Category Archives: weapons

SIG Hits Both Retro and Ultra Vibes with new P226 models

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I recently attended SIG’s Next event in New Hampshire last week and thought it was interesting that, among the boatload of new products introduced, the company debuted two very different models of the same pistol– the P226.

The P226 was designed in 1984 – before SIG had even established a presence in the U.S. – to compete for the coveted XM9 Service Pistol Trials to replace the much-loved but aging M1911A1. While the P226 was only narrowly edged out by the Beretta 92 over an issue of cost per unit, the U.S. Navy SEALs would soon adopt the pistol and use it for decades. Well beyond this employment by the country’s frogmen, the P226 rapidly became the sidearm of choice for law enforcement customers and savvy consumers – not to mention hundreds of movies, games, and TV shows.

With their smooth dust covers (sans accessory rail) and pebbled grips, for instance in this specimen from the Vault, the old-school P226 is instantly recognizable.

As the standard P226s cataloged by SIG today have evolved into something that outwardly looks a good bit different from the pistols of the 1980s and 90s, the company has gone retro for a limited run of 40th-anniversary guns that share all the same feature set of those original handguns to include an alloy frame, double-stack 15+1 round magazines, a double-action/single-action trigger system, and a 4.4-inch barrel.

The P226 40th Anniversary Model. Rather than plastic like the originals, the grips are special aluminum models supplied by Hogue. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The P226 XFive Reserve

The new P226 XFive Reserve carries many of the top-tier features of the all-steel American XFive line including an extended beavertail grip, undercut trigger guard, extended magwell, and a factory Delta Point Pro/RMR footprint while still keeping suppressor height XRay3 day/night sights. It also has an SAO system with a three-position AX3 trigger installed that is fully adjustable for pull weight and overtravel while the trigger shoe is removable and adjustable for length of pull.

However, while the standard P226 XFive is all matte-brushed stainless, the new Reserve variant carries a high-polish DLC coating on its stainless slide and frame, a look complemented by a blacked-out set of intricate GridLOK grip panels. Further, to help tame recoil on this 48-ounce (!) 9mm, the slide is fitted with an integral compensator/expansion chamber akin to that seen on the P320 XTen Comp.

The P226 XFive Reserve, with a high polish DLC coating rather than SIG’s more pedestrian nitron finish, is stunning. (Chris Eger/Guns.com)

CMP has M1903 Springfields & M1917 Enfields on Hand (with Krags on the Way!)

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This U.S. Volunteer, photographed in Tampa in 1898, preparing to ship out for points south in the War with Spain, is carrying the distinctive Krag

It seems the returns from old VFW and American Legion posts have yielded some old war vets in quantity large enough to pass on to the public.

As noted in a memo from our Civilian Marksmanship Program friends in Anniston:

Effective June 26, 2024, customers are allowed to purchase up to six (6) bolt-action rifles per year while supplies last. The current inventory of M1903 and M1917 rifles by grade is listed below. CMP also plans to release up to 1,000 Krag-Jorgensen rifles beginning in mid to late July. These have not been worked so a grade break-out is currently unavailable. Given the six (6) bolt rifle per customer per year limit, please plan accordingly.

Once this inventory of bolt action rifles is exhausted the CMP does not expect to have further supply. The rifles will be sold via mail order and in CMP stores. Store sales may be limited due to inventory.

Additionally, if a customer has already purchased their limit of six (6) bolt action rifles they are authorized to bid on and purchase bolt action rifles for sale on the CMP auction site above the six (6) rifle limit.

Current Inventory:

M1903 Rifles — Service Grade: 78; Field Grade: 386; and Rack Grade: 356
M1917 Enfield Rifles — Service Grade: 203; and Field Grade: 1,067

Additional details, including rifle descriptions, ordering information, and purchase eligibility requirements can be found on our CMP Rifle Sales web page at https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/rifle-sales/.

It seems current pricing on the M1903s ranges from $700 (rack) to $950 (Service) with S/H included while M1917s are a bit more spendy, running $1000-$1100.

No word on pricing for the Krags yet.

Big Vic Sailing Out

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Some 60 (ish) years ago, a fine picture of the Illustrious-class armored-deck fleet carrier HMS Victorious (R38) (ex-USS Robin) flying a paying-off (or possibly return home) pennant. Warshipologist contends this is when leaving Singapore (Sembawang) in July 1964. A commando carrier is already alongside, which would likely be the Bulwark.

Ranged on her deck are Blackburn Buccaneers, Westland Wessex HAS.3 helicopters De Havilland Sea Vixens a Fairey Gannet COD4, and Fairey Gannet AEW.3s.

I had these in my collection that date from the same period and added them to the Warshipologist post, repeated below:

However, McCart dates the top image to Thursday 4th of May 1967, and says it is of Victorious heading home to start her ill-fated last refit.

Finnish forest leaves

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80 years ago, during the Finnish Continuation War against the Soviets, showing camouflaged Finnish troops outside the Karelian village of Vitele (Sotilaskasvoja Ylä-Vitele), 28 June 1944.

SA-Kuva image 154907_151418

Of note, the soldier to the left has what appears to be a Finnish-made Mosin m/39 rifle while the one on the left has a shorter m/27 or m/28 variant, with a “dog collar” sling attachment. Also, note what looks like a Finnish m/28 mess kit.

Captured during the Finnish offensive in July 1941, the Finns at the time of these photos were in the process of pulling back all along the collapsing Karelian Front as the Soviets advanced, as witnessed by what may be the same soldier in the nearby burning village of Suurmäki on 29 June.

SA-Kuva image 154968_151479

Hostilities between Finland and the Soviets ceased in early September 1944 after the Moscow Armistice guaranteed Finland’s 1940 borders sans the Barents Sea port of Petsamo and a lease on the Porkkala Peninsula. This led to a rapid recalibration in which the Finns harassed the retreating 200,000 German troops in the country– mostly the 20. Gebirgsarmee— as they retired to Norway during the so-called Lapland War which would simmer until April 1945.

Waiting for your CMP 1911 RGN to come up?

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If you, like me, are waiting for your Random Generated Number to come up in the current (Round 4) CMP M1911 lottery, be advised that this process came to a screeching halt back in April due to an ongoing audit.

Here’s a direct quote from CMP1911Admin on the CMP Forums:

“There are understandably a lot of requests coming in regarding the status of M1911 orders. Better communication is required on our part. We’ll own that. We’ll do better.

Our shipping/fulfillment operation is currently on pause as we undergo an independent third party review of inventory. No 1911’s have gone out since early May. So, it’s not just your order. As a result of this pause and review 1911 staff are distributed throughout the other operations in our organization while we go through this process. While we’re trying to get to all calls and emails, our crew is small. We’ll attempt to post more information here and our site. It’s frankly not feasible currently to review each individual order for status. Just know that they’re all under the same current status: On Hold.

We have no definitive timelines with respect to when we’ll be able to resume order processing and fulfillment. That’s as frustrating to us as it is you. For some expectation, given the large number of surplus 1911’s in our possession this process could take 90 days or more. Please monitor our 1911 Sales Website for any updates regarding the status of our ongoing review and for any information about our plans to resume normal operation. We’ll update that shortly with this same messaging and post more information as we’re able.​

Thank you for your patience and for being a part of the CMP’s mission to promote marksmanship and firearm safety.”

To follow along with the current RGN sheet, click here, and may the odds be forever in your favor!

The Fieldcraft Book (free download)

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The Fieldcraft Book is a collection of tips, tricks, and techniques written by infantry Marines to live better in the field and effectively complete their tactical tasks.

Example:

Collected and edited by Chad Skaggs of The Warfighting Society, it is available for download here.

Son of the Regiment, T-34 edition

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80 years ago today, 27 June 1944. Tankers of the 17th Guard Tank Brigade, 1st Guard Tank Corps, 1st Belarusian Front, on their T-34-85.

On the photo from left to right: Senior Sergeant Boris Vorontsov – tank driver; Alik – сын полка (syn polka= son of the regiment); Jr. LT Vladimir Viktorovich Ponomarev, tank commander. To the rear of Ponomarev is Jr. LT Gennady Fatysov, a friend of his from the Kurgan Tank School.

This is the last shot of Ponomarev who was killed less than a month later, on 25 July, in the battle for Brest, in the area of the Bialostok-Brest highway, near the village of Cheremkha in Poland. He was awarded the Order of the Great Patriotic War and the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).

As for Alik, the son of the regiment was lost to history, as they have almost always been going back to the days of the Romans and Greeks.

He reminds me of George Dzundza’s Commander Daskal in The Beast, who retells a story of how he was a Molotov-wielding 8-year-old lad in Stalingrad who earned the moniker, “Tank Boy.”

According to the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during WWII there were at least 3,500 front-line soldiers under the age of sixteen, a figure that did not include those in irregular underground and partisan detachments. This number is likely a drastic undercount as commanders typically did not list these “tag-alongs” on unit rolls.

Nonetheless, they often gave their all, with one youth, six-year-old Sergei Aleshkov, being decorated in combat with the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, which he served with for eight months across 1942-43, including being wounded and instrumental in digging out a blocked bunker entrance.

The P365 Grows Up…

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With the P365 micro 9mm platform not even a decade old, SIG has updated the platform with the new Fuse variant that includes all the features expected on a full-sized practical/tactical pistol.

The new SIG Sauer P365 Fuse gets its name, says the company, as it is the “fusion of capability and concealment,” being still carry-sized while clocking in with a very full feature-set that includes a removable magwell, nickel-plated flat-faced trigger, LXG grip module with interchangeable backstraps, optics-ready (RMSc footprint) slide with decent iron sights, and extended 21-round magazines.

The new SIG Sauer P365 Fuse. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The pistol will be available in at least three different SKUs, including one shipping with two 21-round and one 17-round magazine, another with a Romeo X Compact micro red dot installed (shown above), and a state-compliant (10-round mag) version.

The P365 Fuse compared to the P365 XMacro Comp. Note the Fuse is a bit longer but remains the same height and width. Both use SIG’s 17+1 round flush fit P365 mags and accept extended magazines as well– which we will get into.

For a frame of reference, the full-sized P320-M17 specs out at 8 inches overall, with its standard 4.7-inch barrel, just a skosh bigger than the Fuse. However, don’t let that one spec confuse you, as the P365 variant is much slimmer, shorter in height, and almost a half-pound lighter. Keep in mind both are shown with 21-round mags inserted and with corresponding versions of the Romeo X enclosed red dot.

More in my column at Guns.com.

The Elusive Navy MK2 7.62 NATO Garand (not so Elusive for now)

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While upwards of 6 million M1 Garand rifles were produced between 1936 and 1957, almost all of these were .30-06 models made under Army (War Department) contract and then filtered out through the U.S. military.

A much smaller slice was the Navy-ordered circa 1960s MK2 7.62 NATO conversions of which AMF upgraded 17,050 rifles and H&R another 15,000 rifles using a 3:1 mix of converted .30 caliber barrels (the MK2 MOD 0 rifle) and new-made 7.62mm barrels from Springfield Armory (the MK2 MOD1).

Few of these rifles have floated out to the consumer market over the years, typically being prize guns won by Navy and Marine personnel at marksmanship events then subsequently later sold to local gun shops and collectors.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program, the DOD’s clearinghouse for surplus civilian legal rifles, has typically just sold isolated stripped receivers and the occasional gun at auction.

That is until the organization recently obtained a stockpile of these guns from naval storage.

They have both models available as of this post, with the following information (and prices) noted by CMP:

MK2MOD0. These rifles were conversions of the M1 Garand to 7.62 NATO using a chamber bushing to convert the barrels from 30.06 Springfield. CMP categorizes these rifles as unserviceable due to the likelihood of “bushing ejection”. These will be inspected and generally complete but will be shipped in an inert state that maintains the rifle’s historical integrity. A waiver must be signed to acknowledge receipt of this NLU as a non-functioning display piece along with CMPs intention that no attempt be made to reactivate the firearm to a functional state. Parts will not be gauged, and no implication of serviceability should be implied. Transferred exclusively for collectability and display, these rifles are being sold “as-is” with no refunds or exchanges. $950.

The MK2MOD1 was a purpose-built 7.62 NATO caliber rifle, built without the problematic “barrel bushing”. The MOD1 has a 7.62 NATO chamber without the barrel bushing and is safe to use with 7.62 NATO ammunition. These rifles have been inspected, repaired as needed and function fired. Cosmetic condition is good, but Throat and Muzzle readings may exceed normal service-grade criteria. These are being sold as is. Purchase will require written acknowledgment regarding EXCLUSIVE compatibility with 7.62 NATO, Mil-Spec ammunition. These rifles should not be assumed safe for use with commercial spec, .308 WIN ammunition. $1,600

With these guns suddenly a thing, the Garand Collector’s Association has made several Navy MK2 articles available to the public to help provide some more knowledge on these rare rifles.

The Rare Berben Imported Beretta BM 62 .308 Rifle

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Following the end of the war, Italy was among the 12 founding members of NATO, established in 1949. Needing to rebuild its armed forces, the country soon adopted the M1 Garand as a standard infantry rifle, and local firearms legend, Beretta, soon got in the business of both refurbishing old guns and producing thousands of new ones– including rifles sold to fellow NATO members such as Denmark. 

By 1959, Beretta engineers Domenico Salza and Vittorio Valle had updated John Browning’s venerable design by replacing the fixed magazine– which was fed via a top-inserted 8-shot en bloc clip– with a more modern 20-round detachable box mag along with a stripper clip guide on the top of the receiver. Likewise, the caliber was 7.62 NATO rather than .30-06, the barrel length was shortened, it was made select-fire, the gas system was tweaked, a folding integral bipod was fitted, and a new muzzle device/ 22mm rifle grenade launcher with accompanying sight was installed. This new rifle still had a lot of M1 commonality but a more M14/FAL/HK G3 kind of flavor to it, and was promptly adopted by the Italian Army as the BM-59 in 1962.

These assorted BM-59 models, including Alpini and Paracadutisti variants, are seen under glass in the Beretta Museum in Italy. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Beretta had a good deal of success with the BM-59, licensing the design for overseas production to Indonesian and Nigerian state arsenals as well as producing the gun in Italy in several variants for a quarter century. 

While a precious few select-fire BM-59s were imported to the U.S. before the 1968 ban on overseas machine gun parts, the American consumer market was left hungry for this updated box-fed “spaghetti Garand.” That was until the semi-auto BM-62 and BM-69 sporters were introduced. Chambered in .308 Winchester, the commercial twin to the 7.62 NATO, these guns were not made in anywhere near the same quantity as the BM-59 or even Beretta’s M1s, making them highly collectible. 

This excellent Beretta BM-62 includes a distinctive integral front gas cylinder assembly that functions as a flash hider but is sans the bayonet lug and grenade launcher sight of its more martial BM-59 big brother.

It also has a shorter ~20-inch barrel rather than the M1 Garand’s more typical 24-inch barrel, giving the rifle a “Tanker” feel to it.

In a nod to the lineage, many of the small parts on these rifles are marked “PB BM59”  and the P. Beretta pedigree is unmistakable.

The rifle was one of around 2,000 imported by the Berben Corporation of New York in the early 1980s. The company, on Park Row in Manhattan, was the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of Beretta products for several years until the Italian gunmaker set up its own facility in Accokeek, Maryland in 1985.

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