The Gun Thread

Well, said cartridges armed half of the known world a few decades ago. No reason to give up on successful arms production now.

Random question.

So recently I've been fixated with double barreled shotguns. Well, more than I used to.

And my God, so, so, so many variants of that kind of shotgun, with differing specs and prices!

Then it made me wonder: what's the most...what's the word, standard models of DBS? Like, what are their equivalent of Mossberg 590 or Remington 870?

The thing with double barreled shotguns is that the basic design is so simple and so widely available there isn’t really a favorite. Parkers are probably considered the “classic”, these days Benellis are probably the item of choice though. The Italians have the market cornered on high-end shotguns of most varieties between Benelli and Beretta.

They’re much more than that, you’d be surprised how much variation you see in the design.

Edited by archonspeaks on Apr 17th 2019 at 7:14:41 AM

It's a tube

-looks up Parker-

Holy balls, their stuffs are expensive! I was more thinking of affordable ones, under 1000 and my best bet seems to be Stoegers.

Not that I can ever own them in my country. -sighs- If I can, though, among many guns I own, I will probably get one double barrel (s×s), pump, and automatic for each.

Parkers are the heirloom American classics. You occasionally see ones in rough shape floating around for reasonable prices.

There’s a lot of good midrange options though. Stoeger isn’t bad, and I’ve heard good things about Dickinson and CZ as well. My first gun was an old Browning over-under and that thing is a truck. It was in horrible shape when I got it but still kicking.

For pump you can’t do much better than an 870 unless you’re looking for something funky, and I’d go Benelli for an auto. The price is worth it there.

Edited by archonspeaks on Apr 17th 2019 at 7:54:27 AM

I just got the news that the SP Military Police will be replacing the Taurus 640 and 24/7 pistols with a Police version of the .40 Glock.

To which I say good riddance, those Taurus Po S handguns already made a victim by going off with the safety on during a firing exercise in one of the police schools and I've had several jams and misfires during my life fire exercises with the 24/7.

I hope they are done replacing those Po S pistols before I get mine issued.

You can’t go wrong with a Glock.

As ever though, the issue with a lot of duty guns is on the user side of things. M9s gave me constant issues and are generally regarded as pieces of crap, but a well cared for Beretta 92 shoots quite nicely. Duty guns, especially trainers, are beat to shit and not taken care of well, and even the most reliable weapon will fail under those conditions.

Kinda a mix of both, but our Taurus pistols already had several issues with massive callbacks due to shoddy manufacturing and quality issues, specially with misfires and accidental discharges due to poor safety locks.

Being worn out only made those issues worse.

The 24/7 alone is infamous for going off for no good reason even when new.

Given the abysmal record Taurus pistols have with drop safety and similar issues I’m really not surprised at all.

I’m a little surprised it’s taken them this long to switch to Glock. They’re the best duty handgun bar none, in my opinion.

The Brazilian markets have a huge amount of restrictions over weapons imports. Which almost gave Taurus the monopoly of Brazilian small arms sales of Law Enforcement Agencies .

It was pretty hard to secure the Glock deal for the State of São Paulo.

I mean, Glock does have a pretty good monopoly on practically most of the world by now. I'm still of the opinion that they've practically assumed full control of the civilian handgun markets, although obviously many other models are still very popular. But yeah, I can see why they struggled.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Apr 18th 2019 at 6:26:11 AM

Got a Patriot Act vid on the NRA.

Let’s just hope the FPC or GOA don’t take over the top spot.

Apropos of not much, for those in the US with concealed carry permits (or know someone who has one), an interactive map of which states do or don't honor the permit.

Interesting. I can’t imagine there are all too many people on this forum who carry though.

I suppose ideally a carry permit should be valid anywhere you go, much like a drivers license, but the standards vary so wildly that ends up causing problems.

I don't know about that carry thing, but barring some magic All Seeing Eye I doubt there's much statistical support for either way, so I'm not going to argue it.

On an unrelated note, this being my b-day I decided to celebrate it in a rather American way: rock and roll.

No, not the music, fully automatic.

The range I'm a member at has several full-auto weapons available to rent (well, technically "demonstrate", as even temporary transfer of FA guns like what a more traditional rental would entail is a paperwork pain), so I splurged on a hundred rounds each for a silenced MP5 in 9mm (they also had one chambered in .40cal) and a G36 chambered in 5.56mm, both of course H&K.

(Rentals you have to buy ammo from them, which I understand completely. If I owned weapons costing tens of thousands of dollars, I wouldn't want some jackass loading them with stupidly hot reloads that would reenact the USS Iowa turret explosion when they pulled the trigger, or using shit ammo that goes off if you look at it funny.)

I had fun, but even just using short bursts (or as short as I could get them) it drove home the issue with full-auto making accuracy suck in a way that reading about it didn't really do for me. Definitely not for the weak of wallet, even setting aside initial equipment costs.

They also have an AK-47, but at the time didn't have ammo for it (see above). Just as well, I suppose, as that meant I didn't have to resist the urge to shout "WOLVERINES!", or have to worry about getting kicked out for unsafely holding up the rifle to reenact the iconic scene.

Edited by Nohbody on May 22nd 2019 at 9:54:42 AM

Good ol’ overpriced range ammo. Always.

I’ve always felt the MP5 is fairly controllable in FA, especially compared to some of its contemporaries. Something about the ergonomics, I suspect. You can definitely see how it became a favorite of SWAT teams, you could easily put a burst into someone without flying off target.

Count yourself lucky you were able to get your hands on a FA G36 though, those are very rare in the US. Like, “less than a handful” rare, I’ve heard.

I recently had the chance to check out an MP7 and it was quite something. Gotta love an HK.

And last but not least, happy birthday! Hell of a way to celebrate.

Edited by archonspeaks on May 23rd 2019 at 4:23:26 AM

So, during my very first reserve forces training, I got to use M16. During the disassembly/reassembly, I was surprised by how similiar it was to M4, although it's pretty obvious why. Ah, that charging handle, how I missed thee. Well, actually no, because M4 gave me such a hard time. It took me like four or five attempts to pass the M4 qualifications.

I’ve always preferred the fixed-stock models for some reason. They can be a little finicky though.

Better stability?

The adjustable stock is just too easy to fidget with, and wonder if it's set right. At least with the fixed-stock on the M-16, you know nobody is going to fiddle with it and have it set wrong for you (that said, when I did my annual range time for M-4 a few weeks ago, the instructor told us that unless we play for the NBA or are under five feet tall, the second-to-last stop on the stock will be fine).

For the most part, an M-4 is just an M-16 with a shorter barrel and adjustable stock. There's variations on fire selection, but that comes down to specific marks of each model rather than the models themselves. But for the most part if you know how to use one you know how to use the other, which was one of the big marketing points of the M-4.

For me, the fixed stock just feels more consistent and accurate. Even expensive adjustable stocks have a little wiggle in them, with a fixed stock it’s 100% stable and 100% the same every time. I also believe it reduces felt recoil, though I’m not positive on that one.

That said, for tactical/military/LE applications the adjustable stock is the clear winner. Being able to shorten the rifle on the fly is a huge plus for entering and exiting vehicles, putting on different kinds of body armor, things like that.

Plus it's compact enough for vehicle crews already (if they need one) and with all the close-quarters house fighting seen in Iraq and the surrounding area, the adjustable stock wins.

There already have been a whole bunch of articles written around the period the US military decided to officially phase out the M16 in frontline use, although I've heard rumors that there's a handful of units still carrying 'A2s around.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on May 29th 2019 at 5:39:45 AM

Do you guys think that they will need a somewhat heftier weapon with the new cartridge?