techyum ::

In the 1940s, the United States military developed an ultra-cheap, ultra-simple single-shot .45 handgun stamped out of sheet metal. It was designed to be airdropped by the OSS to insurgents in Nazi-controlled Europe in vast numbers. Called the FP-45 Liberator, the pistol became one of the most curious-looking entries in the history of firearms. It’s also one of the most collectible firearms around, with pristine copies without the box and instructions run somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 nowadays, according to the latest issue of Guns & Ammo. Want one with the box? Expect to pay more.

But don’t fret! The selfsame article in G&A notifies me that Vintage Ordinance now offers an replica of the Liberator. Priced at just $599, the weapon will set you back a few dollars more than the original U.S. Army unit cost of $2.40 per Liberator (which is about $32 in today’s currency). The replica, like the original, loads .45 ACP ammunition, but you want to know the great part? You’re not supposed to fire it. No, seriously…Vintage Ordinance has created a firing replica of which they say the following:

Though our reproduction is sold as a firearm and exceeds the mechanical strength of the original through the use of superior materials and vastly tighter chamber and headspace tolerances, WE STRONGLY ADVISE CUSTOMERS NOT TO FIRE THE PISTOL. During production in 1942, several examples were taken from the assembly line to test under repetitive fire. Reports indicated that after 50 rounds of service ball ammunition the testers felt the weapons were no longer safe to fire. They were simply never designed handle a steady diet of powerful .45 ACP. They were made to fire ten rounds. They are what they are.

The original FP-45 is a clever and efficiently designed weapon but it has never received any accolades for operational safety. Once it is loaded, the only safe way to handle it is with the zinc cocking piece turned fully 90 degrees to the right or left so that the rear corner of the pistol’s grip frame will prevent it from rotating into firing position. If the cocking piece is re-aligned and the guide pin inserted through the hole in the cover slide as illustrated in the original instructions, THE PISTOL IS COCKED AND READY TO FIRE. IF DROPPED IN THIS STATE, IT COULD EASILY DISCHARGE CAUSING INJURY OR DEATH.

Just what I need in my cedar chest…a highly dangerous collectible that I’m advised not to load and fire because it will kill me. But then…if they’d made it a non-firing replica, like any sane person woulda, they couldn’t charge six Franklins for it. I think the subtext here is that, wink wink, you are going to fire it, but, wink wink, that’s very naughty of you, wink wink, and so don’t blame us when it kills you. Awesome! Needless to say, if you’re buying it for collector’s value, you’re better off not firing it anyway.

Given its single-shot nature, the Liberator is a derringer, with two r’s and a small d, by some definitions — as opposed to a Deringer, which was a trade name from which the generic term originated. Still, it doesn’t look a damn thing like what you’d expect Three-Card Zeke to sneak out of his vest pocket when he’s caught cheating at poker. It’s a curious and ugly device made to be created as cheaply as possible, representing the ingenious desperation of a nation at war.

Sadly, desperation and ingenuity may go well together in terms of economic firearm design, but when it comes to continent-wide strategy, they’re not the best bedfellows.

The Liberator was intended to be a weapon of psychological warfare and even terror, creating the sense in the occupying force that they might be killed at any moment by a civilian stashing an easy-to-conceal firearm. But while that might sound like a nice goal for a major country supporting an insurgent force, other U.S. strategies proved to be a hell of a lot scarier. What’s more, the OSS always thought it was a jackassed idea, and very few of the Liberators manufactured were distributed, mostly in China and the Philippines. There’s no recorded instance of a Liberator being successfully used in the field. It was as half-baked an idea then as it is now.

But who gives a damn? It’s a piece of history, and a great example of the many ways in which complex engineering can be reduced to its bare basics. Six Franklins?

Both the original and the replica come complete with a wax box and instructions on how the recipient could use the gun to kill a German guard and commandeer his rifle or submachine gun…and presumably accomplish this before ol’ Hans-Jürgen’s buddies hear the gunshot and get all Night of the Long Knives on your ass (the single-shot gun did not include a silencer).

The original also had a smoothbore barrel, which makes its claimed range of about 8 meters or 32 feet seem a little optimistic, especially since insurgents were likely to be doing their work at night. The replica has a rifled barrel, because federal firearms regulations in the U.S. make it illegal to sell smoothbore handguns.

Photo from XRailbyRCI.com.

Would you rather carry ammo and have to load it, costing you valuable time, or would you prefer it in your gun?

Of course the answer is always “in my gun.”

My sentiments exactly!

Though a relatively small number of magazine-fed shotguns exist, they’re rare in the civilian market. Most shotguns feed through what’s called a “tube magazine.” It lines the shells up end-to-end between your trigger finger and the muzzle. The magazine is part of the gun. It’s the same overall configuration used in the Henry rifle design so popular in the frontier era (aka the Indian Genocide era), but most civilian shotguns are pump action, as opposed to the lever-action most common in Henry-style rifles (though some rifles, also, are pump action). Even semi-automatic shotguns tend to use tube magazines in the United States, even if they’re military or law-enforcement.

That means that if you’re a shotgun user, you usually can’t use extended magazines like the ones you’ll use to guarantee your second-amendment freedoms in the event that Bubba-Larry starts talking shit over at the bait store about how your AK can’t hit anything. Shotgun magazines (like Henry rifle magazines) are integral to the weapon, and you won’t be able to pull a New York Reload when avian flu morphs into a zombie virus. The day Blackbirdicus ohGoditseatingus starts coming for you en masse, you’re pretty much screwed, zombie-hunter. You ever try to hit a flock of swarming brain-starved featherweights with a pair of Glocks and some Chow Yun Gun Fu? It’s not fun. It’s not fun at all.

Enter Roth Concept Innovations, “designer and manufacturer of high capacity solutions for your shotgun” and the latter-day Tippi Hedren’s very best friend. As a press release in Guns & Ammo informs me, They manufacture the new XRAIL System, “an auto indexing loader for shotguns.”

Here’s what you’ll be wearing, come the apocalypse, to accompany your stylish headgear: Read more…

Image from Impact Guns.

Kel-Tec is taken fairly serious by firearms enthusiasts as a manufacturer of low-priced but functional firearms. They’re probably best known for the compact 9mm P-11, a popular off-duty choice for law enforcement officers and other concealed carry applications. Its smaller cousin the .32 caliber P-32 also gets some play for its extreme small size. Their long guns haven’t proved as popular over the years, though their new(ish) bullpup-configuration carbine the RFB looks reasonably interesting if you’re into that sort of thing.

The newest Kel-Tec offering causing a bit of a buzz seems to support my observations about a move toward the adoption of lower-caliber rounds that allow for a very high capacity magazines, as with the FN Five-seveN. It’s the forthcoming Kel-Tec PMR-30, a full-sized semi-automatic intended as a plinker or target pistol, but potentially powerful enough to serve as a grab-and-go gun in case the zombies and/or invading space aliens start flooding down your street.

It also carries up to 30 rounds in a single magazine. I’m sure that is going to make everyone real, real happy in this “charged political environment.”

The best part is that it retails for just about $300 right now — at least, if prices online are any indication of out-the-door-price  (they aren’t — at least, not in most states).

What I mean by a “grab-and-go” gun is that the PMR-30 is chambered in .22 WMR Magnum, which is a reasonably easy round to carry a whole lot of, but could potentially serve reasonably well in a pinch to hunt small game with reasonable efficiencies…even large game if you have to, and in self-defense applications.

What I’m saying is…not to put too fine a point on it, is…when you run for the hills, you can shoot squirrels with it without completely, you know, destroying them. Cook those critters up on the radiator of your 4×4, and you’ve got a tasty squirrelburger. (Hope you brought the hoagies!) You’d probably be better off shooting squirrels with a .22 Long Rifle — but hey, that’s the point. The .22 WMR round can also kill zombies, which I wouldn’t necessarily count on a .22 LR to do. At average loadings, the .22 WMR provides about twice the velocity and 2-3 times the foot-pounds of impact as a .22 LR.

“WMR” stands for “Winchester Magnum Rimfire,” and rimfire rounds tend to be lighter and less expensive, which is why the world’s most popular rimfire cartridge, the .22 Long Rifle, is the world’s most popular and typically most budget-priced round.

The .22 WMR, however, is not generally considered a competitor of the .22 LR, but of the .17 HMR (“Hornady Magnum Rimfire”) which is basically a necked-down .22 Magnum, which I’ve heard tends to be more accurate in rifles. But the PMR-30′s configuration is clearly based on the classic .22 LR pistols that are the mainstay of target shooting in the United States, like the Ruger Mark III, Smith & Wesson Model 22, and the old Colt Woodsman.

Unfortunately, the price of shootin’ is going to go up if you switch from .22 LR to .22 WMR — from about 5 to 10 cents a round (or less in bulk) for a .22 LR to something like 25 to 30 cents a round for .22 WMR (.17 HMR is roughly comparable).

And if you want a 30-round magazine to bring home your gopher dinner and keep you safe from the zombies while you’re getting it, this sounds like the pistol to go for.

Creative Commons photo of the FN Five-seveN with a Sure-Fire tactical light by Malis.

For what it’s worth, I am deeply suspicious of all the high-tech, newfangled stuff these gun manufacturers are coming out with nowadays. It’s polymer this, tactical that, “Pocket Performance” blah blah blah. The AR-15 platform pretty much seems to have taken over the rifle market, at least as far as gun magazines and blogs go; every pistol looks like a Glock, promises “peace through superior firepower” and, oh, by the way, costs more than the Cold War.

See, I don’t like all this black plastic, y’dig?

Nah, I like the antiques. Give me a pearl-handled nickel-plated .25 Colt to haul out of my silk smoking jacket when the detective shows up to question me about the missing jewels; it’s just the right size that I can point it at him and say “I wouldn’t try it, Detective Hulksmash — unlike your brain, my gun’s loaded,” and then wave it fanatically while I puff on my cigarette holder and explain how I stole the jewels, where I hid them, and how he’s going to outsmart me. Now that‘s high technology.

But.

There’s something fascinating about the trend in full-sized handguns in smaller calibers with extremely high-capacity magazines. Take, for instance, the Fabrique Nationale Herstal Five-seveN semi-automatic pistol, which uses a 5.7-millimeter-by-28-millimeter round, which is about a .224 for us Yanks. In addition to its reputed accuracy, corrosion resistance, and very low recoil (claimed to be 30% less than a comparably-sized 9, the big plus about the Five-seveN is, of course, that it’s the highest-capacity production handgun around. The eensy bullet means you can cram 20 rounds into a flush fit magazine, or 30 rounds into an extended magazine, assuming you work for NATO (or the local SWAT team). Read more…

Arrhh, picture the scene now.

It’s Christmas Eve and you be straight pimp chillin’ in da crib with the hotties and the shorties. Like any fine-standing gangster of achievement, your pour yourself a Hennessy XO, and lean against your mantelpiece above your fireplace. You light a blunt and take in the festive scene. But hold up! What’s that noise on the roof? You must be trippin’ player, it’s too early in the evening for Santa!

As the noise moves down the chimney you suddenly realize it ain’t Kris Kringle coming by to pop some presents under your tree but the Cripps coming by to pop a cap in yo’ ass! (that link proves ‘if you can think of it, there’s stock photography of it’)

But don’t worry. You’ve got your shit locked down, with LA Police Gear’s Tactical Holster Christmas Stocking hanging above your fireplace – which features “two magazine pouches, a flashlight pouch, and a universal holster that will fit the majority of handguns.”

Before anyone has time to readjust their mouth grille, you’ve removed lil’ bang bang from the hostler, loaded a clip, and dispatched your foe without breaking a sweat… or spilling your cognac. Boom Shakalaka!

Serious players will want to check out the Elite Tactical Christmas Stocking which LA Police Gear claim, and I quote, “works well with 40mm projectile rounds”… Presumably for when only armor piercing capabilities will suffice.

Here at TechYum we love LA Police Gear which, when they’re not blowing shit up or contributing to America’s global diplomacy efforts, sell some really quite awesome stuff.

Our favorite is probably their 5.11 Select Carry Sling Bag which looks like an ordinary messenger bag that can be flipped around to provide easy access to your concealed MP5 or other sub-machine gun. Last time I checked there was no option for that on your Timbuk2 messenger bag!

Only this promotional video does complete justice to its awesomeness:

As I’m sure you’ll agree, every self-respecting gangster needs one.

[Via @EdRabbit and LA Police Gear's email]

Creative Commons photo of the Embraer Super Tucano by Piñeros Pulido Juan Mauricio.

On this fine Armistice Day, what could honor peace more thoroughly than the news that Indonesia is buying a flock of Super Tucano turboprop  counter-insurgency aircraft, the same model that the U.S. Navy considered for “irregular warfare,”  Blackwater bought in 2007 and Kansas lawmaker Sam Brownback flipped out about exactly one year today.

Why do you care?

I mean…other than because it looks like some bad-ass World War II fighter?

You probably don’t, or at least you won’t until the zombie war begins. If you think you might, stick with me, or skip past the jump and get the brain-eating payoff.

As reported in Aviation Week, Aerospace & Defense News, and other sources, the Indonesian government is buying eight of the turboprop aircraft, though some Indonesian government sources said the order may be upped to sixteen.

Indonesia is the first buyer of the aircraft in East Asia or the South(east) Pacific, though if you consider Lebanon to be in Asia (have fistfights in the hall, please), they already bought the first Asian Super Tucanos for delivery in 2013.

The Super Tucanos will replace Indonesia’s fleet of North American Rockwell OV-10 Broncos, also a turboprop plane suited for the light attack and reconaissance (LARR) role, and by extension by counter-insurgency (the Super Tucano’s most-mentioned specialties). It’s also frequently used as a trainer. Read more…

Girls and guns, what’s not to love? Okay I know that firearms are not for everyone, and that our British friends get squeamish around such rough talk and brutish weaponry. But before you drop your crumpet into your tea and complain about how you think you gained a stone watching bittorent copies of COPS! I invite you to join me in exploring the fascinating world of us crazy American girls and our weapons of choice: firearms.

Last week I was interviewed for a few hours on camera by Cathryne Czubek, director of upcoming documentary A Girl And A Gun. Czubek is wrapping up with a few final interviews and has amassed a hell of a collection of scenes from the lives of every kind of female gun owner imaginable. While we chatted, I asked her about the anti-government cult she spent time with in Maine and the armed women there; all the way to querying her about the very young girls she went shooting with in the South. I told her about my personal history with guns; in an urban city setting I have some crazy stories, though she was most intrigued that unlike most women she’d interviewed who had their introduction to guns from brothers, fathers, boyfriends or husbands — it was my mother who introduced me to the world of guns.

It’s going to be a really fascinating and important documentary, especially in our Sarah Palin times. Czubek put up a Kickstarter page to raise funds to complete the doc, and it’s got support from female filmmaking foundations — but it does need some help. Spread the word.

A Girl And A Gun Kickstarter Page (Really cool prizes for donating!)
Facebook: A Girl And A Gun

Ruger 10/22 Fun Gun-Thompson Conversion Kit image courtesy of 1022FunGun.com

Have you ever said to yourself, “You know, I love my Ruger 10/22, but how can I take it to the next level of fun?”

I think we’ve all asked ourselves that question.

When it’s time for the answer, ring up the wild and crazy guys at 1022FunGun.com, who know that “Fun” means a trip back to the laugh-a-minute days of the bloody St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the party atmosphere of Okinawa and the swingin’ times of Anzio.

That’s right, 1022FunGun.com is where you can guy a conversion kit to give your Halloween costume the ultimate air of authenticity: a Ruger 10/22 that looks just like a Thompson submachinegun but fires inexpensive .22 LR ammo, eliminating the annoying skyward barrel creep the Thompson is known for and making it much cheaper to shoot just for laughs. Can you imagine the green Al Capone would have saved on that day in 1929 if his men had pumped out 70 rounds of .22 LR (about 5 cents a round in today’s market) instead of .45 ACP (closer to $1 a round).

More importantly, can you imagine the looks on the faces of your friends down on Castro and Market when a pigeon crosses the street and you haul this mother out from under your trench?

Made of aluminum, steel, and American walnut, the Fun Gun Kit requires no machining and no trip to the gunsmith. Plus, since some Thompsons originally came with 50-round drums in the heady days of blowing away cattle rustlers with this puppy, if you order the Fun Gun Kit with the 50-round drum magazine, the late Senator Edward Kennedy will personally rise from the grave and deliver it to your front door with a signed statement that he’s really sorry he helped ban high-capacity magazines in 1994,  and he understands now that freedom comes from the barrel of a Thompson replica, especially for zombies.

Actually, I made that last part up; not just the magazine ban apology and the zombies — the whole thing. Ted Kennedy won’t rise from the grave, and the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004. However, the 50-round drum that comes with the “Chicago” rendition of the Fun Gun kit is a dummy, as is the 20-round magazine that comes with the (far more common in its day in the actual Thompson) “Squad Leader” configuration. Needless to say, the weapon continues to shoot like a regular 10/22, with a patented, detachable 10-shot rotary magazine.

Here are the two other configurations of the converted Ruger 10/22:

With dummy 50-round drum magazine

"Pistol" kit converted Ruger 10/22.

"Want some candy, Adolph?" Smart-looking British guy showing off HIS Halloween costume, 1940.

The The Mossberg 500® Mariner™ from the Just In Case™ Series.

On a slow, brain-dead Monday morning, a visit to the website of manufacturer O.F. Mossberg & Sons nets me Monday Morning Shotgun Pr0n on an unprecedented level.

Take, for instance, the new Mossberg “Just In Case” series, in which your pistol-grip Mossberg 500 is packed into a waterproof “Survival Kit-in-a-Can,” enabling you to, you know, stuff it in the bilge of your 40-foot Catalina sailboat and then forget about it.

Until, that is, Chilean pirates jack your Cat off Tierra del Fuego during your long-dreamed-about post-retirement voyage around the world with Penelope Cruz and Jennifer Love Hewitt once you win the lottery. Then you’ll be set! Tell those pirates what’s what! Can you even imagine the affections Penny and Jenny will lavish on your septugenarian ass once you save them from pirates with this big-bore taste of God’s Vengeance, Bubbah?

Yeah, I bet you can, weirdo. Sez Mossberg:

The heart of the JIC™ package is the venerable 12 gauge Mossberg® 500® Pump-Action. Fitted with a compact 18-1/2” barrel and rugged synthetic pistol grip and forearm, it’s offered in your choice of the blued Cruiser® model, the Mariner®, or the Sandstorm™ featuring our proprietary Marinecote™ finish for employment in or around harsh marine environments. Each is sealed in a re-sealable clear bag, and is packaged in a heavy-duty, waterproof synthetic carrying-tube complete with re-sealable top and nylon carrying strap. You’ll also find convenient accessories including the waterproof ‘Survival Kit-In-A-Can’ (Cruiser® model), or the durable multi-tool and serrated lock-back knife combo pack with cordura case (Mariner® model).

The Mariner, of course, is the version finished in stainless steel, which cuts down on corrosion in a maritime environment. That’s the one you’ll want for your pleasure cruise around the world turned pirate-interdiction mission. The weapon also comes in desert-camo colors as the Sandstorm model, just in case you need to, you know, deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan or Beaver, Utah or something. That way it’ll match your Texaco gimme cap:

The Mossberg 500® JIC™ Sandstorm™ model.

And that’s not all you’ll find at the Mossberg website today! As a well-known Mossberg motto goes, “Cuz Hunting Ain’t Catch and Release,” cuz, you’ll find the new 510 Mini, available in 20-gauge or .410, which has a modular stock so you can start your kids blowing things away well in advance of the zombie apocalypse! (To be fair, there’s actually a strong safety argument for teaching youths to use guns early — one that just happens to coincide with the marketing goals of the gun press’s most powerful advertisers. I’m genuinely positive that’s a complete coincidence.) Anyway, here’s the glorious Mossberg 510 Mini:

The Mossberg 510 Mini. The good news? Your daughter can use it. The bad news? Look, Dad, just watch your mouth about Katy Perry.

Of course, the big news on the Mossberg front is the semi-automatic Mossberg® 930™ SPX™, Shooting Illustrated‘s “2009 Shotgun of the Year.” But is that what Mossberg calls it? Hell, no!

We call it the best auto-loading home-defense shotgun money can buy. …[It was] recognized with the prestigious NRA Golden Bullseye Award for 2009. Among their comments, editors pointed out the shotgun’s exceptional value, and described it succinctly as “Simple, rugged and reliable.” When it comes to home-security firearms, a simple-to-operate, dependable firearm in a crisis can make a world of difference. For that reason, Mossberg 930 Special Purpose™ autoloaders are finding their way into more homes as a primary defense firearm.

Home defense! That’s probably why Mossberg calls the most attractive of their 930 SPX models — this little number complete with matte black finish, synthetic stock, muzzle brake and bead sight, the “Road Blocker“:

The 'Road Blocker.' Image from O.F. Mossberg & Sons.

I don’t know about you — but I have a LOT of roads through my bedroom, and I’m always whacking zombies who unicycle down them, juggling meat cleavers.

Ever want to consider the reasons that a mildly left-of-center Northern California blogger would watch so many videos of strange men shooting guns? Don’t.

That said, if you have a morbid attachments to low-fi gun nut weirdness, I’m your man. And if you appreciate the bizarre foibles of our men and women in blue and warfare tactics banned by NATO as being inhumane, stick with me, kid.

If you especially love videos with the sort of narrators whose portfolios burst at the seams with such voice-over gems as Casseroles With Cool-Whip!?!?! and Canned Soup: No Longer A Bolshevik Plot!, this may be the most bizarre and disturbing firearms video you watch this week. Hell, next week, too! Like me, you’ll want to watch it over, and over, and over again.

It is, I submit, the “Reefer Madness” of five-minute educational videos on exotic shotgun ammunition.