Comments by "Anders Juel Jensen" (@andersjjensen) on "Forgotten Weapons" channel.

  1. The Chieftain is always entertaining with his humorous remarks. "A significant emotional event" is the most low-key morbid euphemism for "blown into little bloody pieces" in army lingo :P
    683
  2. I had the privilege, honor and absolute pleasure to train two batches of Estonians, here in Denmark, in the mid to late 90s. Absolutely stellar lads! There was some, shall we say, "difference of mindset" in the beginning, but once it clicked with them that we expected them to be actually thinking soldiers we had tons and tons of fun with designing missions they only had "half the information" about, and see how they would adapt and come up with novel solutions. As soon as they found out that they would never get yelled at for trying something new their creativity shot through the roof.
    192
  3.  @IridiumRedTheOrigina  When your neighbour is Russia and you're not a member of any big alliance you quickly realise that "If necessity is the mother of all invention scarcity is surely it's father" :P
    156
  4.  @pablogutierrez5767  "The interview" yes... aka "the sales pitch" :P
    129
  5. @- Yeees... but if you look at cars from the year you were born. Every single aspect of them, besides the principal of the basic drivetrain, have been improved upon by orders of magnitude. Yet the MP5 is still to this day considered the best submachinegun ever made, and the suppressed version even more so. I think that's quite the feat in a world where 10 year old computers are borderline museum pieces. When this gun was designed Jupiter had 7 moons. Now it has 79-and-counting. When this gun was designed quantum mechanics was a plausible theory. 4 years ago the Higgs Boson was finally observed at the Large Hadron Collider. Also since then black holes have been proven to exist and gravitational waves have been directly measured.
    96
  6.  @jon2067  Perhaps Finnish sayings about rifles produced in Terni never made it back to Terni because Italians don't care about Finnish sayings?
    88
  7. I know how: Being internationally recognized and respected for not only his knowledge but also his unrivaled ability to communicate sensitive topics gingerly while remaining objective. This basically boils down to: "It doesn't matter if you're an oil Sheik, the Pope, a Russian aristocrat in exile or Donald Duck. If you have a cool and rare gun you call Ian McCollum!"
    80
  8.  @KuK137  Except Ian has done extensive videos on Polish resistance fire arms production. And they made sub machine guns. Not sniper rifles. Because making a simple blowback sub machine gun that will reasonably reliably hit at ranges a 9mm Parabellum can realistically do is a far cry from making a sniper rifle that can hit something so far away you need a scope the size of a roll of biscuits to see it. The Poles weren't idiots. They knew the limitation of their production means and produced firearms accordingly. They knew you can't produce to micrometer precision with determination alone, so they simply didn't bother.
    75
  9. But that would only have given you a nicer triggerpull and not reduce the lead time... so less PR blabber in the brochure. Also, that key at the bottom should have been a switch.
    69
  10.  @thecommissaruk  You actually have a really good point. If you load this thing correctly and fire it you have a handheld pipebomb that makes normal pipe bombs look like cherry bombs.
    69
  11.  @explodingbearz  NO! COMMIE BASTARDS ALL BAD! NO GOOD! NEVER! ONLY BAD!
    69
  12. The story about the Latvian Forest Brothers is very interesting. They were some of the most fierce, conning and brave resistance groups I've ever heard about.
    63
  13. "Every one of those sketchy Glock carbine setups" had me in stitches :D
    59
  14. You've got to put this into serial production Ian. I'm hearing that the Elbonians are looking for something exactly like this. Perhaps a few speed holes in what's left of the hand guard, and you'd have a total winner!
    58
  15. Ah Ian... The burden of success :P People are apparently so genuinely interested in the book itself that they don't care about silly perks. If that isn't "The Internet's Seal of Approval" I don't know what is :D
    56
  16.  @jw-hy5nq  Those weren't 1 MOA rifles for sure. Most companies that make precision rifles cold forge the rifling by inserting a tungsten carbide rod with the correct profile into the bore and then crimp-hammer the blank around it so it has to be screwed out. Drilling and reaming a barrel blank to within a few micons is outside the capabilities of most shops that don't have ambient temperature control. Long-boring a rifling pattern into it afterwards, without screwing it up to the point it becomes essentially just a somewhat poor hunting rifle, is even harder. So that you knew a machinist who made ghetto rifles really doesn't tell anyone much until we see a 1000m grouping shot from a gun rest, as Hamas is claiming to be making sniper rifles. Not bullet hoses.
    50
  17.  @egertroos-qh7hw  They were used to "You do what you're told. Exactly what you're told, and nothing but what you're told, and if you misunderstand what I say you're the one who's getting punished". It was a bit of an eye opener to them that it could be the instructors responsibility to make sure everyone has understood everything correctly.
    48
  18. 2 weeks was pretty cheap. One of the guys in our battalion sent a 7.62 through the roof of the guard house by the camp entrance. He spent his next 10 weekends doing more guard duty...
    47
  19. "Who made sure we can't buy this rifle in Denmark?" "The same people who cancelled Firefly...."
    47
  20. I was a gunner on an M109 (155mm/6" self propelling Howitzer)... the breech came back 96cm/3ft in 0.7 seconds when firing maximum load. The barrel alone was 8.5tons and I have no idea what the chamber and breech block weighed, but they were (obviously) chunky bois. "You only get in the way of this once!" was the teaching doctrine :P
    46
  21. It's the most Croatian thing I've ever seen: A make-due solution that is borderline overkill for the task at hand while not looking the least bit like a make-due solution. It's the physical embodiment of "Too angry, too stubborn and too skilled to die!". Every other conflict, where people have been in a similar solution, has produced some absolutely janky crap where you're not entirely sure if it's the shooter or the enemy they're trying to kill. But this thing is only a bit of titanium and carbon fiber away from being a legit special forces weapon.
    44
  22. I'd totally watch that as a movie. Tom Hanks as the chef engineer!
    43
  23. @Monochromatik Ahhh... what? Modern 16850 cells are orders of magnitude better than anything from the NiCad days in every single respect. They handle more charge/discharge cycles, they don't have memory issues and they handle harder charging/discharging... Just don't rupture them.
    42
  24. LOL! Also I think the main spring has to be a teeeny tiiiiny bit weaker for the gun to cycle... and I suspect the friction of a barrel that long might either stop the bullet entirely or just have it plop out at the end and fall to the ground... but besides that it would be sooo freaking funny to fire .22s from a gun this huge.... Kinda like having Arnold Schwarzenegger speak like a Korean tiktok girl :P
    41
  25. That would have gotten them obliterated. The planes figured they were shooting at a boring cargo train. If they'd shot back reinforcements would have been dispatched ASAP..... but yes, for a moment I was hoping the story would take that turn too! :D
    40
  26.  @testowacz1363  If that ends up happening I can't wait to hear Solovyov go apeshit on Russian State TV about how "Finnish special forces has been spotted in Ukraine".... The more I think about it, the more we need to make this happen!
    39
  27. You just described a substance I'll actively pay money to not come into contact with! :P
    39
  28.  @jon2067  He did not say it is a joke in Terni. He said it's a joke about Terni (in reference to the fact that "Terni" is the nickname for Carcano 7.35mm in Finland).
    38
  29. So much in fact that they have trouble selling their more modern UMP because the OG is still considered king of the hill everywhere by everyone.
    37
  30. Yes... it's as if invading a highly industrialized and well educated people goes very very badly unless you can completely paralyze every part of society decisively in very short order. If only a certain other country had taken note of this fact...
    36
  31.  @nextcaesargaming5469  Heck, armourers have reported all matching Ma Deuce guns, with manufacture dates from 1943, still working. While I like plasma, laser, ultrasonic cavitation and gamma weapons as much as the next guy, there is no denying that you just won't get capacitor collapse when the whole thing is just a hunk of steel that decomposes primitive nitrates into furiously hot expanding gas.
    35
  32. The angles were very chosen. You could not see what any of the dials were set to on the fractional distillation columns.
    34
  33.  @thetalesofdaneandco  The disturbing lack of speed holes and awkward grip angle makes this waaaay too conservative for Elbonia...
    34
  34. Making 6k per unit in gross profit on a 7k item is not as absurd as it might seem. A chip factory makes similar gross margins, but a chip factory costs 4-7 billion in construction and tooling, so you have to sell a whole lot of chips before you just break even on the capital expense. I don't know what it cost to set up shop, for the M249, in the US, but I suspect the unit bid price was pretty much calculated as "If we only get the US as a customer we're just going to be on the safe side of break even. Actual profits will have to come from additional sales". That they happened to get a medium sized country's worth of sales from the American public, on top of the original projections, is certainly making them grin from ear to ear, but in and of itself 10k units of something with as absurdly many machining and process operations, is relatively little compared to the capital expense of the tool line.
    33
  35.  @barttorbert5031  People who manages to fail even more spectacularly than anyone has ever succeeded tend to go down in history forever, whereas those who succeed are only remembered until someone supersedes them. Moral of the story: Lose with style in the most hilarious way possible to become immortal... Such are the teachings of Gun Jesus! :P
    32
  36. I served in the armoured artillery for 17 years. For the first 15 of those I never had a reprimand, let alone an actual accident, with any firearm, ordinance procedure or cannon. During regiment guard duty, where two men fell sick with legionella and ended up in the infirmary, I had to pull an all-nighter. At barf o'clock in the morning I decided to give the supplied guard rifle a quick once-over as it had caught a bit of rain water at the last patrol round. For some reason my brain decided to jumble the last three steps: do a dry fire test, switch to safe and then insert the (loaded) magazine. So I merrily inserted the magazine, loaded the weapon, pointed it at the ceiling and fired a 7.62 through the roof of the gate house... Quite inexplicably I abruptly found myself in a new state of alertness that, by stark contrast, made it abundantly clear to me just how drowsy I had actually been only 0.1 seconds prior. The moral of the story is that coffee does not give you energy. It only suppresses the brain chemical responsible for telling you that you're tired and should pay extra close attention to things dedicated to killing people. So no, it doesn't only happen to Pvt Snuffy in boot camp.
    32
  37. I'm sad that the G11 never went anywhere. The engineer in me tells me that having a firearm that mechanically resembles a Swizz wrist watch is a very bad idea. But my fetish for intricate mechanics tells me it's a thing of true beauty that someone (preferably me) should baby frequently with the best lubricants and intricate adjustment procedures known to man.
    32
  38. Lol... redditor! :P Thanks for the laugh good Sir! :D
    32
  39. But since it's so small it only qualifies as a "bayonette" :P (I'll see myself out, thanks).
    31
  40.  @Simon_Nonymous  I have stolen it myself, so I can hardly blame you :P
    30
  41. After shooting this vid he went home and poured a Kyro whiskey and said to himself: "I'll just do 10 maybe 15 more videos on the history of Finnish firearms. Then I'll have decently expressed my gratitude for their hospitality and friendship during the Finish Brutality event." ... And THAT is why the doors to nearly every gun vault in the world are open to Gun Jesus. And quite often so even by specific request.
    30
  42. The current owner probably has it in his will that this will go to the most prestigious firearms museum in Norway after his passing.
    29
  43. With smokeless powder those rounds could work...
    29
  44. I don't know who this private collector is, but man am I grateful that he lets Ian put his mitts on every cool/rare/obscure/goofy item and present it to us! :D
    29
  45. I am really happy that Ian's book sales are going so well that he can get firearms like this one for himself. He has put his mitts on SO many cool weapons to show them to us... only to have to hand them back to the owner or auction house with a pained sigh. I can't imagine a better home for an original condition FR-F2.
    29
  46.  @FreebirthBoccara  Nobody is doubting that they can use a lathe and a mill. But people who know firearms and machining are saying you can't make a sniper rifle with a lathe and a mill. You can make basic firearms, like a submachine gun, with a lathe and a mill. If it's a really good lathe and you have the right metrology accessories you can also make something like a combat rifle if you're determined enough. But a sniper rifle is just a whooooole other ball game. Remember that a sniper rifle is supposed to hit a head sized target at 1000m every time, all the time. A submachine gun is supposed to hit an upper torso sized target at 50 meters. And a combat rifle should do that at 300 meters. Tripling the distance while dividing the target by four is a very very tall order that requires incredible precision at every level of production. To the point where even well established rifle manufacturers produce everything BUT the barrel, and instead opt to source the barrel from specialist companies that only make those.
    27
  47. Lee Enfield rifles are like quantum mechanics. If you think you understand it... you don't!
    27
  48. There were only 4000 of the 1918 pattern made. IIRC they made some 85,000 of the 1917 pattern...
    27
  49. If a 5 bladed muzzle break the size of a small lunch box doesn't help you.... nothing will! :P
    27
  50.  @Talguy21  Except it hardens if you don't get it rinsed off right quick in a hurry.
    26
  51. SIG: A company that has failed many times for the only allowable reason to fail.. "It's too good. We need something worse!"
    26
  52.  @sakamoto2467  I've been in a similar situation as a Danish 155mm artilleryman. A large batch of shells and charges were due date because in the mid 90s the amount of annual conscripts had been cut by two thirds, but the ammo had been bought when the USSR were at their most provoking stance. So the army could only do one of two things: pay for proper disposal, or pay for barrel refurbishment. Barrel refurbishment was the cheaper option (by far) so we pummelled the training grounds for two weeks straight like it was the battle of the Bulge all over again. It is not misuse of tax payer money to not have a crystal ball that can predict future threat levels. The army must be able to handle a conflict NOW... but since conflicts are relatively rare that does mean ammo stocks regularly expire.
    25
  53. And Gun Jesus bespoketh upon his humble viewers: "Thy shall not become the very thing that thy despise!". And his humble viewers listened. And they understood. And they nodded in agreement for they saw only truth in this. Hand Canonnations 7.62
    24
  54. Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well....
    23
  55.  @s0ulshot  When you have 72 bullets at your disposal spray and pray is an absolutely valid approach to make Ivan think twice about sticking his head up! :P
    23
  56.  @HighlandLaddie  Well since you're being a twat about it, allow me to retort: @Antillicus did not specify in which respect he thinks Ian is the most pioneering. And "interesting" is an absolutely subjective term. But if the premiss of pioneering is reaching out to people outside the traditional gun enthusiast circles I think he is absolutely right. I wasn't interested in guns in the slightest, despite having done military service. But one day Youtube suggested me some hippie looking dude talking about the rifle I was issued (HK G3), so I figured why the heck not... And that's when I learned that Ian is a really good presenter, so I stuck around. I also happen to like books, and whatdoyaknow. So what I personally think Ian is absolutely pioneering is: Presenting firearms history in an interesting and politically neutral neutral light, with a good balance between observations on mechanical, practical and logistical developments along with anecdotes about the people who made these things happen. Mostly every other channel/source I've come across is slathered in either national pride, political agenda, that weird tin-foil-hat tactical-preperation-for-dooms-day vibe that just puts me off right away, or all of the above.
    23
  57.  @paulketchupwitheverything767  Not well. And it wasn't required to. For an intelligence service replacing (a very limited number of) plastic grips due to practice wear is absolutely nothing compared to the cost of injecting an agent in a position where this weapon would be used.
    23
  58. One key metric was omitted: How much weight did the second pattern gain?
    23
  59. Being good with 5000 rounds with "only an acceptable amount of malfunctions" also speaks to the realistic acknowledgement of how long a soldier, carrying one of these, was expected to survive.
    23
  60. No, that was perfectly understandable. And as a Dane... I feel the same. I didn't know anything about the Madsen guns, etc, but Ian (as usual) did an entire series on them.
    23
  61. The Skype delay is real. If you start verbally agreeing it's going to come so late to the recipient that they think you want to interrupt what they're currently saying.
    22
  62. Yeah.. When you get so respected that the French anti terror unit actively invites you to come have a look at their signature gun your word has more gravity than most....
    21
  63.  @TheFizzerKing  No the reason why Danish became so weird to pronounce is because we've been better at making beer than you for over a hundred years! ;-P
    21
  64.  @williestyle35  "Penal" is perfectly valid English. Look up what a penal colony is.
    21
  65. It is also legal to verbify it: "The gizmo went sproinging across the floor", for example. The term is not unique to firearms lingo, but also rather common among watch makers (for obvious reasons). Canadians have a tendency to cal it "springisproing" and "springisproinging". Dunno why, but AvE (a fairly well known youtuber in the tech field) is rather insistent on it, so I guess we should consider it gospel.
    21
  66. Ugh... can't we cut him a break on his Elbonian Separatist views? I mean, the guys have never, despite the best of their intends, actually managed to lay harm to a single individual! :P
    21
  67. "I don't like that thing over there. I also don't like the shed behind it. And I most certainly also don't like the 10 guys hiding behind the shed".
    21
  68. The two ounce projectiles, assuming they reach 75m/s, should hit you with 157N at point blank which is not a whole hecking lot... but it is the equivalent of lying down and having a 346lbs rod standing on your chest... that is only .5" thick... Those projectiles don't need to be particularly pointy to be absolutely lethal....
    21
  69. I'm very impressed with Ian's ability to pronounce foreign languages in general... But his attempt at Danish did not go too well. I don't hold that against him, as nobody, even if they've been living here for 30 years after arriving as an adult, can do it.
    20
  70. Just HK doing HK things I suppose.
    20
  71. Plot twist: This was really a Stemple receiver disguised as a Hopkins & Allen Model 1889. Ian just wants to know if anyone can spot the difference.
    20
  72. Yeah, me too. If it still exists someone, somewhere will invite Ian to show case it.
    19
  73. In traditional Elbonian firearms wisdom constantly center-feeding creates undesirable vibration harmonics, so double feed is very desirable. But being a soul stranglingly poor country they also understand that double stack magazines do not "inspire good ammo frugality" among the troops. Hence the single stack double feed magazine approach is always a winner with the MoD.
    19
  74. Their minister of defense had the most bad-ass quote at one of the Ramstein meetings: "We would much prefer to be saved than avenged, if you don't mind". That was a response to a NATO reaction time of two weeks in case of invasion. Now there's an entire German Brigade stationed there, so apparently the sentiment had the required gravity.
    19
  75. I shall henceforth be known as The Stealer of Expressions of Shop Teachers of Random Youtube Commenters :P
    19
  76. Just wait until someone asks a really deep and interesting question about a French rifle... I wouldn't even blink if Ian travelled to the correct location to answer the question in situ! :P
    19
  77. Danish pragmatism. Many of the Danish design furniture items, from the same era, follow the same approach. Clean lines, but not outright minimalistic. Avoid complicated production steps, and hide what needs to be somewhat advanced out of view. Choose good, but not exotic, materials. Give it a nice, but not fragile, finish. This has lead to some timeless classics that are still in use today. My TV stand is one of them. It was originally a narrow coffee table with a magazine shelf. It was made in 1954.
    19
  78. Dammit Ian... knowing you is starting to prove quite expensive! Especially as a European... That being said: I have actively been looking for a non-black-and-white book about Japanese Imperial Swords for quite some time. And come up blank. So, as usual, Headstamp Publishing takes the cake for delivering "the authoritative work on the subject matter at hand" :D
    19
  79. "I know a guy with a with a 3 axis CNC router that can turn this into a Green Meanie really cheap".
    19
  80.  @otm646  The US navy sends the warning via radio or loud speaker. They send the disablement via firepower. This is because they're a military force. If you run into them you're an armed force of some description yourself. So you should intuitively understand the gravity of the situation. The Coast Guard sends three warnings. One via radio or loud speaker. A few shots in your general direction, and finally a well placed shot somewhere that clearly says "they could've fucking killed me if they wanted". This is because they're a law enforcement agency. If you run into them you're on the wrong side of the law somehow. However, you may not even realise this. And you are (unfortunately) legally allowed to be stupid. However you're also legally obliged to realize that when your coffee mug is shot to splinters it's time to react to what-the-hell-ever the guy on the other boat is yelling at you. I have zero problems with military forces being ill tempered death dispensers towards adversaries. That's kinda their stated purpose right from the get-go. The problem arises when either A) We try to use military forces as cheap/readily available law enforcement in combat zones, or B) Real law enforcement agencies forget that they're not in a bad action movie and thus act like a military force with a badge and blinking lights.
    19
  81.  @timewave02012  Today, yes. In '73 when the best pistols had an absolutely atrocious trigger pull and feed reliability was still not 100%, no. You need to appreciate that 48 years ago even the 1911 or Browning Highpower couldn't routinely dump 100 rounds in rapid succession without at least one hickup. For a military force his idea would be dumb as fuck, but GIGN is not a military force. They're an anti-terror unit operating among civilians. They are, if worst come to worst, there to sacrifice themselves in exchange for a hostage. Today a Glock 17L with a hand fitted trigger and a precision barrel would do the job just fine. But '73 is certainly not today....
    19
  82.  @stanislavczebinski994  It is a hypothesis that it was overkill and that lesser means could have done the trick. It is also a hypothesis that the Japanese would have held out for a considerable amount of time and that famine and decease would have cost a lot more than 200k before they gave in. We will never know for sure as the arguments for both ways are pretty sound.
    18
  83.  @Wistbacka  By Finnish standards you can perfectly well do a straight faced shitpost that is also a real post. It works in Danish culture too.
    17
  84.  @edwalmsley1401  Strictly speaking the UMP is better... but armed forces have a tendency to be nostalgic and tradition bound... and on a budget! The UMP is lighter and even smoother on the recoil but it is also substantially more expensive. And as we all know: "90% of the result at half the price" tends to be a hard driving bargain.
    17
  85. Well, "bullet sprayer gun" is a bit more literal, but everyone got the idea that Swedish, much like German, has a habit of naming things after precisely what they do.
    17
  86.  @SvenElven  Of cause. "Allah" simply means "God" in Arabic. Saying "If God wills it" is perfectly valid regardless of religion.
    17
  87. Goddamn the report from that thing is the basis of every Hollywood production with a machine gun in it ever.
    17
  88. Or they just told the wood working guy "If we're going to work night and day until this weird clockwork pump rifle thingie works, then you're going to work night and day on the stock and pump handle. Fair is fair. We all get to go home at the same time" and he just sighed and went "so checkered, lacquered, horned, customized sweeps, finest knot free wood I can find in a week and what ever else I can come up with to keep myself occupied?"
    17
  89. Ian: squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak .... squeak
    17
  90.  @dominichines9996  It's a wafer lock. You can rake this with a tooth pick or a bobby pin.
    17
  91. The GIGN invited him specifically to come take a look in their arms vault. The GIGN don't even invite French people to see that. The founder of the GIGN gave Ian a personal interview... and apologized for not speaking English with a straight face. The French categorically don't do that. So when people call him Gun Jesus... you better believe it if he says he can walk on bullets!
    17
  92. Yup. And by being both apolitical and a methodical researcher he is even getting personal invitations, at times, to places very few, if any, as ever been.... Like the armament vault of the GIGN...
    16
  93. Someone who is nicknamed Gun Jesus. Someone who can call up the French anti terror unit (Who don't speak to anyone. And especially not if they aren't French) and say "I'm the guy who wrote the most impressive book on French military rifles ever... can I come fondle your signature guns for a bit in front of a camera?".. and get a yes! Someone who can get access to every "by appointment only" private armament collection in the world. Someone who gets a personal invitation by Knights Armament to come "do a 100 round mag dump" on their new LMG... Someone who is so stupidly recognized for his knowledge that a company like H&K, who has the PR training of a potato, runs with his nickname and post a Gun Jesus poster on their Insta. Yeah... let's threaten him and call him stupid!
    16
  94. But the thing is that their "cludgery" is often better than some serial production jank we've seen....
    16
  95. Make sure the one you get is rated for flammable solvent. Mine isn't, so I'm afraid of arcing causing a kaboom. That said, a mix of water with low foaming soap, 10% acetone and 10% alcohol works wonders on everything I throw in it. I imagine valve cleaner for car engines would work very well with a solvent rated cleaner. Engine carbon build-up isn't chemically far off of gunpowder residue.
    16
  96. "Today on Forgotten Weapons we're going to take a look at the first stone axe ever made by a human. Obviously historical details are somewhat sparse on the inventor himself, but at least we get to take a look at the axe head itself, as the original handle has been lost to time. It is unmarked, as was common of the time since neither alphabets nor numbers had been invented yet..."
    16
  97. That setup needs a monocle and a handle bar mustache!
    16
  98. Remember the killdozer? If local PD had one of these that show would have ended pretty quickly.....
    16
  99. All of those questions are basically related to income level. If $7k is the choice between having the landlord kick you out, on top of you starvation, and a 249S it makes absolutely no sense. If $7k is the choice between buying more stocks for your $500k portfolio or buying a nice toy, that you'll have as much fun with as you can with your pants on, then this makes perfect sense.
    15
  100. He looks at the roster and goes "Ok, this time I'm not going to win no matter what so I'll bring an entertaining oddity that will surely fail". However the Laugo Alien is for "Aha! Among these bozos I stand an actual chance! Time to bring out a modern high tech low bore thoroughbred competition gun to improve my odds!" :P
    15
  101.  @davidcox4436  7.62 NATO is not an intermediate cartridge. It's a sligthly-less-than-completely-stupid cartridge. It managed to cut down on recoil while not compromising on effective range. The 6.5 Swedish does that even better, and honestly would have been a better cartridge than both 7.62 and 5.56 as it strikes a balance that would make it usable for both LMGs and combat rifles. And yes, I've shot all three extensively.
    15
  102. I was trained on the single use AT4, and they also have a similar system. They shot 9mm parabellum tracer rounds. We ever only got to fire one real during our entire training.
    15
  103. Welp. Now their name is on the gun at least.
    14
  104. Uhm, Ian? This gun was never designed for domestic use. Denmark was looking into becoming a weapons exporter (an idea we've since given up on) and Elbonia just had really strange requirements. They figured that it's easier to shoot a pistol lying down, so they wanted the handle swept back. And they wanted to be able to, at least partially, produce ammo locally, so they demanded wooden bullets with alu jackets because they had plenty of furniture and empty beer cans. It still remains unclear whatever that they wanted to lie down shooting is related to the fact that all their beer cans were empty.
    14
  105. I'm pissed that the Danish army went with the M60E6 to replace the ageing fleet of MG3s we had. Sure, the foot guys don't like to carry the ammo, but 90% of our MG3s were vehicle roof mounts... and those things lay down an impressive amount of arguments for the enemy to decide to keep their heads down. Waaay down.
    14
  106.  @jastrapper190  Of all the 3500+ deities that have been documented thus far only one is real and all the others are just some silly made up nonsense. The problem just is that nobody can agree on which one is real, and thus we have endless wars over things we can't see, hear, touch, smell or taste. But it's all justified because you can feel it. Your feelings are the real ones, and the others are just hallucinating. Make this make sense....
    14
  107. And eye drops because some kicked up shit will find its way under your shooting glasses.
    14
  108. That was an oversimplification. "They're all still made in China, in a million different factories, to a million different quality standards, and then assembled... somewhere (which is probably also China)" would be the correct summary.
    13
  109. Considering he has shown up at the range with the most archaic contraptions, some approaching a century old, and STILL beaten half the pack, I'd just take it as a sign of my skill that he at least did it with a NEW gun.
    13
  110. The Estonians would very much prefer to be clearly distinguished form the Elbonians. Despite a similar starting point, of systemic corruption and nepotistic spread of incompetence, the Estonians have made effective and impressive strides towards an actually working society. I had the good fortune of training two batches of them in the mid to late 90s, and I saw them serve in Bosnia and Kosovo. I can attest that I would rather have an Estonian have my back in combat than any of our central/western Europe allies.
    13
  111.  @xexecuterxx  Considering how much beefier the bolt and gas piston was, and considering the very thin sheet metal shoulder stock was replaced with solid wood I think there's room for quite a bit of weight gain. Especially as the original receiver was already very thin walled.
    13
  112.  @CaeridLock.  That most certainly depends on what they were doing there. I can absolutely assure you that Poland, the Nordics and the Baltics would cheer and hoot if Macron suddenly says "Yes, we have troops in Ukraine and they're actively fighting the Russian army".
    13
  113. Henry and Josh from 9 Hole Reviews would have done a good job too.
    13
  114. You're not the only Frenchman to think so. I mean, the GSG9 actively invited Ian to take a look at their signature gun. I have a feeling the GSG9 is not exactly looking for publicity, and that their total invite list of all time is frighteningly short... And even shorter for civilians... And yet again shorter when it comes to civilians who aren't French citizens...
    13
  115. Ian... you could present the development and history of an obscure Elbonian carpet manufacturer and I'd still feel entertained and enlightened!
    13
  116. Small Danish entrepreneurial thinking, of the time, in a nutshell. The less retooling the better. But janky unreliable crap is unacceptable too so complexity becomes an art form. It's funny, though, that if you look at the design philosophies that made Danish furniture all the rage in the 50s you still see the same thinking, but in reverse: To avoid complicated tooling there was an enormous focus on making simplistic shapes look clean, harmonic and deliberate. And it paid off, as it sparked an entire industry of small volume, but rather pricy, functional ornaments that sell internationally and retain their value very well.
    13
  117.  @shable1436  Nope, they run forever on standard 9mm FMJ Parabellum. And the repeatability of the barrel nut is within the expected precision of standard loads.
    12
  118. The disturbing lack of speed holes makes it a complete no-go for Elbonia. Drill 70-90 5-6mm holes randomly everywhere in the polymer and we might have a winner.
    12
  119.  @no1DdC  The problem is that sending firearms in the mail is a hassle. Many other review items are much easier to do the "when you're done reviewing it, here's a pre-paid package label for the next reviewer" type arrangement with. That said: Plenty of computer component channels I follow get sent 5 different $1800-2200 graphics cards and have no problem ripping them a new one if they didn't do a good job.
    12
  120.  @joshuabrown7815  Ian explicitly explained how the disconnector in the linear hammer worked. The "disconnector" in the trigger mechanism is only there to give you the sensation of a clean break.
    12
  121.  @roddydykes7053  On a suppressive fire weapon there IS no quality of trigger pull. You yank the bastard in until the ugga dugga starts making noise and then you try your best to direct the narrow cone of tracer stripes onto that thing that you decided you didn't like. Once they have their heads down the light mortars take over while you try to keep the gun pointed at roughly where you last saw the baddies. When the radio suddenly goes "Identify target?" you send another short burst that way. The Germans were apparently economical in their thinking when they decided that it would be a waste to shoot more than one round when doing target identification :P That being said: The Swedes are the only ones who designates these types of weapons properly according to their role... the literal translation is "a bullet sprayer" :P
    12
  122.  @sebastianriz4703  "I best hold on to this cross pin while I disassemble it or the whole mechanism goes sproing out on the table" is mine.
    12
  123. Ian... you HAVE to give Henry a chance to shoot this one for a 9-Hole Review!
    12
  124. On the other hand... if anyone is ever going to be allowed to it's going to be Ian...
    12
  125. Epic quote! :D
    12
  126. The combination becomes: An intricate mechanism that makes sure you can just grab the magazine and yank without having to accurately hit the button. The question then obviously becomes: can you make a big ergonomic button that is easy to operate fast, but doesn't catch on vegetation or clothing, for less material and machining operations. The answer to that is probably: Yes.
    11
  127.  @jeromethiel4323  In the Danish army these were used by motor cycle scouts, CQC assault squads, the Jægers, etc. Those aren't "poorly trained troops" by any stretch of the imagination. The M50 will hit a torso target at 75m all day every day. And yes, it's very easy to do singles with - the slow rate of fire was deliberate.
    11
  128. Especially the 50 BMG is just... Impossible to wear out.
    11
  129. I suspect that's because we don't see the part before the camera comes on where he goes: "Uhh.. if this is connected here.. yeah, that must be.. no?.. aaah! ok! I get it now... I think that this- SPROING ... $@#!!! that was not a captive spring!..." :P
    11
  130. He had to walk three minutes to set it up.
    11
  131.  @udp1073  One? I want TWO! Shooting one in each hand with the classic "stock pinched with elbow" grip will make 100% I never hit anything while having at least 572% more fun than the other shooters.
    11
  132. Short recoil, rotating bolt... with SPEED HOLES! What's not to like?
    11
  133.  @vickersmg  Direct invitation please! :P He gets a TON of comments per video, so I suspect he won't see otherwise.
    11
  134. Ian was actively invited by the GIGN to come have a look at their signature weapon... It came relatively shortly after his book on French military rifles, so I my theory is that it was decided in the upper echelons that Ian should be recognized for his work. But informally... because France :P TL;DR: Ian has been in back rooms no other civilian, let alone foreigners, has ever ventured.
    11
  135.  @mistermonkey5842  Seriously, if Ian sat down and wrote a 300 page book of pure and utter fictional nonsense on Elbonian arms history, with accompanying "wider context", along with Headstamp's usual high quality fotos of the most obnoxious "Bubba guns" this world has ever seen, then it would sell like freaking HOTCAKES.
    10
  136. Normal SWAT teams: "You're coming with us dead or alive... but probably dead!" GIGN: "We'll turn you into Jesus rather than let you die! We said: YOU COMMIN' WITH US!" Mr Prouteau is an absolute legend, and it was a real pleasure to hear the fantastic tales behind both GIGN and the MR73. That confidence shot really puts things into perspective. As a former artillery man who addresses shells "To whom this may concern" that was a quite different take on things. I really like the "You're not certified to shoot in a hostage situation until you can shoot at your own buddy without sweating it"-philosophy....
    10
  137. By Ian's reputation and "street cred" pretty much world wide I have the sneaking suspicion that the guys who go "sheesh, not this guy again" keep it to themselves and just puts up a phoney smile....
    10
  138.  @tcbbct509  Ford can very well make "LS" engines. Note the quotes. Building an engine which has all the same critical dimensions (key word being critical), but is developed from the ground up by Ford would hold up in court perfectly fine. Unless they use a manufacturing process which is under valid patent by GM, use a mechanism in the engine which is under valid patent by GM or directly make moulds off an actual LS engine (wouldn't work anyway) there is nothing to sue for. Making interchangeable parts is not illegal. You can buy pretty much every single component of an LS engine from alternate vendors. Obviously they're "the performance variant" with a corresponding price tag, but you can already build an "LS" which has exactly zero GM parts in it because the remaining parts are from subcontractors to GM (bearings, seals, bolt, etc). And this is because there is absolutely nothing left under valid patent for a pushrod V8. You can't patent dimensions alone. Heck, you can't even copyright dimensions.
    10
  139. At the notion of a "recently found" Icelandic saga I was like "Huh? where would they have found THAT in readable condition?". When the "sheep accident" happened I went "Ian wouldn't have done that if this was serious research.... something's sus here". But in between those two I was like "This would be AWESOME if it turned out to be the case!". Damn you Gun Jesus. My faith in you is too great! :P
    10
  140.  @browncoat697  Recent events prove that "Soviets" just meant "Russians who held dominion over others" and thus when everyone gave the Soviet "union" the middle finger they were demoted to "just Russians" again. However, since the invasion of Crimea, and recently other large portions of Ukraine they once again qualify as "Russians who hold dominion over others", which without much reductionist logic makes them qualify as "Soviets" once more..... And that's the hill I'll die on! :P
    10
  141. You can say what you want about Elbonia, but their armed services are one of the armed services of all time!
    10
  142. I hope so too! And getting a bit more "Yes, Taiwan is a separate state" content on youtube wouldn't hurt either. Would absolutely love a tour of the 205th Arsenal. Ian has showed us speciality production of firearms for people with deep pockets. It would be nice to see a "Everything is about practicality, manufacturability, reliability and predictability" facility like a real defence arsenal.
    10
  143. Ian: goes on a tangent about three other guns and stops himself "This video is already long enough as it is" Me: "... But I still have several hours before bedtime... please continue!"
    10
  144. That bearded axe is an "omni tool". I have one much like it as an heirloom from my great great grand father who was a carpenter. They were used in place of a saw. If you have the skill set you can make pretty decent planks with them, and they're excellent for roughing out joinery before doing the fine work with a chisel. But similarly shaped cleaves are still used in butcher shops to this day. From the camera's perspective and inward they look to be: Multi function axe, fire wood cleave axe and felling axes. But each of those will most certainly work as a battle axe in a pinch.
    10
  145. I love Swedish nomenclature. It literally translates to "bullet spray rifle".
    9
  146.  @brianreddeman951  Still waiting on Ian's book on the woes of the Elbonian army and their procurements. I mean, it's almost surreal that one such small country could find themselves in that many political conflicts while at the same time managing to screw up every single armament program they ever ran... Sometimes reality really is stranger than fiction!
    9
  147. I'm getting the idea that Ian personally knows the 3 or 4 people who specifically collects Portuguese firearms.. :P
    9
  148. Ouch. It really is a complete "clockwork" inside by the looks of it. A few years ago Ian showed a Swizz boutique competition pistol, that was pretty much just a miniaturised H&K G3/MP5/etc mechanism, that was fairly "1911-ish". I wonder if it would have been a bigger commercial success to just license that (if the patent hasn't long since expired) as a 1911 upgrade kit.
    9
  149.  @GunFunZS  Nobody wants Russians on their rear....
    9
  150. It is missing the deflector bracket that we made ourselves. The G3 has a tendency to kick brass out very perpendicular to the rifle, so Denmark made a big wonky looking "clasp bracket" that hooks into the grooves in the receiver. If placed right it will make the rifle eject brass at about 45 degrees forward. If placed a little too far forward you'd get a pling-ing-ing-ing sound and the case would just lie there in the bracket, having done a couple of funny looking loops before coming to a rest. I was lucky enough to get a seriously good example and would pretty consistently shoot 198 or 199 out of 200 at 300m on a 6" center. Never got that perfect 200 though.
    9
  151. What is the most fascinating is that the Finns manage to turn them into actually really good guns....
    9
  152. The thing just is that the BREN 805 is an AR at it's core. And it had problems other AR derivatives had solved long since. But the anecdote about not wanting a telescoping stock but then wanting a telescoping stock probably says the most about it's development: too much brass wanting to have a say in things they were no longer qualified to speak up about due to too much time behind a desk and not enough time in the mud, fog, mountains, rivers, ditches and forests...
    9
  153.  @rustys.1070  I can make a laundry list of combat rifles I'd ditch for an M14. Granted, I can also make a laundry list of combat rifles I'd rather have. But all things considered, a well maintained M14 is a perfectly serviceable rifle at normal engagement distances.
    9
  154. 50 Cal bolt action. 10x optics. Mouse fart trigger pull. "... A detachment of snipers during operation Storm". Yes. Yes that does sound terrifying. All kinds of terrifying. A whole lot of things, that your instincts tell you constitute cover, do in fact not constitute cover when there is a precise twitchy shoulder cannon pointed at you.
    9
  155. And in both cases we substitute "sticky fingering" with "finding" because we like that it actually happened.
    9
  156.  @stuartburton1167  One a minute doesn't sound far fetched if the assembly has enough steps and each step is fully jigged. 5.5 man hours per gun 330 steps of one minute each.
    9
  157. Introducing the Zastava M93 Black Arrow: For when you absolutely positively need a T-Rex scattered three counties over!
    9
  158.  @sandorbence2067  Weirding out at overly-specifics of a gun modification, the hot digital technology of the day and an obsession with boobs and thighs doesn't sound like an AI at all. It does, however, sound exactly like every nerd owning a PS3 at the time.
    9
  159. Yes, it solved the problem of bounce-back that the MG34/42 never got right.
    9
  160. Strangely enough that was the saying of the famous Danish jewellery thief Carl August Lorentzen. He wrote it over the entrance to his 18 meter long tunnel out of prison, that he escaped through on Christmas eve 1949.
    8
  161.  @Florkl  It has happened plenty of times that the industry heavies finally come to their senses and make a royalty free industry standard, and everyone else just switches. We don't have all the details of this yet, but a 12 months exclusive with Glock does sound like Aimpoint has decided they want to do the right thing, but the biggest manufacturer they could partner with wanted a pound of flesh in return.
    8
  162.  @bbb462cid  I absolutely agree. A rifle will never ever be better than it's ammo. Throwing lathe made projectiles and pico-gram measured powder at a wallowed out bore can, at best, take a bad group with random outliers into a bad group with fewer outliers. But on the other hand a super tight rifle suffers as much as a decent one from ammo where the projectiles dance Moringa more than they spin and the recoil varies between sturdy push and donkey kick between each shot.
    8
  163.  @benjenkinson1470  Trust me the US Navy is looking into that... Being able to fire shells from a ship without the massive booms and muzzle flashes would be totally their thing...
    8
  164. I don't want to even guess at the price. Norwegian salaries are good by any standard, so even if the gunsmith is willing to "eat" all the RnD hours that went into his personal copy, and build subsequent copies for just material and labour cost, something as nice as this is going to be.... ugh....
    8
  165. It still is a funny folding slide despite knowing the proper nomenclature! :P
    8
  166. "Ulfberht" not "Ulfberth".
    8
  167. This book is funny as fuck! I'm not gun nerdy enough to feel like buying either of the first two, but this one looks to be a fun conversational piece that you could even show to people who don't care about guns. The funny markings on the guns and the portrayal of the different warlords makes it more of an entertaining history book than a gun reference.
    8
  168. It's the eternal argument of logistics vs perfection. Yes, a custom cartridge specifically designed for a PDW would be ideal, but on the other hand, the personel handed a PDW are the ones who are expected to only use it if the shit has hit the fan. So the logistics guys go "Ain't no way we are having one more item to keep track of".... Which is a little bit silly, as the people with PDWs are very very rarely going to need resupply. Odds are very good that the 3 mags they have will last until the conflict is over... or until they're in a body bag.
    8
  169.  @Tony-om5kr  Percussive maintenance is any kind of "maintenance" which requires hitting the damn thing. Some times with a flat hand. Sometimes with a fist. Sometimes with a hammer, your helmet, the butt stock of your rifle, an empty shell casing, or, if things are dire, the head of a dead fellow/enemy. AKA: "The use of excessive force has resolved the issue" :P
    8
  170. Long eye relief scopes make a ton of sense for armies that rely on "fewer in number but better trained". I routinely shot 198 out of 200 at 300m (longest range we practiced) with my G3 when I was in the army. And it was clear that the rifle had more to give, but the iron sights did not. We went to a Canadian made M16 clone after that, which had a 2x optics. That thing did not improve my accuracy, but it was in the way like hell when on the reaction range. A much narrower forward mounted optic would have been ideal for that. Better field of view where you just pre-aim over the top of the optics, look down, fine adjust if needed, shoot!
    8
  171. Excellent reminder on how the internet works! :P
    8
  172. Two years later and this joke is still bad enough to be actually funny. But I am obliged by internet rules to ask you: "Will you see yourself out?" :P
    8
  173.  @nicolaiby1846  No it makes perfect sense when you've had 10 beers. Even Norwegians speak perfect Danish when they're drunk! It's a little harder for the Swedes. They have to near dead from alcohol poisoning to speak proper Danish. If they're just normal 45-degrees-off-axis-drunk it still sounds like they're mixing German and Danish for some reason...
    8
  174.  @AshleyPomeroy  The Germans have stopped using serialized screws. Instead each screw is made from it's own unique composition of additives in the alloy. This is because serial numbers can be tampered with, which can cause messy paperwork somewhere for someone. And Germans do not like messy paperwork. Paperwork, in and of it self, is very important. But it can't be messy. That would be un-German.
    8
  175.  @kevintran7208  Loctite (with the correct heat rating) is a perfectly viable solution for civilian owners working on a clean bench at roughly room temperature. But an armorer working out of an M113 in freezing conditions needs another solution.
    8
  176.  @MrWhatdoyouthinkof  Having manned a Browning M2 in my army days... I've had my fill... for ever..
    8
  177.  @therideneverends1697  Uh, controlled substances and the Danish army don't mix. At all. It was a judgement call by the security officer. He asked if he should knock someone else out who wasn't home for the weekend, or if we were cool with him just stepping in (security officer is normally only on call) and we'd share 4 people's work among 3. We were, at the time, in DEFCON nothing-at-all, there was no live ammo (other than small arms ammo) on the base itself, and almost everyone was home for the weekend. Nobody out on exercise, etc. So we figured that would just mean 3 hours less sleep for each of us per night, but otherwise be a boring ass weekend guard duty. Being good sports we didn't wanna call in someone on base who might have planned a Friday and/or Saturday bender/booty-call planned. Seemed like a fine plan.... Until a fist fight broke out early in Saturday morning because some conscripts couldn't hold their liquor when they returned from town. Righty, one man short, one at the gate, one on the timed patrol so I had to get out of bed again before getting any sleep, throw some weight around, lock one up, get the other to the infirmary, spend quite some time calming the non-combatant-but-close-to-becoming-combatant-friends of the involved, take reports, and ah.. my time to do the patrol. So my buddy got to sleep a little while the security officer did paperwork... Now would you believe me if I told you that THE EXACT SAME THING happened early Sunday morning? Yup. This time my buddy insisted that I got his sleeping slot (all of two hours) because I "got hit twice". So at 10AM on Sunday I got up, feeling about as fresh as raw sewage, and did my 1.5 hours patrol round, thinking that I just had to hang in there until noon when we would be relieved, while drinking some 700mils of absurdly strong coffee while I walked. Walking in the ice cold light drip, while drinking bean based tar, did wake me up. Or so I thought. At 9:43, according to the security log, I was taught differently.
    8
  178. Very rare due to small number ever purchased. Very interesting back story. All matching serial numbers. Nothing short of perfect condition. Complete accessory kit, also mint... Where's the fireplace?!?... Oh THERE it is! This guy is the Hugh Hefner of model guns!
    8
  179.  @casuallatecomer7597  Elephants, blue whales, 1911 owners' mothers, etc...
    8
  180. "I want my AK bling.. but not so bling that people say it's bling... you dig?"
    8
  181. If Aimpoint does the right thing, and release the exact specs to the public, then we will effectively have a universal standard. The problem will arise if they try to make it some licensed shit. But by the sound of it, a 12 month exclusive period with Glock was the price they had to pay to get a major manufacturer on board form the onset.
    7
  182. "This bad boy can brew 6 cups of coffee per Japanese platoon we come across... if the weather isn't too cold. If that's the case Private Spade will just have to spot more enemies instead of drinking coffee..."
    7
  183.  @jameswarner8038  It is not a "foreign accent" when you're speaking a foreign language. He just speaks Spanish the best he can. His French and Finnish is also really good. His Danish... not so much. But at least he tries, and we forgive anyone trying and failing because Danish is next to impossible.
    7
  184. They spent about 5 seconds checking out who this "Ian McCollum" guy is and someone said to management: "We're not going to get a chance THIS good ever again. If we want to appeal to firearms museums and collectors we need to move on it right now." And this is where the difference between a good company and a bad company shows up.. in the bad company the reply would have been: "We haven't budgeted for that this fiscal year, so we're not doing it (because that might cut into my personal bonus)".
    7
  185.  @BadgerUKvideo  An excellent movie. Fantastic acting by Caine and a high degree of realism on what it would look like if someone who once was the top dog, but knows he isn't any more, would go rogue.
    7
  186. My lower back, my ear drums and my cavity fillings also hurt just looking at it. But I'm sure the reaction of those those at the business end makes it worth the pain.
    7
  187. Someone further up the comments (who's apparently Chinese) said the literal translation of the slang name for it is "long bore box cannon". I think that fits perfectly! :P
    7
  188. Chinesium is what old PC cases were made of: an alloy that exhibits every undesirable property all at once. It's heavy, it bends if you sneeze on it, it breaks from metal fatigue the third time you bend it back, it galls if you rub hard plastic against it, all while being slightly magnetized so if you try sawing or filing it the chips clump up, sticks to your tools and won't vacate the area you're working on. As an ardent PC modder back in the day I am all too familiar with this abomination of an alloy that due to it's unholy bastardized composition manages to insult every element in the periodic table with a straight face.
    7
  189. This could have been built over two iterations. That is, the first iteration saw the bipod and windage adjustable sight, which would already make it a layman's DMR rifle, and then later the Valmet top cover was mounted to upgrade it to a scope solution, which just happened to invalidate the sights of "version 1.0".
    7
  190. While I like videos on the high profile classics, videos like this one where an interesting string of facts lead to a truly forgotten weapon are also very much appreciated!
    7
  191.  @Melody_Raventress  Indeed. The sea is an indiscriminate killer of anyone who does not have it as it's natural habitat. In Denmark (which has an awful lot of coast line per land area) we have no less than two sayings about this among sailors and fishermen: "Only a fool does not fear the ocean" and "The ocean is a cruel mistress. If you lose respect for her she will stab you while looking in your eyes".
    7
  192. "Certificate of Authenticity by Ian McCollum" = A one page laminated sheet, with the front page containing closeup photos of relevant bits, short explanation as to why that defines what and how, and date/signature of Ian. Back side contains a brief historical overview that puts the gun in its rightful context. 10/10 would pay extra for at any gun auction.
    7
  193. And let's not forget that the SMG to rule all SMGs, the MP5, is not a simple blowback gun. The guys who worked on this one clearly knew what they were doing. I imagine the recoil impulse on these wouldn't be too far off the sensation the roller delayed system provides. And even as an undying MP5 and G3 fan I must admit that this system looks more gunk resistent.
    7
  194.  @TeletubbiesRcute  Obviously not. But it is still more complicated than a one-piece bolt and a spring, as is what is needed for simple blowback.
    7
  195. I can't afford these books, but I think it's really freaking cool that Ian-and-publishing-crew are doing such a great job of publicising niche publications and making sure they don't look like a niche publication at all. I have a number of very-specific-interest books myself, and it really shows. Some are simply photocopies of typewriter text and not-too-great hand drawings. These high gloss pages with glorious photos, razor sharp print and attention to decorative details really lift a niche topic into the lime light, giving it every chance to become a more broadly appreciated topic. That Ian will accept nothing less than the highest standards of historical accuracy (and admittance when the past is so murky that details will be partly educated guesses) is of cause the most important thing. But it's really rare to have both in the same work.
    7
  196. Oh... so "fairly sizable".
    7
  197. When fired from the hip, yes. It's easier to keep it forced down like that. Heck, it's easier to keep rifles with no front grip down if you fire from the hip too.
    7
  198. Ordinance Department: "I need a heavy uggadugga that will absolutely positively make sure that the guy, his Jeep, the trees and buildings a hundred yards behind him, and any size boulder that might obstruct my line of sight are all turned in to unidentifiable split-splat or rubble in five seconds flat. And I need it to operate for a hundred years straight with only basic maintenance. And it has to be cheap. And I want it to come with a ton of mounting and configuration options." Browning: "Say no more. I gotchy fam."
    7
  199.  @Hybris51129  Exactly. The sword will inspire you to make the wrong choice at the personal level (the experienced swordsmen that are charging you are going to slice you like peperoni in short order) but the right choice at the army level: buy time, however short, for applicable maneuvering to counter the breakthrough.
    7
  200.  @simoncleret  You can just nix the "French" part of your statement and you'll have the situation in every country at several occasions in the past, present and future.
    7
  201.  @bravo_cj  But, and I say this as someone who loves the G3 because I served with it, the roller delayed systems are REALLY picky about cleanliness. Get any amount of sand in there and you have a bolt action rifle with a charming crunchy sound effect going on.
    7
  202.  @chosentwice1839  The MP5 is still relevant to this day with a lot of elite forces. It's a gun where you pay a lot extra for not much more than what the competition (and H&K themselves with the UMP) offers for a fraction of the price.... But in elite forces the name of the game is to have every advantage, almost no matter how small, you can get in every scenario because the sum stacks up to a tangible higher success rate. But for a civilian wanting a PPC, you're right. There it only makes sense for people who think the term "having a budget" is synonymous with "poor people... probably upper middle class or worse!". Hell, even for high end security forces a UMP or Evo 3 is probably the most sane choice.
    6
  203. With shells as heavy as a 150mm you lower the gun, place the shell on the ramp, ram it, shove in the propellant, close the breech and insert the primer, elevate the gun and go boom. The M109 can also elevate to heights where the loading ramp can't be extended, which also means you can't get the hydraulic rammer behind the shell, so the only viable option is to lower the barrel between shots.
    6
  204. LOL. It's so clear that an Icelander told Ian how to pronounce Otterup in Danish :P Also: "20. Kreds" directly translate to "20th Circuit" which in English would probably have been called "20th Chapter" of the DDSG & I.
    6
  205. Watch the ejection pattern. Some cases leave rather lazily while others are express yeeted to the moon. And it lines up perfectly with subsequent bolt travel.
    6
  206. That "Krink" he showed off not too long ago, where the magazine was under the chamber, so the bolt had to pull a cartridge backwards first, was also pretty dope. It looked like a mini AK, with one chromosome too many, until he opened it and everything made sense.
    6
  207. ... And names the new country Elbonia!
    6
  208. Obviously. And to keep spying eyes away from their cutting edge classified sniper program you waste a lot of the budget on making an under ground 500m shooting range to make sure they don't even know what wind is. Then someone realizes this mistake and you spend more money on installing fixed-step blowers that can only blow perfectly perpendicular to the shooting direction. And now, to make ends meet in the budget, the snipers spend more time in the classroom than on the shooting range. With enough theory and paper tests they only need to shoot about 10 shoots a month during their 3 month hyper modern training course.
    6
  209. Our new overlords are going to be shot with each and every specimen he owns before he lets that happen :P
    6
  210. Oh my god! A French rifle that had escaped Ian! Looks like a perfectly good and reliable little squirrel hunter to me! :P
    6
  211. I found it. It's not Swizz but German and is called the Korth PRS Automatic Pistol... and it actually IS a 1911 lower.
    6
  212. If my DIY skills were that good I'd be very happy...
    6
  213. I think he had to film at a location with significant echo.... Or just no loud speaking at the Sako factory...
    6
  214.  @JerryEricsson  A) "If you pay in peanuts only monkeys will sign", and B) If you do onsite training with no requirements you need to take both of those statements equally serious. And since you brought up the subject of blatant child abuse: You blame the schools and "today's workers", and call that common sense, because your dad blamed you for his own inability to raise children. When you teach someone YOU have the responsibility to verify that they have understood everything. YOU have the responsibility to develop a teaching style that is suitable for the target audience. YOU have the responsibility to foster a good learning environment. And observe that this comes from a professional soldier who've taught thousands of classes to both professionals and conscripts. And trust me when I say that most conscripts don't exactly reek of motivation.
    6
  215.  @XIII1987  Congratulations good Sir. You win the Internet WOOOOSHHHH Moment Award of 2021. A win so clear and decisive that we're still waiting for the runnerups to cross the finish line. Well done Sir! :P
    6
  216. For 7.62 Tokarev I'd assume it would hide the flash very well. For 9mm the holes looked a bit on the small side. But the point of having a flash hider on an SMG is mostly for rapid aiming, as everyone within the guns effective range will instantly know where the shooter is anyway.
    6
  217. Pvt Snuffy is the best beta tester of firearms on the planet. If it has an issue he WILL find it.
    6
  218. Uhm... if Ian is doing an extra chapter for the 2nd edition of his book... you should send him pictures of the arrangement and serial number. Perhaps he can sniff up enough to make a serial number table with "most likely configuration" data for us gun nerds to get nerdy over :P
    6
  219. Stay strong brother, and LISTEN to those with combat experience. Don't try to prove yourself. A brave soldier full of holes is useless, but a cautious soldier without holes can fight again tomorrow.
    6
  220. Thanks for the info. And Ian is fluent in French, so he probably understands Frenglish too :P (As a Dane: You're perfectly understandable!).
    6
  221.  @richard8808  That in it self is valuable to some people. Getting a "bug fixed" version of something existing appeals to practically minded people who need day to day reliability and price effectiveness. Obviously snobby enthusiasts will always harp on about "the original" and stuff like that, but at the end of the day if the "knock off" is objectively better in the metrics you care about insisting on having the original is an exercise in mental masturbation more than it is a pragmatic decision.
    6
  222.  @gingergorilla695  It's easier, safer and more rational to solve that kind of problem by acquiring extended distance in short order. And then let the five o deal with it.
    6
  223. I don't think there's a currently active government who hasn't done that at least a few times...
    6
  224. Everything that needs practical verification sounds like a job for Henry over at 9-Hole Reviews :P He is by far my favourite Chinese rooftop Korean! :P
    6
  225. Every pistol either mostly or fully suck in the exact same way. A Glock 17 doesn't change the picture all that much. Unless you do serious range time your odds of hitting a moving target, under duress, at 15 yards are slim to none.
    6
  226.  @kittehgo  He did, gingerly, say "Where the nationalist party set up their own state" :P
    6
  227. Well it did. But this is the first gun I've seen where "firing it resolved the issue". Normally if you have gunk in a gun and you force it to chamber you get exactly one shot, a failure to feed, and gunk in places even harder to get at without a field strip.
    6
  228. Ian has forgotten more about firearms than I'll ever learn...
    6
  229. It always helps immensely when the interviewer is deeply knowledgable on the topic and also understands that an interviewer should facilitate rather than force the topic. There was never any doubt Ian was the former, but being his chill self it would turn out that the latter came naturally to him as well....
    6
  230.  @causewaykayak  Health and safety working practices tends to go out the windows when feeding the family is on the line. If they got more international coverage the price would go up and soon after shop equipment would too.
    6
  231. Especially not when you can buy an exact copy for $375. But collectors items are collectors items.
    6
  232. The prices reflect how many people feel like you. As a Dane the 1911 has no cultural connotations to me so all I see is a big heavy tilting barrel hand canon with limited ammo capacity. That said it is still roughly the mental image I get when someone says "a pistol" without specifying any further, so I guess it's omnipresence in films from my youth cannot be argued against.
    6
  233. Ian did such a phenomenal job documenting French battle rifle history that the French anti terror unit invited Ian to put his gropy little mitts on everything he wanted in their gun vault..... so yeah, if he doesn't admit it himself he knows full well that his audience WILL :P
    6
  234.  @worlds3061  He said "among"...
    5
  235.  @alphacentauri1760  If by high end you mean "will handle going from 20k feet altitude to 20 feet under water" then you need 0 high end sets. The tacticool toy soldier heart may be pounding in your chest at the tought of that capability, but you don't NEED it. You want it. It's cool. It's nice. It's awesome. But it won't give you any tangible benefit in any situation you're ever going to encounter.... I have several electric guitars that fall in this category. I am, after three decades of playing reasonably regularly, still nowhere near good enough to wring out what they have to offer. The difference is just that I'm honest about it.
    5
  236. I don't usually lol when my fillings are ratling out, but hey, each to their own! :P
    5
  237.  @That_NJ_guy  If you don't want to buff it: a good quality leather oil, or at the very least saddle soap. Personally I prefer both. If you want to buff it you need a leather grease with carnauba wax or similar. If you oil leather it will be neigh on impossible to ever buff it again.
    5
  238.  @jackhacker5738  You're factually correct, but the big brass feed block just makes this visually more in line with how classic steam punk is usually portrayed.
    5
  239. Interviewer: How many modern guns were inspired by Browning's designs? Ian McCollum: Yes.
    5
  240. If it had been that simple they'd probably have done that. Availability, lead times, budget and deadlines tend to get in the way of logical approaches.
    5
  241. Yup. It doesn't get more bad ass and knowledgeable at the same time than that... plain and simple..
    5
  242. AMEN BROTHER! :P Also, I'm stealing "besmirch" without any feelings of guilt what so ever!
    5
  243. A sniper rifle in it's day. A designated marksman rifle today. Not that anyone who had their brains splattered over the ruins of Stalingrad would ever care for such a distinction.
    5
  244. Henry-the-gun-whisperer is going to conclude that with a little bit of care, love and clairvoyance this gun IS in fact a 1.3 minute of angle gun despite no-one else being able to reproduce the result :P
    5
  245. The only thing wrong with brass is the weight. It looks cool, it machines gorgeously, it is very corrosion resistant and it spit shines to a mirror finish with very little effort. If it had been the weight of aluminium the entire world would be made out of it.
    5
  246. This may look like crap, but the base is still a Mauser. It would not hold up to the definition of a sniper today, as those routinely push head-shots out to 1000m and beyond. But when this was in it's heyday the requirement could've been closer to "consistent torso shot at 800m and consistent head-shot at 500m" which, despite the crude looking effort, the rifle can absolutely produce if the barrel isn't worn to smithereens. The Spanish economy wasn't exactly stellar at the time, so if the procurement branch went with "if it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid!" I can certainly get behind that. I've handled a lot of military equipment that looked like dog shit in moonshine in the Danish army in the 90s too. But it worked the way it was supposed to. And that's what matters in an army. In my book military decisions can never reflect badly on the factories/arsenals who manufacture for them. The army never goes "Make this really appealing to gun nerds with deep pockets! Caress every little detail with the greatest care" Channel your inner artisan and let the firearm spirits guide you!". They go just "Must do X, Y and Z. The cheapest gun that fulfils those requirements gets the contract. And if you can make it unappealing to steal it that's actually considered a bonus.".
    5
  247.  @E5rael  Only if you insist on always having the latest and greatest. I have a 5700XT and a 1440p monitor, so I can run everything just fine. I run Cyberpunk 2077 at 1200p with mostly everything set to High or Ultra and get 75FPS which is perfectly adequate to enjoy the game.
    5
  248. I didn't get a good look down the hand guard from the barrel end, but it looks like you can get "rags on a stick" down there, and you can get strips of rags though the M-Lock holes.
    5
  249. Given his recent fascination with Finnish firearms... I'm worried he might just casually start speaking fluent Finnish one day...
    5
  250. The current M4 (M3E3 in US designation) Carl Gustav 84mm is shorter, lighter, way more powerful, has even less recoil, and a truly huge plethora of ammunition. It is also in current use in some 50 armies, so I'm not really sure what you mean by "brought back"?
    5
  251. Nice! Thanks for sharing! :D That's a story you're going to break out to your grandson the first time he displays an interest in guns! :P
    5
  252. Just out of curiosity, as I only know the US gun market as Ian presents it to me, what would it ballpark cost, all stamps and fees included, to own a new C9 in 9mm and a box of ammo, big enough to load the magazine after a few practice shots (so maybe 20rds or whatever size they come in).
    5
  253.  @BackwardsPancake  Strictly speaking they only need to make the "fire control computer" the regulated part. They don't track metal tubes and whatnot from which you could fashion a firearm with only hand tools, skill and patience.
    5
  254. They originally had about 1000 receivers, and they're hellbent on getting as much appeal and as much extra-stuff-you-can-buy to go along with those. Because once the last one has been sold it's lights out for the business. If I lived in the US (and had the dole) I would 100% buy one receiver and every single configuration kit they have. That gives you 5 "different" weapons in a slew of different configurations (drum vs stick, different stocks, 9mm vs 7.62, light vs heavy bolt, different barrel options, etc) all on one receiver. So you can have a lot of "different" guns, but only one at any given time.
    5
  255.  @spacewater7  The "test cartridges" you get preinstalled on printers contain about 15% as much ink/toner as a real one. But people who don't realise that think "uh, a new set of cartridges is more expensive than a new printer... so I'll just buy a whole new printer!" but you're losing A LOT of money over time that way. A full set of toners for my laser printer is about two times the price of the printer. But each color is 3000 pages and black is 5000 pages compared to the 400 and 600 pages, respectively, I got with it from factory. It doesn't take a PhD in math to calculate that buying a new printer is a stupid idea, even when factoring in that the printer needs the drum replaced every 50k pages, and a drum is about the price of a black cartridge.
    5
  256.  @StefanGotteswinter  Quality advice right there. I didn't... and the first time I used it I realized why the extra money was a good investment.
    5
  257. The heavy weight is a good thing for marksman purposes. It sucks from a tactical standpoint, but that's only a problem for people who're actually at war. The rest of us just hump it in the car and go to the range and enjoy being able to fire 500 rounds in a practice session and still have a functional shoulder the day after :P Also, a 4x scope for 1.5-2 minute of angle is, imho, plenty for everyone who isn't an army trained sniper. Sure, at every gun range you'll find the chubby guy in the cammo pants, who never did service, insisting that mounting the Hubble Telescope on a battered surplus rifle is the right thing to do... but... we try not to laugh :P
    5
  258. With HE projectiles the plate may very well not get pierced. But that helps fck-all if you land 200 meters behind the contact line as a bag of soup.
    5
  259. I'm not saying the French police doesn't need "some internal culture adjustment"... but I simply can't wrap my head around the concept of having "riot" and "innocent bystander" in the same sentence. If I was somewhere and a riot started I would be moving away from the riot, at a brisk pace, right away. People just standing by the side of the road, munching popcorn, while watching hooded perpetrators throw cobblestones at the police, really need to develop a sense of something they clearly don't have....
    5
  260. The cool part is that once you have the receiver you can buy all their parts kits and have all their guns. But only one gun at the time though. And looking at their kit prices they know that. They charge the premium for the receiver, whereas all the extra paraphernalia is relatively cheap. It's a shame that they only have a fixed number of receivers. After the last one is sold its... over...
    5
  261.  @kanrakucheese  For maritime people "the lay of this line" comes across crystal clear even today. How you "do up" a rope (called a line in maritime lingo) is called it's lay. A box lay, an 8 lay, etc. So considering this is 70 year old text the meaning is perfectly fine despite the tone being a bit overly formal.
    5
  262. Nah, same here. I fundamentally don't like guns (two tours on Balkan tend to give you that idea) but I like the mechanical and historical aspects and Ian always delivers like a boss on those two.
    5
  263.  @Corrosion37  How about you stay out of how other people speak, and in return I'll stay out of you not starting a sentence with a capital, proceed with meme language, and not ending with a period.
    5
  264.  @peekaboopeekaboo1165  But Taiwan was defended by the nationalists, and the communists have (thankfully) not been able to do anything about it. Just face it man: The communists won the civil war on the main land but lost it on the islands. And the more the communists refuses to play by the internationally established rules of mutual respect, the greater the chance that everyone else is just going to go "We recognize ROC's claim to the mainland, as we do not recognize communism as a valid form of government."
    5
  265.  @victorarnaud304  Since the GIGN is a police(-ish) division and not a military division they were obviously under different budgets. And by the time the GIGN became the president's personal security you can probably guess how easy it must have been to let a remark slide in the right place at the right time.
    5
  266. Having seen Ian's gun vault... nope... If it's French and he wants it, he has it.
    5
  267. @Phoenix-x5e EVERYONE will pick an MP5. People have differing opinion on how well the roller delayed system works for 7.62 and 5.56, but everyone agrees that for 9mm it is just the most butter smooth and easily controllable system ever invented.
    5
  268. If you have any questions about what the Soviet "Union" was like for the "member" states that weren't Russia just remember that Estonia's answer to "What is the most fundamentally important aspect of a service rifle?" was "That it's in a NATO caliber!". Everything else can, with reasonable accuracy, be derived from that.
    5
  269. Yup. If this hadn't been required to be an upgrade kit, it could have been a really nice bulbup rifle. Getting rid of the 3 round burst ratchet would probably have been a good idea at the same time, as it would have allowed the magazine to sit even further back.
    5
  270. Having Gun Jesus say "There's exactly nothing wrong with it. I just don't need what it does" is a whole lot better than a ton of expensive marketing. Being pretty confidant that they would get that verdict, however, tells me they did their homework. They may want to address the deflector issue though, as they're the only game in town for people with nerve damage or missing fingers. Some of those are bound to be left handed either by nature or by circumstances...
    5
  271. Only touchy for Russians, the Chinese and the seven North Koreans who know about it.
    5
  272. He pretty much said "Don't be a LARPer, guys..." in much nicer words. The only problem is that he's preaching to the choir. The folks he phrased this to reach are unreachable.
    5
  273. If we're at point blank range I'd take the MAC.
    5
  274. It's kinda funny. One little knick on a gun looks awful. Fifteen makes it looks like it would barely function. 10,000 makes it look trusty and venerable.
    5
  275.  @PipoZePoulp  Gunnilations 7:62?
    4
  276.  @legallyfree2955  What? You have no need for a filament noodle the size of a football?!?
    4
  277. We haven't had iron sight made out of iron for a long long time. Iron is soft and rusts incredibly easy, so people switched to steel pretty quick :P
    4
  278. The magazine capability is a "situation has gone FUBAR" feature in the SAW role... But it would be nice if it actually worked, because that's precisely when you need reliability the most.
    4
  279.  @gwtpictgwtpict4214  Cannons of this size don't use "cartridges" like that. You load the grenade and the propellant separately. For reference a 155mm standard HE grenade weighs 47kg/104lbs alone and the maximum charge is some 1.5x longer than the grenade. Imagine how heavy and unwieldy that would be if you also added gigantic brass casing. The whole thing would be as tall as a short soldier.
    4
  280. For what they are they aren't actually that expensive. The problem is just... what they are. Expected barrel life: 300,000 rounds of .375 Magnum. And that's without the modern advancement of PTFE oils... These guns are every kind of no compromise overkill. My favourite kind of overkill. Also the kind of overkill I can't afford. But still...
    4
  281. "Austrian ring trigger manually operated pistols" is not a mouth full at all... But it is the gun nerds equivalent of "talk dirty to me"! :P
    4
  282. I actually heard it as distinct from Taiwan. Maybe Ian doesn't know how to correctly pronounce Taiyuan, but it didn't sound like Taiwan ("Thaiwon") to me.
    4
  283. All weapons go through New -> Dated -> Old Useless Junk -> Historically Interesting -> Hot Collectors Item..... It's the Old Useless Junk phase that is the bane of quite many things. But that is also the phase that eventually get the remaining examples so rare that collectors keep the remaining items as original as possible.
    4
  284.  @jten1116  It is very likely that they, or at least the men of the highest ranking in the area, went on raids themselves. It's a misconception that people were either raiders or victims. The law at the time was pretty much "It's only yours if you can defend it". And alcohol distillation wasn't common until some 300 years later, so they would have been drinking mead and ale like everyone else. It's not until the Russian occupation that Finland developed a vodka culture (which is a perfectly valid reaction to Russian occupation if you ask me). Yes, I'm fun at parties :P
    4
  285. As he said it could pretty much be any kind of metal. "Butt plate is butt plate!" meme here :P
    4
  286. Probably started by someone at Singer's PR department. Singer's sewing machines where the original "Apple products". People would accept nothing less unless they were absolutely broke and couldn't even afford a mistreated second hand one.
    4
  287. I have shot well in excess of 10k rounds through the 7.62 version of this mechanism.. And my G3 was "very well broken in" when I had it issued. If your example was able to fire without being fully in battery I can't help but thinking that someone must have been actively tinkering with it at some point. The roller-delayed rotating bolt face that HK uses is otherworldly reliable... as long as you keep sand out of the rollers.
    4
  288. Oh you can get good looking modern firearms. But you get to pay for the luxury. But back in 1886 a quality revolver was outside the reach of most people anyway, so the "price to looks factor" actually hasn't changed :P
    4
  289. Yeah. It's one of those features that would have been copied over and over if this one had been a little earlier and been a big international success.
    4
  290. It's a sniper rifle. It can stab people reliably at up to 1000 meters if it's zeroed correctly. And if you run out of ammo it can still stab people reliably at about 1.3 meters. That's a drastic drop in range but still more effective than throwing your empty shell casings at them...
    4
  291.  @frankieslefttoe8210  Huh? It was only an import ban. There were tons and tons of US manufacturers who made equivalent products to the ones that couldn't be imported. So if shootings dropped that has to be due to other factors, because actual availability sure as hell wasn't limited.
    4
  292. Of cause Fireplace Guy has the only known surviving example. Of cause. And we're all happy that he let's Ian put his mitts on all his rarities.
    4
  293. $1000-$1200 to get a collectors item is nothing. Heck you can't buy a decent graphics card for your computer for that kind of money these days... Here in Denmark a Browning A-Bolt III Composite in 30-06 costs ~$1000 with VAT and registration tax for comparison, so some cool vintage rifle in original configuration should easily run you ten times that.
    4
  294.  @Exarian  Yeah, when they hit you with "But it shoots full auto you nimrod!" you have to be some seriously wicket word contortionist to be able to slither out of that one...
    4
  295. Every person I've met with this "oddly mismatched body construction" have been stupid strong for their weight class. It's like the gene sequence that implements 20% extra arm length also make each unit of muscle mass 80% stronger than normal.
    4
  296. I third this idea!
    4
  297. It would be stupid not to. Because once the limited run production is over, the rifles which has the correct scope will rise more in value than the scope alone is worth. Kinda like "an all matching gun" from the era where they serialized every part is worth more than one that's coupled together from parts.
    4
  298. I'm not envious.... I am NOT ENVIOUS! NOT ENVIOUS AT ALL!.... shit... I'm envious... :-/
    4
  299. Hope your coffee smells nice...
    4
  300. You may wish to remove "pocket" from that description... Unless your pants are a whole lot bigger than most. But "portable handheld howitzer" probably sells just as well :P
    4
  301. 10% are rocking with the south paw... So if you want 10% of your army to perform suboptimally just make sure everything is right-hand-only.... simple...
    4
  302. "It's a little bit grungy"... which is a LOT better than some hack-job "restauration".
    4
  303. "Respectful, objective and neutral" is what I describe him as. Especially when he is talking sensitive conflicts it is really nice to hear him describe the objectives, concerns and requirements of each side, purely in relation to the practical mechanics of the weapons they were developing/testing/procuring.
    4
  304.  @clothar23  I don't know if those options were available in the mid 90s when we adopted it. But yes, it felt overkill for such a flimsy little bullet that needs windage adjustment long before it need magnification. It did, however, make the poor shooters better right out of the gate - which I suspect was the point of it. It had a more lukewarm reception among those of us who were already good shots with the G3. I'll still take that heavy clumsy thing with iron sights over the C7 simply because it ends the conversation about what constitutes "sufficient cover" much quicker....
    4
  305. ZOMG! Gun Jesus is going to fondle my best parts and call me a quality manufacturer! UwU
    4
  306.  @marcusborderlands6177  Just the same as every piece of pipe from the hardware store can be turned into a barrel. The point of regulation is not to prohibit ghetto items. Because the ghetto is gonna ghetto regardless of regulation. The point of regulation is to define a legally registrable item and place safety/inspection/embargo/export laws on it.
    4
  307. I_understood_that_reference.jpg
    4
  308. It is, however, a perfectly valid military question :P
    4
  309.  @imrickjames717  People who drive Koenigsegg consider the Corvette a poor mans car...
    4
  310.  @RedXlV  14Gs is doable for anyone with a masters degree in any of the engineering fields. So upper middle class. Vintage Ferraris on the other hand....
    4
  311. B&T: Which attachments, expansions and options would you like? Gun connoisseur: YES
    4
  312.  @adrianparker-e9f  Ian was sort of incorrect that we made the "final payment" in '96. We made the "last payment" in '96 and asked the Bundeswer for shipping instructions and they pretty much replied "your own local metal recycling facility would be most convenient for us, thank you very much". For that reason 25.000 were put together of the best parts and put into storage, and the second best replacement parts were kept to service them. In case of general mobilization that pretty much means that all back-end logistics personel will be equipped with them. Which sucks, as it is objectively a better combat rifle than the M16 (yes, I served with both for extended periods of time). TL;DR: It was a legally pure renting but turned into lease-to-own by declining to receive them back.
    4
  313.  @maronitoni5934  Elbonia is a fictional country that Ian uses tongue-in-cheek when looking at modified weapons because youtube has decided that weapons modification is a big no-no. So Ian pretends that it was the Elbonian army who had wildly esoteric demands that ultimately lead nowhere. Just search youtube for "Elbonia" or "Elbonian" to see the quite humorous episodes this has spawned.
    4
  314. Dont worry. The second he gets access to them he's going to break out the camera. What Ian films is pretty much just depending on someone giving him access to it. In a perfect world Ian should be an eccentric billionaire who just absolutely had to own one of every firearm ever made so he could make a video about it. But if you know of a museum who might be willing (with a little convincing about Ian's provenance?) to give Ian hands-on time with those guns, don't hesitate to contact them and see if they would extend an invitation.
    4
  315. The difference is "Can everyone in the building hear it" or "Can everyone 5 buildings over hear it"... apparently that kind of thing is important to sneaky squirrels.
    4
  316. "A contraption that against all odds turned out fine"?
    4
  317. BWAHAHA! Thanks for the laugh! :D
    4
  318.  @jmmartin7766  It is, however, not a feat the Elbonians are particularly proud of! But you must admire them for their can-try attitude! :P
    4
  319.  @charles_wipman  Perhaps the rationale was "If the target is so far out that point-in-general-direction-and-shoot doesn't guarantee a hit then 32ACP is only going to produce a smurf kick anyway..."
    4
  320. Yeah.. we should probably send him flowers and a bottle of something... I mean, who does The Oracle Itself consult? He must feel truly lost...
    4
  321.  @PalleRasmussen  As someone with an army marksmanship medal: Calling Henry "really good" is an understatement. How the effing bloody hell he is able to get those kinds of results without putting at least a couple of hundred rounds through each rifle before doing the accuracy test is elleventeen kinds of beyond me....
    4
  322. One of the top comments is a French guy who is laughing his ass of at how correct Ian is about this. You can't burn people with jokes they tell about themselves! :P
    4
  323. We need to get Ian the kind of funds he needs to have ammo made for something like this. Seeing stuff like this on the range in "tomorrows episode" would be all the droooool :P
    4
  324. But the thing with museums is that they're kinda boring to everyone who hasn't gotten that specific interest. Which means they can't afford rent in an area that has a high population density... which means they won't get a lot of visitors.. which means they won't get a lot of income for rent/mortgage/real estate tax.
    4
  325. I thought it was a funny joke! Also, Top Secret was the bomb! :D
    4
  326.  @seanmalloy7249  Powder coating works "just as well", and they'd be wearing 3 hole ski masks/balaclava's in winter.
    4
  327. It is also important to have good barrel cooling for a sniper. A press-on barrel shroud with plenty of speed holes should do the trick nicely. But since weight can become an issue it should be aluminium. The speed holes might as well be M Lock so they can attach their slings anywhere they like while we're at it.
    4
  328. I'm glad he managed Romanian correctly. I could tell Ian tried his absolute best with Danish... and failed in several entertaining manners :P
    4
  329.  @kg-Whatthehelliseventhat  While decigram is valid (centigram would be 100th of a gram) it is uncommon to say the least. You'd say 100mg or 0.1g. While the usual orders of magnitude are valid for all units of measurement, there is a tendency, in everyday speak, to stick to measurements that are three orders of magnitude appart for weight and length, whereas for volumes below one liter the subdivisions are normal.
    4
  330.  @soudadmaouas7058  Oh, I'm not saying that it isn't. I'm saying that human beings are so soft that at normal combat range (up to 200m) the 5.56 is plenty powerful enough to make them incapable of fighting after a torso shot. Despite being a smaller round it has a higher velocity (the bullet weight to gun powder amount is much better on the 5.56) so it reaches the target quicker on close range making it easier to hit moving targets. You need to shoot at targets 250-300 away before the 7.62 "catches up" because it doesn't lose velocity as fast as the 5.56 Obviously the 7.62 has a much better penetration on harder targets, but that's the thing: unless you're fighting idiots who think a small wooden shed is actual cover, then it doesn't matter. Brick, concrete and tamped dirt structures are enough to stop it. Armored vehicles stop it. Normal cars, however, are not enough to stop a 5.56 either, so there it doesn't matter. As I've said, I've used both on multiple deployments, and having the LMG guy on 7.62 is obviously a nice backup, but I do prefer the lighter rifle with a 30 round magazine when trotting around at ground level in dense environments because the benefits of the 7.62 never really comes into play there. Now if I'm at an elevated position doing over watch with great visibility I'd obviously prefer the extended range... but at the end of the day, once you put a bullet in the target the caliber doesn't really matter. They either die or get pulled away screaming. Both of which means you don't have to worry about them any more. Sometimes the screaming can actually be of benefit: It occupies someone else for a while.
    4
  331. Jesus could turn water into wine. Gun Jesus can turn thin air into the appropriate comparison piece.
    4
  332. There's a cut most times after Ian's questions in English. That's because there's a translator present. Ian's French is passable enough to ask for road directions, order food and talk about the weather (and obviously guns!), but for the finer points both of them are at a huge disadvantage since this is a deeply technical conversation and not just the run-of-the-mill "How do like the latest pop single?" type interview. Even though I'm fairly fluent in English (and probably speak it better than Ian speaks French) I would also prefer to answer in Danish if I was asked to elaborate on some of the finer points and deeper insights in my own field of expertise. I suspect any bilingual will give you the same answer...
    3
  333. That was not even remotely boring. That's precisely the kind of discussion I'm here for.
    3
  334.  @tarmaque  Finnish soldiers don't get pissed off. They just patiently and effectively get to work. And then they don't stop.
    3
  335.  @markfergerson2145  It's a hotly debated topic with no clear cut answers. For instance, at the relevant time for the discussion at hand, southern Europeans described the Northerners as "effing huge". So it stands to reason that the size and weight preference of the Northerners differed from elsewhere. Secondly, if you're at an elevated position the over-hand throw is best, and if you're at a depressed elevation, the under-hand throw is best. The over-hand throw is best suited for relatively heavy rocks that you grab like a ball, and the under-hand throw is best suited for lighter rocks that you grab with your index finger and thumb, so round and flat respectively.
    3
  336. If price is not an issue making this out of inconel or another fancy nickel alloy would make it really damn light.
    3
  337. Not to mention Ian's fantastic ability to describe conflicts like an actual historian. There aren't many who appreciates that when he is describing WWII events for instance, but as someone who came home from a tour to Balkan it's been a blessing when he discusses weapons used in those conflicts.... To this day all I can say about that conflict is that everyone involved was as much a victim as they were a villain. Myself included... So it's incredibly nice that Ian manages to touch on in a way that is both neutral and somewhat distanced.
    3
  338. Eventually he will have gotten his grabby little mitts on every weapon ever made, and there will only be new developments to cover....
    3
  339. Since he has an armored police van this particular variation of Croatian Anger(TM) would be the perfect weapon to shoot it with.
    3
  340. Well.. It's an effective way to make sure the paratroopers don't drift too far of course before they hit the ground! :P
    3
  341. Yes, this is the backup. His main gun will be an M109....
    3
  342. LOL. We managed to have the M1 in service with the air force guards and some navy divisions, the G3 in service with the artillery and the C7 (M16) in service with the infantry... at the same time.
    3
  343. But when the answer is "Simo would do what comes natural to any demigod" you're still kinda screwed :P
    3
  344. I was issued the G3 first and the M16 6 years later, and I have shot several .308/7.62 hunting rifles. The G3 has a pleasant "distributed" recoil compared to a bolt action in the same caliber. If I had to go to war (again) and was given the choice between the Swedish AK4 update of the G3 and the latest iteration of the M16 I would chose the former without even blinking. Sacrificing 10 rds per mag and about a kg of extra weight in exchange for a rifle that hits a human sized target all the time, every time, in adverse weather conditions at 500-600 meters, and has the oomph to go through civilian cars, garden sheds, shallow ditches, etc, is an easy choice to me. Those of my buddies who were less good shots liked the M16, but it never won me over. The correct NATO cartridge change (as the US is figuring out now with the .277 Fury) would have been 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. The 7.62 was too powerful and the 5.56 was too weak.... Oh, and that you put locking in quotes means you don't understand the mechanics. The bolt head stays in place until the bolt carrier has moved 7mm. The easiest way to think of it is to compare it to balls on a pool table. The "ping" from the cartridge sends energy through the bolt head to the wedge so it starts moving (like two touching pool balls being hit), which pushes the bolt carrier backwards until there is enough space that the rollers can retract, at which point the bolt head starts following the bolt carrier. It's as much a locking system as a rotating bolt head. It's just two different mechanisms that actuate the unlocking.
    3
  345. He hit them low because his sight died. In his previous video on this gun he made a spinner flip over in one bullet less than he's ever managed to do with 9mm.
    3
  346. When ludicrous necessity meets Croatian anger meets Croatian engineering you end up with shoulder fired Hell.
    3
  347. "It does red-dot stuff at the level I'm capable of shooting" is a fair endorsement from an instructor, but not professional competition shooter.
    3
  348.  @LeSarthois  Considering the lack of understanding sometimes involved in sketchy ammo production I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if both under powered and over powered ammo was circulated. Underpowered to cut cost and over powered sold as magic extra potent life saver ammo or some shit.
    3
  349. Basically anything you're not going to fire from a bipod or swivel mount would ideally be around 300-400RPM. At 5-7 shots per second you can fairly easily learn to shoot singles on the full fun setting, and it doesn't take THAT much practice to learn to counter the rhythm of the gun to keep it reasonably on target. For stable platforms it's basically a tradeoff between logistics of ammo vs how aggressively you want turn things into Swiss Cheese(TM).
    3
  350.  @JohnSmith-yv6eq  I know. I was a sergeant for 15 years. I tried many other rifles, and I saw how other people's rifles reacted. I think mine simply opened slightly too early (it was VERY picky with shoulder contact with live ammo as well). But since it was one of the most accurate rifles in our battery I didn't want the armourers to fiddle with it. I won several medals with it. And as I said, I managed to get around it's "funny idea" by just keeping it absolutely sloppered up in oil. But MAN was it hell to clean after blank fire. I mean, every file is always more dirty with blanks due to the blank fire compensator, but mine was GROSS. I would pick out entire "cakes" of gunk. Never saw that in another rifle.
    3
  351.  @sakamoto2467  King Tut's stuff didn't go though muddy fields, then became seen as an old useless relic that nobody EVER would care about, then became a novelty for weirdos with nostalgia, then became a rare collectible and THEN became a bonafide antique. It's the first periods that kill things. Not the latter.
    3
  352.  dimapez  I concur. It is renowned for being among the most controllable SMGs already, so the addition of the front grip seems more like a check box feature to appease some opinionated General Poobah somewhere who didn't bother getting off his fat ass and actually shoot the thing.
    3
  353. I've had the pleasure of competing against the Finnish artillery... and had my ass handed to me. This was back in '96-'97 in a live fire cross-NATO exercise called Celestial Fire. The range, speed and accuracy of your artillery, coupled with your specific type of geography will make an invasion absolutely fucking hell. Sure, a force who is willing to throw bodybags at the problem until you run out of shells will eventually win... but man those numbers will be grim.
    3
  354.  @metalboo8491  It already exists :P
    3
  355. It's a long story. The super short version goes like this: Someone who believes that there should be no gun laws at all (as in, how milk is sold, commercially stored, distributed, processed, etc, should have way stricter laws than guns) finds out that you can buy every part of some random shotgun except the polymer receiver (the controlled item).... but that that receiver can be 3d printed. Thus anyone "can legally obtain a firearm" by some seriously liberal interpretation of law text. Said loonie goes on and makes a big splash about it (via youtube and other media) to the point that (uninformed) legislators are seriously contemplating making 3d printers a controlled item that can only print digitally signed objects. Manufacturers of often-copied items are thrilled. The maker community is about to print out cute little miniature pitch forks and post offensive words in the internet. Some of them might even have cried a little and/or gotten a head ache. Several youtube employees are active in the maker space and own 3d printers themselves. Strings are pulled to shut down said loonie. Youtubes EULA is updated by lawyers who couldn't tell a Lee Enfield from a Green Meanie if their life depended on it... The whole thing is worded exactly as stupid as you would imagine. Actually it's probably a little more stupid than that unless you have an exceptionally good imagination. So basically: "What do you get when extremists, grass root movements, big corporations, politicians and lawyers end up in the same big pile of rush?".... A clusterfuck. As usual.
    3
  356. I probably also have something to do with the fact that Ian is knowledgeable, realistic and not at all a fan of neither "tacticool mentality" nor "hand cannoneering" in general.
    3
  357.  @509Gman  Nah mate, the old style M113 we had didn't stand up 7.62 NATO at point blank range. One of the reasons we went to the Piranha instead. Especially in urban combat it's not hard for someone to just stick a barrel out of a basement window and empty a mag into a passing vehicle and escape to the backside before anyone has time to react. In narrow streets that's close enough (basically just side walk width away) to make holes where they shouldn't be.
    3
  358. Those VHSes, documenting the mating rituals of homo sapiens, are collectors items in their own right today. They do feature a lot of shooting, but the ammunition is a bit more runny in nature.
    3
  359. You just have a good example. That happens too. My H&K G3 was way way WAY above spec despite being bought second hand from the Germans by the Danish army in 1975 and used for 20 years before I got it. I put all 20 rounds in a 10cm/4" center at 300m/328yrd time and time again. That is not possible with a rifle that, on paper, is only 4 MOA.
    3
  360.  @tuckerchestney501  Leonard Slater
    3
  361. GET OUT! :P
    3
  362. Metal sections. The kind with the little "finger tab" that attaches to the extractor rim.
    3
  363. I think you got the gear ratio "up side down". The smaller diameter moves across the stationary part which makes the larger diameter "have a greater surface speed". Which makes sense, as otherwise the whole assembly would have to move LONGER than the bolt need to travel to extract and reload. And you can verify this simply by counting the teeth on both racks: 32 vs 15. This means the bolt travels twice as fast (and thus twice the distance) as the barrel assembly does against the lower.
    3
  364. Today it's almost certainly going to be an Accuracy International rifle of some description. If he would prefer .308 or .338 Lapua Magnum is another matter entirely. Probably .308 since the GIGN would absolutely rarely have to cover distances longer than, say, 500 meters, and the lighter construction seems to appeal to him.
    3
  365. It needs a heavier barrel if it kicks that hard. In a short recoil operated gun it's the barrel speed which dictates the bolt speed. If you give it a heavier spring you increase the rate of fire. This can be a tradeoff you're willing to make (say 20% greater rate of fire in exchange for better controllability), but if your starting point is "kicks like mule", then going to 300% rate of fire (on 20 round magazines) is most certainly out of the question :P
    3
  366.  @P_RO_  Only Sweden every used it (because they opted out of NATO) in LMGs. But yes, it's a very fast projectile, and with steel cores they have stupid penetration for their weight. Exactly what the 277 is supposed to solve. That said, a modern reanimation, with the latest gun powder tech, could probably get the case length down to 45mm which would make it absolutely ideal for LMG, combat rifle and short carbine.
    3
  367.  @paleoph6168  If US Marines don't make angry noises something has gone horribly wrong somewhere... It's, like, their defining characteristic, and what makes them useful in the first place.
    3
  368. Gas seal revolvers are cool. They are the last iteration of improvements before it became obvious that magazines would be the way of the future.
    3
  369. The G3 is omnipresent. The G3 is eternal. The G3 transcends time, space and physical dimensions. Also, as of 2023 the G3 became the official rifle for the Army Reserve because the regular army has grown so much that we don't have M16s for everyone.... Just Danish things....
    3
  370. If I'm not mistaken 7.62 NATO is cheaper and more readily available than .308 Winchester... so why bother with it? That being said, the breech, chamber and barrel was originally developed for 11mm Mauser which is a seriously potent cartridge, so I would suspect that since nothing has changed dimensionally it should handle the pressure of .308 without problems. The only question is if the buffer tube is sturdy enough...
    3
  371. Yes, but unorthodox and clever do not... the order seems to be important.
    3
  372.  @imrickjames717  You misunderstood the situation entirely... I was dunking on @ImRickJames for playing the juvenile and ever-condescending "You poor?"-card. I think Corvettes are sexy as hell (maybe except C5), but I'm an MX5 guy myself. However to ImRickJames apparently "I'm poor" for not preferring the Chevy... so I felt like letting him know that he's poor for choosing a Corvette in someone else's eyes. Koenigsegg was just the most outlandishly expensive thing I could think of, but other "bling factor brands" would have worked just as well. But to retort to your "Have fun driving your Koenigsegg in forza tho lmao" remark: Have fun learning basic reading comprehension. And while we're at it... A single headline from the tabloid press neither validates nor discredits Koenigsegg.
    3
  373.  @classicnestetris3268  It's not exactly shits and giggles if you actually point it at something lesser than a foot of solid concrete wall :P
    3
  374. The early 2000s were not exactly the heyday of Estonian economics. It wasn't until the 10s where they started getting some traction.
    3
  375. And Ian pretty much gave them a clean bill of health by saying it was a good rifle they copied.. they should just admit it.
    3
  376. I love how, across all of them, the concept of aiming seems completely "lost in translation". The psychological effect of having a boom-stick aught to be enough to win any battle, right?
    3
  377. Unfortunately both of those have a price tag of "Yes, we precision CNC the ever living fuck out of every component". And that's why we want them so bad... like, did you hear the clicking sound of that bipod?!? My wrist watch doesn't click that consistently :-/
    3
  378. Ian truly is the Gun Jesus. He has reached a status where everyone who has something interesting and worthwhile wants their relics blessed with a video. I'm rather sure that it adds to the value of a collectible to "the one" featured in a video by a highly respected historian.
    3
  379.  @coolbugfacts1234  DOOH! Why the hell didn't I ever think of that? Thanks mate!
    3
  380. One of these with a folding polymer stock and you have the best looking AK of all time. That it's a Finnish project of obsessing over details and quality is just an extra bonus. As a former G3 "operator" I think the option of having both aperture and notched is a splendid idea.
    3
  381.  @EggBastion  Long Projection Optic would be my guess.
    3
  382.  @LasOrveloz  Considering the Madsen produced ones are 100% interchangeable with the M/31 and you can't tell the difference between parts that aren't marked the point is somewhat moot (unless we're talking collector status).
    3
  383. The approach works wonderfully for wine and cheese... but imma have to decline on mechanics! :P
    3
  384. 7:47 Bearing balls. Not ball bearings. And yes, I WILL die on this hill. A ball bearing consists of the inner and outer race, the cage and the bearing balls. You can't put ball bearings in a ball bearing :P
    3
  385. All in all those are minor headaches compared to most custom orders. If you want something that comes without any issues, what so ever, you buy exactly what another, preferably lager, country has been fielding for 10 years already. So the "A2" or "A3" pattern. And then you live with the fact that you lose out on adaptations that would be desirable for your unique situation.
    3
  386. By today's standard you'd expect something that big, strapped to a gun, to do something lethal of it's own somehow.
    3
  387. Fill an ultra sonic bath with penetrating oil. Dump all the components in. Order pizza....
    3
  388.  @PapaSchultz74  Never seen that happen. Just don't use a polar solvent. But generally polar solvents (like water and alcohol) are things you want to keep away from guns regardless of the physical cleaning method.
    3
  389. If Russia invades Finland again they better be ready to do it with nukes. Everyone I know who's in the armed forces (I'm from Denmark) are pretty openly saying "We don't care if the government gives us the go-ahead. If it happens we just take the gear and go to Finland". I can't imagine Noway and Sweden being much different....
    3
  390.  @kristianpoulherkild3401  I have "reenlist priority yellow" (so second wave reenlistment in case of war) because I'm 44 now, but if Putler goes into Finland I'm flat out going to call them and say ask if I can volunteer as priority green. I served in the armoured artillery and I still remember how to hurl grenades into the tube.... And Finland has a mighty amount of artillery pieces...
    3
  391. Then you're clearly more well versed than me. "A bit light" would, for me, be the over statement of the century! ;)
    3
  392. Yeah. It's kinda funny. The FRF1 was an absolutely excellent rifle in it's hay day. Going "Would you like a classic legendary sniper rifle... but in 50 BMG?" isn't a bad sales question to people who're into luggable cannons...
    3
  393.  @donswanson1541  I would assume they use a stamp bracket.
    3
  394.  @lairdcummings9092  This precise reason is why the H&K G3 is, to this day, the best rifle I've ever shot. Some people don't like the length of pull and relatively tall stance, but to me that's what makes it so great. And I'm not even that tall.
    3
  395. If they charge what those crush washers are actually "worth" (+something for packaging and handling) so a zip bag with 7 is, say, $3 and a box with 700 +/- 3 (quick-weighed) is, say, $50, then they could get enthusiasts to buy a lot of extras. People get stingy on running costs, but don't mind laying down dole for the item itself. Unfortunately a lot of marketing people don't realize this, so they lose more on big item sales what they try to "rip off" on things where it practically would make no difference if they sold at break-even.
    3
  396. Yeah, back in it's day this would have gorgeous after a full army regulation shine job :)
    3
  397. Just additively manufacture them in ABS instead of PLA. ABS is the stuff Lego is made of. That handles boiling water without getting soft.
    3
  398. And yet it managed to solve one of the longest standing problems with the AK: the crappy dust cover that prevents any kind of optics mounting.
    3
  399.  @peekaboopeekaboo1165  No, it is not an illusion. It's blatantly obvious to any observer. The PRC does not have control over ROC and vice versa. You can hogwash it as much as you like, but the fact of the matter is still that mainland China is occupied by communist forces along with Mongolia and Tibet but Taiwan and the surrounding islands are not. They're controlled by a socialized capitalist democracy who has military sovereignty of their current territories. That both PRC and ROC lay claim to the same territories by constitution is completely irrelevant, because none of them have it. Historical novelties, unfulfilled treaties and agreements, change of political winds and ideologies are irrelevant in the eyes of military control. End of story.
    3
  400. Since you can write you can clearly also read....
    3
  401.  @jimmychristensen498  Someone did not pay attention when the Sgt said "You need to jam it into your shoulder HARD".
    3
  402.  @johndaniels1197  "Ma Bell" was also a common name for it if my computer history memory serves me correct?
    3
  403. Authentic WWII examples, in legal status and good condition, are expensive because they're all 80 years old and most have been shot until the barrel is wallowed and the parts rattle. You can buy a new faithful 1911A1 clone of very good quality for $375, if all you care about is the formfactor and functionality. That's not expensive by any means for an all-metal gun, with this many parts, that only gets produced in limited quantity.
    3
  404. Also known as the Detroit Typewriter...
    3
  405. This is a boomstick. A very large boomstick, but a boomstick none the less. But sometimes a big angry boomstick is EXACTLY what you need.
    3
  406.  @beargillium2369  Old gunner here.. yup, that shit ain't the slightest bit smokeless when you're firing 155mm/6" Howitzers.... I've coughed my lunges out more times when I care to remember when we'd been shooting up wind and the breach block opened..
    3
  407. What is even more mind bending is that he has all the unubtanium development versions. Fireplace guy must have been collecting for a lifetime...
    3
  408. A liiitle bit longer than that, but not much. I just saw it break 750,000 five minutes ago...
    3
  409.  @CritterCamSoCal  That's the military approved way of saying: "They minced us into sausage meat, stuffed us into our own intestine, smoked us over medium coarse pine dust and exported us to delicacy stores in Moscow with a 2000% export tax to properly express the fine craftsmanship.. I believe the kitchen has arranged for you to have us for dinner Monday and Thursday until supplies run out Mr. President."
    3
  410. Just vote with your vallet instead.
    3
  411.  @brorjordas1979  Nope. I invented it on the spot... but thanks for the compliment! :P
    3
  412. The "no snagging" design idea seem to have worked out well. I can't imagine this thing grabbing your shirt or jacket in any way even if you carry it ghetto style.
    3
  413. Ian can command people's attention for 18 minutes (or 18 hours if he needs to). Marketing reels needs to have a wider reach, and brevity is, unfortunately, a key part of that.
    3
  414.  @robertlinke2666  You don't. You just tell Rookie he gets to be the hero that saves everyone from the rapidly approaching enemy. Rookie fires rifle grenade. Rookie makes an imprint on the other side of the trench and his shoulder lands in Norway. Enemy dies. Everyone except Rookie is happy. At least that's the theory.
    3
  415.  @robertrobert7924  You can, but the application process, police intelligence vetting, tax stamping, inspection of storage facility, purposefully lengthy process time and what not makes it so hard that only wealthy and determined people can do it. Which is the entire point. We only want real collectors to have these for preservation reasons.
    3
  416.  @damirblazevic4823  Former artilleryman here: Most mortars only have one charge size, so if you want to hit something nearby you point it at the sky. Most modern large caliber howitzers use variable charge sizes for different distances, however, sometimes you want to come in at an acute angle due to terrain features or buildings being in the way of the optimal trajectory. And then there are the modern GPS guided stuff like Excalibur rounds. Those are "artillery glide bombs". So you fire at an agnle like 78 degrees to get them to max altitude, after which they de-spin themselves and glide to target.
    3
  417. Some components are as old as 106 years. It's seen 4 governments and god knows how many soldiers have been issued these two pistols now merged into one.
    3
  418. Until you get a dud blank. Then you have 5 seconds to throw the weapon behind pretty significant cover. If it happens on the first grande you'll have 5 grenades going off at once, or one grenade going off flinging 4, now primed, grenades everywhere.
    2
  419. Just wait until you discover their wine and cheese... just saying! :P
    2
  420. There is tons of room under the stock-tube for your wrist and under arm, so I don't think turning it 90 degrees inwards while holding the pistol grip is any problem at all. Then you can grab the charging handle overhand, unlock and pull back to eject. The sear catches and you pop in a new shell. From the looks of it you'd probably close and lock just with your thumb.
    2
  421. Well isn't that the nature of anti material rifles? "Take one for the team before the entire team gets taken by THAT thing!" :P
    2
  422.  @ScottKenny1978  Yeah. Imagine having this thing go off while carrying it in a shoulder sling...
    2
  423.  @Easy-Eight  "Imma gon hurl lead at you so hard you land three counties over... and so do I, but in the opposite direction!"
    2
  424. "Dip it in the bucket. Count to 10. Pull it up. Let it drip for 5 minutes over the bucket before hanging it on the rack. If the lacquer gets so thick it drips for more than 5 minutes give it a squirt of thinner... any questions?"
    2
  425. No, that is correct. Colt were some of the first to mass market automatics with reliable extractions, so their ammo specifications were adopted far and wide. There are a slew of European guns already from the 1920s that use various ACP cartridges. Today the 38, 44 and 45 are rare though. Almost everything is in 9mm ACP or 9mm Parabellum now.
    2
  426. WOW! Get me this in .30 Super Carry! I like EVERY aspect of this gun. Trigger-only safety and striker fired. And I especially that it's not going to come with the Sig "brand tax". Good job technical side HS, and nice of Springfield Armoury to recognise the value of their partner.
    2
  427. "There are only two hundred of these, and the stocked version is made of unobtainium. I happen to sit here in front of 5 of them. Two stocked. With one version of each interesting iteration in the development." I don't know who the guy with the fire place is... but he must both like Ian very very much AND have the coolest gun collection on the face of the earth! Both of which are sentiments I can 100% get behind! :P
    2
  428. Aimpoint needs to release the exact specs for the mounting as an open standard. Every handgun manufacturer needs to be able to offer slides in this system, and every red dot manufacturer needs to be able to interface with it. This will lead to more Aimpoint sales, provided they stay at the front of the pack and don't go hamfisted on the price.... Which it sounds like they are specifically trying to avoid with automated manufacturing.
    2
  429. I think it added to the "suspense" that there were a couple of extra neat machines they weren't willing to show. Kudos to S&B for being willing to let Ian in, let him "do da thang" and go through the final edit and go "blur that and that, and you're good to go".
    2
  430. Since Ian is a left hander the VHS-1 is the chick he's just not compatible with, no matter how much he likes the looks. We've all been there: Toying with the idea is entertaining, but committing will be nothing but pain.
    2
  431.  @recoilrob324  Bwaaahahah! I'm stealing that fuck out of that one!
    2
  432. Winchester did assembly in Spain precisely for this reason. The precise wording of the law would probably dictate whether "some part of the manufacturing process" would have to occur for every gun, or just some guns, to qualify.
    2
  433.  @styx7027  Break it. Lock the bolt open (so it can close again without squashing the first shell). Cock the hammer (so the feeding elevator goes down). Plop in 8 shells. Close it. Hit the bolt release. You're now in battery and ready to fire (Unless it automatically engages safety upon closing or bolt release. Didn't see a mechanism for either, but there's a lot going on, so I could easily have missed it.) I'm assuming there is a mechanism for lifting the elevator when you close it too... But how that disconnects from the hammer is... more steam punk magic.
    2
  434.  @rlwe The air force guards were the last to replace them... in 2007.
    2
  435. In the previous video on the sniper variant a former air force guard attested that they didn't get them replaced until 2007.
    2
  436. Jesus man... you pretty much just confirmed that this is a thing because you really wanted one for yourself.... and that's pretty effing cool! :D
    2
  437.  @robertlewis8295  Thanks for clarifying. My metric brain always gets confused about "grain of powder". I constantly think "the size of the individual powder flakes". But assume that wasn't really a thing with black powder.
    2
  438.  @unter1103 I was in both Bosnia and Kosovo (and later Afghanistan) trying to stop the madness. Talking about "the right side" in this conflict is, sorry to say, absolutely dumb as rocks. My personal set of experiences makes me lean ever so slightly for and against a specific set of parties involved, but I perfectly understand that I don't see the entire picture. And nobody really does. It was a bitter ugly fight fuelled by disinformation, paranoia, old cultural wounds, greed, corruption and "soviet hangover"-style complete and utter disregard for human life. On every single side in the conflict those that paid the highest price were the ones who just wanted the madness to end. The amount of dead women and children I saw there still shakes me 30 years later. Please consider letting go of the notion of "the right side", and consider saying "How do we prevent everyone from turning into rabies infected animals at the drop of a hat, so something like this can never happen again."
    2
  439. I call it edutainment. I get entertained with education that I will never need :P
    2
  440. Too bad we won't see Henry run this variant though the Practical Accuracy range and compare it to his Finnish Mosin... but considering its rarity (and location in Belgium) that is understandable.
    2
  441.  @timecapsulechronicles  If that is largely driven by real estate loans, then it's a good thing, but if it's largely driven by consumer loans then it's a bad thing. Without seeing the distribution between the two the statement is worthless.
    2
  442. Probably has something to do with his field of expertise...
    2
  443.  @courier6634  It absolutely does if your goal is to make people keep their heads down as long as you have bullets.... It doesn't work particularly well at actually hitting anything past 25 meters though...
    2
  444. Keep hanging on to it. They're getting rarer and rarer, and not many were ever produced. It may not reach big-dollar value in your life time, but it could end up being a game changer for your grand kids.
    2
  445.  @crushingexistentialism  It needs speed holes, though....
    2
  446. If you remove the blank-fire muzzle restrictor, and you could find a compatible live cartridge, then yes, this would fire at least one round. But since it's straight blowback I think those two thin pipes containing the spring would crinkle like the bendy section of a drinking straw once they hit end of travel, and the bolt would not go forward again....
    2
  447.  @__Mr.Long__  Dude! We might end up seeing the ENTIRE Romanian gun engineering enthusiast community in a single comment thread! Only Gun Jesus can conduct such miracles :P
    2
  448. Спасибо за поддержку Ian :)
    2
  449. Mine was mint with live ammo but would foul up after just a couple of clips of blank. I always had an extra bottle of oil when doing blank fire exercises, so I could slather it constantly. That made black oil drip out everywhere, but it would keep it running. My personal experience is that people who couldn't get full/short burst working simply didn't jam the rifle hard enough into their shoulder, as they would complain, and I would pick up their rifle and have it work fine.
    2
  450. If people ever wonder why the Polish hate for Russia knows no bounds this tale of a single gun holds two shining examples of a century old tradition: If both Poland and Russia are involved in the same story Poland ends up with a back stabbing, a rectum reaming and a black eye for good measures, despite being the ones coming from a place of good moral standing, determination and valour.
    2
  451. Probably overkill for anyone but special forces. It's no use issuing a low bore high precision competition gun to Sgt Snuffy who just yanks the trigger in panic in his final moments after the rifle rounds ran out. To properly utilize the fact that this gun is good for shooting an eye out at 50 yards the training regiment need to be severely strict. Most personnel who're issued side arms will see 200 rounds of training a year on it. Not the 200 rounds a week, as a bare minimum, that is required to reliably hit at the ranges this gun can do.
    2
  452. Their operating mechanisms are so fundamentally different that it's not even funny. They basically only have "has a recoil spring and shoots bullets" in common. You'd be better off starting from scratch with the MG42 mechanism and just welding on bits and bobs until you have something you like.
    2
  453. For a few years we had three service rifles: The M1 for the air force and navy, the M75 for the artillery and the M95 for infantry. Glorious mess. The artillery only had 50 BMG, so we couldn't share ammo with our support weapons. The infantry used both 7.62 and 50BMG for support weapons but couldn't share it because they used 5.56 in the rifles. But this was during the era where the USSR had just gone tits up, and we weren't sure if we'd actually need anything but a small professional army, so everyone was scratching their heads and going "Well, while the shit on Balkan is going on we better not do anything too rash..." and then Russia invaded Chechnya (again) in 1999, Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, so we ended up constantly keeping the conscript model (and sort out the service rifle mess).
    2
  454. And it always fails... until you impose strict "you break it, you pay for it" rules for conscripts. I mean, they still break it, but now it's coming out of their salary, so it's less of an expense.
    2
  455.  @Rudy97  Danish conscripts get a livable wage.
    2
  456. Yup... This is Putin's Vietnam. He will be met with every ounce of ingenuity, remorsefulness, defiance and commitment that the human mind can muster. At every corner. In every alley. Behind every tree. If bicycle break levers make functional triggers, and most bicycles have two of those... then the Ukrainians have working guns and mostly-sort-of-fully-functional bicycles. Easy.... Being a Russian solider in Ukraine... Less easy...
    2
  457. Enjoy it. I wanted it but can't afford it atm. The print and paper quality looked soo nice when Ian showcased it, so don't forget to smell the ink! :P
    2
  458. In the old video he explained how you could bid on this rifle at the auction, which is obviously irrelevant at this point, but YT doesn't like anything related to selling firearms so Ian has a humungous amount of work ahead of him editing all the videos he did at auction houses over the years.
    2
  459.  @markfryer9880  Nope. They bore, ream and cold forge. On the really supper over the top barrels they also do a cryogenic annealing run afterwards because even cold forging leaves a little bit of stress. Ian has an old video on it from maybe 1-3 years ago (I'm not good with time, sorry) where he visited a factory in Croatia that did their own barrels.
    2
  460. What a wonderfully weird operating mechanism. Gad it's not just the Danish Madsen guns that uphold the Scandinavian tradition of trying something completely wacky.
    2
  461. Sounds about right... but also: if most of that ammo was produced just to fulfil the order that got Italy rid of them... "Someone" might not take the same care as if they were going to produce for their own military.
    2
  462. I hope he doesn't have the same opinion on Turkish firearms as he has on Turkish ammo (see previous video).
    2
  463.  @Talguy21  I know. I just happen to be pedantic by nature :P
    2
  464. The FNC does absolutely not suck. It's a bit on the heavy side for a 5.56 for military applications. But as a range toy it's a nice soft shooting riffle with very little muzzle climb during full auto....
    2
  465. This may be why the Norwegians went with a special type of charge instead of a generic blank. I imagine a very large grain size and a powder composition that needs a fair amount of pressure before the combustion speed picks up would be beneficial to shoulder longevity. Having it work more like a blow pipe than a cannon is probably also easier on the action.
    2
  466. Seems fair enough. All they want to see is that you still have it in your possession, which should take all of 20 seconds to prove.
    2
  467. Vaccination Certificate and a good travel agent who can make shit happen...
    2
  468. This has no real appeal as long as it is not select fire. It's basically a hand gun with a shoulder stock... and a bit longer barrel.
    2
  469. For a gun that saw it's first pen strokes 130 years ago it actually isn't all that bad. Sure, there are many elements where the Madsen found a more clever solution, but if I understand things correctly the Madsen design also started som 15-20 years later.
    2
  470. I'm starting to get the sense that the Chinese gunsmiths of the time weren't acquainted with the concept of "aiming"....
    2
  471. Everything about this gun makes sense... except the reciprocating charging handle.
    2
  472. Being a good presenter is key. There's a channel called Curious Droid, and he's the same. He's done videos on battleships, satellites, paper mills, phone boxes, etc, and they're all incredibly interesting for no other reasons than the impeccable research and delightfully good presentation. I've said, kind of tongue in cheek, on other videos that I don't care if Ian one day wants to start talk about cast iron wood fired stoves specifically from the 1890 to 1920 era... I'll listen to every word and have a good time.
    2
  473. The same thing happened with the G3/M75: The armoured artillery used them long after the infantry got the C7/M95.
    2
  474. That's short sighted :P He'll have me hooked for another run when he decides to do "Heckler and Koch: From the Ruins of Germany to International Modern Armament Entrepreneurship". That one is another "easy" (pinky in corner of mouth) One Million Doooolars!
    2
  475. Ian is those sole reason for my interest in arms design - full stop. I started watching for the historical context of the weapons, but now I'm interested in manufacturing logistics, rifling twist rates, bullet jacket design, every aspect of mechanical reliability, the often colourful personalities behind the development... AND the historical context! :P
    2
  476. I think he is just generally gun horny :P
    2
  477. The loud part will be the bang. But that is kind of unavoidable with firearms, isn't it?
    2
  478. They could sell each gun's narration as a separate $5 DLC and it would still be a massive hit!
    2
  479. You only hate it until until you're ambushed, surrounded and pinned down and the radio officer says "air support won't be here for another 40 minutes!". Then you realize you're in possession of the only argument the insurgents will listen to, and that you better start talking! :P
    2
  480. The Fireplace Guy and The Finnish Uncle Gun Scrooge combined must be worth north of the GDP of smaller countries... Really nice stuff. I think I could spend about three weeks in there putting my grubby little mitts on the private parts on each of those guns! :D
    2
  481. Request for topic: The history and development of the sling shot. Preferably interspersed with Dennis the Menace references... Or any other topic that basically just involves Ian telling a story for 20-30 minutes at the time! :D
    2
  482. Since they're on the US market today, and have a special except from the rule against stocks, it's indirectly obvious that they were just sold off to the domestic market since the paperwork was already done.
    2
  483.  @denniscrider3776  Denmark has exceptionally strict gun laws, so personal protection is not something that crosses the mind of a buyer even once. 22LR is an excellent 15m target shooting caliber. You can pop 300 shots in a day without your hands hurting or feeling like you need to visit the dentist. This isn't exactly something you can say about a .45 Magnum....
    2
  484.  @jic1  As far as I've been able to track down it's located within the borders of The Russian Federation somewhere north-east of the Caucasus. It may very well, in fact, be located WITHIN the Republic of Kalmykia, but Russian disinformation campaigns have made it exceptionally hard to pinpoint exactly.
    2
  485.  @exploatores  It's a totally-not-licenced domestic production that by pure coincidence happen to be 99.9% parts interchangeable (sans the rear sight bolt and nut), so obviously it can't be a rebadged UZI. That one part difference is in no way, shape or form a plausible deniability feature. And since there are no grind marks to remove the original badges, it's clear as daylight that these were locally produced. So obviously the Croats just "obtained enough UZI's to be able to work out the tolerances themselves and decided to copy everything exactly as to not introduce any new kinks". Whether or not the guy tasked with working out the measurements happened to have an uncle in Isreal, that he would casually phone while working the calipers, is anyone's guess and hence ultimately just conjecture and speculation.
    2
  486.  @exploatores  I think you missed the "Israeli foreign policy" joke in my statement :P This is obviously a "Uh, sanctions we don't want to get in trouble with are a bitch, so here are the exact blue prints of both the gun, the processes and the tool line"-move by Tel Aviv. Any decent existing manufacturer of industrial electrical components can carbon-copy an UZI pretty damn rapidly if they get that kind of help. If they got help down to the specific feeds and speeds for the milled parts it's no wonder they did it in 12 months.
    2
  487. It doesn't know where you're from in this world. Gun Jesus will know more about your country's obscure side stories and fun little facts about small arms production than you ever will. And that's why we love him! :P
    2
  488. Drop it in mud by accident and clean it without taking the hand guard off because the crush washers and torque wrench aren't standard issue. I do understand the appeal of these free floated barrals with "attach all the things all the time" hand guards.... but having trained many conscripts and recruits myself... oh boy, is someone doing pushups soon :P
    2
  489.  @Dmac6969 Wha?.... Because service contracts have very precise stipulations that must be followed by both parties. If the contract says that washers are single use and the screws must be torqued to XYZ with a calibrated torque wrench, then that is what the army will do, because if they don't the manufacturer has a get-out-of-jail card for any and all warranty claims surrounded to this area of the gun (obviously they can't claim that the reason the butt stock snapped is because the hand guard wasn't attached correctly).
    2
  490.  @squidwardo7074  Of cause they're not. But they are going to be told to clean the bloody thing. Which is going to be "an interesting exercise" when you can't easily get the hand guard off.
    2
  491.  @TheHylianBatman  If you look at the parts-number reduction from the first full auto rifles to an AR and extrapolate from that you're not far off what a Gauss rifle could look like in 25 years (provided the capacitor tech keeps pace). The good thing about working with electricity and magnetic fields is that it can be computer controlled. Firearms have to be constructed to work with the worst case scenario of ammunition, as that is it's sole provider of mechanical energy. So while a Gauss rifle might have more parts in it many of them don't have to be as strong or as precise as their firearm counterpart, etc, etc. So it's pretty much a matter of "Now they're borderline of military utility" + "DARPA wants to grant (huge amount here) to have the current best design developed into a special forces weapon". Once that happens and a 100 engineers start tinkering with rapid prototyping and cutting down parts counts things will progress pretty rapidly.
    2
  492. He is taking the absolute right approach for a brand that has specifically targeted "No corners cut, but no luxuries either". In the car analogy he is targeting Volvo buyers (before Chinese investors did Chinese things to Volvo): "It's not the fastes, lightest, most sporty thing with the latest tech. But it's reliable as hell, economic to drive, has stellar safety features, comes with good ergonomics and a large trunk. It will do car things for you all day, every day and we have a proven record of sticking to our strong warranty. We sell you practicality and peace of mind over performance and bling".
    2
  493. The long rambling about the rearmament process is what makes the rifle interesting. A short "this is that, but with this barrel band feature changed" would have been boring as frig :P
    2
  494. That's why only about a hundred went to the US. The Elbonians bribed a floor worker to steal all the reject parts, and then made a bunch of impoverished grandmothers file the parts until they would go together. Cheapest gun project Elbonia ever had, and it produced several hundred guns that worked 100% of the time in the holster.
    2
  495. It's more of a fancy AR18. Both the fire control group and the bolt carrier and locking mechanism are straight up AR18. If they had moved the charging handle to the stock it would have been an AR18...
    2
  496.  @dallesamllhals9161  I've never shot 6.5mm in service (obviously). I was initially trained on the G3 but was retrained for the AR15 before departing to Kosovo, so I've only shot 7.62 from LMG and 5.56 from rifle in service. I didn't start shooting 6.5mm until a few years ago when a friend lent me his rifle.... which led to another Sako in my collection.
    2
  497. So basically a pun-ish name in the sense that "fast and agile" is associated with sparrow/swallow, but printed on a tool that's supposed to secure freedom/liberty?
    2
  498. This just makes me wonder who bad they're going to duck up their purchase of 3D printers. Knowing the Elbonians we can expect nothing less than a model that is out of production by a company who's gone bankrupt that used software that is incompatible with everything but OS/2 Warp3 Update9.2 and a proprietary 3D modelling program only available in Chinese.
    2
  499. This is one of the rare cases where I felt a little was left to be desired: A description of the differences between 9mm Parabellum and 9mm Mauser Export as it pertains to this particular gun. I get that the Mauser Export case is 6mm longer than the Parabellum, but how did that affect the shooting experience and reliability? "It was too powerful" only hinted at that... But I do like a good "Ian goes nerdy"-description :P
    2
  500.  @jessebianchi2631  A fellow brown coat I see! :P
    2
  501. There are certain kinds of tools where I look for "the Hi-Point equivalent" because I expect to use them rarely and without passion. I don't live in the US, so carry guns are an alien concept to me, but if I did it would probably be something very similar. It should take 9mm, be able to hit a torso at 15 meters, be relatively small and not cost much, while being reliable enough that I can count on it for as long as I haven't clapped it out.
    2
  502.  @ScottKenny1978  No one on the face of the Earth is dumb enough to bet against that.....
    2
  503. You just gotta love that Gun Jesus has posted a video on a prototype gun a mere 500 years before it became an actual "Forgotten weapon". If that's not caring about catalogue completeness I don't know what is! :P
    2
  504.  @crackerjack3287  Then you break out the Brasso and have a fun afternoon. And when you're done you coat everything in a thin layer of bees wax (personally I dissolve 2% bees wax in 98% acetone (by weight) as that makes it super easy to distribute evenly) so it doesn't turn green in a week.
    2
  505.  @crackerjack3287  In the trenches it doesn't matter if it turns green.
    2
  506. You're a disciple of Gun Jesus. Collect, preserve and enjoy. But do not destroy. If you don't have the finances to restore/repair a gun properly then it's better to pass it off to another collector who does... but that doesn't prevent you from enjoying it the best you can while it's in your possession :P TL;DR: There's nothing wrong with you. You're just a gun nerd! :P
    2
  507. We called it "the remote saw" because the rate and accuracy made it split targets in half if you figured out how to move it across at the right speed, even with what seemed like a short burst.
    2
  508. Yeah. I think I'd rather chew my own teeth than listen to that slide rack again...
    2
  509.  @clothar23  Nope. When you're in the army you use the same gear and configuration as everyone else unless you're the special forces (so in case you lose yours you can get one from a wounded/dead fellow). Ours did have iron sights in case of damage/failure. And generally buying things yourself is not really in the Danish army mentality. The optics was (IIRC) a 40mm x2 in hard rubber casing. It had a faint yellow tint that actually worked fairly well at creating contrast, but, as I said, the optic itself was in the way of getting quick overview. But it had a small ridge thingie on the top that worked good enough for city/building stuff where you just look over it and yank the trigger. Never missed a man sized target at 50m with that.
    2
  510. Too big of a target. They're sniping, ambushing, hit-and-running, sabotaging, backstabbing.... and getting farmers to hurl off tanks with tractors when the Russians are too stupid to leave it unattended for a moment. A big ol' Hilux with a visibly mounted 50cal doesn't fit into that very well. They want to be able to drive off, park in a parking lot around the corner and look like everyone else.
    2
  511.  @rosiehawtrey  This is Ukraine. Not Kazakhstan. There are plenty of Audi A6 Sport Wagons to convert into belly-position-machine-gun-out-the-rear-hatch-drive-by-Russian-meat-mincers if they need to :P
    2
  512. At this pint I'm wondering if there is any variant of anything Ian can't get hold of! :P
    2
  513.  @454FatJack  If you don't specify the Carl Gustav model number people automatically think of the 84mm recoilless rifle.
    2
  514.  @GunnerAsch1  I wasn't aware that it is an official team who does all the school shootings, let alone a public one..
    2
  515.  @SlavicCelery  No, it was never a good idea by any stretch of the imagination. That was the joke all along :P
    2
  516. SPROING! SPROING! SPROING! SPROING! SPROING! "If you don't want any European MP5K nonsense!" SPROING! SPROING! SPROING! SPROING! SPROING!
    2
  517.  @ForgottenWeapons  Sorry, I can't here you. My ears are still ringing from that :P
    2
  518. Their rationale was "If you need more than 6 shots you should have brought an MP5 instead".
    2
  519. Except it was made at DWM. As Ian said. And showed the factory logo to support... So it's German made alright. It's just old and battered.
    2
  520.  @michaelwarenycia7588  The .45 has greater lethality against unarmoured personel, but 9mm penetrates flak vests better. But generally speaking the point is moot at "street or building width" distances. If you make a torso hit with either, you'll have time enough for a more accurate follow up hit, as both sends anyone reeling, even if they hit a solid chest plate.
    2
  521.  @oscarjosefsson9300  It does not remove any safety pins. As Ian explained it can only fire the impact activated variant of the hand grande. You hit the top end against a stone/wall/the butt of your rifle and throw it, as now the 5 second primer has started and there is no turning back.
    2
  522. It's nice that Gun Jesus has the kind of reach where he can "pump" a company who does speciality items like this. I have no desire to own a hand cannon myself, but others may very well fancy just this (it does look nice tho!). On the other hand, if some new company would try their luck with a fresh take on the H&K P7 format (hopefully in .30 Super Carry) I would really really like to hear everything about it, including Ian's assessment of quality and reliability!
    2
  523. You may be able to shoot 8 shells in short succession... But you'll be cleaning that thing for 5 hours. You'll probably also enjoy every minute of those 5 hours! :P
    2
  524. Only the home guard had two selectors, and I can assure you that in the army which mags you got was a luck of the draw. I got three lightweight and two clonky bois.
    2
  525. Different countries have different rules for that.
    2
  526.  @leszekkadelski9569  According to another commenter further up Winchester did precisely this: have their guns assembled in Spain so they could claim "manufacture".
    2
  527. Given the era... yeah.. I'd say that's high praise! :P
    2
  528. And this particular example was so nice that you'd hang it on the wall.
    2
  529. He did. And uploaded it today :)
    2
  530. Tacticool will never die.. From the brass-knuckles-knife-guns to this. I'm pretty sure early cave men had heated arguments about which club was the most tacticool...
    2
  531.  @philhawley1219  It's the lacquer and the carve job that makes it look bad. If this had been made by a competent woodworker, and it had been finished with mat wax, the same piece of wood would have looked stellar.
    2
  532. We've given up. Ian speaks English and some French... but butchers every other language like a boss. Which is to be expected, as nearly every country has had some cool guns, and we can't expect him to learn every language... When he was at Tøjhusmuseet in Denmark I was rolling on the floor laughing as he did his best to guestimate Danish in to some half English, half French pronunciation that was as cute as it was horrible :P
    2
  533. By the 17th iteration of the Lee-Enfield I had a pretty good idea of the mechanics and was glad that Ian only pointed out new additions or removals :P
    2
  534. Ian: "Probably only a handful exist that are in reasonable condition". Fireplace guy: "Yes, and for that precise reason the one in my collection is specifically in immaculate condition".
    2
  535.  @21owlgirl72  Pregananant?
    2
  536. Write the manufacturer a letter asking who's done recent imports. I expect most importers to do small batches, and some probably only by request. You may get lucky to find someone who says "Once I have an order for five in I'll do a batch" or something like that.
    2
  537. Obviously a switch. Generally there will be "upgrade packages" to older models to keep everything the same.
    2
  538.  @DrJiKentauriuzHero  When analysing a German invention or engineering feat just find the most passionless and pragmatic place in the most humourless part of your soul... and you will instantly understand not only the genius of it, but also it's unquestioned necessity :P
    2
  539. "Bulb-up", not bullpup. Bulls get calves, not pups :P (Well the cows get the calves when the bull has done the job, but you know what I mean!).
    2
  540. While the dual rate of fire would probably appeal to them, the complete lack of speed holes might have been a turn off.
    2
  541. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if Henry somehow managed to get an authentic FG-42 below a minute of angle with match grade ammo and the usual touch of Henry's Magical Wizardry(TM)... It's like the wind compensates for Henry and not the other way around..
    2
  542. "Why was so much German WWII stuff used all across Europe after the war?" "Because the Germans weren't in a position where they could demand to have it back".
    2
  543. As a former Ma Deuce gunner: Yup! Not even the most retarded and opium strung out insurgent will stick around to argue with a machine gun. And if there ever was an exception to the rule we can rest assured that he didn't do it twice!
    2
  544.  @jankaas4504  Strictly speaking it's a designated marksman rifle and not a sniper rifle. Effective fire out to 700-800 meters is what you can realistically expect. 4x power is plenty for that.
    2
  545. But when Putin is coming to take your land and you need a heavy ugga-dugga right now to make his life miserable... this does seem to satisfy the criteria.
    2
  546.  @davidbenner2289  A) Nobody runs 500 yards that fast, and B) Henry's miss rate post 500 yards (provided he is on iron sights) is still low enough that you won't make it outside of the guns maximum range! :P
    2
  547. The MP5 was holding the camera and didn't get any of the action....
    2
  548. Errr... more like "Can we say we did it together and write both our names on it?" considering this is 100% a case of "How do we jam this unmodified receiver into a Suomi parts kit?!?"
    2
  549. If you can get a good condition G3 (and you can keep sand out of the rollers) you'll have one fine shooting rifle. Denmark bought one million heavily used G3s from Germany for the hefty price of one Deutchmark a pop (about a US dollar at the time). We then took the best half a million and called the rest "spare parts". I did my initial training and two tours to Balkan with one of those. It had probably belonged to 20 German conscripts and 15 Danish conscripts before I got it. The only issue all G3s have is that you need to jam it properly into the shoulder when you fire or you get a reload failure. But since it's 7.62 you learn that pretty quickly anyway. Forget to do so and you get both a donkey kick and a stove pipe.... Other than that it just hits a 4" center at 300 meters all day every day. I routinely got 198 or 199 points out of 200 at 300 meters already before I was through the conscription period.
    2
  550.  @HunterTN  Yup. And it's always easy spending other people's money with high standards.
    2
  551.  @zackhawn5944  If they invade Finland now there will be nothing left that resembles a country in short order. The initial counterstrike will be so decisive that even China will suddenly apply for NATO membership...
    2
  552. @ See the first statement. I know the French police have problems. That's not what I was going on about. If you're getting shot at, looking out the window of your own apartment, you're not "a bystander" by any stretch of the word. You're a victim of either police incompetence (gross misreading of the situation) or police brutality. The bystanders I'm talking about are the literal "standing close by a riot" people who think the police can act perfectly correct 100% of the time where there are only a few meters between them and people throwing molotov cocktails.
    2
  553. It's a STENAG mount, so it will only fit on NATO rifles.
    2
  554.  @JohnPublic-dk7zd  I don't mean this as a politically loaded question as I'm not a US citizen, and I'm a firm believer of every country sticking to an "I do me, and you do you"-style mantra. Just making that abundantly clear up front. I simply can't wrap my head around your situation in any meaningful capacity. I served for 17 years, was deployed in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan and I have killed in the line of duty. So I'm not coming at this from an "I'm scared of defending myself" agnle. Not at all. What completely rattles my tin-can here is the utilitarian conclusion that a gun in every room is a solution.. for where.. you.. live. Not a short term thread assessment that just needs to be dealt with. But you.. live.. in a house.. with your family.. in a place.. where guns in every room seems like a practical solution to the thread profile around you. The questions that keeps screaming in my head are "Why haven't you packed your shit and gotten the fuck out of dodge yet, soldier?" and "When do you ever get to breathe without the feeling of having a baby elephant sitting on your chest?"
    2
  555.  @helmsscotta  I know you're trying to be cheeky, but I find that absurdly inappropriate. When you're deployed to a combat theatre you're not "visiting on the government's tab". You're there to suppress enemy combatants and protect non-combatants to the best of your ability. Because that's your job as a professional soldier. You don't LIVE there. You're DEPLOYED there. And you're (ideally) rotated as frequently as the stress level of the situation requires. In Bosnia and Kosovo the main stressers weren't direct combat engagements, but rather having to clean up the village slaughters the asshats left behind, if we didn't get there in time to prevent them. In Afghanistan the main stresser was never being able to tell hostiles from non-hostiles, the constant threat of IEDs and to a lesser extend the direct engagements. But as should be evident from my question, which wasn't addressed to you in the first place, I'm inquiring about what it's like to have normalized what I've only experienced as abnormality that needs to be compartmentalized for a manageable interval at a time. I already conceded that I'm used to temporary threat management, so I'm really not sure what you were trying to get at here?
    2
  556.  @shred1894  Thank you! Finally someone answering what I'm actually asking. With the way you describe it I think I got some clarity on the mental aspect I couldn't grasp: To you guys it's much more in the vein of "The roads here are really bad, so I bought 4 extra spare wheels, you know, just in case. Probably won't need them, but if I do it will be more convenient than having to wait for a tow truck" than where I was coming from, which was closer to "I'm living in an active combat zone, and constantly having my weapon on me hinders quality time with the wife, so we'll just make sure there's a firearm within reach everywhere". Thanks again. It was the reference frame I couldn't get right. But it makes sense. When firearms are sold in super markets they become "spare tires" or "a hammer" and you start thinking of the problems they can solve in a similar utilitarian way. That was the key part that wouldn't dawn on me.
    2
  557.  @shred1894  Ah.. yes.. the last paragraph makes a lot of sense. On guard duty we wear the rifle across the chest for the express reason to remind anyone that we have it.
    2
  558. Exactly. Something like a 30.06 goes through single layer brick walls almost without noticing. A 22LR is perfectly capable of killing at prison distances, in the hands of a trained shooter, but you're very unlikely to kill someone if you just shoot them in the arse.
    2
  559.  @mattfleming86  Don't sweat it. Autocorrect ducks me all the time too.
    2
  560. Nope. The M/66 was covered in a previous video. This is the original M75. Later nearly all of them were transitioned to polymer furniture. When I was a conscript in '95 only one guy in our battery got a wooden one, and it was MINT looking wood for some unknown reason.
    2
  561. The way the bipod clicked just sounded sooo slick! If that much care and precision went into the freaking bipod I wouldn't sweat it if I was told to have my life rely on the proper functioning of the rest of the rifle. "Sorry, we can't adjust our machines to do worse than +/- 0.0001mm. If you want more sloppy tolerances than that perhaps you should consider getting it manufactured in China?"
    2
  562. 100k rounds happened to those guns. The barrels weren't made out of mono-crystalline space alloy when the rest of the gun was made out of "whatever", and a full auto only pistol caliber gun was always more of a "It makes a deadly noise in this general area" weapon than something intended for actual aimed shots.
    2
  563. I want one of these but it should extend all the way to the end of the barrel. Looks like 8 shell capacity to me. And I want it in brass. And I want a brass scope, about a foot long, mounted on top. If I can get some kind of sprocket-and-linkage-thingie to cock it in a sideways motion (right to left), so I can cock it with my thumb while I'm positioning my hand in the firing grip that would be an extra bonus. Some kind of a leather sleeve around the front grip and barrel would be nice too. Then a custom load of Dragon Breath, for the final splendour, with some kind of boron compound for green flames and sparks.... That HAS to be the most steam punk version of a tacticool shotgun in inception! :D
    2
  564. Can you see by the wear marks where it is catching? Also, have you checked it for hardened oil?
    2
  565. Then again. A 22LR match gun in the hands of an accomplished marksman is a whole lot more deadly than a .50 Desert Eagle in the hands of an amateur.
    2
  566. The retention pins are squarely in the category of "If it's stupid and it works... it ain't stupid!".
    2
  567. Technically speaking the i is silent, but we can't teach English speakers how to pronounce the Danish flat e. "Niilson" will make it sound Swedish...
    2
  568.  @buncer  That guy has too much money and too few guns, and he's working tirelessly to solve both problems. All to our benefit.
    2
  569.  @luvirini  A gun is better than no gun when you're in a situation where a skillet is going to help fuck all...
    2
  570. SPROING "....Can you fetch me the assembly instruction pamphlet for this thing real quick?" "Doesn't exist. We've seen reference to one being sold with the gold inlay models, but none has survived to this day. You get to leave when you've figured it out." "...oh.."
    2
  571.  @bertroost1675  I live in a country with very strict gun laws, and I don't want that to change. Even the criminals knows better than "to introduce a firearm to the situation". The police here don't expect every situation to potentially involve a firearm, and act accordingly, but the second some bonehead actually does (every 7 years or whatever), the whole city goes into "GTA 5 star wanted" mode and it never ever ends well for them.
    2
  572.  @interpl6089  Elitist Lol....
    2
  573. Once the meat and potatoes of activation and deactivation is hammered home the interesting next chapter becomes "debugging" the firearm portion itself. Initially most users of this system will not be the traditional "I go to the range at least once a month to stay sharp"-crowd, but eventually those will start trickling in if the gun gets a good reputation, and that's when wear issues and the 0.01% chance issues will start showing up. I really hope Biofire turns out to be the kind of company who work proactively with their costumers and offer parts replacements fairly priced along with complete transparency about the state of affairs. Too many guns, that could have become stellar over time, died a horrible death in the name of "saving face".
    2
  574. This entire thread turned as French as it can be... why the hell do you guys start speaking French under an English comment when we all bloody fucking know you speak English perfectly well? You can't even use your accent as an excuse when typing! :P Also: I wanna know what you're saying!
    2
  575. Hell, beating someone with the barrel of that thing is probably against the Geneva Convention somewhere in the section about "unusually cruel and inhumane treatment of opponents".
    2
  576. Since it's short recoil operated it all comes down to barrel weight vs cartridge power. Put something like an M2 barrel on it and it can probably barely cycle.... But that kind of barrel, unfortunately, makes it everything but a light machine gun.
    2
  577. And yet in both Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan the other coalition members constantly commended us for being admirably professional in everything we do. Especially the yanks were borderline fearful of us. The "leaned back" Danish attitude came across as subtly threatening to them. Their officers were only used to get that kind of attitude from Seals and Rangers. It was quite amusing.
    2
  578. But doing so on collectors items is a gigantic no-no.
    2
  579.  @BrentWalker999  Hof = court (as in a place, not a legal entity). Hoff = hope. Krieghoff = War hope.
    2
  580. If necessity is the mother of all invention... scarcity is undoubtedly it's father.
    2
  581. When shooting 50BMG you have two options: A) Add a lot more mass, or B) Accept recoil, so grit your teeth before firing! :P
    2
  582. For the gun connoisseur who has both a revolver and a pistol we bring you: THE REVOLVERPISTOL! Get the combined weight of both along with the least desirable mechanisms from each!
    2
  583. Ian doesn't speak German. But Happy birthday and enjoy your new gun! :)
    2
  584. No to mention that having to lug 20 of them around gets old a whole lot faster than even that hunk of a rifle...
    2
  585. Yes. You just pick them up and start "knitting" them back together with cartridges. They are springy and it requires a bit of force to slide the cartridge to the correct position.
    2
  586. Damn Ian. You're reaching legendary status around the world. Also I would LOVE to own an MR-73. I'd be touching it all the time, then wiping the fingerprints off that mirror blue. Then touch it again! :D
    2
  587. I think the lack of speed holes in the scope makes it a no-go... But then again, with Elbonia you never really know...
    2
  588. Gun Jesus has made a call to arms: If you live in the Balkans aske everyone you know to ask everyone they know (etc, etc) to locate one of these and extend an invitation to Ian. Ian has previously shown that he will protect the identity of owners who wishes to remain anonymous, so that's not an issue. Preserving firearms history, as objectively and unbiassed as possible, is important.
    2
  589. I don't know how exactly it all came to be, but I think it's a reflection of the Danish mentality. We're not as stubbornly practical as the Germans, but if something exists solely to be flashy we think it's kinda dumb. This combined with the Danish mentality of not bragging (you'll get the social bonk on the head if you do) tends to keep esthetics present, but kept to a minimum. So Danish design often follows a pattern of Function Drives Form but with just a tad of simplistic lines that tries to express elegance over robustness. This is especially evident in our furniture design. You can't really tell if something was designed in the 50s or present day.
    2
  590.  @blahorgaslisk7763  The set trigger was heavy, the shooting trigger was light (but awkward). On Mausers without a set trigger it cocks on reload, so I would imagine they would have a medium but crisp trigger pill like other Mauser. The Mauser format is almost hard to screw up. And with that klonker of a barrel 8mm Mauser might only kick like a mule (ass opposed to kicking like a zebra with 50 meters of run-up as sporterised Mausers with pencil barrels do).
    2
  591. As someone who's served with both a G3 and a C7 I applaud the M5 without any kind of hesitation. Heavier and having less ammo is not that big of a problem when evaluated against the biggest problem with 5.56: A sturdy card board box constitutes cover! A more powerful cartridge than 7.62x51, with an armour piercing projectile, is going to be a godsend. Now we're back to "yeah, try and hide behind that tree and see what that does!" days. Single layer brick walls? Yeah, go for that muddafarker! Hiding behind the back end of a civilian car? You only do that once! Jumping into a plough furrow only deep enough to hide your arse? Someone's getting shot anyway! That this thing can take body armour is nice and all. But odds are that this is going to be used primarily in places where the adversary is employing hit-and-run tactics. It's much harder to do the run part if most vegetation, landscape, random props and houses are easily pierceable by a 6.8mm coming in at near light speed.... Not to mention that it has to be gorgeously flat shooting which makes accurate range gauging much less of a concern.
    2
  592. Starting bid is usually around $3000. Also, pedantic as I am: It is not a rifle. Rifles are called rifles because their barrels are rifled. This is a musket. Smooth bore and front loaded. The lead balls were wrapped in cloth to give them some sealing because every tolerance was only slightly better than "just eyeball it son". They're basically "shoulder canons" :P
    2
  593. While you're absolutely correct, the reason this video even exists is that Zastava USA is targeting civilian sales... So they might want to "civilianize" that stock a bit. Ian clearly took a beating there.
    2
  594. LOL Ian! I like how you carefully explained that Hi-Point is not pretentious about what they sell.... after presenting a gun with "Yeet Cannon" stamped into the slide... I won't pretend to know the first thing about US pistol brands, but I will admit that the name of the gun had already led me on to the fact that Hi-Point is not the Korth of the US.
    2
  595. Having lugged around a G3 for long periods of time I'm a bit on the fence about it. I've never actively been in a situation where the 7.62's superior penetration power over the 5.56 became relevant in the slightest. And in the few instances where destructive power mattered the 50 BMG guys were on top of it.. and trying to solve the problem with a 7.62 would have been a hail marry to say the least. I got much better range result with my G3 than I did with the Canadian AR15 clone that eventually replaced it (My old G3 from the 70s was accurate to over 300m all day every day), but in practice I've never been in a situation where I had that kind of visibility. For some strange reason skirmishes always happens in vegetation or dense urban environment... it's kinda like everyone knows that being visible from far away is a stupid fucking idea :P That being said: Lugging a modern AR15 clone around is just much more pleasant. But I WILL take an MP5 over just about anything on the planet if I ever have to do security detail again. Fucking hell those things are accurate and reliable. And pack a much bigger punch than most people seem to think.
    2
  596. Jesus + Gun Jesus = Water -> wine -> gunpowder. If Zeus is also there we could call it The Explosive Drinking Game.
    2
  597. I am still not convinced that it would have been worse idea to say "Only reuse the barrel and bolt face. Rethink everything else from the ground up". Those are the only two components that a general metal working facility will have a hard time with.
    2
  598. Ian: Two million dollars should be so ludicrous that it will last us to the end of the campaign. Community: ....And I took that personally!
    2
  599. This isn't a forgotten weapon. It was never known in the first place! :P But it truly is "an obscure weapon". The world only knows about it because Ian sniffed it out and spilled the beans to his keenly interested audience.
    2
  600.  @DPRK_Best_Korea  If archers ever were to use their swords it's probably not going to be the enemy archers because everyone just ran out of arrows... If archers ever have to use their swords its because shit has gone wrong. But you can substitute swordsmen for pikemen or cavalry if you like. The end result is still the same: they're going to get pummelled in close quarter combat because they're not close quarter combat specialists.
    2
  601.  @DPRK_Best_Korea  Ok mister pedantic. But can we agree that archers are archers and not swordsmen? And can we agree that pulling out your sword, instead of running your ass off, when the cavalry charges you is considered heroic because it's objectively dumb as fuck? And can we agree that the outcome of dumb as fuck is the same regardless of it being swordsmen or cavalry proving the point?
    2
  602. As someone who's served with both the G3 and the C7 I couldn't agree more. Too many things constitutes "proper cover" for the 5.56. Having a cartridge which is flatter shooting AND has petter piercing ability than 7.62 is going to be a major boon. 7.62 already made short work of single layer brick walls at 50 meters. This uber powered 6.8 with a steel core might extend that to some 100 meters. Being able to penetrate body armour is going to be "the justifying trick" for this calibre, but it's real value is going to in it's versatility against "medium hardness obstacles". Because, lets face it, this rifle is going to be used a lot more against insurgents using hit-and-run tactics in diverse environments than against Spetznas troops in a direct confrontation.
    2
  603. You and I apparently have different perceptions about what constitutes brave and what constitutes stupid! :P
    2
  604.  @DrBunnyMedicinal  Er, yes, obviously. Freudian slip I suppose.
    2
  605. You missed that the disconnector is in the linear hammer, and the "disconnector" in the fire control group is just to give you the sense of the clean break people are familiar with from other semi auto weapons. FN weren't stupid enough to make a system where a full auto fire control group would just slot on to the semi auto version and turn it into a closed bolt full auto.
    2
  606. This isn't the first time. Last time he was at the armaments museum.
    2
  607. Back in the day they said that Mongolian warriors were born on horseback. Norwegian and Finnish soldiers are born on skis... (Also: It's very German, but not correct, to capitalize the nouns in English)
    2
  608. Even in hostile situations with adverse weather conditions 3x is plenty good out to expected engagement distances unless you're the guy hanging back and reading peoples names of their dog tag before you put a toe tag on them.
    2
  609. It was already done and in production by the time the krauts got their hands on it. The only difference between the Danish Airforce version and the Luftwaffe version is the barrel shroud because the Luftwaffe wanted compatibility with their existing mounts.
    2
  610. You wouldn't think that if you were on the receiving end... You can feel a 155mm hitting the ground 2 km away if the soil is moist, so while WWII Japanese artillery was a bit behind on casting an explosives I think it's a fair assessment that you would have browned your kegs the first time one of these lands within 500m of you.
    2
  611. This time they were the nice guys and did it right away so B&T could get in front of it before the customers started having trouble....
    2
  612. As long as he doesn't call him McGollum :P
    2
  613. Something made out of thick concrete can be as old as it likes. It's still a heck of a lot better than an umbrella when it comes to being shot at! :P
    2
  614.  @TheRealColBosch  Sounds about right. Even today a 50 BMG is the right answer for pretty much anything right up to "Now we need 125mm depleted uranium SLAP ammo, or we need to get the fuck out of dodge right quick in a hurry 'cause that moving house of steel will spot us any minute!".
    2
  615. A G3 built out of self loading shotgun parts... yeah, ok....
    1
  616.  @ForgottenWeapons  What? The Germans didn't send an officer to put his grabby little mitts on each and every one of them before stamping them with an approval mark? Are we sure this even happened? :P
    1
  617. Information travelled a lot slower back then, and setting up a line-tooling has never been fast.
    1
  618. Gold inlaid percussion pistol = Two hundred years old and in mint condition = Darn near priceless. Especially if some Arabian prince thinks they're cool and want all 8 surviving examples but only has 7 of them...
    1
  619. "Well, one or two typos probably survived"... My girlfriend, who's an author, appreciated that remark immensely :)
    1
  620. FN did the right thing here if you ask me. It looks solid and rugged to me. In a couple of years when everything new has been tuned optimally, I could see this becoming a service pistol with forces who still view Glocks as "a plastic pistol". Personally I'd like one of these with a pair of nice wooden grips and a red dot.
    1
  621. Either it was just made, or he shot the material when he visited the Tøjhus museum some time ago.
    1
  622. Don't let Jackass get one of these....
    1
  623. I still can't wrap my head around why a sport would give more points for heavier calibers. They should have separate groups for each caliber or simply specify the caliber that the sport was in. If it's about hitting targets really really fast then choosing a lighter caliber and large magazine capacities would seem like the optimal solution to me. Heck, a caliber like LR22 but with an ACP style cartridge for absurd magazine capacities could be absolutely hilarious to race shoot.
    1
  624. They didn't really use the concept of aiming. I'm not kidding you. This has been observed in Africa as well. A bunch of Somali pirates were captured and all their AKs were set to the longest range sight. When asked about it they rudely answered that only an idiot doesn't know that the rifle shoots harder the more you wind it up. These guns were simply made to look as much like an import gun as possible because that commanded a better price. And no, the "gun smith" didn't have the first clue about anything other than "it must go bang!".
    1
  625. The average backer amount is currently at $183 so it's not like we're talking "an army of mosquitoes" kind of endeavour. But it boggles the mind that less than 6000 people have made this possible....
    1
  626. Firearms Manufacturing Horror Show starring Ian McCollum. Halloween came late! :P
    1
  627.  @Horizontalvertigo  Yeah, but then later, when they had their land back, they told the Nazis to take a hike. The Nazis were a little slow to get the memo so they were "politely escorted out".
    1
  628. I don't particularly feel like watching a video with someone nearly blowing off his face... But Gun Jesus says it's good education about what to do as a bystander, should it ever happen near me. And if I was the one busy blowing off my face I sure as hell hope someone near me knows what to do... so here we go...
    1
  629. Ian could cover the woes of production of Persian rugs and explain how a specific skillet became instrumental in bashing the right people into submission, and I would still totally watch the fuck out of it! :D
    1
  630. Own one receiver. Configure it for five different guns. I see how they've made as much business out of the 1000 or so receivers they have.
    1
  631. It's not a forward assist... it's a jam enhancer... :P
    1
  632. So basically the guns at Momi Bay managed to scare the ever living begeesus out of a whale.
    1
  633. Israel is surrounded by countries that, uhm, "don't approve of them too much". If the Germans are selling something that hits the sweet spot in solving a security concern it could potentially cost Israeli lives to hold on to past grievances. So they don't.
    1
  634.  @gwtpictgwtpict4214  They are. But as I said, that is expected and the workaround comes at the cost of reduced firing speed. But that is not as much of a biggie as it sounds like unless you're just doing harassment fire. If you want to actually train on a target your rate of fire is limited by air time. For reference the air time of a 155mm at 24km is roughly 90 seconds, but a good crew can easily keep up 4 rounds per minute (at non-extreme elevations) for extended periods of time even without any kind of auto-loader aid. That is of little use when your spotters can't get back to you with corrections in anywhere near that time. Even if you have to lower the barrel to reload, and raise it again to the previous position, you still have ample time to scratch your butt and get a sip of water until the spotters tell you that you are on point, after which it's just a matter of repetition as fast as the system will allow until the target is deemed destroyed.
    1
  635. So if you're willing to drop five figures on the MAC and five figures on after market parts the MAC wins. Roger. I think I'd rather pay that kind of money for a shiny new Sako TRG 42A1 in 6.5 Creedmoor.
    1
  636. In short: It's going to come down to price. It hits right, but isn't in any way a luxury item. If the price is right lots of people might think that compromise is worth it.
    1
  637. Make a comically long magazine that holds 40 rounds to stick out the side of that thing! :D
    1
  638. When a country is at war anyone with a hunk of metal and a set of files is a potential arms manufacturer....
    1
  639. That he had to explain it in that much detail really tells us a thing or two about how many idiotic toy soldiers are out there...
    1
  640.  @ForgottenWeapons  If you're down to the last grain to tip the scale at some point: Taiwan could really use being presented as a sovereign state (because it is!) in the international light.
    1
  641. Yes, that IS nice. They're rugged, reliable and accurate. Exactly what you need as a side arm.
    1
  642.  @JippaJ  "Don't say nothing at all"..?... So someone should say something?
    1
  643. I'd be really worried every time the bolt comes halfway out the back end like that... 45ACP is not exactly a pea on a fire cracker...
    1
  644. I really like Henry. He's always so thoughtful. Glad he got to put his mitts on the translations for the book :)
    1
  645. This was cool and all but that blabber mouth pretty much gave the following (not very technical) reason for the superiority of something being American made: "Because political propaganda, that's why Snuffy!". Not that I doubt that this is far far better than the cast iron tube with a bit of crude clockwork that constitutes a mill spec RPG-7, but hearing words like "precision machining of XYZ alloy combined with a PQL chemical bore treatment makes this weapon both lighter and more durable" would at least somewhat reassure that this weapon isn't just entirely made up of red fear. Just going "because it's American made" makes me think "Yeah, that's what McDonnald's say too... and they royally fucking suck!"
    1
  646. High shine brass and 18ct gold look indistinguishable to me. 24ct looks a bit more yellow, but I think you could make a slightly-high-in-copper brass alloy that has the same color.
    1
  647. I understand that precisely because the trigger mechanism has never been an issue they don't want to redesign it.... but something like this with a short crisp "glas" break would be hot as hell.
    1
  648. You'd have to have a whole different kind of trust in your blanks if you cook the grenade. If you get a dud blank when firing normally you'd still have a little less than 5 seconds to throw the thing and do an olympic-worthy leap in the other direction.
    1
  649.  @spudnikflyover1227  Considering how mad (or desperate) you'd have to be to be using it in the first place... I'm actually not sure the leap is that far, all things considered... And it has probably been done because Corats.
    1
  650. "Crudely made but intelligently designed" sounds pretty Polish to me :P
    1
  651. I've taken to calling them toy soldiers instead of keyboard commandos. It gets them totally riled up every time :P
    1
  652. Ian apparently didn't explain it super clearly, as you're like the 50th down the comment stack that didn't get that this does not use the kind of grenade that has a pin-and-spoon mechanism. It uses the kind where you "bonk" the top of the grenade on something hard, and then you throw it because there's no turning back.
    1
  653. "This is not an AK".... and yet it retains the worst feature of an AK: The crappy top cover that doesn't hold zero, puts the rear sight stupidly far forward, and makes every kind of attachment side mounted.
    1
  654.  @whyareusobad3528  The dust cover is not supposed to be there. Full stop. Having the rear sight that far forward is a fundamental design flaw. As for the rest of the "it isn't that bad"... that's just excuses. A well designed firearm doesn't need excuses.
    1
  655. I can't wrap my head around the mechanism... If the bolt can't move back without the cam track in the breach block making it rotate, and there is no gas piston to make make the breach block move... Then it doesn't matter if you can enable/disable the cam track because there is nothing to set the breach block in motion.... I haz teh confuz!!!
    1
  656. That thing as an SMG makes a ton of sense....
    1
  657. Is it me, or does it look like a lever delayed system like this could be made to fit a regular handgun? The ubiquitous tilting barrel mechanism is great for simplicity and reliability, but not so much for accuracy... A lever delayed system might be a thing for competition guns...
    1
  658. That thing is absolutely AWESOME! And being single shot is not a problem when the entire postcode knows your location after you fire. I imagine right handed shooters would simply "set up shop" with the backpack still attached, wait for an opportunity, open the gates of hell, and immediately run in the same direction their shoulder took off in.
    1
  659. That looked like good fish meat. Would have preferred just frying it in butter on a skillet though... dunking everything in the deep fryer is a crime against good food! :P
    1
  660. Those books are so gorgeous I want them just for looks! :P
    1
  661.  @mattfleming86  Fission?!?... Don't you effing DARE give anybody any good ideas now!!! :P "50 cal Desert Eagle? PFFFT! Look at this 200MJ phase aligned Xenon ion emitter!"
    1
  662. This concept, with a lot of development, could be very successful, as it saves on stroke length to have this "upstairs/downstairs" system. If the cartridge lift height could be brought down to just, say, 5-6mm more than the footprint of the case the receiver would also be less tall. All in all, I could see mechanism be developed into a very compact general purpose machine gun.
    1
  663. The merch skit had me in stitches!
    1
  664. It would be so cool to own one receiver but, what, 17 guns in total? :P
    1
  665.  @livingcorpse5664  duckduckgo can usually find what google can't.
    1
  666. I always wondered why, with the absurd budgets of the cold war, none of the super powers made a dedicated cartridge for sneaky squirrel work. I would assume a .60 cal honking heavy fragmenting hollow-point loaded with a small but insanely fine grained powder load would be ideal. You'd get almost all the energy needed to get the "slug" moving right away, after which it's just a matter of doing your best to cool and expand the gas as much as is practically possible given your operational performance criteria.
    1
  667. If you plan on holding on to it for 30-40 years... yes, absolutely. Especially if you only shoot it on occasion.
    1
  668.  @johnalexander2349  If you have sufficient funds, and don't trust the stock market to not crash regularly, placing money in collectibles (or, say, art) is a sound business strategy. You're not taxed on the increase in value in most countries as it falls under "sale of private property". You can be 100% sure that "The Fireplace Guy" that Ian often visits to showcase immaculate examples of frighteningly rare guns is a firearms enthusiast.... but with the sheer amount of stuff Ian has been showing there you can also be absolutely sure he owns stuff "just because it's rare" and not because he's necessarily into that type/era/look/whatever style of gun. Depending on local inheritance laws it can also be an effective way of dodging post mortem taxes imposed on your relatives.
    1
  669. Most of the European countries allows firearms ownership. But most either bans or make it a very lengthy process to get pistols or revolvers. I can't think of a country off-hand where hunting rifles and shotguns are prohibited.
    1
  670. This is the neatest solution to the AK dust cover problem I've seen so far. And once I saw it, it was one of those "Why hasn't anyone thought of THAT before?!?" moments.
    1
  671.  @Snaake42  It varies. When the interest rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate are all low the wages stabilise at a point where living expenses are easy to manage for most wage classes. That drives consumer loans up, as people think the payments are manageable and they'll rather have "stuff" now if it means they'll only pay 5-10% more in total amount down the line, but don't have to wait saving up. People here aren't afraid of debt traps per se (strong legislation on consumer loans help!) but most people are also sane enough to only take up relatively short loan periods, so even when conditions do change (like the recent inflation hike) the pain is temporary. But yes, compared to other places you can say, as a general statement, that the Nordics aren't consumer loan heavy.
    1
  672. Toyota Hilux: The car you'd think was made by the Russian military if it wasn't for the fact that you actually sit quite comfortably in it!
    1
  673. It only has one spring more than the usual. And all of them looked beefy enough to say the least....
    1
  674. I must conclude that you fancy yourself quite the wordsmith... and I wholeheartedly concur good Sir!
    1
  675.  @JiSe6669  Exactly. As soon as the military sees this as viable for armoured vehicles weapons (they're fairly stealthy but heavy hitting when scaled up) we could see a massive amount of focused research.... but then again, Napoleon scuffed at steam powered ships because that was never going to go anywhere... What top brass wants to investigate, and what not, seems completely random sometimes.
    1
  676. Looking at it I was expecting a more farty rapport, but apparently 8mm Kurtz is not that bad.
    1
  677. I will never understand the "military provenance tax" if the civilian version is identical. It's just a stamp on the gun. And I find it even more funny that the vast majority of people who fuss over this.... never served.
    1
  678. Is it lethal? Is it reliable? Is it efficiently mass producible across several manufacturers? Yes! Well, how many should we order, then? YES!
    1
  679.  @screwyu1329  That has already been done, and the answer is known: a typical "Walmart" 9mm load is on par with a hot .30 SC... so by induction a hot 9mm exceeds a hot .30 SC. But both are still by far enough for personal defence in either hot or standard load. What I would like to see, however, is how much penetration you get in a gelatine dummy who's wearing a heavy leather jacket, as that's about the extend of "body armour" anyone can realistically expect to encounter. My money is on the smaller zippy one....
    1
  680. He pretty much is. Fortunately for everyone his impeccable reputation can gain him access to almost any private collector's artifacts.
    1
  681. For Ian it is "all of the above.. and then some". Serious historians will dig out information wherever they can. Sometimes it's old factory archives that tells the story. This is rare for post-ware Germany because the SS were very efficient at destroying, well, everything written. Sometimes it's government procurement papers that become declassified. Sometimes it's simply from piecing together multiple specimen and comparing against known serial number ranges, etc, etc.
    1
  682. "Hi, I'm Ian McCollum and I'll give your auction exposure to 2.6M people if you'll just let me rummage through the lot and pick out anything interesting I haven't reviewed yet... deal?". I actually hope they give him a little cash to go with the handshake.
    1
  683.  @lavrentivs9891  Trust me. There is growing awareness. There are plenty who thinks it's pretty darn unfair to Taiwan that neither the UN nor NATO recognizes it as a sovereign nation...
    1
  684. Only if he loads them himself :P
    1
  685.  @basillicus3959  A large part of Finland, as the bordres stand today, is old Swedish territory (and they have a large Swedish speaking minority).
    1
  686. Keep oiling to an absolute minimum if you know you're going to shoot this thing on the moon. Moon dust and oil stick together particularly well. I would probably even experiment with something like Break Free CLP and a blow dryer...
    1
  687. Same as an AR15 but get rid of all the internal routing and just let the gas muscle the bolt carrier directly. My humble guess is that the AR15 doesn't do that for either fouling reasons or because the gas would vent in obnoxious places.
    1
  688. Small world. Only 16 out of 19 million Romanians love gun engineering and history, and I happen to work with one in Denmark and find another on Youtube. I'm 14 to go I guess! :P
    1
  689.  @neutronalchemist3241  Of cause we did. And mine worked best when the vent holes were half clogged up...
    1
  690. Calling the symol used in the stylized SS logo "a rune" is an insult to Nordic people. Yes a similar, but not identical, symbol was used in the rune alphabet, however once these nutcases were done with all their mystical attributions and history hogwash the connection is so far fetched that it deserves to be written of as fiction.
    1
  691. Let's face it.. most the things on Forgotten Weapons are just gun porn. Ian gets to play Hugh Hefner and we get to go "Yeah, I'd totally do that one". Then the real world returns... :P
    1
  692.  @filip-pi9hy  So which invasion of Ukraine was he referencing?
    1
  693. He doesn't steal it.. He just gives you an offer you can't resist :P
    1
  694. Never seen a liquor globe before? :P
    1
  695. They were very very popular for about half a century. And since they're durable and well made they stuck around for a freaking long time even after that. Probably only Colt 1911 and M2 50BMG models have been made in more numbers and been in service for longer...
    1
  696. Yeah. If he had said it was lighter but just as strong I might have bought the lighter part and only been slightly sceptical about the "just as strong" part....
    1
  697. As Ian explained: When you bring a gun which is considered too large a calibre to be considered a true "back up gun" you get penalized by only being allowed to load 5 rounds at a time.
    1
  698. Again The Fireplace Guy graciously enables Gun Jesus to bless us with the teachings of a gun which is as rare as hen's teeth! Seriously, if it exists but is impossible to obtain, this guy casually has it! Thanks Ian. And thanks Fireplace Guy!
    1
  699. Uh.. I think "hand grenade tosser" is the appropriate term for this. Or "Hand grenade tosser for people with suicidal tendencies" perhaps.
    1
  700. If nothing of what GWACS brings is substantiated and they're left with "We're suing them from unfair competition because they knew the prices we published in an ad campaign" there's a pretty good reason the judge is going to make them pay KE's legal fees. That's the polite way of saying "You're doing harassment via litigation".
    1
  701. What a shame this is a one off. It would be a perfect Elbonian ceremonial rifle!
    1
  702. It just dawned on me that I would watch the fuck out of Ian showcasing cheese production, shoe production, garments production, pencil production... ugh... pretty much anything. What I'm trying to say is: I didn't give a rats ass about guns when I first watched Ian. Now I'm a long time subscriber.
    1
  703. Gun Jesus calls for aid? Better go check it out! OH... already at more than twice the base goal! NEAT!
    1
  704. That looked FUN! plinkplinkplinkplink!!!! :D
    1
  705. They are now the official rifle for the Army Reserve because the regular army has grown so much we don't have M95s and M96s enough for everyone. So we are coming up on 50 years of service shortly....
    1
  706. The fundamentals of trigger disciplin, safe vs fire, cocked vs not cocked, chambered vs not chambered and being absolutely mindful of which direction you're pointing the bloody thing should be trained to become auto response. Everything else is circumstantial and you can argue every way until the cows come home.
    1
  707. It made a little more safe after seeing that it was only half cock. You can't accidentally drop the hammer (because it doesn't have one), and it will probably take a significant event to get the firing pin to move with enough force to set off a cartridge.
    1
  708. Why? Dinosaurs are extinct...
    1
  709. This is "tragic comedy gold". Didn't know such a thing existed, but apparently it does. Also huge thanks for keeping it neutral (as you always do).
    1
  710.  @MidnightatMidian  I know. I did that with my H&K G3 (7.62) all the time with iron sights. But you can't do that with 5.56 or 5.45 if there is even the slightest whiff of wind, or if the rifle isn't extraordinarily good. And you'll not be able to do that with a factory new AK-74 no matter what. 20cm diameter grouping if both you and the rifle is above average. But in active combat any battle rifle that hits a torso target at 300m without fail is considered "working as intended".
    1
  711.  @96dragonhunter  The cold forged ones? Yes, they're absolutely rifled. The rifling is just not cut out of the barrel. The barrel is "smashed into the rifling". Think of the inside master as "a rifled anvil" that the barrel is "shrunk down on" with cold forging.
    1
  712.  @redcat9436  But a government not so much...
    1
  713. To day I learned that CZ makes veeery nice sub machine guns. I also learned that a veeery nice sub machine gun, with a high rate of fire, and a 50 round magazine can make Ian look like a heavenly happy raving retard! :P
    1
  714. What's the National Football Association got to do with anything? I mean, they have all sorts of stupid rules and regulations, and they're obviously lobbied by big money, which makes them a total pain in the ass to deal with, but that's only a problem for footballers, and this is a firearms channel....
    1
  715. Yes.
    1
  716.  @societyisboring  For encased ammo of the right propellant formulation, you're right. But we could easily measure that we weren't getting the rated distance out of the propellant bags. Shelf life was rated at 30 years, but we pushing closer to 40. Nothing is eternal.
    1
  717. It wouldn't take a whole lot of machining and charge experimentation to have dummies made that take small shotgun shells with only charge and wadding in them.... And that "plunk" sounds NEVER gets old.
    1
  718.  @bekirilkyaz2368  "Ian Rants About Dumb Ammo Purchasing Decisions": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mDHs4hL5MI
    1
  719.  @bekirilkyaz2368  Yeah I know. Anything that's been laying around for an ungodly length of time is a ticking time bomb at best :D
    1
  720.  @bekirilkyaz2368  Tape bullet to end of arrow! Now you have grenade arrow! :P
    1
  721.  @axelpatrickb.pingol3228  I know this is pedantic, but you can't copyright a physical object. You can patent it's workings, but that patent is only valid in the jurisdiction you patented it in. Design patents (that is, "copyright for looks") didn't come until much later.
    1
  722. There's just something very flimsy, rattly, "untrustworthy" about the AR-18 and most of them stem from simple little design things that could have been done better without adding to much manufacturing cost. The most obvious is how shiny it is. Had the plastic been made with a matt, slightly grippy finish, and had the outside of the sheet metal been sand blasted or wire-brushed prior to stamping and painting the overall product would have had much less of a "toy finish".
    1
  723. Just remove "photo" from that and you're good! :P The STG series of guns really are a meme at this point. You can own one legally transferable full auto receiver, but own, what, 17 different guns... but only 1 at a time mind you! :P
    1
  724. I once fashioned a cork gun from a bicycle pump, a piece of wood, various nails, screws and brackets and a spring from a telescoping lamp. It gave a mighty good pop exactly three times before something came lose and the end cap and spring shot me in the face. Granted, I was just 14, but I'm still impressed that someone with only hammers, pliers, files, clamps, home made drill bits, a furnace and something very vaguely resembling a lathe can make a rifle that will at least test fire a few 8mm Mauser cartridge without instantly turning into a very elaborate pipe bomb.
    1
  725.  @springbloom5940  Sorry, not Belgian.. But you're arguing against the word of Gun Jesus. He likes it too.... :P
    1
  726. Put H&K kind of money and experience behind this general concept and we could have a winner: Option for stock, both fixed, telescoping and sling-only. Front grip locks decisively in place, is aluminium, and needs an button (ambidextrous) press to collapse. Also change shape so it is easier to detach from lower. Picatinny rail on top. Make both front and rear sight picatinny mounted so they can be completely removed if desired. Change as much to polymer-over-cast-on-sheet-metal as possible to reduce weight. Have a version in .30 Super Carry for higher capacity without stupid long magazines... And obviously fix the lack of select fire option.
    1
  727. I'd like to hold the camera while you find out what happens if you do something that is even just ever-so-slightly an interpretation of their most general-purpose clear-cut statements, or even worse, do something which is neither prohibited nor explicitly allowed.
    1
  728. Well he did that at the second dip. It looks like this gun blows itself clean...
    1
  729. This is every kind of stupid. This is overkill for the sake of overkill. This is the art of ludicrousy amplified by a world class craft man's ability to express sheer vanity. Nobody should ever have wanted one of these without getting their ego checked by a licensed professional..... Imma go see a professional, 'cause I sure as hell want one!
    1
  730. Good video idea for Ian right here!
    1
  731.  @natwolf687  Thanks. I think I got the UMP and MP5 mixed up. Re-reading that was like "WHAT?!?". TL;DR: Don't argue on the internet when you've had too much beer.
    1
  732. "Which is a gun I don't own yet... except I kinda do..." -- Ian McCollum
    1
  733. Today I learned that a Roth-Steyr can barf bullets. I also learned that vintage/rare ammo is a hit or miss affair (no pun intended). Too hot or too cold, who knows. Does your gun blow up or fail to reload, who knows....
    1
  734. We're all very grateful that Fireplace Guy likes Ian and wants his guns documented. I imagine that it doesn't hurt the resale value one bit if you just happen to have a Gun Jesus video on it... and the serial numbers match :P
    1
  735. Oh boy that's a nice hunting rifle! Home cast a big wide butt pad and cheek riser in hard silicone and you could be shooting all day long. I wonder why nobody makes them with bolts on the left side. When you're shooting off a bipod that has always seemed like the fastest reload-and-acquire-target cycle to me.
    1
  736.  @jarink1  Uh, you can convert the sproingy version into a Mac 10 in under a minute... but going the other way might involve locating the spring somewhere three counties over...
    1
  737.  @michaelprather8371  The cartels have outright fortifications in some places, that the police simply don't dare to try breech. Having one of these, with six boxes of ammo, three spare barrels, and the Hubble Telescope mounted on it, in an elevated and hardened position, is still a formidable amount of fire power. Full auto or not.
    1
  738. If it's Fire Place Guy who has it, it's sure to be one of the best condition examples known. Thanks Fire Place Guy for inviting Ian over regularly :)
    1
  739.  @bioforce5  Where exactly are pistol calibre semi auto carbines very popular? I've never even seen any armed force or law enforcement agency use the full auto variants except for highly specialized stuff where it fits a very specific set of compromises. And an MP5/UMP would be the obvious choice in many of those cases anyway. For the times where the shortness isn't a hard requirement there are plenty of bulbup carbines in 5.56/.208 with a much better ballistic trajectory at the expense of only a few inches and maybe a pound of extra weight. A semi only pistol calibre carbine just seem like a solution to a question nobody (worthwhile) ever asked. Sure, a few sales to the private tacticool toy soldiers might happen... but... novelties and toys for grownups rarely equates to "popular" by the normal figures of firearms manufacturing.
    1
  740.  @0neDoomedSpaceMarine  If you need that, then what's wrong with a rifle calibre carbine? Or a proper SMG where you have the option of full auto? And yes, I do understand the differences. I've been in service and did two tours on Balkan. This is as useful as tits on a fish, even for home defence. In doors there are no distances longer than you can do a center body shot from a hip hold, but the extra length makes it a liability if things get ugly up close. Out doors there are a ton of better options.... Really, the semi auto nature of this makes it a range toy.
    1
  741. If memory serves correctly on Ian's previous teachings the Russians beat the Germans to that concept by just a couple of years.
    1
  742. Response conveying banter.
    1
  743. Sako makes nice rifles. Almost obsessively so. I hope Denmark adopts this one too when our C7s are worn out.
    1
  744. That's one hefty cartridge for a skinny little rifle... no wonder this think kicks like a grown ass cart horse!
    1
  745. Waaauw! Get 10,000 of these to Ukraine yesterday along with half a million HE rounds. These would be really freaking effective, especially in conjunction with an LMG/HMG, at stopping infantry assaults.
    1
  746. I beg to differ. The Swiss have much the same philosophical and practical approach to manufacturing as the Germans. The Swiss, if anything, keep tolerances tighter than they strictly need to be out of conviction... Kinda like the opposite of China.
    1
  747.  @ArchieKeen1  Heh. I actually only have first hand experience with German guns and rifles, British machine guns and American Howitzers.
    1
  748. "Hi. Welcome to Forgotten Weapons. I'm Ian McCollum and I'm so flattered it makes me feel all goofy, yet I'm also quite embarrassed at how much I actually enjoy being called Gun Jesus. Fortunately my partners overruled my [vague] objections so I guess it is official now... I'll humbly accept that The Internet has dubbed me Gun Jesus.... (SCORE!!!)" I have to say, Ian. If anyone ever actually deserved to carry that title it is you! As a soldier I believe that 99% of people should never be let near a fire arm without strict supervision. As a lover of peace and prosperity I hate their necessity and the conflicts they are used in. But as a mechanically inclined history nerd I love all the interesting tidbits of information and twists and turns of development that surrounds them. And I really love that you tell these tales from an objective standpoint, and that you demonstrate their use without EVER giving off the "I'll resort to violence at the drop of a hat" vibe that so many, uhm... well.. Gun Nuts constantly reek of.
    1
  749. As a Dane I'm mildly miffed that the Norwegians have dethroned the Madsen machine gun as the most adorably wonky, needlessly complex, but still absolutly genius, gun design in history. But I take solace in the fact that the Madsen machine gun actually worked.
    1
  750. Yup Ian.. it worked. You looked cool going BRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRTRT with the unholiest of unholy mashups of gun parts. I'd very much like a little unholiness in my life too!
    1
  751. COOL! As an electronics nerd and a firearms admirer this ticks ALL the boxes! I don't care one bit that this isn't "tacticool approved" yet... it hurls heavy steel slugs with electromagnetism! Like I wanna aim this thing at an adobe brick and see what happens. Or a milkshake. Or a big block of ice.... The industry standard water melon test is also absolutely mandatory!
    1
  752. Having seen the recoil... I'd pay money to see that happen. To someone else! :P
    1
  753. I hope the various NATO members employ the "Swedish neutrality trick'" too and tell military personnel that "Because we've given all our gear to Ukraine you're all on paid leave until we get new equipment. You'll be given at least three months warning before having to report back. Now go have a vacation.... wherever you please." If I had still been in service I would've been on the next train had I gotten that message.
    1
  754. $978,450 as of right now... soooo close! :D
    1
  755. If I woke up tomorrow, in combat, with an Italian service rifle, I would try to whack myself over the head with it to see if that could make me wake up from the nightmare.
    1
  756. 9-Hole Reviews has a complete piece on (specifically Ian's) FR-F2 where they show the "fleur de lis" type range finder and explain how it works. Well worth the watch. Henry and Josh are always entertaining.
    1
  757. That rotating pump action mechanism is the most gorgeous steam punk contraption I ever laid eyes on. I want one SO bad! Now I just need a tool shop, half a million doll hairs and an old retired machinist wizard.....
    1
  758. I hope Ian one day shows us this one in situ! While I could gather most of what the view port must have looked like it would be totally awesome to see Ian fire (blanks) though them... That is, if there are still any of the original bunkers left to do so from...
    1
  759. You did notice that they had no rear sights, right? Most certainly an Elbonian fad that spread to Ethiopia.
    1
  760. It was supposedly incredibly reliable. Ian didn't mention it here, but it was double stack and double feed, which pretty much everyone learned later is the most reliable feed system for auto fire (other than single stack of cause).
    1
  761. The idea of import banning something, but also not manufacture banning it, is completely and utterly stupid in a country that has an advanced manufacturing base in every single category I can think of. This is pretty much just handing out a domestic monopoly.
    1
  762. So basically the entire "cartel" of the actually serious firearms channels and exactly none of the "dudebro/jackass/nutcase/hostile undertone" channels that got youtube's knickers in a bunch to begin with.....
    1
  763. Asking the real questions here! :P
    1
  764. If the kickstarter hits one million they will get a steady-rest and a high-speed cam out to do test fires (With a string. Behind safety glass!)
    1
  765. If you go to the wrong gun club that game could kill you pretty fast... I'm actually fairly certain that if the gun club has "tactical" in it's name your life insurance won't even cover, but rather dean it intentional suicide.
    1
  766. TBF, this does seem like a better Uzi than the Uzi...
    1
  767. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" ... now I'm a bit of a weasel when it comes to words: What's the precise legal definition of "infringed"? According to the usual law sites it's something akin to "An infringement is a violation, a breach, or an unauthorized act." So basically the second amendment is null and void so long as gun regulations are authorized by the government that the same constitution ratifies. Had the wording been "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms is unlimited and inalienable" we'd be a lot closer though. But that opens the possibility of tampering with whom "the people" constitutes. So another section would have to add "The people constitutes any person residing in the USA above 18 years of age, either natively born, or possessing a permanent visa, fully regardless of status or standing. This includes, but is not limited to, political orientation or identification, criminal record, religious conviction or lack thereof, level of sanity as perceived by health professionals or others, gender, ethnicity, or any other distinguishing factor defined by law or otherwise". There. Now everyone can own a machine gun. Also the ones we don't want to own machine guns. Like Hells Angels members and special forces war vets with severe PTSD and advanced Alzheimer combined....
    1
  768.  @kimdearrington258  I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with you, as I'm not even a US citizen, nor resident. I just poked fun with the words because I'm keenly aware that "naturally spoken English" and "legal language English" are two very different animals indeed. The reason why you see statements such as "including but not limited to: x,y,z" instead of "such as, for example: x,y,z" is because some asshat some time got a court convinced that it was not clear that the list was not exemptive, and now that ruling takes legal presidency. You have to get that particular ruling over turned by the supreme court before you can use the term "for example" legally in the way that normal/sane/non-weasel people naturally think of that term. So while you think of the word "infringe" to mean "meddle with in any way/restrict or regulate/cause alterations to" or something very similar, the annoying reality is that that is not the current legal definition of the word, and there are probably a few shit tons of rulings that need to be overturned before you can even begin to make an argument based on that interpretation in court. Or said a bit more tongue-in-cheek: Legalese, n: A perverted and convoluted form of communication where the words don't mean what they usually mean. Typically only conducted by vile creatures, known as lawyers, only to line their own pockets, but to the detriment of the sanity of common folks.
    1
  769.  @3746463 You can do it a whole heck of a lot less noisy (I didn't say quiet) by not giving it "the KH slap". Especially if you press the receiver tightly against your leg of stomach while following it back and forth. You just did the classic internet dumbfuck "If we can't get a perfect solution, why bother with any solution at all?"-argument.
    1
  770. My only question is: What horrors lurk in the Romanian forrests that require 8mm Mauser to reliably take down. I mean, I like the history, the concept of making it from what was available, and even the look (they they were at least aiming for), but I consider this "a shoulder cannon".
    1
  771.  @skeletonwguitar4383  "Vanced Tube" was the name you were looking for.
    1
  772. The larger ones are the ones who want to keep secrets. There is absolutely no secret in "Yes, we CNC every part and hand check them with micrometers". But bending a piece of second rate sheet steel as fast as possible, using as little energy as possible while making sure as few as possible are defects... that's worth millions.
    1
  773. This is not a back up gun. This is a primary assault weapon when loaded and an effective blunt force trauma weapon when empty. It may also be an excellent hammer if you're in a pinch, and it will most certainly derail the tracks of any armoured vehicle of the time if you throw it in the driving sprocket just right. In short: Ian is going to be penalized down to minus 11 rounds per loading if he shows up with this :P
    1
  774. 264 likes 8 hours after you posted it tells me you severely underestimate how large and how nerdy Ian's following is. Thanks for the interesting read!
    1
  775. Imagine this in 5.56 NATO, made mostly in polymer with steel inserts, with an integrated barrel shroud and a vented barrel system (like a Velrod) to take the worst of the concussion. With proper gas tuning that could be effective to 200m while not being (much) louder than a 9mm.
    1
  776.  @phil1606  Nope. Ian commented on it in one of the episodes where the breeze was catching it a little. It's a makeshift backdrop.
    1
  777.  @SolidSioux1987  Well then it has to be 7.5x54mm too... which makes it a non stater to mere mortals anyway :P
    1
  778. Likely, though I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if it was Germany, simply because they're 83 million people vs the 66 million people of the UK. Though the language factor obviously plays in too.
    1
  779.  @user-cz9jf1ec8s  The NAFO 69th Sniffing Brigade (google them) make frequent trips to Ukraine with 4x4 trucks and other supplies. I'm sure they'll gladly bring a care package from you to the fighters. They work directly with the front line battalions.
    1
  780.  @f.a.2115  That seems perfectly logical. It is, however, not the case. The real rationale is "Uhhmm.. flip a coin!". There are several kinds of guns where the controlled part is not the serialized part....
    1
  781. GWACS is taking on the role of Russia in the invasion of Ukraine right now. They've got absolutely nothing, and they're completely oblivious to key strategic disadvantages.... such as KE Arms effectively has the reach-out of Gun Jesus.
    1
  782. He did call them "parts interchangeable" in passing.
    1
  783.  @ke6ziu  I hope that Armourer was court marshalled to hell... You do not touch the trigger on a weapon that you have not verified the state of yourself. What a farking idiot...
    1
  784. You're not. But as soon as I figured out how the bolt came out the design decision made every kind of sense. Having the grip vice-grip the two part dovetail like that adds a non-trivial amount of rigidity to the frame, and since you easily access everything that needs cleaning it has no draw-backs. Quite the stroke of brilliance if you ask me. But yes, as someone who has taken appart a G3, what feels like a bazillion times, I did a double take and said "uh-wha?" out loud when the grip didn't come off.
    1
  785. FFS Ian... you had me all the way up to the text that said "Elbonia is not an actual country" >_< I feel stupid :P
    1
  786. I had the pleasure of lugging around an original pattern G3 as a conscript back in '96. Germany sold a million of these used to Denmark for the whopping price of one dmark a pop... in '75. So lets just say that a lot of conscripts before me had used it (probably as a shovel at times). The thing just was that it only ever had one issue: if it was dirty you had to really mind your shoulder contact. If you had good contact it would shoot itself red hot no problem. Semi-sloppy contact and it would fail to reload... (And kick like mule - so you learned it quickly anyway!).... But other than that it was perfect. Battered as it looked with half the bluing worn through, it was a phenomenally accurate rifle. I would routinely shoot 198 out of 200 at 300m with iron sights. All day, every day. It was easy to clean and as long as you kept it slathered in oil (it has convenient external holes for an impromptu dollup) it kept going like a steam engine. I've taken out a good spoon full of sand upon cleaning more than once, at it did not care... as long as it was well lubed in teflon oil...
    1
  787. Very long way of saying "We want to win with a 1911 IN THE LORDS CALIBER!" to everyone in the sport. ... And of cause Fire Place Guy has serial number 0.
    1
  788. Anyone has non-speculation info on why Ethiopians are against aiming? Of all the weird and wonderful preferences you could have about firearms this one in particular strikes me as being somewhat on the eccentric side.
    1
  789. Many artillery units used the M75 up until 2004. The air force guard used it until 2007. So by proud Danish tradition we take more than a decade to fully transition. That being said, the clusterfuck in Ukraine seems to have stirred things up quite a bit, and people seem to accept that, yes, there's going to be tax increases so we can get a military that isn't laughable.
    1
  790. In today's episode of The Chronicles of Hand Cannoneering resident firearms historian, and expert, Ian McCullum delves in to the fascinating realm of manufacturers walking the thin line between firearm and hand-activated pipe bomb as the search for the ultimate "mine is bigger than yours" argument continues.
    1
  791. For a native english speaker I think he did a damn fine attempt.
    1
  792. I love that every single thing that made a Thompson special... was mechanically redundant or found to be useless.
    1
  793. Ah fuck man! I could feel that in my teeth! :P
    1
  794. An old school application of the "This comment didn't age well"-meme :P
    1
  795.  @Dmac6969  As a civie, yes. But as an armed force with a two-way legally binding contract, no.
    1
  796.  @BobSaint  I didn't get a clear look from the front, but it looks like you can just reach in and unscrew the gas plug. Anything else would be insanity.
    1
  797. Limited production reproduction guns will always be expensive... if they're any good...
    1
  798. "Go for the gonads!... PLOP!" :P
    1
  799. 80 years ago a transistor was a big glass tube. Today you get 18 billion transistors in a top shelf gaming graphics card.
    1
  800.  @TheHylianBatman  Computers can generally only be hacked if they are network enabled, or shut down if you have physical access. And it goes without saying that anything bad can happen to a regular firearm too if someone with malicious intend gets physical access. As for water proofing it: no problem. Professional divers have lots of electrical equipment that handles insane water pressures.
    1
  801. Ian... you really really need to address the amount of people who think you're saying "bullpup" when you're saying "bulb-up"...
    1
  802.  @0neDoomedSpaceMarine  Which is strange to me as a Dane. Here you get "brown water" or "it's basically clay with a bit of sand in it". I've never encountered that "kid makes mud" kind of mud in the wild... Perhaps Ian needs to consult a mudologist of some sort...
    1
  803.  @IceWolfLoki  "Incorrectly". Yeah. Totally! :P
    1
  804. It's cant be entirely obvious, as prison systems around the world have had to realize that you can't shoot someone, holding a hostage in front of them, in the back with a 30.06/7.62 NATO/8mm Mauser/6.5mm Swedish and expect only one casualty... 22LR gets way too little credit as the perfect cartridge in this role. In the hands of a trained marksman it is an absolutely lethal round at 100m. A shot between the eyes or the heart WILL kill. But it doesn't go through walls. And if it ricochets off one it's unlikely to kill unless it ends up right in the eye socket afterwards.
    1
  805.  @tihomirrasperic  My personal record is 72 meters. But the arc needs to be so extreme that it can't be done with the 3.3 second type the Danish army uses without making an airburst that is also dangerous to yourself. Frankly I'm not entirely sure this 5 second type would hit the ground either.
    1
  806. Some admiral read a news article about someone being stabbed to death with a screw driver and went "By Golly! The krauts won't be able to tell the difference!"
    1
  807. As soon as you see "STG" you should know by now that ANYTHING is possible! "You thought I was AK-47 but HAHAR! It was me, Stemple Receiver all along! Hecking bamboozle!" :P
    1
  808. Ian didn't say so specifically, but it sure looks like full parts interchangeability to me. You could get on the e-mail support with CZ and ask them if it is possible to just buy a new slide separately and reuse your existing bits. The worst that can happen is they say no.
    1
  809. This is exactly the kind of thing that would get scrapped without second thought. This is proper unobtainium material... But of cause Ian visits the guy who has all three variations... and precisely NONE of us are surprised at this point! :P
    1
  810. With a built in tea cooker you'd thing the British would have been AAALLL over this...
    1
  811. Arms trade being arms trade, historians being historians, and intelligence services being intelligence services I think everything makes sense here. The only thing that could be considered slightly out of the ordinary is that the French have fessed up to being in possession of one of these, but on the other hand, they also let Ian in to GIGNs secret gun vault... Not that he got to film inside, but they did allow him in, and they did allow him to take out several rarities and film them.
    1
  812. I want to see Ian's face firing a 155mm Howitzer at biggest load :P
    1
  813. How to build a nuke is completely public knowledge at this point. We pretty much only rely on the fact that Uranium enrichment and Plutonium production and purification is damn hard, expensive and requires equipment that will raise eye brows the second you enquire about it. But once you have the Uranium/Plutonium you only need a basic metal machine shop and explosives, detonation cord and caps that any mining outfit will have in abundance.
    1
  814.  @theguy9208  They optimized the gulag out of the equation now where they don't have man-and-shovel mining outfits any more. So now it's just straight to a grave.
    1
  815.  @TzunSu  When you're talking collectibles that's the wrong way to look at it. You're a romantic if you buy an FR-F2 anyway, as you can get a brand spanking new Accuracy International rifle that outperforms it in every single way for similar money.
    1
  816. Yes. You have to test that it's fully operational... very thoroughly of cause...
    1
  817.  @Piotwor  Ah. I see you're a man of culture as well....
    1
  818.  @justforever96  The current Carl Gustav is just the natural progression of the one Ian showed here. 20mm vs 84mm makes quite the difference. Recoilless rifles, as a concept, has one key advantage over anything rocket driven: insane acceleration. And then they have one decisive disadvantage: the noise! They're so incredibly loud you won't believe it, and they kick up more dust than an artillery piece, so they pretty much give your location away instantly.
    1
  819. Just don't tell anyone about it. Go to a gunsmith and say "This broke. Fix it". If it never happened nobody can claim it was wrong. If a replaced part is seemingly identical and the broken part is nowhere to be found then the replaced part must be the original item...
    1
  820. Only an uncultured swine operates a vintage firearm without proper head wear! :P
    1
  821.  @leewilkinson6372  Funnily enough, it's only the best sales pitch for people have already "decided against bling". But it's the best way to get second choice referrals. Say I'm just spent $600 on a dot and my buddy is drooling over it and asks "Do they have a version that's more in the $200 range?"... That's when I say "No, but Gideon Optics has a no-fuss-no-frills option at $200 where most the money went into build quality and the rest went into customer support". Because that's the right thing to do when you know your buddy is more cash strapped than you are.
    1
  822. Sigh... Youtube got pissed at the "tacticool dudebros", the "we'll march on capitol hill!"-crowd, and the "LULZ! Look at me being an irresponsible fool with a live firearm"-idiots.... and they're all still doing absolutely fine... while the proper high-integrity "ultra nerds" gets all the hassle.
    1
  823.  @ineednochannelyoutube5384  Thanks! :D
    1
  824. I'd say it's more like buying a C5 reproduction that is a perfect clone in every detail, except the VIN reveals that it is not original. It's for "the budget collector" who can't afford the real thing but thinks close enough is good enough. It's just that to most people "budget collector" and "7-10 grand" don't go in the same sentence. However, the serial number suggests that there are indeed enough people in this category who can't (or won't) do the 200k for a transferable full auto one, but who thinks 10k for a collectors toy is acceptable.
    1
  825. "Bulb-up"... not "Bullpup". It's not a pup of a bull. It's squashed up like a bulb :P
    1
  826. I noticed that Henry from 9-Hole Reviews have a tendency to call assault rifles "battle rifles" and actually wondered why a guy who is usually a right stickler on getting details right would chose, what I thought was, a "cool" name instead of the established nomenclature. Now it makes sense.
    1
  827. Strange. I was a gunner on the M109 in '96-97 and we had the G3 ("M75"). The infantry was transitioning to the C7 ("M95") so I wonder how the M49 found it's way into the artillery when there were constantly being more M75s relinquished from other regiments...
    1
  828.  @Kar4ever3  Ah, only our MOs had MGs. Everyone else was on M75.
    1
  829.  @ZATennisFan  He is 77 years old now... and I still wouldn't fuck with him!
    1
  830.  @ismellmandude6401  Tell that to the judge all you like.
    1
  831. If you weld the two halves together you get an open bolt semi auto. They made a disconnector in both the linear hammer and the fire control group. So you'd have to weld up the fire control group too. And then you'd have to figure out a way to fix the heat treatment, on both, that you just ruined.
    1
  832. Especially with a heavier calibre I would prefer the "grippier" grip of a traditional trigger.
    1
  833. May I suggest a Desert Eagle in .50 cal?
    1
  834.  President Joe Biden  Well it was early in the war.... by late '44 everything they produced looked like caca.
    1
  835. That's what he did on the second dip... Looks like it blows itself clean (enough) on the first round to operate correctly.
    1
  836. I second that. Taiwan also happen to need international recognition as a sovereign state. And Ian doesn't have to worry whether or not The Party "has an opinion" on the historical aspects presented in the book....
    1
  837. I can't belive Ian didn't take this to the range now that he finally had the opportunity! 🤣🤣🤣
    1
  838. Or in other words: "Please just let me die!" :P
    1
  839. It took me WAAAAY too long to figure out what was going on here because it's not April 1st and he did not say Elbonia. It wasn't until he said "Master Chief" that it dawned on me which lore this franken-gun is supposed to mimic.
    1
  840. For those that don't speak hamburgers per bald eagle either, google says that the speed of sound is 1125ft/s at normal atmospheric pressure.
    1
  841. What a flex Ian... You've made it to the point that if you call someone they A) Pick up, and B) As the most obvious thing ever just answer anything you might enquire about. That being said, a "1911/Highpower hybrid" in .357 Magnum should have sold well with the "I want a hand cannon!" crowd. I mean, it looks good and seemed well made. Were they overly expensive?
    1
  842. "One day, son, when you've been plinking enough to be considered a man, every squirrel in a 150 meter radius will be shivering in their pelt at the sound of your footsteps." :P
    1
  843. That's almost a predicament in and of itself. Enjoy it or keep it in mint condition... choices.. There are probably very few k98s left in that condition, but on the other hand... they're really good shooters...
    1
  844. The belt holds the cartridge by the thick part with a little "finger tab" that extends down to the extractor rim of the case. So there is no strain on the bullet at all. Bullets aren't crimped in, in the usual sense, but the brass is formed slightly undersized, so when the bullet is forced in you effectively have "a crimp" because brass is elastic and want to return to it's original shape. As for why: The least amount of retooling possible. These were small volume production guns, so the tooling represented a massive upfront cost.
    1
  845.  @KungFuHonky  Oh... on pure momentum alone. I had not considered that. I don't know if any machine guns do that sometimes, but the Madsen doesn't. It was mechanically complex, expensive and slow to manufacture, but was considered very reliable.
    1
  846. As a Dane I'm eternally grateful to the Dutch. They've helped us tell water who's boss and they've helped us tell the Swedes who's boss. The former has been immensely helpful to Danish agriculture in the southern islands, and the latter is (obviously, duh) a matter of great personal satisfaction to every Dane :P
    1
  847. Weird.. it's been 25 years since I serviced one of these, yet I remembered everything just before Ian mentioned them in the disassembly.
    1
  848. The Chieftain says that all the time.
    1
  849. If you manage to modify the sear I'd be very happy to stand a good ways behind you (with my camera and my popcorn) and witness your moment of triumph! :P
    1
  850. It only becomes free when you sell the rifle... but you're not going to sell the rifle, are you? :P
    1
  851. Let's be clear here Ian.. You could talk about a completely fictional gun and I'd be interested. I think it's pretty darn cool when "forgotten weapons" pop up in movies. Be it in disguise or not. So on my account: please cover every Star Wars gun that was a dolled up real gun.
    1
  852. You apparently don't know the history of Danish design and products very well....
    1
  853.  @ZGryphon  Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well
    1
  854.  @RandomGuy9  Someone from the area has the name further up in the comment stack complete with approximate English pronunciation.
    1
  855.  @TheFanatical1  Considering how much damage the Finns did to the Russians with pretty minimal equipment I'd say this qualifies as the national armament backup depot! :P
    1
  856. I wish I could afford this. Hope you in time will do a run of paperback versions, and eventually offer it as an e-book.
    1
  857.  @SlavicCelery  He is trying to say that he has never been this early before..
    1
  858. He's 77... what did you expect? That he would sound like Tom Jones in his prime?
    1
  859. $3000 for the entire kit 15 years ago was a bit on the steep side, but if you had bought it and just kept it it could easily have gone up way more than inflation simply because people buy them and then shoot them. Until they break.
    1
  860. The M2 is heavy as fuck. 38kg/84lbs.
    1
  861. You just gotta love the US Marines. If there's a "MOAR DAKKA!"-option available you can bet on them taking it. You can also be sure they'll favour psychological effect on the enemy over shooter comfort.
    1
  862. A bullet sprayer is a whole lot better than nothing, but it is a weapon designed for people who're not supposed to see direct confrontation, but in they case they do get confronted, need to quickly lay down a lot of reason for the enemy to take cover, before scooting right quick in a hurry. What the Ukrainians need from the Swedish inventory is a convoy of Carl Gustaf 84mm recoilless rifles (aka "shoulder cannons") along with a few hundred tons of HE/AP/IN/FR ammo. Those things are one of the most versatile and powerful tactical weapons in existence. And the sound of them has as much of a spine chilling effect as that of an A10 Warthog opening fire. They're about as effective as 120mm artillery, except they work on line-of-sight and are dead accurate.
    1
  863.  @marcusborderlands6177  No, I chose the component which is easiest to define legally without accidentally imposing far reaching restrictions on other areas of commerce. That an overclocked tamagotchi can be fashioned into one is another matter entirely.... Again, legislation is not about inhibiting unauthorized production. It's about telling manufacturers: This is the thing that must have a serial number that you must report to us and that people must put their name to, so we know who has it.... That would totally suck for capacitors. Like which one should be serialized? All of them? And if one fries, do you need to go through hoops to get your new replacement serialized and then registered?
    1
  864.  @BackwardsPancake  As I said to many others: Regulation does not exist to prohibit makeshift production. You can easily fashion a firearm out of stuff from your local hardware store with a bit of cutting, grinding and filling. It's about defining which thing in the gun constitutes "the gun", and thus needs to have a serial number from the manufacturer. When the rest of the gun is made from common items and a bit of moulded/printed plastic parts it would make sense, from a legislative point of view, to do it on the thing which is unique to the gun. That would also open the door for legislation about not tampering with said device.
    1
  865.  @praevasc4299  As I've explained about a billion times by now: the regulated part of a gun is not the hardest part to manufacture. The regulated part of a gun is the part that is the least likely to need repair/replacement. It doesn't matter if you can ghetto it with relative ease. Regulation does not exist to "make it hard to cheat". It exists to make it illegal to cheat... plain and simple.
    1
  866.  @praevasc4299  This particular design would have to be redesigned to continue production post regulation. This has happened before. It's generally done by setting a grace period to allow manufacturers to catch up. But by the time this kicks off enough to raise eyebrows you can be absolutely sure that a more cost effective solution than an entire Arduino will have been found. A dedicated fixed function fire control chip with a one-time-programmable serial number would be an absolutely tiny piece of silicon real estate. Any serious manufacturer would not ship something which is (fully) reprogrammable anyway, and it wouldn't be long anyway before "power classes" of some sort would see regulation too, so reprogrammability would be banned. Think "destructive device" and "short barrel rifle" type laws.
    1
  867. I don't care if that thing is good at killing people. It looks like oodles of fun to shoot. Even the civi version would be a fun plinker at the range.
    1
  868. Royal Air Service, mind you. In the Peoples Democratic Republic of Elbonia. So things are as clear and straight forward as always with Elbonia.
    1
  869. Yeah, it's kinda two worlds that are normally mutually exclusive. Gorgeous furniture. Clever anti recoil system. Crisp trigger pull. High end bluing.... But a pipe with a charging handle!
    1
  870. What I didn't get was: Can you guys re-register your pistols as short barrel rifles and put a brace on it? I mean, I get it, the processing time where you need to keep your brace in a bank vault outside your home, and the $200 tax stamp are annoying... but that's all it is: an annoyance. And in 20 years those $200 are going to look really really dumb.
    1
  871. Salesman: "What do you mean you just want a hammer without laser aim, spirit level or double-action harmonic dampener? You gon' regret that right away, son! Trust me, after 20 thousand blows you'll have hit your thumb, made the wall crooked and your arms will feel like painful lead". Customer: "If I ever have to drive more than ONE nail in at the time, I'm going to call the professionals!"
    1
  872. Drill speed holes in the slide and sell it to the Elbonians. I'm sure lightening the slide will "improve" the failure to go fully into battery, and speed holes are always a tactical improvement.
    1
  873. That's a lot of work to go through knowing you've only got 900-1000 items to sell before you need to close shop and call it a day. If they're lucky they'll be able to sell parts kits to some of those who already have the original machine pistol version, but odds are slim that any of those are ever going to hear about this....
    1
  874. I liked how he blatantly said out loud "standing in a closet is part of the concern". Yup. Everyone is Rambo until seven Columbian professionals gets bad intel and think Carlos The Snitch lives in your house. Hiding in a closet with a shotgun muzzle touching the door is valid tactic.
    1
  875. When you want ALL the velocity! It's actually a really nice looking rifle. It would be a travesty to shoot them, given the service life of the barrel, but I imagine it would be pretty damn fun to go "plinking" with one of these :P
    1
  876.  @leeenfield3404  Well you can.. you just can't afford it. But James Bond gets the next model year issued as standard equipment! :P
    1
  877. I guess the front hand guard can be considered "speed holes" by some metric, which is probably what the Elbonians liked about it.
    1
  878. It looks like it blows crud out of the gun with the internal gas venting...
    1
  879. Hope you enjoy your stay in Denmark :)
    1
  880. You should be made to wear a shirt that says "I reload myself" when at the range so people can chose to stand at least two cubicles over from you :P What you do when you go hunting as a way to supplement income is none of my business, but when you're near other people I will maintain that having a self modified firearm and/or running homebrew ammo is something you should make them aware of, just like you should make people aware if you can have seizures or have Tourette ticks.
    1
  881. As someone who's shot a G3 with iron sights A LOT that was some pretty damn decent off-hand shooting in the first course.
    1
  882. Uh, it's a shame that didn't catch on. That looks like a 1911 for people who don't want a 1911.
    1
  883. So basically we're not getting to see, OR STUDY, cool stuff because of rigid rules. If the museums could at the very least TRADE with other museums it would at make it a lot easier for a hobby historian to get to a specific item without having to travel half way across the globe.
    1
  884. "Shut up or I will blow you four counties over!" :P
    1
  885. Yup. A good service weapon and a good enthusiast weapon are not worlds, but galaxies, apart.
    1
  886.  @NorthernNorthdude91749  What makes you think I said it wasn't?
    1
  887. I hereby pledge to watch an episode on Star Wars guns at least five times, leaving the ads running and clicking any links they provide all five times.
    1
  888. As a book collector who has multiple first prints of first editions I have to say: The numbers Ian quoted are not at all unreasonable.
    1
  889. Is there anything to patent? It's a simple blowback with a grip safe. All seen before.
    1
  890. Which is probably why not many were made. Scaling something as nice as this up to rapid manufacturing either takes a lot of time or costs a lot of money. If they'd gone for a domestic "grease gun" clone they could probably have pumped out thousands instead of hundreds. But I'm glad they didn't as this is so much cooler.
    1
  891. Oh neat. I've always wanted a pipe bomb to put right next to my chin :-/ Glad no one was hurt during the test fire.
    1
  892. "But iz small! An iz gun. An iz hear naow!"
    1
  893. By today's standard they are heavy and hard kicking. Just like the G3 which I happen to love for exactly those reasons...
    1
  894. Being heavy is only a tactical concern. Going plinking with one of these would be fun as hell. And you can shoot it all day long (if your wallet allows) without getting a sore shoulder.
    1
  895. Yes... The toy solders feel insecure because, deep down, they know they've never been in a war zone. But to deafen said insecurity they just resort to telling everyone else what "they should have done". "YoU sHoUlD hAvE pUT a fOlDiNg sToCK oN It!!!" "Why? It fits fine in the back of my car..."
    1
  896. A genuine Japanese "boom stick". NICE!
    1
  897.  @dallesamllhals9161  Before you call people klaphat you should probably check your English skills. The KISS principle is well known. All OP forgot was the obligatory comma: "Keep it simple, stupid!". As in, calling someone stupid for not keeping it simple. (Opfør dig ordenligt online Dalle-dreng).
    1
  898. Ugh... Ian... I think you just uncovered the lost prototype that was stolen by the Elbonian procurement representative who was supposed to take it home and trail it as the official Officer Sidearm. It has long been speculated that he fled to the US together with the finance minister who stole all their gold. That thing belongs in the Danish Tøjhus museum....
    1
  899. Apparently were on the same crazy pills then...
    1
  900. A very cool way of getting a sore shoulder while spending $2000 on ammo surprisingly quickly! :P
    1
  901.  @kevintran7208  No. The hole and the backside of the bolt has to have matching ridges. These are specifically designed to work in areas where thermal expansion and contraction is a factor. The "nylon" (don't know what it actually is) between the two serrated discs takes up travel caused by expansion and contraction, which ensures are relatively even bolt pressure in the entire temperature range.
    1
  902. As a Dane I didn't even know that the Danish army was allowed to exist in the first half of the war.. interesting! Thanks Ian! :D
    1
  903. I understand the valid technical reasoning behind using ply wood for a skeletonised stock, but MAN does it look grotty.
    1
  904. Same. If they make a version in .30 Super Carry I'm sold without hesitation.
    1
  905. That is the most understated tacticool contraption I've ever seen. All of the noise. All of the uncontrollability. All of the unpleasantries. None of the actual tactical advantages you first imagined. I love it! This thing should be kitted out with a 3x scope, a carbon fiber speed holes hand guard and an under barrel flash light the size of Wyoming. For starters.
    1
  906. This gun was obviously designed by someone who came from either sausage, cheese or wine making in Italy: The more features and complicated processes you can cram into it, the finer and more exquisite the end product will be. And though I like that approach very much in those fields, I think it is safe to conclude that the approach didn't age well in the small arms field, as it would turn out that an exquisite machine gun.. is not..
    1
  907. Probably due to all the speed holes in the hand guard. The Elbonians love themselves some speed holes.
    1
  908. "Sporterized", "Probably done by Bubba" and "Looks almost Elbonian to me" are words you NEVER want to hear said about your firearm :P
    1
  909. I've always wondered why, for such a specialized item, that they didn't insist on making a custom cartridge just for this purpose. Some honking big freight train of a subsonic bullet, as long and narrow as can feasibly be spin stabilized to the design criteria range would seem ideal. If it was designed specifically for, say. a 2" barrel with a very fast burning powder, the only "game left" is to expand and cool the gas as much as possible.
    1
  910.  @alun7006  At the time, yes. But in the cold war sneaky squirrel stuff was still top priority.
    1
  911. If this thing had been from 1890 it would have been impressive as hell... That said: My inner steampunk fan is in love. This is so wrong and so right at the same time. A brass buttplate and a two foot long monocular strapped to the top would have completed the look.
    1
  912. Iz gut sturdy mechanics! And not lowter than plink from brass on ground!
    1
  913. Generally people who can afford plane tickets back and forth + hotel accommodation during the event aren't exactly poor. I wouldn't be surprised if Ian payed close to $3000 already just to be there. That being said, if you're a senior engineer at a high tech company you can afford this for your holiday if you want.
    1
  914. You need an automatic file because you think they're hella fun to shoot at the range. If you want to maximize your killing spree you learn how to aim and shoot rapidly. Then find an elevated position over a crowed space with limited escape routes. Then you go to town with "center torso" shots. That will result in more dead than wounded, as opposed to just spraying until you run out of ammo... Full auto, as a combat tactic, is ONLY useful for suppressive fire. It is useless for home/self defence. It is useless for mass murder. It is useless for assault.... but it is FUN! Same way a 1000HP car is useless but fun.
    1
  915. Are you sure these weren't actually used in the Elbonian training program? They did have a certain affinity for French after all...
    1
  916. The rifle currently costs 8k and is a collectible. If you just want to shoot a magnificent rifle with the best optic you can afford the FR-F2 is not for you. You can get something brand new from Accuracy International in the same price range that outperforms the FR-F2 in every single metric while still retaining the "Sniper Core" credence as AI was the supplier of the both the British 7.62 and .338 Lapua Magnum sniper rifles.
    1
  917. From reading the comments it appears you're a very very lucky person.
    1
  918. Trying to sabotage the Elbonian resistance is like overkill with overkill on top. Elbonia is more than twice as effective as Russia in doing exactly the thing that makes the situation even worse than it was to begin with. Trying to meddle in that process is like shooting someone who already jumped out the window and is hurdling towards the pavement. Sure, you can kill them before they arrive at their destination, but when the destination is certain death, why bother?
    1
  919. Oh man. This is what a old wooden stock sniper rifle should look like!
    1
  920. Sorry Ian. Even with a single trigger (and the other bits and bobs) there is absolutely nothing desirable here. All that clunk to solve a problem that wasn't ever really there or solvable with "just go 7.62 instead" is not worth it for neither fun nor duty.
    1
  921. And then have Sako make it so nothing gets screwed up. I'm speculating that Sako was the one who insisted on a girthy barrel profile to retain accuracy during prolonged firefights.
    1
  922. Oh, Tannerite would go boom allright. The primer has plenty of velocity to set it off. And you're absolutely right that confined Tannerite causes detonation instead of combustion.
    1
  923.  @nathanmargolis2  That most certainly depends on the field. In cutting edge chip manufacturing 1% is impossible. That's what 3-4 generations old stuff achieve.
    1
  924. MP5SD: For storming buildings, busses and air liners. 3 round bursts always stay on target and the hostiles are always within effective range. Honey Badger: For insertion situations where you're not 100% sure the operation is going to be all slick. You also bring a single mag of supersonic, a knife, a few grenades, a 9 on your hip and a tourniquet. And you pray to god only the Honey Badger will see any action. Makes sense why SWAT wants the MP5SD and why special forces got a bit queasy at the thought of having to struggle beyond 100m.
    1
  925. I think it's funny... Nobody in their right mind would invade Russia. That's suicide. A slow drawn out hellish suicide, but suicide none the less. But if you ask Russians of the definition of suicide they answer "Invading Finland!" :P
    1
  926. Pardon if I've been misinformed, but someone from the US told me that in most major cities the tap water is practically undrinkable because it's so chlorinated that it tastes like pool water?
    1
  927.  @angrydragon4574  I don't think the target audience is Desert Brutality attendees... But nice to know that you have a shot at winning at the exchange of "personalizing the fit and finish" should I ever feel the need. That being said: to me this is a range gun. I'm not going to take a Lotus Esprit to a dirt road rally either...
    1
  928. Why didn't anyone give ME a cool 9mm submachine gun when I was 6?!?
    1
  929. Ian my man... if anyone has the clout to ask around and get that footage dug up it's you! Get that twitter network going. Someone somewhere will respond.
    1
  930. Ian has historically referred to Europe as what is covered by the European continent, and only distinguished between east and west when it has been relevant to explain historical aspects. I'm fairly certain that when he said "the top selling 8 countries" that is to be taken very as literal. If, say, Ukraine, is number 5 on the list, then Ukraine it is.
    1
  931. And thus Gun Jesus spoketh gingerly to his disciples fore he knew his teachings could stir a minor revolt. But those who had both ears and understanding felt it eerily strong in their hearts: Thy shall NOT practice tacticool!
    1
  932. That alone would make me not consider it. If their marketing division is that juvenile, and has reach all the way down in production, I can think of a laundry list of other concerns I already have with such a company.
    1
  933.  @GazalAlShaqab  You guys have, unfortunately, become the victims of a political balance game between Russia and Europe. But given the recent developments I think everyone on the west side of The Wall are ready to admit that you guys are: A) The the furthest thing from cry-babies in the world. B) In every good right to cross your arms across your chest and do the dad-is-tired-of-your-misbehavings face while you say "We... told... you... so..." C) Showing the kind of resolve the rest of us should aspire to. Poland and the Baltics have time and time again spoken out, but been ignored because that was the easiest thing to do. The truth was uncomfortable and could disturb the pleasant status quo of cheap oil and gas. So nobody listened... and now we're sorry.
    1
  934.  @Ugly_German_Truths  No. Kablamm 4.20 reads: "Thou shall not practice hand canonering while under the influence of the giggle herb as thine tight groupings will be located in thine feet."
    1
  935. They're overly complicated by today's standard. And the nobody will accept having a flap of metal ruin your sight picture between every shot..
    1
  936. Makes every kind of sense when you see their country and remember they're neutral...
    1
  937. NJAR in Skive? I served in an M109 battery in '96-97.. only our MOs were afforded the MP49. My G3 was hella good though. Did 198/200 at 300m routinely with it.
    1
  938.  @jankaas4504  My remarks were in the context of this particular example being a semi-auto only version being auctioned to the general public. I'd personally like to own this rifle for range use, but I wouldn't want to carry it to battle. Because it is heavy AF and outdated by modern standards. It was fine at it's introduction in '89 though, but nothing special. The Swedish variant of the G3 with picotini rail would be a lot better rounded DMR for instance.
    1
  939. Yes! Blades on Forgotten Weapons is top dollar! I love the firearms content, but slingshots, trebuchets, spears, (cross) bows, fighting knives/swords/sabres/scimitars and what have you are 100% cool with me. I'm still fawning over the knuckle-duster-knife-gun!
    1
  940. Oi that looks like a nice book! I hope that eventually these books will be available for PDF purchase once the physical book sales starts declining.... not that I wouldn't like a physical one... But errr....
    1
  941.  @AdamantLightLP  If I lived somewhere where that wasn't an option I would acquire extended distance to that place in short order too....
    1
  942. That bolt and gas system looked absolutely fool proof. And it looks like the gun would be hermetically sealed against gunk when the magazine is on. I also suspect that it would be rather pleasant to shoot because of the "big" delay between the bolt carrier moving and the bolt unlocking.
    1
  943. You call it The Giant Yellow Cucumber of Uterus Rearrangement, don't you?
    1
  944. Both are quality wise in the realm of "Which ever one you happen to prefer" because you'll be deaf, blind and have lose teeth before you put enough ammo through either to wear them out.
    1
  945.  @rosiehawtrey  These old huge engines take quite a while to heat up to the point where everything "fits together" properly. We had a very big kind-of forklift like that at a plant I used to work at. It was rarely used, but the only thing that could do a certain kind of job because it was so ungodly strong. It would smoke like crazy for the first 20 minutes it ran, so we would start it up and drive it to somewhere where the wind would make sure we didn't choke, and just let it idle for 40 minutes and then rev it for a couple of minutes to burn off all the sod in the manifolds. After that we could perfectly well drive it through the gate and use it on the factory floor. Didn't smoke at all.
    1
  946. "Zastava M93 Black Arrow" does sound kinda mean... so perhaps "crazy mean French/German uncle" :P But seriously though, why would you want a 37lbs .50 cal rifle? It's hella heavy and doesn't fit in a trunk. It's expensive to shoot and fairly uncomfortable to shoot. And most ranges are too short and/or has too fragile targets to even let you shoot the thing. That is, of cause, assuming you don't just want a sexy wall queen. If that's the case: then go right ahead! :P
    1
  947. I totally get why cosplayers want to make props that don't contain a real gun.... And don't contain mechanisms that a dumb TSA officer might mistake for a real gun. A lot of the hardcore cosplayers go to conventions all over the world. Gun laws and firearms culture differ wildly around the world. Especially the latter is not a trivial matter. There are lots of places where people categorically don't like the idea of live firearm being present in places that are automatically assumed to be "all civilian". Whether that is how things are in your own country or not is irrelevant when you visit another.
    1
  948. While I'm bored to tears of AR derivatives I have to say: it's an easy and well tested method of getting a bolt locking system that works well across a wide range of calibres in a wide range of environmental conditions.
    1
  949. Wowsers! That thing was in immaculate condition.
    1
  950. AMD-65 is the much lesser known professional variant of AMD-64. Contrary to popular belief it does not feature a 65 bit address space, but rather has an extra parity bit, which is used like the ECC bit in memory, but on the individual op-code and opperand level.
    1
  951.  @arthurmoore9488  You can get ultrasound cleaners that are rated for flammable solvents (water is also a solvent, but only chemistry nerds know that).
    1
  952.  @brettalexander220  Some people are actually capable of evaluating firearms in and of themselves without politicising every little thing. This is a strange concept to many, I know, but if you listen to Ian for long enough you may one day be able to look at a weapon objectively too........
    1
  953. I can't even begin to imagine the value of Fire Place Guy's collection. He has all the guns in all the standard versions, the next-to-imposible-to-get versions and, of cause, also the blued-in-unobtanium versions... I wonder how many "only known surviving example" guns he has...
    1
  954. The White Death looks at Gun Jesus with disgust from above. The White Death is, coincidentally, the only being, dead of alive, who are in a position to do so without fear of retribution.
    1
  955. As someone who went from a G3 to an AR clone in service... I have never ever understood this argument. When shooting standing and using the sling wrapped around your left fore arm (assuming right handed shooting) the long pull of the G3 was epic for accuracy. I've shot 198/200 on a 6" center at 300 meters many times like that. On iron sight. The AR with optics we got as a replacement was a much more nimble rifle in buildings, but man was it "crouched up" for precision shooting.... Have you ever shot a rifle with a long pull yourself?
    1
  956. Tolerable results = you were able to type a message afterwards! :P
    1
  957. Figuring out how to "pre spin" those dowelpins before they get sucked into the coil sequence is a must for this to really move forward. But I suspect it will be one of those "from Maxim to AR18" things where the first many many iterations are overly complex in part count until someone comes up with a really clean solution.
    1
  958. The Desert Eagle .50 cal with AP rounds beg to differ :P
    1
  959. That gun is like my cooking. It's not really anything, yet sorta a bit of everything.
    1
  960. That thing is both hideous and gorgeous at the same time... interesting gun for sure!
    1
  961. German engineering in a nutshell: "You're supposed to kill things dead not have fun! So we made gun accurate, reliable, controllable AND BORING! Now get back to practice! NO SMILING! ONLY SHOOTING!" :P
    1
  962. This and the Kraut Space Magic just pushes all the right buttons and all the wrong buttons at the same time.. I know... It's hard to have conservative taste in looks while liking technology :P
    1
  963. Like with Dom Pérignon... if you have to ask for a discount this product is not for you :P
    1
  964. I'm Danish and too broke to own such a rifle (or scope). I still watched because I think it's super cool that Ian has gotten himself the reputation and reach that he can pretty-please ask Scrome to do this... and then help them succeed.
    1
  965. I know a couple of Turks. Their general sentiment is shrugging and be like "uh, yeah... that's why we moved!".
    1
  966. In Denmark the G3 with Danish mods was called the M75. In Australia the FAL with Australian mods was called the SLR. Doesn't change the fact that they're G3s and FALs respectively. It's not until a licensed production is altered to the point of losing parts compatibility with the original that it "becomes it's own thing".
    1
  967.  @SedatedandRestrained  Exactly! The Kneebonian government officials are nothing but Russian sock puppets. It's really sad that the Kneebonian population get so much hate over it. They're a hard working nation of mud farmers and scrap sorters, just like the Elbonians, and all they want is to eat real bread on Sundays and have butter on it for birthdays and weddings.
    1
  968. Some people read tea leaves. Ian reads guns....
    1
  969. But then we remember the first rule of engineering: The best part is no part. If that is not possible the best part is multifunctional. If that is not possible the best part has simple geometry. If that is not possible you need to start over from first principles.
    1
  970.  @ZGryphon  Two bitch slaps in one sentence! Noice! :P
    1
  971. I shot 198 points out of 200 on a 4" center at 300 meters routinely with my beaten up iron sight H&K G3 (that the Danish army had bought second hand from Germany for 1 Dmark each) back in the 90s. If the barrel is in good condition I don't think I would have any problem blowing the head off someone at 500m with this primitive 2.5X scope. While those aren't "sniper distances" I would still vastly prefer this old lady to any 5.56 rifle on the market if I was the designated marksman. My shoulder, however, would probably disagree as 30.06 is a potent cartridge and these aren't exactly heavy rifles.
    1
  972. And the Elbonians were staring at Gun Jesus in utter dismay as he laid down the second commandment: "They shall not re-chamber a black powder gun for smokeless powder cartridges haphazardly". Gunnilations 7.62
    1
  973. Three people I admire in one video! :D
    1
  974. It was an analogy, not the actual case. The point was: You can buy a $300 optic now, and another $300 optic in 5 years, and end up having paid $600 in total and ended up with an optic that is better than what a $1000 optic gets you today".
    1
  975. Uh... It took me a little bit by surprise that someone, with the dole for it, can just buy this thing and have it in their front yard...
    1
  976. I can all ready hear the nachos eating tacticool fatasses who never did service scream at "how much this wouldn't make sense in a combat scenario" and completely ignore that Ian thinks of it as a range toy....
    1
  977. The word "sporterized" is a word one soon learns to dread like the black plague....
    1
  978. Can someone explain to me why all short stroke gas piston rifles have vent ports? It appears to me that if you limit the travel anyway that the excess pressure would just go back in the barrel once the projectile have vacated the premises and the breech opens....
    1
  979. It has to be the intro from "The book of heavy metal" by Dream Evil.
    1
  980. Ian... you have every license to "go astray" as much, for as long, and as often as you like. Period.
    1
  981. 750,000 already broken.. was 752,586 as of this comment. It was hard to copy/paste it because it constantly keeps updating! :D
    1
  982. If conscripts were issued sidearms Ruger would be shoveling these out to the Nordics and Baltics. This looks exactly like what you'd want to issue to Pvt Snuffy, and with a cheap barrel construction it's even affordable to keep them sorta accurate despite seeing a spicy annual round cycle.
    1
  983. Indeed. If you want a short recoil system to kick less you have to reduce the speed at which the barrel kicks the bolt. Which means adding mass to it....
    1
  984.  @Oblithian  Exactly! The amount of sheer bad luck they had, and the amount of government corruption involved in their financial demise would make for a fantastic tale if Ian presented it! :P
    1
  985. Uhm in English it is generally used as "a lot to chose from" which was also what Ian was conveying. But yes, even though my Swedish sucks I can most certainly do a more passable pronunciation :P But then again.. I'm not going to challenge Ian to a French-pronunciation contest despite living a lot closer to France than he does!
    1
  986. Man, that cricket was annoying...
    1
  987. The problem with that setup is that it kills indiscriminately which is about as effective as placing land mines. Many have stopped using those tactics because they require the internal communication of the army to be 100% accurate... and it requires that everyone remembers what has been said. Even when retreating under heavy fire. So the TLDR is that it works much better for invading forces than defending forces.
    1
  988. For now....
    1
  989. Ian is allowed to butcher any language, as long as he tells us about the guns. I was in stitches when he was at Tøjhusmuseet in Denmark taking a look at the Madsen guns... English speaking people trying to pronounce Danish is a fifty fifty mix of cute and horrible :P
    1
  990. Heavy and soft shooting have a tendency to go hand in hand. And obviously if you pair an already "full bodied" rifle like this with a non-insane cartridge like 7mm Mauser you get a rifle you can stand shooting a lot more than you can afford shooting :P
    1
  991. Post WWII bayonets were mostly for psychological effect. In the situations during WWII where they were used as intended that didn't matter jack shit. Both parties were intend on killing each other and both were out of ammo. If that hadn't been the case someone would be running rather than fixing bayonets.
    1
  992. LOL. Ian managed to mention every service rifle I've ever shot: The M1 Garant, HK G3, Diemaco C7 and Sako TRG-42. I still VASTLY prefer the G3 as a combat rifle. The length of pull is an absolute plus in my book. No, it's not ideal for urban CQC (get an MP5 ffs!), but it makes it a very stable platform to lay down accurate single shot fire from, even in wonky half-contorted body positions. That said, the TRG-42 (and TRG-42 A1) will always be pure sex.
    1
  993. I'd watch the movie adaptation of this story! :D
    1
  994. My first thought was: "Imma re-watch that now! It's been more than 20 years since I watched Indiana Jones last."
    1
  995. The eternal conundrum of Forgotten Weapons. If Ian hadn't shown us this one, it would have become eternally forgotten to everyone but a few custodians scratching their heads once in a while. But now it's been reset to a well known prototype in the collective gun knowledge, and will remain so for a number of decades until it fades back into obscurity.
    1
  996. My GF gave me a coy pout when I told her that a gun that shoots nets exist...
    1
  997. "Bulb-up" :P
    1
  998.  @Kaboomf  And if you wanted to save a battleship you'd get a disappointing "plink" and see the harpoon yeet of in a random direction with a bent tip.
    1
  999. With enough engineering magic you might be able to come up with a system that feeds a tiny belt from the magazine well and ejects empty cases and links to the side... It would be so freaking cool to have a tiny little 9mm Parabellum belt...
    1
  1000. This goofy contraption makes a Madsen Machinegun look rather reasonable.
    1
  1001.  @johndododoe1411  Nope. The royal guard is gathered from a larger royal regiment. That particular royal regiment (there are a few) has seen active deployment duty, whereas the royal guard itself has not, as it has only one mission statement: to protect the royal family (rather ceremoniously - as it's the Jæger and Frogmen corps who provide the real personal body guards).
    1
  1002. Not with the pins removed. This is for impact activated hand grenades. They don't have pins or spoons.This is the kind no sane army would have in the first place. If you have those on your webbing and you take a hard tumble you convert your "stash" into a suicide vest. WWII taught us to not ever do that again...
    1
  1003. No no, nothing fancy. Just an ICBM....
    1
  1004. CZ knows how to do marketing: Treat Ian like nobility, and everything else will sort itself out.
    1
  1005. Then it was an FN 1900 clone if the teachings of Gun Jesus are true gospel :P
    1
  1006. Heh. In the first shooting session I could hear Ian's pulse.
    1
  1007.  @TheNIX001  Treat the i as silent. Then the first e from "gesundheit" and the last e (the -sen part) is kinda like in between the e in "est" and ö but the last syllable has to be a bit mit gesmacher :P
    1
  1008.  @nickoloes  Was looking for your comment! :D
    1
  1009.  @mattelder1971  If you provided links or references to anything tree dee preented that motifies a goon younube likes to make short works of it... Strange how censorship makes everyone dyslexic...
    1
  1010. That is going to be a three volume book of 500 pages each...
    1
  1011. I like how the sound of the bullet hitting made it sound like "Rack a gun. Fire a pellet gun"
    1
  1012.  @BoredLikeHelI  That's like saying "if they needed more than 200 meters of runway the Wright Brothers 200 meters flight is just more noise"... Yes, fusion is fucking hard. Yes we've heard about it for ages. Yes they still need more funding because it's so fucking hard. But the math checks out. The laws of physics say we can make energy from this. Figuring out how to do it safely, predictably and controllably is mandatory before scaling it up to the kind of size that yields net energy excess. It's been known almost from the get-go that these needed to be gigantic to yield net energy excess.
    1
  1013.  @TheBigOne0305  And what's the deviation on your measuring equipment?
    1
  1014. Just send them a crate of Zip 22s... Every member of the group will get shot because the loud click of the dud-fire gives their position away, and since it takes a couple of minutes to clear a misfire they're going to be toast. And in the case where it actually fires, it's either not going to hit the target, or the target just gets pissed at them because it actually kinda hurts.
    1
  1015.  @interpl6089  They don't think war is fun. They think competition is fun. Kids think shooting each other with water pistols is fun. People play computer games "depicting" war for fun. I did two tours on Balkan in the late 90s, and I can perfectly well decouple the concepts in my head, so I would assume most people with a full set of cognitive gears in their head can too.
    1
  1016. Painting yourself "in a poor light" just to get a chance to dunk on Russia is nothing short of a stroke of brilliancy! :D
    1
  1017. There is no delay of the blowback, so my guess is that it literally just blew out of there.
    1
  1018. Making a gun that will fire every time, with every type of ammo, never jam, and lock open every time the magazine is empty is... quite a lot harder than I imagined. The 1911 may be a klonker but over a century of bug fixing has made people forget what the first batches were probably like. This looks like a fine pistol.... in 10 years.
    1
  1019. Why is Glock not offering this on the civilian market? Because they make lower margins on them. This would not go anywhere if it doesn't cost the same as a 17 but it's not as simple to make as a 17. And it has an atrocious trigger pull.
    1
  1020. Ian... lets get this straight: You can talk for two hours straight about the history and development of freaking spud guns, and I'll gobble it all up with a smile, a thumbs up and a comment! :D
    1
  1021.  @travisnewcome8367  As the national deity of Elbonia that would be against the religion of his people...
    1
  1022.  @sandorbence2067  My comment was a joke too... And yes, it's just a Japanese thing. There are cultural reference frames we just don't get.
    1
  1023. "That is clearly a PP cocker" :P
    1
  1024. The international shipping rates are listed on the Kickstarter. They're a bit steep, but Ian insists that the books should be very well packaged so you don't receive a nice quality book... with a smashed corner... You can read all the detail here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/pistols-of-the-warlords
    1
  1025. The literal translation is closer to "bullet spray(ing) pistol"
    1
  1026. You just say that... but "inner you" is screaming "MOAR!!!" :P
    1
  1027. Next up: The STG-7... "This is built from original RPG-7 parts kits that flooded the US market after the collapse of the Soviet Union... Obviously it doesn't shoot original RPG-7 ammo as that would make it a destructive device. In stead it shoots 9mm Parabellum tracer rounds, but it does retain the full auto capability!" :P
    1
  1028.  @ForgottenWeapons  WHAAAAA?!? How about Denmark?
    1
  1029. So in short: Even though there are umpteen hundred Lee-Enfield variants officially adopted, they're basically just the British being pedantic about tiny details that ultimately didn't change anything but the cost of the program? Sounds British enough to me....
    1
  1030. Why was there a big Perun "ad" at the end? I mean, I follow the guy for his Ukraine situation analysis... but did I miss Ian saying something, or?
    1
  1031.  @TheOriginalShoneBoyOnYT  My compliments! It exquisitely highlights your social status when you effectively execute on an opportunity to liken casually obtainable options to feces. Dreaded be the day where lowly plebs can enjoy such heresy against authenticity without proper scold from their betters! Now, could I trouble you, good Sir, to swiftly test the penetrating power of one of your GENUINE antique Colts against your right temple? I should be very delighted to hear of the result!
    1
  1032. Now get CZ to make an official version in 6.5 Swedish. Almost the penetration power of 7.62x51 and a flatter trajectory than a 5.56. As a Dane it causes me physical pain to say this, so don't treat my words as fluff.... but we should've listened to the Swedes a LONG time ago... They figured this out before WWII.
    1
  1033. That was bloody cool! V2 should obviously be to offer it in .30 Super Carry for extra magazine capacity. If my math is correct that would take it from 15 to 19 rounds. And if you can't handle a home intrusion in 19 rounds you need a main battle tank or a new neighbourhood.
    1
  1034. What? It just ENDS? Like, no more? They just... stopped? You let me to believe that the British are tradition bound people who will stick with it until the end of time. But apparently they're just quitters after all... These rifles could perfectly well have been adapted to modern standards and issued to disabled rear echelon diploma engineers who have opted out of the early retirement plan!
    1
  1035. Uh, what? You can only keep the coil on until the projectile is half way though. After that it just slows it down again. This obviously means that as the projectile is sped up you get less and less time for the next coil to act on it. I didn't bother breaking out the calculator as I don't know the spacing between the coils, but even if we assume that each coil can start as soon as the previous one stops, and pretend that each coil is 70mm apart, then the last coil has 1/1000th of a second to act on the projectile. I don't know if you did your calculations for magnetic pull on static objects or whatever, but it's fairly obvious that if you only have a millisecond to accelerate something the force you have to exert on it has to be a thousand times stronger than if you had a full second to do it. If you need all the oomph for just a millisecond obviously capacitors that can discharge at thousands of amps are needed.
    1
  1036. So... if the law ever catches me using the brace as a stock I'm in big doo-doo. And the rationale is that an SBR is an easily concealable weapon. Yet this thing is only concealable under an oversized coat... where you could also easily conceal a shot gun with the stock sawed off.
    1
  1037. Yes. The Moose infestation is getting out of hand and a 375 Magnum sniper revolver is the obvious answer...
    1
  1038. I am only getting left channel audio on this. Perhaps it should have been down-mixed as mono?
    1
  1039. Because we're till asking the government to govern. So long as 51% of the population want a government, there will be a government. That's kinda the definition of democracy.
    1
  1040. Mr McCollum, Sir?... You forgot to give me instructions on what nominations you're in?
    1
  1041. Silverman's revenge: Gun Jesus himself publicized my work to millions of people while calling you a jerk. Also my three guns are now worth more than everything you ever made combined. You were saying?
    1
  1042.  @warshipsatin8764  There is a big difference between "a gun that reminds me of my own country/values/history" and "a gun". That's what I meant by cultural connotations. But yes, if you want to be pedantic about it, and it appears you do, then strictly speaking "culture" extends to the very boundaries of being a human.
    1
  1043. The era of "it's just a bang tube" was kind of funny. If it takes a guy with a hammer, a welder and a simple jig more than 20 minutes to produce one it's considered over complicated :P
    1
  1044.  @alfulton5946  Huh? My music?
    1
  1045. It's at 476K at this moment, so Ian's prediction of not blowing through everything in a day is juuust about to become invalid :P
    1
  1046. .... "WHEN I get access to one to of those"... only Gun Jesus can say that and everyone just nods in agreement. Of course he will. That's inarguable.
    1
  1047.  @ismellmandude6401  It is a possibility. And I quite often choose to just shrug. But when someone starts calling someone else's religion "fake" it is my moral obligation to respond. Either you accept that some people need religion in their lives, and what they belive in has a 1:0.9999 relationship with what their parrents belive in, so you extend your own freedom of religion to every one else, or you keep your bullshit to yourself. Because if you begin with the whole "my imaginary friend is the right one, and yours is wrong" I WILL point out to you that your imaginary friend is just an imaginary friend. If you say "Having a close personal relationship with $DEITY brings me so much joy in life, and it makes me a better person" I will ALWAYS either mind my own business and scroll by, or say "That sounds nice. Good for you". There can be no two ways about this: Freedom of religion, political orientation, sexual identity, taste in food, music, clothes and whatever is extended to EVERYONE. If you only want to extend those to yourself I will be your personal problem each and every time. Because I want those freedoms too, and I will defend anyone who isn't getting them.
    1
  1048. I'm sorta disappointed they didn't also mount an under-barrel grenade launcher :P
    1
  1049. I enjoy the historical content just as much as the technical explanation of the workings of the gun. Really good balance between "nerd knowledge" and "useful knowledge". So, keep em coming! :D
    1
  1050. And double point for indirectly bitch slapping Putler without as much as a smirk to give it way....
    1
  1051. Is that even possible for such long thin walls when we're talking high percentage fiber glass mixes? And how would you make the butt stock hollow?
    1
  1052. I like this guy but the tacticool toy soldiers shut off the second you say "No, you do not need what elite forces, that has a 39 out of 40 drop-out rate, need".
    1
  1053. Long barreled, scoped, bi-poded, handles 375 Magnum loaded HOT and proven as a very effective anti terror weapon on more than one occasion. The GIGN couldn't get macho enough back in the 70s, so they used a gun that will absolutely gib slap the shit out of you if your French pronunciation isn't on point! :P
    1
  1054. The way the Tavor name was removed pretty much gives it away that it's a modified Israeli made part. That doesn't, however, tell us any thing about the present day situation.
    1
  1055.  @lukec8794  Not trying to be a dick, but don't you make mistakes when it comes to homophones in your second or third language?
    1
  1056. If every gun enthusiast/nerd in the world donated Ian $1 a year he would soon be running a museum where there would be a Bed and Breakfast every five kilometers, as it would take 20 days and 20 nights to get through it if you wanted to know it all :P
    1
  1057. Bwahahaha!
    1
  1058. A lot of the beefing up of parts seemed to be a direct response to advanced alloy shortage. That there is no longer a slot though the bolt clearly states that they're willing to trade in some strength in exchange for what looks like a rather fiddly firing pin mounting procedure.
    1
  1059.  @muddyhotdog4103  Some Somali pirates were captured. They all had AKs. All the sights were set to the longest range, despite not a single pirate was ever observed to take aimed shots. They all hip fired or just held the gun out with stretched left arm and no shoulder contact. When asked about the dials they reported that guns shoot harder when set to the biggest setting.... Now imagine Chinese soldiers who may have seen a muzzle loader prior to these. They were issued swords and spears in general and only squat leaders might have gotten a pistol. I imagine they were treated as "boom sticks". Mostly to scare. It's not exactly like .32 ACP is the most lethal thing in the world anyway...
    1
  1060. Considering that a faithful clone of good quality costs $375 today, and those are not even in high volume production, I'd hazard the guess they were still turning a tolerable profit.
    1
  1061. Without running the audio through a wave editor I'd say that's close to bang on the same rate of fire. And I think I know why: The Stemple receiver is a little bit longer, but the "plug" is also longer, making up some of the difference. Furthermore the Stemple bolt is turned down eeever so slightly, making it a little lighter too. Apparently the combination gives a result that is close enough to identical that you need to actively measure it to find a difference... MAN I'd like one of those :D
    1
  1062. Yeah. That's about as epic as when he is showcasing some rare exotic variant of a rifle and just casually produces it's equally rare predecessor from his lap mid-sentence while talking... And I think it speaks volumes that absolutely nobody is surprised even in the slightest, but rather just mentally go "Well of cause you did..." :P
    1
  1063. I'm not sure if auto correct is ducking with you, but just in case you didn't notice yourself: "bull pups" vs "bulp-ups" :P
    1
  1064. Ian: Sorry for the preservative oil. A.N.C.A: Rust will NEVER rob us of our precious guns!
    1
  1065. Someone further up says it's got to do with harmonics and that the 7.62 version needs a center support to get the barrel to not vibrate. Sounds plausible enough to me having seen in slowmo just how much a rifle actually flexes and dances when fired.
    1
  1066. I would assume that recoil spring rate would at least do something too?
    1
  1067. A misfortuned nation of mud farmers and scrap sorters will take any compliment, no matter how faint.
    1
  1068.  @Govanmauler  Thank you :)
    1
  1069. bad_joke_eel_meme.jpg
    1
  1070. Reciprocating at a rapid pace... obviously...
    1
  1071. Complete BS. Even from an anti-gun perspective this accomplishes absolutely nothing. It doesn't get semi-auto rifles off the market. It doesn't even limit or restrict semi-auto rifle availability. It only annoys the firearms nerds. Not the paramilitant nutcases. Not the volatile fringe political fundamentalists. Just the nerds who like to tinker with shit and custom build their toy precisely to their liking. This is like trying to stop illegal street racing by going after a manufacturer of chromed rims.
    1
  1072. He was there the last time he was in Copenhagen. I don't recall the video name, but you can find it in his catalogue. If memory serves correctly it was about a year and a half a go, or there about.
    1
  1073. Disregard that. He was at the Tøjhus museum last time...
    1
  1074. Mike has a real hard time no yelling "95% OF YA'LL ARE NOTHING BUT LARPERS!" :P
    1
  1075. Hang on to it. The nickle plated version went for $3700. By your retirement age these will be Unobtainium.
    1
  1076. As a Dane I'm not AS concerned as "The Vodka Nordics" (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are right now. But if any ONE of those fall Denmark is next on the chopping block as we control the access to the North Sea. I'm a former artillery man of the Danish army and I got the gold emblem back then in rifle shooting (H&K G3). Previously I've been vary content with Danish gun laws ("Make it hard/stupid/expensive enough to deter criminals from getting them while keeping the overall number in the wild so low that theft if exceedingly rare").... But I'm starting to think differently. I'm still not sold on having semi automatic pistols floating around in large numbers, and I most certainly don't want any kind of concealed carry legality.... However I do think that owning a rifle should only require membership of a shooting club, a clean criminal record, and showing the receipt for an approved gun locker.
    1
  1077. I myself, apparently, don't know enough about firearms to be able to ask Ian a question he can't just answer straight from the top of his head.
    1
  1078. That depends quite a bit on what the communist party thinks about the endeavour. They could equally well be totally excited or totally opposed to the idea.
    1
  1079. Holy shit the craftsmanship on that thing was something else! Both inside and outside. So do these cost a house, a boat or both?
    1
  1080. They've always managed a defence posture that seemed more expensive to overcome than the entire country was ever worth. And since the poor buggers have self esteem as low as the quality of the mud they export they never fancied themselves as rulers over anyone else.
    1
  1081.  @iLEZ  The Danish army uses the shoulder fired 84mm Carl Gustav which is a similar system to this one but, obviously, scaled down. The safety precautions are: 1) Ear-plugs-and-ear-cups at all times for gunner and loader. 2) No more than 6 shots per day in peace time, less is advisable. Recoilless rifles aren't fun to shoot. You do it because you have to. And if you do it a lot there will be blood in your piss.
    1
  1082. Yes. And no.
    1
  1083. ..... But at the end of the day it's still just an AR... :P
    1
  1084. Overpriced as fck. It's a tilting barrel 9mm in a fancy dress. Yes the triple action feature is interesting, but nothing earth shattering. At $600-700 they'd make sense, if the box included 4 grip panels to make every combination possible, and otherwise kitted out as seen here (minus the optics, obviously).
    1
  1085. Whoever thought a 30.06 lack stopping power has never shot a stag with one. You shoot them in the chest and the bullet goes through the pelvic bone and bloody near rips a hind leg off. The only thing one might complain about is over penetration. If the bullet construction had been more expansion focused the target would do a back flip to let you know it's been hit.
    1
  1086. Matt is a smart-arse gun-nut. People who aren't into "gun culture" but need "a hammer where the had don't come lose, nothing more, nothing less" due to their situation should have an option that is just that. Nothing more and nothing less. And from reading the comment section it certainly looks like Hi-Point is precisely that. A gun. That shoots straight. When you need it to. At an approachable price point. Snobs will always turn their nose up at that. Because snob is just another word for narrow minded.
    1
  1087. By 2006 they weren't licking their pencils and reusing mail envelopes as post-it notes.
    1
  1088. When I was in service I could completely disassemble a Browning M2 machine gun (that has a gazzilion parts!) and reassemble it in the time it took Ian to take this piece of junk apart.
    1
  1089. Buy 25% less ammo and have a 100% good time with the ammo you have?
    1
  1090. Ah, yes! The perfect bulb-up for when you're shooting a guy with a high tech bullet proof vest.... and it's absolutely imperative that the sucker lands two counties over!
    1
  1091. The only difference between the Danish Airforce version and the Luftwaffe version is the barrel shroud. They wanted compatibility with their existing mounts, which is a rather trivial change.
    1
  1092. Why did I just develop an acute need for having a need for propelling ropes really far?
    1
  1093. Orders. Not donations. Everyone has pre-ordered something. And with $50 international shipping fee it adds up quickly.
    1
  1094. I did not expect this. Once he couldn't rack it I was like "Yup. Fine competition pistol is fine competition pistol. Don't expect that be something Pt Snuffy can get along with in the jungle of Cambodia!". But then it ran... and ran.. and ran.. If Laugo can get just a little more backwards travel on the slide, to allow for packed up caca, and make the top strap so wide there's only like 0.1mm of clearance, to limit ingress in the first place, this thing might be a special forces favourite!
    1
  1095.  @mulrich  You have to set up a company for a private museum. Then you can own fully working items.
    1
  1096. Those were MG3's in Bundeswehr configuration.
    1
  1097. Yeah... for when you 50 BMG mounted on a wheel barrow runs out of ammo...
    1
  1098.  @kaltaron1284  We have some bunkers from WWII here in Denmark that we've been trying to get rid of... Demolition attempts does absolutely nothing and jackhammers barely make a scratch before the chisel is blunt, so I don't know if WWII German concrete will stack up to the tamped Roman stuff over the centuries... but so far it's lasted 70 years without showing any sign of degradation.
    1
  1099.  @kaltaron1284  Yeah, that figures. I'm by no means a concreteologist myself, but it seems plausible that fortifications are generally built with the best materials available at the time.
    1
  1100. This is a prime example of "just fix it up to what we need" mentality going waaaay too far. There comes a point where going back to first principles, and take every lesson-learned ticket you have, is the only way to get what you actually want. I understand the appeal of wanting to reuse existing tooling for as many parts as possible.... but the AK is such an ancient platform, and several cost saving measures are so integral to it, that it's simply at the end of time.
    1