The Gun Thread

Garcon; Actually with the exception of the modified 1911's all of the full autos used by criminals were stolen typically from National Guard armories and few from Police during attacks on the police that were at best lightly guarded.

You can buy off the police like that only if you have loads of income from gambling, bootlegging, and protection rackets, like the Chicago gangsters did. But the vast majority of Public Enemies were not so wealthy. They weren't looking to carve out a criminal empire, like Al Capone and his ilk. They robbed banks because they were sick and tired of being dirt poor, and it looked like the easiest way to get rich quick.

edited 12th Jul '16 7:22:37 PM by pwiegle

Yesterday I learned that while revolvers don't have trouble shooting steel cased ammo, extracting them is a different matter. Which leaves me pondering what to do with the 40something rounds of Tulammo .357, between dumping them vs shooting them with a makeshift ramrod or some kind of plate to assist in pushing the "extractor" out. Is there a problem with pushing out empty shells without using the extractor rod?

It was a Ruger LCR; finding that my initial shots are okay, but then hand fatigue kicks in real quick and they start going all over the place. It's still roughly a dinner plate at 7 yards, but just around the edges and nowhere near the center. Any suggestions for what to do? Or do you just pack up to avoid ingraining bad habits?

Don't put too much stress on the extractor rod itself, otherwise it may get bent and jam up the gun. Get a brass rod, one that will fit into the chamber mouth at the front of the cylinder, large enough to fit easily without getting stuck, and use that to push the stuck case out of the chamber. A small mallet may help. Again, be careful not to overstress it, as the cylinder crane may likewise get bent.

Rugers are pretty tough guns, but personally, I'd simply get rid of the steel-cased ammo and not use it in the future.

If you know of a reputable gunsmith in your area, polishing the chambers may help to prevent stuck cases. But don't overdo it; oversized chambers are a Very Bad Thing.

edited 13th Jul '16 9:00:53 AM by pwiegle

The St. Paul police arrested a man who had somehow loaded bullets backwards into his pistol magazine. Yes, really, backwards.

Definitely an HK employee.◊

Bad drills.

I remember a segment on some TV show about dumb crooks. This guy had stolen a gun and a box of bullets during a burglary. The gun was a .38 revolver, but the bullets were for a 9mm semiautomatic.

.38 and 9mm are almost exactly the same bullet diameter, so this guy figured they'd fit. Trouble is, the 9mm has a tapered case. The shell went about halfway into the chamber and got stuck. So what did this genius do? He got a hammer and tried to whack it in the rest of the way — with predictable results.

The cops found him with a blood-soaked rag wrapped around his hand where the bullet had fired through the cylinder, and through his palm where he'd been cradling the gun.

Somewhere I have a "Can't have nice things..." meme pick of what looks like MARPAT desert pattern arm holding an M9 with a cartridge partially chambered backwards into the weapon.

Why we can't have nice things.

edited 13th Jul '16 11:09:38 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Indian procurement comedy: Excalibur may be dumped for a 7.62 NATO rifle, with a request for information expected soon.

I wonder if this'll lead to the Russians making their first proper battle rifle. It'd be interesting if they only made it for export.

Garcon: So remind again what the SVT-40 was? There have been a few other designs as well.

The SVT-40 was real? I thought it was just a myth

...Your joking right?

Well a myth or a one off. I don't remember hearing about it ever reaching proper production. A couple prototypes at the most.

Wait no, my bad. I thought you said the AVT-40.

edited 14th Jul '16 4:16:04 AM by LeGarcon

I don't know who told you that but that is quite simply not true. They built around 1 million of them from the Tula and Izhmash. They were not known for being well made weapons though and quite a few were lost in action at the outset of the German invasion. It was proceeded by a failed full sized rifle and full sized rifle cartridge select fire rifle. Basically a revisit of the Automovat but with the big Russian .30 cal round instead.

edited 14th Jul '16 4:48:37 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Well, the SVK-12 is chambered in 7.62 NATO, so I suppose that's a start.

A million AVT-40's? Are you sure? The full auto SVT-40s?

Huh, I had always heard they never went anywhere. Well today I learned something.

edited 14th Jul '16 4:50:25 AM by LeGarcon

Garcon; Very sure. There was a rifle similar to the SVT-40 in appearance that was full auto and they did make an experimental batch of full auto SVT-40's. The SVT-40 being a myth is perhaps one of the oddest things I have heard. There are a few out there to still be had. But like I said they were not well liked and were generally poorly made. They also lost a lot of them really early on.

Just google "Russian troops with SVT-40" you will see several batches of colorized and black and white pictures of Soviet Russian troops with the rifle.

edited 14th Jul '16 5:33:51 AM by TuefelHundenIV

No no, I mixed up the full auto AVT-40 and the SVT-40. I know the SVT-40 is real.

It was set to be the Soviet's standard infantry rifle if I remember right, but then Operation Barbarossa disrupted their production and distribution so they had to shift to the massive stockpiles of Mosin Nagants for the duration of the war. By the time things had finally settled the SKS and AK-47 came along and they never bothered to restart SVT-40 production. Just as well, the AK and the SKS were better weapons anyway.

What I thought you were referring to and what I thought was a myth was the full auto AVT-40. A fabled select fire variant of the SVT-40.

edited 14th Jul '16 5:41:43 AM by LeGarcon

As far as I know the full auto version really never made it very far outside of the test batches because the rifle just got beat to shit in full auto.

Here we go. Forgotten weapons has us covered.

Yeah barrel life in full auto fire rock and roll only a few hundred rounds. Wow that is just horrid.

edited 14th Jul '16 5:46:59 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Funny how India's getting close to getting the Excalibur and said "Nope!"

Holy hell that write up though. No wonder it faded into gun oblivion. That's just horrific.

I recall seeing an SVT-40 for sale at a local gun shop, along with a bunch of other surplus military rifles (this was probably 20 years ago.) It looked like it had barely been touched. It had probably come off the assembly line, been put in storage somewhere, and forgotten about until the fall of the Soviet Union. IIRC, they wanted $450 for it.

edited 14th Jul '16 5:47:19 PM by pwiegle

Do we have a thread witht gun control as the active topic, I don't want to reignite it a 5th time....

edited 14th Jul '16 11:49:25 PM by Imca