Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Forgotten Weapons" channel.

  1. Among the problems the Chauchat had, "open spaces" was the least of them. Other than how much dust and dirt can get into the action, an even more important thing is how much dust and dirt is needed to lock the action. An action with very tight tolerancies needs very few dirt to be stuck. A "wobbling" action (even more a wobbling action with an heavy bolt and firing pin, so with a lot of momentum) is not stuck that easy, and is largely self cleaning. IE the Webley semiauto was a very "close" design, but its tolerances were so tight that the action was easily locked by the dirt.
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  2. Today it can seem strange, but, in the first half of XX century, to design a detachable magazine that was at the same time so cheap to be discarded on the field, and so well and consistently built to not cause feeding problems was really an issue. The BAR and the BREN were plagued by jammings caused by defective magazines, and those had been built by countries that had not raw materials shortages. The British actually designed a fixed magazine for the BREN, loaded with two 15 rounds clips (they didn't adopt that, but it was really awkward compared to the Breda one). So, in 1924, FIAT came out with a LMG design (FIAT 1924) that had a fixed magazine on the left of the weapon, loaded inserting a 20 round clip (similar to that of the subsequent Breda) from the right. In exchange of a little time lost in recharging, all the feeding problems were avoided. The flaw was that, to load a MG inserting a clip from one side, the gunner, or the servent, had to expose himself a little, and, laterally pushing the weapon, they can move it, loosing the line of sight. So the Breda had the subsequent evolution. By tilting the magazine, in exchange of a little more time lost in recharging, the gunner could load the gun (and change the barrel, for that matter) without changing position at all. In the end, ten years later, at the start of WWII, it was an already outdated design, but it was actually not that bad. There is a tendency, on the net, when a weapon had some defect, tho extremize them, concluding that "it's the worst gun ever made!", "I would have rather fought naked than carrying that piece of junk!" and things like that. But those are modern days shenanigans. The contemporaries of the weapon, those that had to fight them daily, and reuse the captured ones, thought it was not that bad. From Tactical and Technical Trends (the magazine of the US Intelligence) No. 7, Sept. 10, 1942 "Use of Captured Italian weapons" : "Breda Light Machine Gun: The Breda light machine gun is similar to the British Bren gun. It is mechanically superior to the Bren gun under dusty conditions. It requires only one man to service it as compared to several for the Bren gun. It has a slightly higher rate of fire than the British weapon. Its disadvantages are that it has no carrying handle, cannot be fired on fixed lines, and has no tripod mounting". Mind that, to use 4 spare barrels (the number the Italians deemed to be necessary after having used the gun in combat), you have to fire at least 800 rounds in quick succession. So much for the gun not being capable to really provide automatic fire.
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  3. Because this is metal and blowback (so is the mass of the slide that dealys the opening of the breech) and the Glock 19 Gen 19 is polymer and breechlock. Fairer comparisons are the the CZ83 and the Walther PPK. the Beretta is lighter than both.
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  4. A .380 ACP is not just a shortened 9X19 Para. They have different dimensions not only in case length.
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  5. Both Colt and Beretta, when they experimented their 9mm blowbacks, noticed that the hammer was a weak point of the system. The very fast recoil of the slide tended to break it. Maybe Bernardelli had the same experience and decided to go for the striker.
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  6.  @Jay22222  The M16 had a dual aperture sight, the battle sight was zeroed at 250m and used between 0 and 300m. The long range sight (300m to 400m) was never used, since the US Army didn't (and doesn't) train for distances longer than 300m.
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  7.  @alessandrorona6205  BTW, in that competition, despite the problem with the safety, Ian won a stage and Karl won two, so there had not been any floor mopping, sorry.
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  8. The Finns actually worsened the sights, asking for them to be zeroed at 100m instead of 200m before the rifles being delivered. That way they were practicaly useless past 150m, well into combat distance.
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  9. The bolt is lightweight, but the firing pin and the spring-guide-tube attached recoil with it, so adding their weight. Obviously not enough to safely fire a 7.92 Mauser, but not 360 grams. The entire recoiling mass is probably around 800gr-1kg.
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  10. The rubber sealing on the Chassepot used more material than the thin disk on the Carcano, and required to be changed every few shots anyway (that costed time in action).
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  11.  @henochparks  Had you read the report instead the conspiracy sites yoy buy, you would have known that the entry hole had been esatbilished to be in the back of the head.
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  12.  @doublepiedavid8908  Despite having been made specifically for a carbine, and descending from a class of rifle ammo (those for the Winchester Model 1907) it's normally considered more akin to a pistol round. 7.5 FK, that's specifically a semiauto pistol cartridge, is more powerful than .30 Carbine for the same barrel length. It's not an unicum. Much of the classic cartridges of lever action rifles are less powerful than a modern .357 Mag.
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  13. That's what happens when an inventor gets enamored of an idea. At a certain point, he realizes it's impractical in respect to other, established, solutions, but he wants to make it work. However, let's not exagerate. The functioning is complex, but the individual pieces are rather simple to make. For a comparison, the Zb. vz 26 / BREN was simple in its functioning, and had less moving pieces, but the bolt and carrier are the nightmare of a machinist. Fact is that too many moving pieces are a problem by itself, since it multiplies the things that can go wrong.
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  14.  @davidvarnes7708  For 1934 It was simple to make too. The BAR, BREN, MG34 and Type99 (and both the BREN and MG1934 had been selected in 1938, the Type99 in 1939) had more complex machining. Among the most used LMGs of the time, Only the DP28 could be considered simpler to manufacture. But generally, though I like it, it seems like a promising prototype put in production before all the elements had been figured out throughly. Very good and simple operating mechanism, barrel change mechanism, general ergonomy, controls, gas settings… But three sets of lugs? That bipod (I’ve seen better in WWI)… no handle to grab a scorching hot barrel… And that magazine… It could have easily been so MUCH better.
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  15. It's more "being big enough to persuade three ammo manufacturers to produce your wildcat cartridge". The rule was introduced specifically to stop handloaders of super-hot 9X21 ammos (and so make the 1911 stay relevant). S&W answer had been "OK, Now that the board has stopped all this 9X21 guns, I make it 9X21.5 and persuade three manufacturers to produce them while I build 10.000 guns".
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  16. An MMG is a crew served weapon. if one of the crew is wounded, one of the infantrymen takes his place, because the MMG is more important than a rifle.
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  17.  @goobcity  "There are reasons why belt fed LMG weren't a thing still in WWII (and the GPMG concept took decades to impose itself after the war). A belt-fed LMG has MANY problems." The MG42 was a GPMG. Used as a LMG, it used a 50 rounds belt in a can (the Guttromel). It took way less to change 3-4 magazines tha a single Guttromel. The Browning 1919 was not a LMG either. It was a MMG pretending to be one. It had even more problems with weight and fixed barrel.
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  18. The barrel has to rotate clockwise to unlock, like the rifling, so like the bullet has to. Since the rifling is what forces the bullet to rotate clockwise (the gasses push the bullet down the barrel, but don't impart any rotation), the same barrel is foced to rotate counterclockwise by the bullet, so delaying the opening. The more, the more powerful the cartridge is. Since the bullet accelerates for the entire lenght of the barrel, for any realistic lenght of the barrel of an handgun, the dalaying effect is present until the bullet leaves the barrel.
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  19. I'd prefer to be the one wielding "this shit" and filling with holes that strange guy I saw advancing in a WWI battlefield with a sword in his hand.
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  20. 100 years old magazine.
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  21. The Italian Navy adopted it, but they didn't need many of them. The Army bought it in some thousands of samples as "mobilitation weapons" (to be stored and used if needed). They had been lastly seen in Afghanistan, abroad the Mangusta helicopters.
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  22. You are welcome. One of the thing that could be of interest, is why the two choose the city of Cremona for the plant. Infact they were both of Genova, and Cremona was then a little, not industrialized, city, famous, like now is, for its luthiers. One can only speculate, but is often said that it was cause Cremona was the city of Roberto Farinacci, one of the leading figures of the fascist party. Building a manifacture there, they thought they could gain public procurements more easily. In the end, it was an excessive caution, as the plant started to work in 1939, and, since 1940, everything that could manufacture a rifle had no shortage of procurements. In the end, in its brief life (the plant made weapons only from 1939 to 1945) the Armaguerra was higly innovative. It not only designed the winning semiauto model for the Italian Army, but also the OG43 and OG44, the first "second generation" SMGs. Although not used productively for decades, the Armaguerra Plant is still existing. Recently the asbestos roof covers had been replaced by photovoltaic panels (even those that are still not covered in the picture, had been later), so it's currently a photovoltaic plant. http://nextia.ch/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/armaguerra-1.2bn.jpg
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  23. The founders were two businessmen that, until the late '30s had an activity of import of bananas from Somalia (they owned two ships that they used for that). In the late '30s their business was nationalized by the government, and they (that were also two enthusiast hunters) used the indemnity to found, in the city of Cremona, a manufacture of weapons expressely meant for the army, so the name "Armi da guerra - Cremona" (Weapons for war - Cremona) then contracted in "Armaguerra". The manufacture was founded in 1939. The rifle was their first indipendent design, and had been immediatly succesful, winning the competition of Beretta, Breda and Scotti. However, during the war, the Armaguerra mainly produced Carcano rifles and Beretta Model 1934 pistols.
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  24.  Zach cash  The Marine Corp adopted the Beretta M9A1 in 9mm. Some special unit was given that Colt, without any competition, mostly due to Gen. William M. Keys connections, and had little else than just problems with those. That's why it had been replaced after only four years of service, to adopt a 9mm.
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  25. The Marine Corp adopted the Beretta M9A1. Some special unit was given that Colt, without any competition, mostly due to Gen. William M. Keys connections, and had little else than just problems with those.
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  26. There had been several 9mm double feed pistols that weren't particularly wide. The Type-92 is probably the most "normal looking" example.
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  27.  @angry_ike7628  7.65mm Parabellum produces 412 Joule of energy, not ft-lbs. Those are 304 ft-lbs. Not really different than the 8mm Roth-Steyr (that would easily surpass it with a bullet of comparable weight). Overall lenght: .30 Super Carry, 29.7mm, 8mm Roth-Steyr, 29,0mm 7.65X20 Longue, 30.24mm Bullet diameter: .30 Super Carry, 8mm, 8mm Roth-Steyr, 8.16mm 7.65X20 Longue, 7.85mm Base diameter: .30 Super Carry, 8.8mm, 8mm Roth-Steyr, 8.85mm 7.65X20 Longue, 8.53mm Bullet mass: .30 Super Carry, 100gr, 8mm Roth-Steyr, 113-116gr 7.65X20 Longue, 77gr Energy: .30 Super Carry, 470J 8mm Roth-Steyr, 390-410J 7.65X20 Longue, 297J. So I confirm, the .30 Super Carry is more similar to the 8mm Roth-Steyr, both for dimensions and energy than to the 7.65X20 Longue, that shoots a much lighter bullet with much less energy. The 7.65 Parabellum has very similar performances to that of the 8mm Roth-Steyr, especially considered that the 8mm Roth Steyr would develop more energy with a 100gr ball (a la .30 Super Carry) and even more with a 93gr ball (a la 7.65mm Parabellum).
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  28. WhiteCavendish Since the movement made by bolt head is about the same (first rotate 90°, then slide rearward for the lenght of the cartridge), the movement of the hand is not so "quantitatively" different. In the Mauser it's divided in two distinct actions "high - rear", while in the Ross it's a single, longer, one. As for the effort, that's probably true for sniper rifles, adeguately cared and that tend to shoot fewer ammunitions than infantry rifles. One of the problems of the design as an infantry rifle infact was it's tendency  to require more and more effort to cycle the action as the rifle keep shooting, as a result of tight tolerances and dirt (unavoidable in trench warfare). Another superbly accurate and smooth straight pull, the Schmidt-Rubin, especially in it's K31 incarnation, if used in the same conditions would have probably suffered of the same problems (that were repeatedly reported in training) for the same reasons. It's worth to note that another widely used (the most widely used of them all actually) straight pull, the Steyr-Manlicher, although being far less smooth than the previous two at first shot, did not suffered from the same problems. The famous Russian weapon desiger Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov (the father of the Fedorov Avtomat), in his reports from the battlefields of the Russo-Japanese war noted infact that the Manlicher design was even less sensible to mud and snow than the M91 Moisin-Nagant.
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  29. The 91/24 mantained the old rifling, infact they are known to keyhole. However those were intended to be stopgap weapons for rear echelon troops, the ones that in WWI had been armed with the converted Vetterli.
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  30. There's infact a clip about a Ukrainian anti-drone unit that used a Beretta MG42/59 mounted on a pick-up.
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  31.  @Pwnulolumad  The operation is carried on by active duty military personnel, with the standard equipment.
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  32.  @zelpyzelp  "many" is different from "all".
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  33. Many pistols designed to work with 9mm handle the .40 S&W pretty well.
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  34. MAB-38, Breda 37, Breda 38, Breda 20/65 M35...
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  35. Overlooked part. The infantry MG only weights 8.4 kg (7.4 kg the aerial one, with lighter barrel and without stock) that's VERY light. However the lack of a quick exchange barrel limits its effectiveness.
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  36. Mind that this is a disassembly, not a field strip. A normal field strip (to clean the gas chamber, inspect and maybe replace the recoil spring, clean the bolt and maybe replace the firing pin) can be made in seconds without tools, that was not a given at that time.
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  37. It's for strip field. Statistically, the recoil spring and the firing pin are the parts that have to be be replaced more often, and the bolt assembly and the gas ports are those that need cleaning. This design grants access to all of them in seconds.
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  38. The correct reload procedure for a right handed person is: hold the gun with your left hand by the safety / magazine holder and USE YOUR RIGHT HAND TO REPLACE THE MAGAZINE AND OPERATE THE CHARGING HANDLE. is not like you have much to do with your right hand (that's supposed to be your most able one) until the reload procedure is completed, so its better to use it to reload the gun.
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  39. It was produced just before Germany betrayed Japan.
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  40. There is no WTF with this one. The thing is made to be held with the left hand while the reload operations are made with the right one. No loss of speed, and, since you have your left hand around the magazine holder, you can't miss it while changing the magazine, even if you are operating in the darkness, or not looking at the weapon at all.
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  41.  @randymagnum143  I'm sure your opinion on the matter has the utmost importance to you, and you find your fairy tales more interesting than reality, but sadly the world doesn't share it and it's not inerested in them.
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  42. Several variants actually. The smaller ones were toys, the bigger ones, fully functional rifles, although firing reduced cartridges.
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  43. Actually it was soon found that bayonets mounted on rifles were among the worst weapons for trench raids. It was too easy to divert the bayonet with one hand, and hit with anything you had in the other. Almost anything (figting knives, dismounted bayonets, showels...) worked better.
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  44.  @DinnerForkTongue  You want to use it in full auto? Good luck.
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  45.  @DinnerForkTongue  In which way? The USAS is simply a semiauto shotgun and, thus not having the double possibility of the SPAS, IT'S 3.3 LBS HEAVIER. The USAS is more the fat and less gifted friend.
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  46. The bolt is more complicate to manufacture, the extraction is weaker (it's easier to open a stuck bolt action by force without breaking anything) and the Steyr-Manlicher is practically the only straight-pull that didn't show problems in trench warfare.
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  47.  @hendriktonisson2915  Unfortunately, much of the surviving guns had been turned into Fiat-Revelli 1914/35, and then used in N.Africa until exhaustion (it was conceived to be a stopgap weapon anyway, until the full adoption of the Breda 37), so there are very few surviving samples, generally in museums, that don't allow to shoot them.
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  48.  @zoiders  You are not a WWI veteran, so you can stop talking down to people "from the field". Yours are no more than armchair guessing. Metallic link belts and magazines won, sorry. Canvas belt became obsolete. Metallic and canvas belt are not the same. There were no metallic belts in WWI. Magazines are still used. Canvas belt are not. The FIAT-Revelli magazine was a way to have a 50 rounds magazine in an era where simply staggered 50 rounds magazines would have been unreliable. A belt doesn't work everywere. A canvas belt easily collect mud and get wet. wetting the ammos too and mantaining them wet Storage and transport of canvas belts requires special attention. Refilling canvas belt in the field requires time and precision. Much more time and much more precision than refilling magazines. Canvas belt are damaged quite easily, and are easily subject to stretching or shrinking due to the weather. All the simplicity of the belt is paid in terms of complexity of the gun, since a cartridge has to be extracted backwards form the belt, then rised or lowered out of the way of the belt, then pushed into the chamber. A cartridge only has tro be pushed out of the magazine or strip. Belts require much more time to be changed than magazines or strips. To discard a damaged belt that causes feeding problems costs all the ammos in it. A damaged magazine or strip costs less ammos. Canvas belt are so problematic than even the advent of synthetic fibers, that would have solved some of their problems, didn't manage to save them from becoming obsolete.
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  49. There is no real difference in the operation of the two guns MAC channel shown, but only in the form of the bolt carrier. In the AR15 the bolt carrier is pushed rearward by the gas (direct impingement) and nothing else while, when this happens, the bolt is simply solidal with the receiver. In the MAS 49 what MAC called "the gas tube with a tiny little hole" is what in the AR15 was called "a piston" (a "stationary piston"). In the AR15 the "piston" (really the bolt) doesn't push the carrier at all, the gas does. The bolt it only seals the gas until the carrier retreated enough, exactly like the final portion of the gas tube in the MAS49.
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  50. In theory the system is as safe as pure blowback. It simply exchange the mass of the bolt with the acceleration of a part of it. In practice, using riflle ammunitions, it's difficult to fine-tune, being always on the verge of having a too harsh extracion (not enough mechanical disadvantage) or not having enough power to cycle the action (too much mechanical disadvantage).
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