set to make a modernized Wiesel here in America?

Mare’s Leg, Updated

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Rossi has trimmed down its R95 Triple Black lever-action rifle into a much more packable pistol variant for 2025.

The company debuted its new R95 Triple Black Pistol, or TBP, to the recent NRA Annual Meeting at Atlanta, and we were able to lay hands on it for a closer look. Much like its rifle-length older brother, the TBP is clad in a black Cerakote-coated finish with matching black furniture. A paracord-wrapped medium loop lever and a top-mounted Picatinny optics rail are also features that are carried over from the original.

Specific to the TBP is its abbreviation, shipping with suppressor-ready 13.25-inch barrels and a pistol grip, allowing the lever-action mare’s leg an overall length of just under two feet. Weight is 5.5 pounds, unloaded. While Rossi had the .357 Magnum variant on hand in Atlanta, the TBP will also be offered in .454 Casull, .45-70 Govt, and .44 Mag for those looking for something a little spicier.

I got to handle one at the recent NRAAM in Atlanta.

The side-loading Rossi TBP has a paracord-wrapped medium lever, which splits the difference between big loops and standard rectangular slot-style levers. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The pistols have threaded muzzles with the .357 at NRAAM fitted with a JK Armament can. All four caliber options run a four-round underbarrel magazine tube. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Note the top-mounted Picatinny optics rail. Other features include a cross-bolt manual safety and two sling swivel studs. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

With an overall length of just 23.5 inches, the Rossi TBP line is more easily stowed than a full-length carbine or rifle. (Photos: Rossi)

More after the jump to my column at Guns.com.

Bachi caps and light armor

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It happened 80 years ago.

May 1945, the Alpes-Maritimes region of France near the German-occupied Italian border. A U.S.-built Lend-Leased M5A1 light tank, White 135, of the 1er Regiment de Fusiliers Marins (1er RFM), pushes from Peira-Cava towards the 6,800-foot Authion massif, where one of the last Axis hold-outs in the region had fought hard until withdrawing into Austria. During that fight, the regiment’s 1st squadron lost five of its six officers and half of its men. Wehrmacht Generalleutnant Theobald Lieb, leading the rump of the German-Italian XXXXII. Armeekorps, had expressed surprise at seeing tanks at such altitudes– before ceding the battlefield.

Note the bachi caps, M1 Carbine, tanker’s helmet on the front running light, and mounted M1919 LMG. Ref. : MARINE 433-9488 ECPAD/Defense

The Marine tankers had been organized as a scratch battalion from some 400 French navy volunteers in England in the summer of 1940, who cast their lot with De Gaulle. Organized as an AAA unit and sent to Eritrea, they were soon fighting in Syria with the British (against their countrymen) and in North Africa, where they served with particular distinction at Bir Hakeim.

In September 1943, following a surge in recruits from the French fleet in Algeria, the battalion was expanded to a full regiment and organized as a mechanized force with Stuarts, M8 Scott 75mm self-propelled howitzers, M3 scout cars, M5 halftracks, and Willys MB jeeps.

A sister unit of tank-bound Free French sailors in exile, the Régiment Blindé de Fusilier Marins, helped liberate Paris, including the old Admiralty headquarters. It was equipped as a tank destroyer unit with M10 Wolverines. In the case of both regiments, the conversion from manning battleships and cruisers to operating armored vehicles was surprisingly simple, as the men involved included high proportions of engineering, gunnery, and radio ratings.

After fighting up the Italian “boot,” 1er RFM was pulled out of the 5th Army’s organization and joined the Dragoon Landings in Southern France in August 1944. They were on hand for the liberation of Toulon and Hyères, then went up the Rhone valley, entered Lyon, and moved into the Vosges before ending their war in the Alps.

Des chars Stuart du 1er RFM (Régiment de fusiliers-marins) de la 1re DMI (Division de marche d’infanterie) ex 1re DFL, sont stationnés sur la place Bellecour à Lyon.

1er RFM lost no less than 195 personnel, including two commanders, in combat, with another 600 men wounded. In return, they earned over 200 croix de guerre, 70 médailles militaires, 32 Légion d’honneur, and 31 croix de la Libération, with roughly a third of those decorations being issued posthumously. In total, it was enough for the regiment to earn the rare Ordre de la Libération designation.

The regiment was disbanded in August 1945, but its lineage is preserved in the training battalion at the École des fusiliers marins de Lorient.

One of the regiment’s knocked-out Stuarts remains near the crest of Mt. Authion, on eternal vigil.

Zumwalts’ New Teeth May Actually Work

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The bright shining promise of the Zumwalt-class DDGs– the largest and most expensive class of destroyers ever built for the U.S. Navy– was in their pair of 155 mm/62 (6.1-inch) Mark 51 Advanced Gun Systems carried forward.

The talisman that allowed the Navy to finally retire the battleships and scuttle the 31 still-young Spruance class destroyers (each with proven twin 5″/45s), the AGS had the mythical ability to fire as many as 10 rounds per minute, per mount, to a range of 83 nmi through the use of an un-fielded Long Range Land Attack Projectile.

AGS would have been beautiful.

However, due largely to the fact that 32 Zumwalts were planned, each with two mounts, but only three hulls ever built, the AGS shrank from nearly 100 mounts including spares and test guns to single digits. This unsustainable program was, essentially, stillborn.

Now, with the Zumwalts only armed with 80 Mk 57 peripheral VLS cells and a pair of 30mm Mk 46 mounts (paltry for a 16,000 ton ship of any type) the Navy has been sending the class to Ingalls in Pascagoula to land their inoperable 6.1-inch guns in exchange for four Advanced Payload Modules (APMs), each holding three Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missiles. In short, swapping two guns that don’t work for a dozen huge and unstoppably fast (that’s the plan, anyway) missiles.

The rub is that CPS isn’t a thing yet either, but the Navy at least now has vetted the concept of launching these big birds from a surface warship without melting its upper decks via the concept of a cold-gas launch.

U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducts a cold-gas launch of a conventional hypersonic missile on the path to Navy fielding in Cape Canaveral, Fla. This test informs the Navy fielding approach for the Conventional Prompt Strike offensive hypersonic capability, as well as the continued development and production of the common hypersonic missile that is being developed in partnership with the U.S. Army. (U.S. Navy Photo 250502-D-D0439-1234)

According to the Navy: 

The U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs is continuing on the path toward the nation’s first sea-based hypersonic fielding with a successful end-to-end flight test of a conventional hypersonic missile from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This test marked the first launch of the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) capability utilizing the Navy’s cold-gas launch approach that will be used in Navy sea-based platform fielding.

“The speed, range, and survivability of hypersonic weapons are key to integrated deterrence for America,” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan said. “When fielded, Conventional Prompt Strike will deliver unmatched capabilities to our warfighters.”

This test was the next step in the Navy’s flight testing program of the common All Up Round (AUR) that is being developed in partnership with the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. In 2024, the programs completed two additional end-to-end flight tests of the AUR that will be fielded to both the Navy and Army.

“The cold-gas approach allows the Navy to eject the missile from the platform and achieve a safe distance above the ship prior to first-stage ignition. This technical achievement brings SSP one step closer to fulfilling our role of providing a safe and reliable hypersonic capability to our Navy,” said Vice Adm. Johnny R. Wolfe Jr, Director, Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs, which is the lead designer of the common hypersonic missile.

Modern Pirate Pistol!

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Rossi has expanded its Brawler series of modern break-action single-shot pistols for the better with new models to include variants in .300 Blackout and 5.56 NATO.

The company in 2023 debuted the $300 Brawler line with a dual-caliber .410 bore/.45 Colt offering outfitted with a single-action trigger and a cross-bolt thumb safety. It’s simple. Just load the chamber, close it, cock the hammer, fire, and reload. Takes about five seconds to figure out.

Now, Rossi has upped the ante and was on hand at the recent NRA Annual Meetings in Atlanta with the new Brawlers, each carrying a more serious punch.

The Brawler in 300 BLK runs a 6-groove, 1:8 RH twist, 9-inch barrel and has an overall length of 14 inches. The 5.56 has a 1:7 twist with everything else being the same. Note the threaded barrel. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

While the .45/.410 Brawler has a high blade front sight; the rifle caliber variants only run the integrated top Picatinny rail for optics. (Photo: Rossi)

The possibilities for such a pistol as a trail gun are obvious. Paired with a suppressor, it seems ideally suited as a Form 1 candidate to transform into an SBR running Rossi’s $59 LWC/Tuffy folding pistol grip stock.

Drones Give and Take in Unusual Ways These Days

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A few interesting stories that help add color to what warfare is in 2025.

In Poland, Soldiers of the 15th Giżycko “Zawiszy Czarnego” Mechanized Brigade have been “testing new technologies for MEDEVAC procedures, notification systems, and modern teleinformation tools for planning and managing medical evacuations during both operations and emergencies.”

This includes using a large quadcopter UAV with a Stokes litter slung underneath for casevac.

Looks fun unless you are in the litter…

The Poles, who are continually keeping active tabs on what is going on in Ukraine, are all in on drones moving forward.

Drone troops are the future of the Polish army, the future of all types of armed forces. They will have hundreds of thousands of drones: flying, ground, surface, and underwater – said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on Wednesday during the annual task and settlement briefing of the management of the Ministry of National Defence and the command staff of the Polish Army.

Now, flash to the Sinai along the Israeli-Egyptian border, where the IDF recently intercepted and captured a UAV entering Israeli airspace. After downing the drone (which still looks intact, so it was probably via a soft kill ECM device) 10 M-16 style rifles and ammunition were recovered, no doubt being smuggled to Palestinian militant groups.

The rifles appear to be ChiCom Norinco CQs, which have been widely used and are available for sale in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Libya. The Iranians even make a variant of the CQ domestically (as the Sayyad 5.56) for the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

And from the wastes of the Mojave Desert, where the 11th “Blackhorse” Armored Cavalry Regiment has been routinely beating the tracks off folks as the OPFOR at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin for the past 30 years, drones are well in hand to shake things up.

According to the Blackhorse’s social media team, they have been integrating FPV drones of the type often seen in use as simple munitions droppers and unmanned kamikazes in Ukraine and Syria, drone-deployed minefields, and their own legacy systems to lay waste to visiting units and making it look easy.

This Glorious Pilgrimage

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Hamburg, Germany, at the Großer Burstah corner to Rödingsmarkt with the Hindenburghaus in the background, 4 May 1945. Official wartime caption: A “Firefly” 17-pounder Sherman tank on guard at the corner of Adolph Hitler Plasse.”

Mapham J (Sgt), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, IWM BU 5255

The Firefly belongs to the British 7th Armoured Division, the famed “Desert Rats” who went a long way to chase Rommel out of North Africa before taking part in the Italian campaign and the drive across Northwest Europe. Hamburg would be the “Rats'” final combat of the war.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-45 (BU 5284) A Sherman Firefly of 7th Armoured Division in Hamburg, 4 May 1945. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205203358

Summoned to Berlin in July 1945 to take part in the great Victory Parade through the ruined city, Winston Churchill addressed the division, saying:

Now I have only a word more to say about the Desert Rats. They were the first to begin. The 11th Hussars were in action in the desert in 1940 and ever since you have kept marching steadily forward on the long road to victory. Through so many countries and changing scenes you have fought your way. It is not without emotion that I can express to you what I feel about the Desert Rats.

Dear Desert Rats! May your glory ever shine! May your laurels never fade! May the memory of this glorious pilgrimage of war which you have made from Alamein, via the Baltic to Berlin never die!

It is a march unsurpassed through all the story of war so as my reading of history leads to believe. May the fathers long tell the children about this tale. May you all feel that in following your great ancestors you have accomplished something which has done good to the whole world; which has raised the honour of your country and which every man has the right to feel proud of

Today, they are remembered in the 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team, garrisoned at Kendrew Barracks, Cottesmore. And they still wear “The Rat” proudly.

 

Bataan Cyclone

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It happened 80 years ago this month.

Philippines. Soldiers from the 38th Infantry “Cyclone” Division’s 152nd Infantry Regiment use a 57mm M1 anti-tank gun against Japanese positions on Luzon near “Woodpecker Ridge” in Marikina, 11 May 1945. Note the shell cases piled in the foreground.

US Army Photo 173-12

Raised in Indiana, the 38th was a National Guard division that was ordered into federal service on 17 January 1941, nearly a full year before Pearl Harbor. Finally sent overseas on 3 January 1944 after much reorganization and retraining, they warmed up in New Guinea and then hit the beaches at Leyte, landing in the Philippines in December 1944, only to respond to one of the last Axis parachute assaults of the war.

They remained in close contact with the Japanese for the next eight months and continued taking prisoners well into October 1945, ultimately collecting 13,000 of the Emperor’s troops.

Pfc. Elmer S. Pitlik, Air Sect., 139th F.A. Bn, lights a cigarette for one of the Japanese guards. 22 August 1945. On a mountain top in the Sierre Madres, Northern Luzon, eight Japanese officers and five American officers met to discuss surrender arrangements. The American officers, accompanied by twenty enlisted men, made a two-hour march over difficult terrain to the area marked by a Japanese flag on a bamboo pole. The ranking American officer was Maj. Richard F. Jaffers, Artillery Liaison Group, 38th Inf. Div. The ranking Japanese officer was Lt. Col. Shizume Sushimi. SC 211603

The 38th suffered 3,464 battle casualties in the PI, earning the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation and the nickname “Avengers of Bataan,” for obvious reasons.

There are 35 soldiers of the 38th Infantry Division from World War II still listed as missing in action.

The 38th remains the principal combat unit of the Indiana guard, with its members drawn from across the Midwest, and is headquartered in Indianapolis.

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