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.

Reading Material

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A list of yearly magazine subscriptions for the Gato-class fleet boat USS Drum (SS-228), circa 1944, numbering 16 titles, two copies each, for a cost– “less clubbing discount”– of $58. While some titles make sense in a 72-man crew full of 20-ish WWII American males, others are more curious.

Drum, laid down at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in September 1940, commissioned just five weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor and received a full dozen battle stars for her WWII service, across 14 war patrols, with a tally of some 80,580 tons of Japanese shipping on her scoreboard– with her crew apparently thumbing back-issues of Cosmo and True Detective between depth charge attacks.

Post-war, she was never given the GUPPY treatment and instead was used as a pierside USNR training hulk in the D.C. area’s Potomac River Naval Command until 1967 when she was finally retired. As part of the USS Alabama Museum since 1969, she is the oldest American submarine on public display– and one of the few in her correct WWII arrangement– and I took the above photo while on a tour of her.

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.

Big Al Gets New Deck

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The USS Alabama Museum has been working on replacing the ship’s original, but dangerously deteriorating, teak decking for the past three years– and the $8 million project is now complete. 

As noted by the Museum:

After over 80 years of wear, the battleship’s main deck required replacement. Beginning in 2021, the three-year teak deck replacement project was underway. With over 20,500 square feet of decking, the project was expected to be completed in October 2024. Broken into five phases, each area would include erecting a containment system, dry blasting, priming, and the installation of the new teak panels. Contracting crews have completed all five phases, finishing the job seven months ahead of schedule.

The Museum hosted assorted dignitaries including the state governor for the ribbon cutting over the weekend.

As for the original, historical teak, those interested in purchasing pieces made from that material have several options to choose from.

Like 1911s? Want to read a free 1911 magazine?

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The Armory Life has a 1911 issue available online.

The newest addition to the family of digital magazines is The 1911 Pistol issue, just recently released. The digital magazine features a deep-dive consideration of the 1911, covering not only its history but some of the newest and most cutting-edge variants available. Articles in the issue cover the new TRP series of pistols, as well as the Operator, the Garrison and the Mil-Spec. In addition, the issue features pieces on selecting the right 1911 for you, detailed considerations of the 1911 pistol’s function and operation, and much more.

To check out the new The 1911 Pistol volume of The Armory Life Presents series, visit https://spr-ar.com/r/6025.

Sunday Mass on Omaha Beach

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80 Years Ago Today. 23 June 1944. Original Caption: “Combat engineers kneel in prayer at a mass conducted by Chaplain (1st Lt.) Paul J. McGovern, Boston, Mass., former pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Danvers, Mass. The first American cemetery to be constructed in France is in the center background.”

Original Field Number: ETO-HQ-44-5908. SC No. 111-SC-400327. Photographer: Weintraub. National Archives Identifier 176888746

Note the barrage balloons over the beachhead to the right, the Dodge WC truck in the distance, persistent barbed wire entanglements, and what looks like a DUKW to the left.

Closer views and from different angles.

The longest, most heavily defended, and bloodiest of the five D-Day beach sectors in Normandy, U.S. forces suffered 2,400 casualties to take the sand and had 34,000 troops ashore by nightfall.

Yankee Sub Chasers Walking the Beat

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Official caption, February 1919: “American troops in Fiume, Hungary [today Rijeka, Croatia], aboard a Yankee ‘Submarine Chaser.’ In the harbor of Fiume, members of [the] 332nd U.S. Infantry, stationed in the city, hold a reunion with some bluejackets from ‘back home.’ American soldiers now occupying Fiume (on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea) are those who operated with the Italian army on the Piave River.”

Note the ash cans over the stern and the mix of blue jackets and Ohio Doughboys. U.S. Army photo 111-SC-50709. National Archives Identifier 86707176.

A trio of the Navy’s 110-foot subchasers, USS SC-124, SC-125, and SC-127, called at Fiume several times between late November 1918 and early March 1919. The strategic port, once home to the Austrian Navy Academy and a large part of the Kaiser’s fleet, was claimed by several in the post-war disintegration that followed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The chasers, which had originally been dispatched to serve on the Otranto barrage, would have a hectic five months in the Adriatic during the occupation and often had to stand up to much larger “allies.”

“Three Yankee Submarine Chasers docked in harbor of Fiume, Hungary attract the attention of spectators on the waterfront” SC-127 is shown moored between SC-124 and SC-125. Behind the three sub-chasers are two Italian Destroyers, Giuseppe Siritori (SR) and Vicenzo Orsini (OR). In the background are a battleship of the Emanuele Filiberto class (1897) and an armored cruiser of the San Giorgio Class (1908). Army 111-SC-50714. National Archives 86707186

First National Guard Unit Gets Hands on Next Generation Squad Weapons, Navy Next?

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A North Carolina unit is the first in the National Guard to field test the new SIG Sauer-made XM7 and the XM250, which is replacing the M4/M4A1 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, respectively.

The 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, a National Guard outfit that carries the “Old Hickory” lineage of the World War I & II era infantry division of the same number, earlier this month conducted a qualification table range session with the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon platforms at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), North Carolina.

The unit is the first in the Guard to receive the XM7 and XM250, just months after the first regular Army unit, the famed 101st Airborne Division, began receiving their NGSWs.

A soldier of the 30th ABCT, a North Carolina Army National Guard unit, with the XM7 on the range at Fort Liberty earlier this month. (Photo: Cpl. Nigel Hatcher/U.S. Army)

This comes as ADM Daryl Caudle, commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, toured SIG Sauer’s new Academy and SIG Experience Center in Newington, New Hampshire, earlier this month. Images released by the Pentagon show Caudle and staff inspecting the state-of-the-art facility where over 480,000 M17 and M18 handguns have been produced for the military thus far. 

And include Caudle handling an NSGW.

240610-N-XX999-1001 NEWINGTON, N.H. (June 10, 2024) Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, examines a firearm during a leadership meeting and tour at SIG SAUER Academy and Experience Center (SEC) in Newington, New Hampshire, June 10. 

Of note, the Marines have been interested in the platform going back to 2020.

Oddball is woofing with Jesus now

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I always thought this was perhaps the best hype scene in the best war movie.

“Hey look, you just keep those Tigers busy and we’ll take care of the rest.”

“It’s a wasted trip, baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers.”

Just lay off the negative waves…

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