Looking for a good 9mm with a little history that won’t break the bank?

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Classic Arms is selling ‘”fair condition” Star (Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A) Model BMs, which is a 9mm Colt Commander-sized single action made for Spanish police between 1972 and 1992, for $149.

Wut.

These sweet little pistols are great– I’ve picked up a few in recent months. Pro-tip if you get into collecting these: C.G.P. markings on the slide are for the Civil Guardia Policia for Spain and P.A. is the Policia Armada for Spain. CGP patrolled the rural areas while the PA patrolled the cities (Madrid, Barcelona, etc.).

The model was used by LaFrance Specialties to make the famous “NOVA 6-Pack” in the 1980s that could use either a chopped 6-round mag or the standard 8-shot.

Photo via an old GunsAmerica listing

Stars from the Eger Collection, lol:

Standard…

And with Chinese elm aftermarket panels by Reine Smith at 4S Grips and an Outbags full-grain leather Colt Commander-sized holster that fits like a glove.

 

PCE, is that you?

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Here we see the beautiful Miguel Malvar-class “corvette” BRP Cebu (PS 28) of the Philippine Navy at a recent CORPAT PHILINDO exercise with Indonesian forces off Davo City, and later tied up at the same port’s Captain Feranil Pier last week.

If she looks familiar, she was originally built as USS PCE-881, a former PCE-842-class Patrol Craft Escort, by the Albina Engine and Machine Works of Portland, Oregon during WWII. She patrolled Alaskan coastal water in the tailend of the war and was then laid up, transferring to the PI in 1948.

Derived from the 180-foot Admirable-class minesweeper as a substitute for the much more numerous 173-foot PC-461-class of submarine chasers that were used for coastal ASW, the PCE-842-class was just eight feet longer but a lot heavier (650-tons vs 450-tons), which gave them much longer endurance, although roughly the same armament. They carried a single 3″/50 dual purpose mount, three 40mm Bofors mounts, five Oerlikon 20 mm mounts, two depth charge tracks, four depth charge projectors, and two depth charge projectors (hedgehogs)– making them pretty deadly to subs while giving them enough punch to take on small gunboats/trawlers and low numbers of incoming aircraft.

The Philippines used no less than 11 of these retired PCEs, eventually replacing their Glen Miller-era GM 12-567A diesel with more modern GM 12-278As, as well as a host of improvements to their sensors (they now carry the SPS-64 surface search and commercial nav radars, for instance.) Gone are the ASW weapons and sonar, but they do still pack the old 3-incher, long since retired by just about everyone else, as well as a smattering of Bofors and Oerlikons.

Making notes from a bad day

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Two weeks ago there was an absolutely bonkers LE gunfight caught on body cam by Las Vegas Metro during which the officer engages in a running fight with two armed murder suspects in a stolen SUV across city streets. I wrote it up over at Guns.com and the details– some 65 rounds fired by two officers and two subjects with shell casings recovered at five different locations– are the stuff of a Michael Mann movie.

One of the interesting takeaways I noticed: once the primary officer has to perform an emergency reload he fumbles the magazine exchange for a couple seconds by inserting the fresh mag upside down, which he then has to clear, reassess and perform correctly to engage the threat.

This is a good time to point out that you should index your reloads to where they orient naturally when pulled from your spare mag pouch/system. Practice, practice, practice this several hundred times with a clear gun (or with snap caps) and mags in a safe location and revisit that practice regularly. Luckily, he had the seconds to spare.

Sadly, most LE only get paid to recertify for their actual range time each quarter– if that– and most neglect those crucial hours of muscle memory dry firing drills that can help alleviate situations like this.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking the officer, I am sure that the auditory exclusion, adrenaline overload and pucker factor of the situation had his rear end clenched tighter than a cheerio and kudos to him for being able to fix the problem. But you can also take that problem and learn from it.

Also, there is the whole firing through the dashboard thing, which for a handgun is an iffy situation as few pistol rounds can be considered “barrier blind,” but that is another gripe session for later days.

Carry on and be safe!

SCAR sightings in the wild

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Spotted recently at the yearly Belgian Remembrance Parade of Belgian troops in through London: very sweet FN SCARs in 5.56, adopted by the Composante Terre of the Belgian Armed Forces in 2011, replacing the FN FNC as the service rifle.

Soldiers from the Belgian Army present arms during the Parade last week. The men are from the Regiment Carabiniers Prins Boudewijn – Grenadiers, which dates to 1830

Dig the wacky “Jigsaw”-camouflage pattern long-used by the Belgians. Introduced in 1956, it has been revamped over the years but as a whole, the distinctive rusty earth, dark green and khaki pattern has remained the same and is popular with a number of African countries.

According to the MOD:

The annual tradition of the parade dates back to 1934 and was born from the friendship between the British King George V and the Belgian King Albert I, who was also Colonel-in-Chief of the ‘5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards’. In recognition of the heroism and sacrifice of the Belgian Army in the First World War, King George V decided to bestow a unique honor on the Belgians never awarded to any other non-Commonwealth nation: a yearly Belgian Remembrance Parade of Belgian troops in uniform, bearing arms, in central London.

The beauty in up-cycled Molle II egg pouches

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Let’s talk for a second about NSN: 8465-01-525-0589, Molle II Hand Grenade Pouch, IR Reflective.

These bad boys are about the size of two packs of cigarettes and are made, as you would guess, to swallow one frag-type grenade. Thus:

They also are dirt cheap (get surplus, you can find them for about $3. I inherited several of these from a friend who just got out and was getting rid of most of his stuff), reliable, have easy Molle snap attachments on the rear to fit on any sized belt, bag or carrier; and of course a snap front as well as a drain hole in the bottom. While I (generally) don’t carry around grenades or flash-bangs anymore, the pouches are useful in lots of other capacities such as to carry an IFAK (it’s like a take-out Chinese food container, you can really stuff a lot in there, just be sure to bag it to keep the wet out) or compass while hiking or camping.

I also tend to need some extra M1 enblocs from time to time as I use a CMP special grade (old WRA receiver, misc GI parts, new Criterion barrel in a Boyd’s hackberry stock) for deer/hog hunting and a 1944-vintage 3.1-serial field grade Springer for range antics.

I find that one pouch holds three enbloc clips perfectly for an all-up weight of 26oz for said ammo, clips and pouch:

Two pouches give you 48 rounds at the ready, four is 96 rounds for 6.5-pounds of weight on the rigger’s belt going into an unconventional 3-gun match. The more you know…

For those who hunger for the thunder

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Bad-Element, one of the more interesting shops specializing in the Afghan/Khyber Pass-style aesthetic, is working on one really different Kalash.

According to Bad Element, the mashup is an homage to the compact OTS-14 Groza (Russian= “Thunder”) which was a greatly modded AKS-74U chambered in 9x39mm, a special subsonic ammo comparable to .300 BLK used by various Russian counter-terror and special ops types in guns such as the VSS Vintorez. The result is a bullpup AK pistol.

Bullpup.

AK.

Pistol.

The shop says they will eventually offer the pistol as both a kit and a full-up firearm.

The body of Samco keeps giving

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A couple years back, one of the largest military surplus outfits since Bannermans shut its doors– SAMCO, leaving a huge cache or rare and hard to find guns, ammo, and gear up for grabs. How large? Well the auction inventory ran 475 pages.

While some of their impossible to find vintage ammo in exotic calibers made it to Old West Scrounger such as .303 Kynoch loads, 30-06 Iranian marked with the Shah’s headstamp, and Dog Bone boxed .45 ACP, other items have gone ’round the world.

OWS has since run a number of deals on surplus Spanish Mausers, including a batch of $99 sporters last year.  Now it looks like they are hitting the bottom of Mauser pile and are offering 1916 Mauser 7x57mm barreled actions parts kit for just $24.99 if bought in quantity.

Via OWS

According to OWS:

“This item consists of a 1916 Mauser barrelled action in 7mm Mauser (7×57), with the following parts: All parts except for recoil lug, bolt stop, bolt stop screw, magazine spring and follower, trigger guard screw, extractor, firing pin screw boltstop screw, ejector blade, dust cover pin. Short firing pins may or may not hit the primer. A stock is included but the stocks are badly damaged/broken and likely unusable and missing the metal parts and handguard. They are ONLY provided to make them C&R legal.”

Haitian Army, reborn

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With a military history that largely amounted to a series of coups and brutal crackdowns under a series of dictators following kicking the French out, Haiti’s Army– the Forces Armées d’Haïti– wasn’t exactly covered in glory. Following the U.S. military intervention in 1995 (known to those who took part as “The Haitian Vacation!”), the force was disbanded.

But now, officials there say it’s time for a comeback, despite the fact that the 9,000~ man National Police has some serious paramilitary/constabulary capability complete with the old IMI Galils and Denel R4s of the old FAd’H.

Their service arm currently seems to be vintage M1s:

SOE made interesting for a new generation

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As a fan of military history (please stop me from buying old books in bulk, it is a sickness) I have always had a soft spot for the SOE and OSS operations in WWII. Having met a few veterans of those operations in later years only increased the interest.

With that in mind, it was a no-brainer that “Churchill’s Secret Agents: The New Recruits” caught my eye on Netflix.

The premise is that they pick a group of volunteers and put them through a (modified) version of the SOE’s selection process to see if they have the intestinal fortitude for leading resistance cells across occupied Europe.

While some of it, of course, is sensationalized and the weapon training is really just a brief hover, I did find it mildly entertaining, and hopefully, it will spark renewed interest in the subject for those who seldom crack open old books.

 

Attack Force Z boat saved, for now

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HDML 1321 in her prime.

HDML 1321, AKA the MV Rushcutter, was a historic motor launch of the Royal Australian Navy that was used to ferry Z Special Force commandos behind Japanese lines in the Southwest Pacific during WWII.

Saved from the scrappers after the war, she was in civilian service until a few years ago and then left to sink in Darwin Harbour. However, she was been rescued by a group of volunteers who plan on preserving her.

It is going to take some work.

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