"Type 99 Arisakas have Metford pattern rifling, you won't see sharp grooves..." AH HA! I've been looking for a straightforward answer on this for AGES. My google-fu was yielding conflicting answers, and now I know. Thanks, Ian.
I think comparing MG's is fairly simple. Give a guy several guns, each with a hundred rounds. Tell him to hose all the targets downrange with a mag dump. Then grab a ruler and measure his grin after every attempt, widest grin is best gun.
Ian "I changed the default settings to make the change to the upload format so I don't think it's happening anymore"... Looks underneath this video... #36270
You forgot the most ingenious of all anti-fouling measures. Using the gases from firing to forcefully eject debris from the action. Every say "thank you, Mr. Stoner."
12:52 The "snow mod" that comes immediately to mind is the tractor cap on Russian 1910 Maxim water jackets that allowed users to just toss in handfuls of snow. Not exactly a reliability issue, per se, but an environmental consideration nonetheless.
And then there's the all steel cocking handle on Norwegian (and Swedish?) G3 variants. Reason: the plastic part on a trials rifle shattered in extreme cold. It's spring loaded and sort of whacks into the cocking handle tube when you let go of it, so when the polymers of the time went brittle in the cold they broke. Going all steel fixed that.
@@Kaboomf I don't think jackets were ever supposed to be literally full of water. Especially since there is no point to - if it's enough to have the barrel submerged, you are good to go.
@@SonsOfLorgar Ah, ok. I was wondering about that, just the Norwegian ones then. Maybe the Swedish version had a better polymer that didn't get as brittle, I suspect modern polymers would do fine.
Two possible stages for a LMG shoot: 1. Open Area Suppression - hits on 2x36' target within harsh time constraints. 2. Pill Box Suppression - hits on 12x60" target within harsh time constraints.
Possible additions to the open suppression, The target has different zones painted horizontally. You would want to keep as many rounds in the lower zones as possible to simulate more accurate suppression. Alt: The target has a painted-on grid with the objective to spread out the fire horizontally. You could get a max of 3 or so rounds in each grid square and after that, no more would count. This would mean in order to get as many points as possible you would want to keep the muzzle down while moving it from left to right.
I'm impressed that Ian van talk for an hour straight, while sipping alcohol, without getting dry-mouth. Most speakers can't go for longer than 20 minutes without needing a sip of water.
@@xxxbigbxxx It's a bird, it's a plane! It's the point flying over your head. Booze generally reduces saliva. Saliva lubricates a humans throat. A lubricated throat is necessary for verbal communication. This is why public speakers take small sips of water (even before people became obsessed with hydration.) The process of speaking, which expels air through the mouth, dries the throat and mouth and thus makes it more difficult to speak. I'm impressed that Ian can speed up the drying process by imbibing while not countering the effect with a lubricant.
Ha that first one was mine (he btw) and yeah I had submitted it before all that AND I sorta answered it myself yesterday morning when I got the headstamp email. Pledged straight away!
I understand that illicit submachine guns manufactured in India will almost always be in .32 ACP, because that's really the only civilian semi-auto handgun cartridge available in India.
14.5x114 is nearly double the power of an .50BMG, that thing is a beast. The few privat owner who shot them use mostly reduced loads to slow down the wear on barrel.
Weather proofing modifications often don't have any mechanical downsides. The downside would be the increased cost of manufacturing, weather in exotic materials or additional machine time.
Wider tolerances to accommodate dirt (or variations in ammo) reduce accuracy. An example would be minimal size of the chamber vs max size of the cartridge. A very general reliability vs accuracy tradeoff.
It is kind of funny how, without a hint of malice, Ian points out how esoteric booze connoisseurs make out the industry to be, absurdly and baselessly. There's a _lot_ more variation in a couple decades of military rifles than across most whiskey distilleries.
Yea and the PTRD looks a lot like the RN-50 as well, just EVEN MORE DANGEROUS because of how it intentionally blows the bolt backwards when you fire. This is literally a disaster waiting to happen lol
@@TheOriginalFaxon When something is done intentionally, it is assumed it is going to happen, and the problems with safety come from the assumption that something IS NOT going to happen. Besides, all Russian WW2 weapons were designed for WW2 quality of both weapons and ammo, they are not picky and well-tested (no, that garage Serbu is nowhere near being properly tested), and has been designed to handle more powerful cartridges.
@@PaulVerhoeven2 Yea the point i'm making is that if someone reloads a hot load with a projectile or sabot that doesn't properly travel the barrel fast enough (creating a bore obstruction), you're going to have a similar situation to what happened to scott, only with a bolt that could potentially become a projectile itself. The only reason that might not be as bad is if that bolt is significantly heavier than the rear cap on the RN-50. One fix that backyard ballistics suggested for "fail-safing" the design was to add significant weight to that end cap, such that it will have a larger surface area of contact and will not accelerate to nearly the same speed as the cap that broke Scott's orbital bones. Still, russian 14.5 ammo is also a lot more powerful, so a hot 14.5 could be similarly catastrophic. If someone were to improperly rebuild such a rifle design, you could also introduce failure modes that didn't exist in the original, for a variety of reasons. Metallurgy, machining quality, ect have all improved since the 1940s, but if a company that's not experienced in making large caliber rifles and cannons takes a shot at it and doesn't know to do certain steps or use certain alloys in the manufacturing process, it can easily lead to failures in the field, especially if (as you've stated), people don't properly test their designs against intentionally created failure modes, like an intentional cartridge overpressure scenario by say, hypothetically, just filling the casing up as full as it'll go, or using a hotter powder that burns faster than is safe, intentionally. These are all things that might get overlooked by someone whose line of thought is "Well people who reload should know better than to do that", because some idiot WILL fuck that thing up eventually.
@@TheOriginalFaxon Yep, the problem is that extensive testing necessary for arms safety costs a lot and those tiny garage companies cannot afford them (and even bigger private companies may choose to save some money on them). BTW, AFAIR even underloading might lead to much faster burn than intended leading to overpressure.
@@PaulVerhoeven2 yup. The usual cause of revolver Kabooms is a case that is maybe half full of powder. Instead of igniting the end of the powder column, the primer lights the side of it, making 5x+ the powder burn per unit time. Oops.
Ian, you could simply lay a high contrast protractor in your disassembly shots off to the side and that would go a long way to satisfying the people who want measured shots to adapt to CAD designs.
For range targets you can try this: You know those bouncing balls from the dollar store that strobe or light up when you drop them? Its called a "vibration activated LED". They're cheap as hell to source. I have a BB gun target setup where I dug out those devices and glued them to the back of the reusable targets. When it hits it lights up but the neighboring one doesnt. With more high powered weapons where the shock is more intense, you wouldnt put it on the steel plate itself but rather link it to the plate with some steel wire or attach it to whatever holding the plate. When the plate is hit the vibration will light up the device.
You know, I bet a gas seal Nagant style revolving long gun would work in a shotgun, since the crimp expands and seals similar to the 7.62x38R neck... Another I've thought of, for black powder guns, is to have brass obturators that slide forward under firing to seal and then get pushed back in when reloading. Main point I'd think towards specifically the black-powder revolving shotgun is that it can legally be a short-barreled one, and the only other options right now are double-barrels, and an obturator would also REALLY lower the risk of chainfires.
I could see an LMG "suppressive fire" element being introduced on a course of fire where you must run it with a partner, and certain actions can only be performed by one individual while your partner is providing suppressive fire (movement to next position, shooting at steel targets, carrying the "wounded" mannequin). This way, you are still scoring in the same manner, but just adding more constraints under which the shots are "legal" for scoring (no different than any other constraint that we often see- like keeping one foot within a hoop, shooting offhand, shooting through a barricade, etc). That being said- it would be clunky, because you would have to figure out how to penalize them for continuing to engage/move for more than 1 or 2 seconds after their partner's suppressive fire stopped. I am not saying it _would_ work- but I think it _could_ work. It could be interesting too, because a good duo are going to communicate and coordinate so that the LMG guy is mindful of ammo (because running dry in the middle of an action that requires suppressive fire will really slow down your partner). It would be tough to get enough competitors who have LMG's and get them partnered up (whether you do LMG + LMG, or LMG + Carbine), and I think you would need some competitors who are pretty squared away in terms of safety and coordination (you always need that- but in this case it would require an extra level of care).
In regards to an lmg based match and steel, one way you could set a hit requirement on the steel would be utilizing something like the magnetospeed t1000 target indicator on steel, one of its functions is a training mode where you set a number of hits in a time allotment. When the first round impacts the indicator light turns on and flashes, when an adequate number of hits occur in rapid succession the light switches from flashing to solid allowing for targets to be used to track “bursts” on an area without any confusion if enough hits were scored since it tracks impulse and sound on the target.
Re: the light machinegun question. It occurs to me that, in regards to the two measurable qualities (hits and time) there are perhaps two tests you could make to test two things, suppression and accuracy. On the suppression question, have a wide paper target with segmented boxes in a line (looking somewhat like a horizontal ladder), these boxes should be of narrow height but of width determined by the tester. The idea being to fire constantly for a certain amount of time, perhaps five seconds, measuring the total number of percentage hits to misses within the boxes, ensuring that at least one hit is made in each box. The concept of this test is for a shooter to be putting suppressive fire over a spread of cover, preventing their targets from standing to shoot. The shots must be above the cover, to properly threaten the defenders, but also not so high that the defenders may feel confidant responding (such as shots hitting above a window that are relatively safe for a desperate person). This tests shooter accuracy on automatic fire by percentage, which prevents weapons with a particularly high fire rate from being overly successful. Secondly the test of time, and as a result accuracy, a tester might set up a field of many targets (perhaps thirty for the sake of this discussion) each of which falls when shot. The test is simple, to knock over all targets in the least amount of time, while maintaining a full automatic firing schedule, aka the weapon may not be switched to select fire mode, though the shooter may cease firing to re-aquire a target. In this way the weapon and shooter are tested in the ability to place accurate shots at a variety of ranges, simulating a defender firing on approaching threats and attempting to thin the herd as quickly as possible. Thoughts?
Thought 1: Separating those tests will drive shooters toward optimizing for one and then for another, instead of working toward a happy marriage of two tested skills. AKA human nature. Thought 2: I'd go with the "horizontal ladder"/boxes test, but have adjacent plates instead of paper. Each calibrated so it could fall after one shot (or two, or any desired number) and just measure rounds needed to drop all of them. A perfect lightmachinegunner (is that a word?) would be able to spread bullets perfectly evenly and hit all of them. A more advanced test would have those targets NOT forming a perfect horizontal line, but a diagonal one or wave or any desired shape.
For LMG stages - if you had fixed time stages (e.g. 15 seconds behind this barrier, run over there, 10 seconds from the prone here) then you could score based off of hits on target or hit-rate on target.
instead of a distillery tour, how about an ammunition manufacturing tour? how do brass cases get shaped, how different types of bullets? That'd be interesting.
Notification of a Q&A with Ian pops up. Me: Looks at clock, "I can't be an hour late for work because I watched a Forgotten Weapons video. . . AGAIN!" I'll just upvote quick and watch it tonight. 😁
@@justindunlap1235 Ha, I've got a safe full of guns that I bought because I could sell them for more than I could buy them for. I have sold none of them and now have three long guns and 4 handguns that won't fit in my safe. Every few months I drag them out to figure out what I want to get rid of and just end up trying to fit them all back in the safe. They're already paid for. They aren't eating anything. Inflation is high so I'd quickly lose $ if I sold them right now. I'm not a collector, I'm just waiting for the right time. Right? Right!?!?!?
10:30 For winter fighting: Bigger tolerances. The MG34, milled to perfection, tended to jam in harsh Russian winter. Cheaper mass produced (stamped) MG42 solved the problem. G3 rollers allows for more force to crush any sand daring to enter.
For cold weather i think it should be mentioned that some weapons modified for cold weather have alterations to their trigger guard for use with gloves.
About Soviet firearm design - just a comparison with submarine development, if you watch a number of Sub Brief videos, you'll realize that the Soviet design principles were not restrained by tradition or politics. Lead cooled nuclear reactors, whole titanium hulls, almost complete automation so they only needed an small officer crew - they were not afraid to try aggressively innovative ideas.
Theory for a suppression based competition. Perhaps having a large steel target with a couple different scoring zones (either like a traditional bullseye or with horizontal strips, where hits closer to the ground/cover score more), which you could place slightly above and behind a piece of cover. Then you can set up a camera (go pro for example)behind the piece of cover and have it set up to record the plate for the duration of the competition. Then as long as you keep track of the order participants compete in, you can keep track of everyones hits without having to set up anything between shooters. Sure they wont know their score right away and they wont get hit feedback during the match, but id say thats within the realm of the nature of suppression anyways.
LMG tests - small target behind large cardboard target (concealment is not cover); small target visible through opening in large cardboard target (close supporting fire); Desert Brutality style move & shoot course (with the LMG instead of kettlebells); pop-up knock-down random target acquisition & elimination; spinners at distance (accuracy & volume / stopping power)
For the 1 gun replacing 3, the closest it could get would be a quickly interchangeable, modular platform. For exemple, take the AK platform but make the buttstock and barrel quick change, you could quickly change between a carbine/smg with a sort barrel and folding stock , a rifle with medium barrel and adjustable stock and a LMG configuration with heavy barrel with bipod and fied stock. Not changeable in the field but certainly at the base before heading to the field you could adapt your squad loadout
As an idea for "assessing suppressive fire" in a match situation- you could use oversized targets. Big target with a torso sized bonus zone, and a couple feet around the silhouette of "suppressive" zone. Stipulate hits on target count for more points or something similar, e.g. 3 hits on the body or at least 6 on the target, that sort of thing. I think playing around with that idea for rules, it would help demonstrate and reward the idea that for suppression, close counts. But also emphasise that practical accuracy can also reward slower well aimed shots. Would take some tweaking to get the balance right, but I think that could work. Potentially could work even better on moving targets to demonstrate putting extra rounds down range at least close to get the target to go to cover.
For the LMG trails, maybe set a max time, set up a large paper taregt and have some falling targets in front, a Downed target is worth 5 hits on the Paper, so the Paper simulates the rounds supressing the enemy and the targets indivdual kills
What about penetrating power for suppression.granted it’s more psychological then anything but if your target is pinned down and has bullets flying three it it chunking it to pieces he’s not Gona stick his head up or somthing like that
With the Navy buying high-tec guns ( 30:00 ) I suppose it also helps that they can get to the fight with fresh, newly serviced guns, since they didn't have to walk thru mud to get to the fight, and when the fight is over they can go right back to the ship and service their guns in clean environments.
For the LMG Trials, score the length of time a rarget can be effectively suppressed, the longer the enemy is suppressed the longer amount of time the rifle element has to manuver; also the amount of damage that cam be done to a maneuvering enemy rifle element, and a point target such as an up armored vehicle the enemy comm tent or something like that.
LMG assessment stage: Large paper target simulating a squad sized beaten zone (either wide and low but upright - say a 10 x 1 meter banner at ground level, or a large square about 10x10 meters laid flat on the ground). 1 point for each hit on target. Interspersed with the area "suppression" target, have upright targets (say falling steel or IPSC type targets) at ground level, for which you get more points for hits (5 or 10 points). Another idea for the "area" target - require at least one hit on every square meter of the large target - maybe give only one point for each square hit, regardless of number of hits, while still having the higher value point targets interspersed.
Coming to mind the MG-34 The Universal Machine Gun Concept. Might come close to the gun that could be the answer to the " replacing 3 different guns with just one?" question
Maybe make the LMG course be a two person team. set up a large, steel target on some kind of spring, and have the LMG gunner have to keep the target from resetting (using full auto) and the second teammate having a carbine that they have to hit targets on. the assistant gunner would be able to carry extra ammo for the LMG and help with reloading, but the steel target shouldn't reset until the assistant has completed their course of fire. (penalty if it does). Once the assistant gunner is done with their course of fire, the LMG would also likely have another short course of fire where they would have to hit a more precise target.
As for assessing effective suppressive fires; balloons work well. The number of balloons destroyed per rounds fired Per rounds fired and time allotted is pretty easy to assess. Target reset and clean up should be fairly easy as well.
In regards to the "detailed photography" question. You could lay something like a cutting mat on the table so that people who want measurements have something familiar to reference off of.
For suppressing fire, maybe measuring DB at the target is a way to quantify it? Assuming that suppression is basically not making a hit necessarily but making a lot of noise that makes you afraid and want to take cover, then recording the amount of sound you get might be a way to measure it’s effectiveness?
One thing to keep in mind with Navys is that they usually aren't in the rough stuff like regular Armys so they wouldn't be as worried about reliability in rough conditions.
Look carefully at many submachine guns in slow motion and you'll see the biggest jolt is when the heavy bolt slams closed and the forward inertia of the bolt is transferred to the gun slightly pulling it out of their shoulder. Then as the bolt is pushed back by the cartridge the gun is being slowly accelerated back into the shoulder, this causes high perceived recoil. For constant recoil on a submachine gun you need the cartridge to ignite while the bolt is still moving forward and totally reverse the forward momentum of the bolt before it collides with the breechface. This is easier to do in a gas operated machine gun as you can have the bolt lock closed and the recoiling mass of the gas piston still be moving forward.
Can we get Ian a really Chinese themed/pattern of material smoking jacket to wear for all the updates with the chinese warlord book? I'm just saying he'd look smashing in red. Or is that a goal that hasn't been unveiled yet?
A hypothetical method of testing or evaluating suppressive fire for an LMG could be small-ish silhouettes, like an upper torso, that flip down when hit for a small, possibly randomized, or even fixed 1-3 second periods. The test would require multiple of them to be set up, somewhere like a dozen across various positions, including tight groups and singular entities. The targets could also be made to stay in the down position after being hit a number of times and going through several cycles, so the actual test for the LMG would be how quickly it would be able to engage all of the targets and score repeated hits on them until they are actually down. It could also test the shooters ability to re-pick up threats/targets after moving onto other ones.
Jack Daniels tour is pretty cool, plus it's close to Huntsville where a bunch of gun manufacturers are located and you could swing by the Barret factory in Murphreesboro, TN.
Love the globe bar.. My brother in law had one it always had Bushmills, and Chevias Regal ...or was it Johnny Walkers Black label. I had many a beverage from the Globe as a youngman.
#38.02: Tagets that can count hits being made and "fall over" when hit - and be electronically reset: SAAB made (and still does?) such targets. We have been using them in this country for at least the past 30-35 years, both on traditional fixed-distance ranges and on more "field-like scenario" ranges. One variant of the target can be operated by radio signal and set to be visible for a specific interval of time. They do not "fall over" because of the impact - the target is only a thin sheet of steel or aluminium, but once the mechanism registers hit(s), it will lower the target, thus giving visual feedback to the shooter of having made a hit.
Re assessing suppression fire… first thing that’s easy that comes to mind is a large (4x8’) sheet of AR500 with a set of acoustic sensors glued to angle irons welded to the back. The sound of an impact will travel through the plate and acoustic sensor can pick it up. Getting that sound down to the rangemaster for scoring is the trick. Cable that’s buried is simple but infrastructure hard at 100 200 plus meters (unless someone owns or rents a trench digger machine). Wireless with an expendable reflector out on the side a ways might be cheapest. Or could have it raise a flag or hoot a horn or something after specified number of hits.
I have an idea(s) for an expensive but easily reusable method for evaluating MGs in a competition. I also think that having one pool of weapons to share for the competition would allow much more competition, and better competition.
"I dont think its happening anymore" as i look at that exact hashtag above the video title 😂😂😂 lol well always love you Ian even if you have cryptic hashtags
At 38:13 Suppressing Fire: Cut apart cardboard refrigerator boxes. Place them in lines or "panels" next to each other, 5 to 20 feet wide. Make several panels placed at different heights. The whole array 100 feet wide. Then just change them out between competitors. This would simulate a line of troops each hiding behind different cover.
37:04 easy solution Ian, a large row of 10 or so clay pidgeons in man size targets or even better nock down steel targets In a formation similar to a platoon or quad, with 100 rounds or maybe 75 or 50 the machine guns must engage those targets and nock them down, any target left standing is a negative. You could also set an enemy machine gun nest with a small opening and a couple targets to nock down inside down to neautralize the nest, as well as moving targets to engage from an emplacement position as well as having to shoot targets through (probaly soft) cover, maybe to activate the moving targets or something similar! In the end just be a bit lenient with hits, there should be a focus on fun as this are not exactly easily cuantifiable things so like, obviously no hits would be bad, and one hit is okay, but from one hit on you just count them as eliminated, you could also have people do the machine gun belt boxes run to add some fisicality to it, with their actual ammunition reloads in them! (Use large enough cans to acomodate both mags and belts).
Regarding your LMG competition measurements, if this has not already been answered since, I suspect you could do something like the following with help from a tech enthusiast. - Have your steel or other rigid target material - Purchase a raspberry pie or similar microcomputer platform - Attach some kind of pressure or impact sensor to material and the raspberry pie - Measure the material while you shoot it and track the impulse which should occur on the sensor - For a competition, measuring the number of impulse peaks recorded by the sensor over a given period of time should correspond to the number of bullet impacts assuming you have sufficient minimum impulse cutoff and your sensor can update fast enough to track multiple shots (should be possible since guns are snails when it comes to timescale in electronics) I'm certain it you would encounter unanticipated things to solve while trying that approach but there's a tech focused suggestion!
I find the HK sights to be exceptionally good and the rear notch setting is lightning fast for me inside of reasonable distances. I run a G3 with an LPVO on a lightweight mount that leaves my sights visible and transitioning to the rear notch is even quicker then going to an offset dot or anything else I've tried.
Update: I took the entire rear drum assembly off forever ago and I just use the aero mount itself as my rear aperture. If my scope somehow breaks or becomes unusable I can still reliably make hits on my half size silhouette out to about 150m. Definitely a downgrade in terms of precision but I can't bring myself to let the original hk sights get all banged up.
GPMG probably comes the closest to the "Three for One" replacement, because they can (and originally did) replace water cooled heavy ".30-ish", air cooled ".30-ish" belt feds (whether infantry mediums like the M1919, or vehicular guns), and ".30-ish" LMGs in most cases.
It's great to see a gun TH-camr who's not annoying and mean spirited, especially associating interest in guns somehow influencing your views on completely unrelated ideas.
Now that I saw that question about reliability on harsh enviroments, I have to ask about Ian's take on operating firearms on the moon. In theory, bullets would indeed work on the moon without atmosphere (powder carries its own oxygen) but what about the rest of the gun? How would it cool itself? How would it handle heating from the sun? How would it handle lunar dust and regolith jamming it? There's got to be a prototype on a museum ...somewhere. :D
I’d expect the air inside the case to escape, rendering the round inter. As to cooling, that’s no issue on the dark side or in the shade. As to heating, I don’t think the sunlight itself would heat a gun beyond it’s native limitations. If you had ammo that would work, probably then. Here’s the real question: what are lunar ballistics like, with no air to bit into, push against, and 1/6 of the gravity?
@@txtifosi No the rounds wouldn't become inert and that's easily demonstrable. Gun powder carries its own oxygen required for detonation, chemically bounded in itself(not as air molecules). Some kind of new research would be required of course for internal ballistics, but external ballistics I would imagine to be easier to calculate than normal conditions. Terminal ballistics should be the most interesting part, since you can now have all kind of crazy projectile designs that woudn't work inside an atmosphere simply because they are not stable enough to reach a target. However, I still think having a reliable design is the more interesting question. Heat is a problem regardless of the source (the sun, or the firing of the weapon) if a weapon cannot be cooled. Lubrication is also a challenge (cold welding).
A possible "target" for an LMG course could be pop up paper or wood silhouettes of "squads", with a microphone field. Count the number of impact sounds or bullet cracks. Actual hits on silhouette are worth more, but scoring bullets that come close by sound may be close to actual supression.
If you can count the number of impacts after the fact (or record and report later), then being able to know what you did and didn't hit could be part of the contests. I'd go for pop-up targets that drop after a measured time regardless of how many hits. I'd think drop-on-hit would encourage point shooting rather than suppression. And "target impact sensors" are a thing for steel plate targets.
For the destillery tours: Does a establoshment have to be a dest or could it be local alcohol production, like beer for southern germany to czech, wine for austria, france or italy. Sake for Japan maybe.
Regarding LMGs in a match setting for grading: I was thinking you have a combat vet/machine gunner downrange in the pits, and he doesn't know who is shooting. He's just hanging out in the pit and hearing the rounds crack over his head. At the same time, you have tombstone formation targets that the shooter is trying to suppress/hit. He, and an assistant can roll down the target, count and tape the hits, and radio the number of hits back to you at the firing line. The veteran would give a 1-10 score on the volume and "perception value" of the suppression, combined with the number of hits. Suppression and it's effectiveness revolves around mechanical and physical elements, but it's also very psychological. Hits are extra credit, but it essentially regards the unwillingness of enemy troops to relocate, move, or advance in the face of what they perceive to be relatively dangerous fire at distance from a machine gunner who knows they're there, and is doing his job well. Afghan and Iraq 11B, machine gunner in both, and that's the best I can think of to attempt to quantify and score suppression. I've only ever seen pits at Camp Perry, I'm not sure if that's a thing in the civilian world at large.
@@ryfish5 A lot of the weapons adopted by the Japanese military were based off of successful Western designs. With a few exceptions, they functioned reasonably well.
Ian, on the question of machinegun matches - consider reaching out to the public affairs officer or the commander of a national guard unit near you. National guard bases are not subject to the same onerous restrictions about use of firearms as federal installations, and a great deal of discretion is allowed to the national guard units about what policies are in place - for example, the Michigan national guard recognizes the right of people to carry firearms on Fort Custer with a valid state CPL which would be unthinkable on any federal base. In addition to this, these bases are generally built with standard army carbine and machinegun ranges with falling and self-resetting targets - some machinegun ranges even have arrays. It could be fun to watch you tag along for a machinegun range with one of their units, or potentially host a match there if you can build some rapport with one of their officers, they're usually very chill.
And yeah, I get it's replacing a rifle and a SMG in a way, just that it's replacing a ton of WW2 jank too. Maybe that means it does not count. Could one argue that some shorter rifles replaced pistols, Rifles and SMGs?
Prototype design that was *this close* to being really good? Although the Hotchkiss Universal was not only a prototype and was even produced in moderate numbers the Universal could have been easily made much more practical by making the barrel and pistol grip unfoldable and having a more comfortable pistol grip instead of the hollowed out pistol girp. The stock could have been redesigned to fold to the side instead of under the gun and the rear sling swivel moved to the receiver cap or stock instead of being on the pistol grip.
@@ForgottenWeapons I’m really glad to see so many good reference books coming out of Headstamp. Growing up in the early 2000s, old Cold War era reference books were one of the big things that got me into firearms (as well as tanks, airplanes etc.) Would love to see a Headstamp book covering American lever actions if you (or a colleague) is ever so inclined.
Hi All, I went to a police auction, the auctioneer said that most of the guns were broken, that unless somebody was interested in something in particular he wasn't going start bidding. If somebody was interested in one gun he would. Do a video of broken guns, he could have shown you dozens, at your local police auction. You would not have to travel. Thanks, take care.
That answer to the Soviet question was one of the best I’ve seen. Whenever someone says that “capitalism breeds innovation,” Soviet arms design, the polio vaccine, and US manufacturing in WWII are the best examples
I do sometimes wonder how much capitalism might stifle innovation. Just the pressure of having to turn a profit (and do so quickly) must have some effect that discourages trying something radically different that might bomb or be the bomb. But if the government's paying for it... Then again consumer goods and a weapons procurement program to equip a national army are vastly different things, so maybe that's just a case of the apple calling the orange the new black.
I have to disagree on the U.S. WWII production numerous companies took contracts to produce new or experimental armaments many produced working prototypes.
For an LMG competition stage, what if you had bunch of knock over targets at whatever range with a Time constraint and ammunition points? There would be a trade off of time vs ammo spent. Would make for interesting comparisons of belt-fed vs magazine-fed LMGs.
You could do the "pop up" as we call them. You could also do what they do for tank and Bradley gunnery. Get a hit on target and then "suppress" the area with a "Z" pattern. It takes multiple target set out in an area for the gunner to engage. You could make one steel to assess a hit and them the usual cardboard ones for the area suppression. You could then time the engagements. I would suggest having the gunner move to different positions and have several engagements.
RE: the LMG competition ideas, I could see a kind of "whack-a-mole" stage. A bunch of large targets (torso or larger) that pop in and out of cover randomly, scored on hits on paper, or some kind of heavy knock-over system. This could simulate keeping multiple enemy combatants suppressed at the same time. Disclaimer: I have literally no experience here.
For the LMG competition I would want to use automated popup and moving steel targets, and then control them via networked Arduinos to run a program that run the logic for the popups, moves and stages. An added benefit of this is that you could automate the scoring/timing. I would do popups with pneumatics, and moves would be done by an electric motor on a chain. By moving a set of 5-10 targets across the range, you'd simulate a squad moving without cover. Groups of popup targets test the user's ability to lay down effective suppressing fire. You get the idea. This would be ALOT of development, but you really only have to do it once, and its well within Ian's skills as Mechanical Engineering Technologist. I imagine if you marketed right (patreon tier or Kickstarter, plus InRange and FW) you could charge quite a bit and make a decent profit. Also a Kasarda drill with an LMG, where you have to empty a belt, would hilarious.
On the topic of the .32ACP SMG, IMO it is complicated by being the physical manifestation of a contradiction. The Skorpion is pistol sized but used like an SMG with bursts. Given the performance of the round, that gives it functionality similar a short barreled, small bore shotgun loaded with #1 buckshot that has an insane degree of choke. It isn't a pistol, it isn't an SMG, but it can be compared to a 28ga lupara.
@ 24:30 The Remington model 8 was chambered in 30 Remington. That was the parent case for the 10mm auto. Jeff Cooper and friends cut off the bottle neck, stuck in a 40 caliber bullet, and called it 10mm. The 6.8 SPC is also based on the old 30 Remington.
Chromelined bores also protect the bore from corrosive ammo. Funny thing, I acquired some .45 ACP from 1943 that was marked corrosive with steel casings, but as far as I know, they never chrome lined 1911 barrels.
"Type 99 Arisakas have Metford pattern rifling, you won't see sharp grooves..." AH HA! I've been looking for a straightforward answer on this for AGES. My google-fu was yielding conflicting answers, and now I know. Thanks, Ian.
FAL: I don't like sand. Its coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere
I feel the same way about humanity.
ISWYDT
@@SonsOfLorgar
AK: sand does not exist, comrade
Guardsman lasgun: i have no moving parts and can be used as anything from a shovel to a sledgehammer
From my point of view the FAL is evil!
@@andrewhopkins1010 from my point of view you're wrong.
I think comparing MG's is fairly simple.
Give a guy several guns, each with a hundred rounds. Tell him to hose all the targets downrange with a mag dump.
Then grab a ruler and measure his grin after every attempt, widest grin is best gun.
"I hope its going well"
*Nearly $600,000 pledged at time of upload*
Yeah I think its going well
Yeah as I write this comment k checked and it's up to $590,700
Don't spoil the future for past Ian
@@handlesarekindadumb Gun Jesus is omniscient and has seen all sins man has and will commit. He already knows/ knew
I think it was about $100k pledged 45 minutes in. Btw the purple cover is definitely the proper one, why would you even consider the others. lmao
Up to $750k now!!!!!
Ian "I changed the default settings to make the change to the upload format so I don't think it's happening anymore"...
Looks underneath this video... #36270
Yeah - that's because it still has the # sign in the list of questions.
This is going to be a thing now
Ian's gotta start selling #36270 bumper stickers.
The holy number has been revealed
meanwhile, I see #36720
The L85 had a light support weapon variant so you could argue that it replaced the Sterling, SLR and Bren and GMPG - just not successfully :-(
the last time I was this early, Elbonia had a respectable service pistol (it was a Nagant revolver, but still)
That’s the best carry gun ever lol.
Elbonia could only dream of a having the Nagant. 🤣🤣🤣
@@JenniferinIllinois the only real service pistol in elbonia are full auto conversion nambu pistols and the special forces standardized on gyrojets.
Lol !!!!!
DiD yOu GuYs KnOw ThAt CaN bE sUpPrEsSeD?
You forgot the most ingenious of all anti-fouling measures. Using the gases from firing to forcefully eject debris from the action. Every say "thank you, Mr. Stoner."
12:52 The "snow mod" that comes immediately to mind is the tractor cap on Russian 1910 Maxim water jackets that allowed users to just toss in handfuls of snow. Not exactly a reliability issue, per se, but an environmental consideration nonetheless.
And then there's the all steel cocking handle on Norwegian (and Swedish?) G3 variants. Reason: the plastic part on a trials rifle shattered in extreme cold. It's spring loaded and sort of whacks into the cocking handle tube when you let go of it, so when the polymers of the time went brittle in the cold they broke. Going all steel fixed that.
@@nirfz that makes sense, water expands when freezing so the water jacket could burst if kept full of water in the winter.
@@Kaboomf I don't think jackets were ever supposed to be literally full of water. Especially since there is no point to - if it's enough to have the barrel submerged, you are good to go.
@@SonsOfLorgar Ah, ok. I was wondering about that, just the Norwegian ones then. Maybe the Swedish version had a better polymer that didn't get as brittle, I suspect modern polymers would do fine.
Also the AI Arctic Warfare series of rifles, which had grooves in the bolt to prevent it from getting gummed up with snow and ice.
Two possible stages for a LMG shoot:
1. Open Area Suppression - hits on 2x36' target within harsh time constraints.
2. Pill Box Suppression - hits on 12x60" target within harsh time constraints.
Load with blanks and have volunteers sit in a trench downrange, like the Marines' range. Then measure how heavy their pants are after each gun.
Possible additions to the open suppression,
The target has different zones painted horizontally. You would want to keep as many rounds in the lower zones as possible to simulate more accurate suppression.
Alt:
The target has a painted-on grid with the objective to spread out the fire horizontally. You could get a max of 3 or so rounds in each grid square and after that, no more would count. This would mean in order to get as many points as possible you would want to keep the muzzle down while moving it from left to right.
When I heard of the dead end question I immediately thought of the Blish lock in the early Thompson’s
I think that's a special case of "that was never a good idea in the first place".
Gun Jesus next book "History of booze in Finland" - 745 pages
Why not......vodka plus AK.....Rye plus Ross Rifle....Bourbon and Griswold?
745 pages covered in the word “Kurskenkorva”?
I found the Kyro Gin and Aged Gin niw in my supermarket in Germany in plenty of supply. When i have some spare money i will buy it.
745 pages? I suppose that's only the first volume !
After that, "Influence of Finnish booze on French Firearm design"
So nice to just watch a Q&A without writing the timestamps :D
The rest of us thank you for your efforts in other videos.
I'm impressed that Ian van talk for an hour straight, while sipping alcohol, without getting dry-mouth. Most speakers can't go for longer than 20 minutes without needing a sip of water.
@@marmite8959 Dude, this is such an underrated comment, unfortunately hidden here
@@xxxbigbxxx you might want to reread the comment
@@xxxbigbxxx It's a bird, it's a plane! It's the point flying over your head.
Booze generally reduces saliva. Saliva lubricates a humans throat. A lubricated throat is necessary for verbal communication. This is why public speakers take small sips of water (even before people became obsessed with hydration.)
The process of speaking, which expels air through the mouth, dries the throat and mouth and thus makes it more difficult to speak.
I'm impressed that Ian can speed up the drying process by imbibing while not countering the effect with a lubricant.
I don't know if there are any in this particular video, but there are often jump cuts in the footage in Q&A videos.
@@madbikerwolf8664 "(even before people became obsessed with hydration.) "
Do you think drinking water is a fad? lol
Ha that first one was mine (he btw) and yeah I had submitted it before all that AND I sorta answered it myself yesterday morning when I got the headstamp email. Pledged straight away!
I understand that illicit submachine guns manufactured in India will almost always be in .32 ACP, because that's really the only civilian semi-auto handgun cartridge available in India.
Meanwhile in Pakistan pretty much anything is legal lol
@@liammeech3702 As they should be
14.5x114 is nearly double the power of an .50BMG, that thing is a beast. The few privat owner who shot them use mostly reduced loads to slow down the wear on barrel.
Weather proofing modifications often don't have any mechanical downsides. The downside would be the increased cost of manufacturing, weather in exotic materials or additional machine time.
Wider tolerances to accommodate dirt (or variations in ammo) reduce accuracy. An example would be minimal size of the chamber vs max size of the cartridge.
A very general reliability vs accuracy tradeoff.
I feel like Ian does a better job explaining the limits of engineering than most engineers.
Yes, but charisma isn't his dump stat :)
I wouldn't mind watching Ian slog from pub to pub in Prague while lecturing about Czech firearms development
It is kind of funny how, without a hint of malice, Ian points out how esoteric booze connoisseurs make out the industry to be, absurdly and baselessly. There's a _lot_ more variation in a couple decades of military rifles than across most whiskey distilleries.
I wouldnt mind going from pub to pub in Prague to listen to Ian's lectures about Czech firearms development
“A 50cal gun that some people might shoot weird hot loads out of” what you did there... I seen’t it #StickAThumbInIt
Yea and the PTRD looks a lot like the RN-50 as well, just EVEN MORE DANGEROUS because of how it intentionally blows the bolt backwards when you fire. This is literally a disaster waiting to happen lol
@@TheOriginalFaxon When something is done intentionally, it is assumed it is going to happen, and the problems with safety come from the assumption that something IS NOT going to happen.
Besides, all Russian WW2 weapons were designed for WW2 quality of both weapons and ammo, they are not picky and well-tested (no, that garage Serbu is nowhere near being properly tested), and has been designed to handle more powerful cartridges.
@@PaulVerhoeven2 Yea the point i'm making is that if someone reloads a hot load with a projectile or sabot that doesn't properly travel the barrel fast enough (creating a bore obstruction), you're going to have a similar situation to what happened to scott, only with a bolt that could potentially become a projectile itself. The only reason that might not be as bad is if that bolt is significantly heavier than the rear cap on the RN-50. One fix that backyard ballistics suggested for "fail-safing" the design was to add significant weight to that end cap, such that it will have a larger surface area of contact and will not accelerate to nearly the same speed as the cap that broke Scott's orbital bones. Still, russian 14.5 ammo is also a lot more powerful, so a hot 14.5 could be similarly catastrophic. If someone were to improperly rebuild such a rifle design, you could also introduce failure modes that didn't exist in the original, for a variety of reasons. Metallurgy, machining quality, ect have all improved since the 1940s, but if a company that's not experienced in making large caliber rifles and cannons takes a shot at it and doesn't know to do certain steps or use certain alloys in the manufacturing process, it can easily lead to failures in the field, especially if (as you've stated), people don't properly test their designs against intentionally created failure modes, like an intentional cartridge overpressure scenario by say, hypothetically, just filling the casing up as full as it'll go, or using a hotter powder that burns faster than is safe, intentionally. These are all things that might get overlooked by someone whose line of thought is "Well people who reload should know better than to do that", because some idiot WILL fuck that thing up eventually.
@@TheOriginalFaxon Yep, the problem is that extensive testing necessary for arms safety costs a lot and those tiny garage companies cannot afford them (and even bigger private companies may choose to save some money on them).
BTW, AFAIR even underloading might lead to much faster burn than intended leading to overpressure.
@@PaulVerhoeven2 yup.
The usual cause of revolver Kabooms is a case that is maybe half full of powder. Instead of igniting the end of the powder column, the primer lights the side of it, making 5x+ the powder burn per unit time. Oops.
Ian, you could simply lay a high contrast protractor in your disassembly shots off to the side and that would go a long way to satisfying the people who want measured shots to adapt to CAD designs.
The #36720 thing sent me on a little detective mission just a few days ago. I figured it out but its cool to hear from Ian.
For range targets you can try this: You know those bouncing balls from the dollar store that strobe or light up when you drop them? Its called a "vibration activated LED". They're cheap as hell to source. I have a BB gun target setup where I dug out those devices and glued them to the back of the reusable targets. When it hits it lights up but the neighboring one doesnt.
With more high powered weapons where the shock is more intense, you wouldnt put it on the steel plate itself but rather link it to the plate with some steel wire or attach it to whatever holding the plate. When the plate is hit the vibration will light up the device.
‘Death in the Afternoon’; shot of absinthe, topped off with chilled champagne. One of Papa Hemingway’s favorite cocktails.
You know, I bet a gas seal Nagant style revolving long gun would work in a shotgun, since the crimp expands and seals similar to the 7.62x38R neck... Another I've thought of, for black powder guns, is to have brass obturators that slide forward under firing to seal and then get pushed back in when reloading. Main point I'd think towards specifically the black-powder revolving shotgun is that it can legally be a short-barreled one, and the only other options right now are double-barrels, and an obturator would also REALLY lower the risk of chainfires.
I could see an LMG "suppressive fire" element being introduced on a course of fire where you must run it with a partner, and certain actions can only be performed by one individual while your partner is providing suppressive fire (movement to next position, shooting at steel targets, carrying the "wounded" mannequin). This way, you are still scoring in the same manner, but just adding more constraints under which the shots are "legal" for scoring (no different than any other constraint that we often see- like keeping one foot within a hoop, shooting offhand, shooting through a barricade, etc). That being said- it would be clunky, because you would have to figure out how to penalize them for continuing to engage/move for more than 1 or 2 seconds after their partner's suppressive fire stopped.
I am not saying it _would_ work- but I think it _could_ work. It could be interesting too, because a good duo are going to communicate and coordinate so that the LMG guy is mindful of ammo (because running dry in the middle of an action that requires suppressive fire will really slow down your partner). It would be tough to get enough competitors who have LMG's and get them partnered up (whether you do LMG + LMG, or LMG + Carbine), and I think you would need some competitors who are pretty squared away in terms of safety and coordination (you always need that- but in this case it would require an extra level of care).
In regards to an lmg based match and steel, one way you could set a hit requirement on the steel would be utilizing something like the magnetospeed t1000 target indicator on steel, one of its functions is a training mode where you set a number of hits in a time allotment. When the first round impacts the indicator light turns on and flashes, when an adequate number of hits occur in rapid succession the light switches from flashing to solid allowing for targets to be used to track “bursts” on an area without any confusion if enough hits were scored since it tracks impulse and sound on the target.
Re: the light machinegun question. It occurs to me that, in regards to the two measurable qualities (hits and time) there are perhaps two tests you could make to test two things, suppression and accuracy. On the suppression question, have a wide paper target with segmented boxes in a line (looking somewhat like a horizontal ladder), these boxes should be of narrow height but of width determined by the tester. The idea being to fire constantly for a certain amount of time, perhaps five seconds, measuring the total number of percentage hits to misses within the boxes, ensuring that at least one hit is made in each box. The concept of this test is for a shooter to be putting suppressive fire over a spread of cover, preventing their targets from standing to shoot. The shots must be above the cover, to properly threaten the defenders, but also not so high that the defenders may feel confidant responding (such as shots hitting above a window that are relatively safe for a desperate person). This tests shooter accuracy on automatic fire by percentage, which prevents weapons with a particularly high fire rate from being overly successful.
Secondly the test of time, and as a result accuracy, a tester might set up a field of many targets (perhaps thirty for the sake of this discussion) each of which falls when shot. The test is simple, to knock over all targets in the least amount of time, while maintaining a full automatic firing schedule, aka the weapon may not be switched to select fire mode, though the shooter may cease firing to re-aquire a target. In this way the weapon and shooter are tested in the ability to place accurate shots at a variety of ranges, simulating a defender firing on approaching threats and attempting to thin the herd as quickly as possible.
Thoughts?
Thought 1: Separating those tests will drive shooters toward optimizing for one and then for another, instead of working toward a happy marriage of two tested skills. AKA human nature.
Thought 2: I'd go with the "horizontal ladder"/boxes test, but have adjacent plates instead of paper. Each calibrated so it could fall after one shot (or two, or any desired number) and just measure rounds needed to drop all of them. A perfect lightmachinegunner (is that a word?) would be able to spread bullets perfectly evenly and hit all of them. A more advanced test would have those targets NOT forming a perfect horizontal line, but a diagonal one or wave or any desired shape.
For LMG stages - if you had fixed time stages (e.g. 15 seconds behind this barrier, run over there, 10 seconds from the prone here) then you could score based off of hits on target or hit-rate on target.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention the big hilarious mitten-triggers on a bunch of European battle rifles at 10:27
Great video
Not stupid when not using big mitten will give you frostbite
@@vold2268 no I know! I don’t think they’re stupid I just said they’re hilarious
@@jameslahey6358 we can agree on that, the famas one take the cake i think xD (And i misunderstood that you talked about it like a dead end feature)
Just remember --- absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
instead of a distillery tour, how about an ammunition manufacturing tour?
how do brass cases get shaped, how different types of bullets? That'd be interesting.
Notification of a Q&A with Ian pops up.
Me:
Looks at clock, "I can't be an hour late for work because I watched a Forgotten Weapons video. . . AGAIN!"
I'll just upvote quick and watch it tonight.
😁
Just quit your job to buy and sell guns, don't worry the wife won't mind.
@@justindunlap1235 Ha, I've got a safe full of guns that I bought because I could sell them for more than I could buy them for. I have sold none of them and now have three long guns and 4 handguns that won't fit in my safe. Every few months I drag them out to figure out what I want to get rid of and just end up trying to fit them all back in the safe. They're already paid for. They aren't eating anything. Inflation is high so I'd quickly lose $ if I sold them right now. I'm not a collector, I'm just waiting for the right time. Right? Right!?!?!?
@@boomerisadog3899 exactly it's like a safer version of the stock market, buy low sell high and keep an eye out for trends.
I'm milling a pistol for sights as I listen, pretty sure you could listen and drive at the same time..
10:30
For winter fighting: Bigger tolerances. The MG34, milled to perfection, tended to jam in harsh Russian winter. Cheaper mass produced (stamped) MG42 solved the problem.
G3 rollers allows for more force to crush any sand daring to enter.
For cold weather i think it should be mentioned that some weapons modified for cold weather have alterations to their trigger guard for use with gloves.
About Soviet firearm design - just a comparison with submarine development, if you watch a number of Sub Brief videos, you'll realize that the Soviet design principles were not restrained by tradition or politics. Lead cooled nuclear reactors, whole titanium hulls, almost complete automation so they only needed an small officer crew - they were not afraid to try aggressively innovative ideas.
Theory for a suppression based competition. Perhaps having a large steel target with a couple different scoring zones (either like a traditional bullseye or with horizontal strips, where hits closer to the ground/cover score more), which you could place slightly above and behind a piece of cover. Then you can set up a camera (go pro for example)behind the piece of cover and have it set up to record the plate for the duration of the competition. Then as long as you keep track of the order participants compete in, you can keep track of everyones hits without having to set up anything between shooters. Sure they wont know their score right away and they wont get hit feedback during the match, but id say thats within the realm of the nature of suppression anyways.
Read this after writing my own suggestion. Neatly similar and I enjoy the idea that shared concept is a strong one.
LMG tests - small target behind large cardboard target (concealment is not cover); small target visible through opening in large cardboard target (close supporting fire); Desert Brutality style move & shoot course (with the LMG instead of kettlebells); pop-up knock-down random target acquisition & elimination; spinners at distance (accuracy & volume / stopping power)
For the 1 gun replacing 3, the closest it could get would be a quickly interchangeable, modular platform. For exemple, take the AK platform but make the buttstock and barrel quick change, you could quickly change between a carbine/smg with a sort barrel and folding stock , a rifle with medium barrel and adjustable stock and a LMG configuration with heavy barrel with bipod and fied stock. Not changeable in the field but certainly at the base before heading to the field you could adapt your squad loadout
As an idea for "assessing suppressive fire" in a match situation- you could use oversized targets. Big target with a torso sized bonus zone, and a couple feet around the silhouette of "suppressive" zone. Stipulate hits on target count for more points or something similar, e.g. 3 hits on the body or at least 6 on the target, that sort of thing. I think playing around with that idea for rules, it would help demonstrate and reward the idea that for suppression, close counts. But also emphasise that practical accuracy can also reward slower well aimed shots. Would take some tweaking to get the balance right, but I think that could work. Potentially could work even better on moving targets to demonstrate putting extra rounds down range at least close to get the target to go to cover.
For the LMG trails, maybe set a max time, set up a large paper taregt and have some falling targets in front, a Downed target is worth 5 hits on the Paper, so the Paper simulates the rounds supressing the enemy and the targets indivdual kills
What about penetrating power for suppression.granted it’s more psychological then anything but if your target is pinned down and has bullets flying three it it chunking it to pieces he’s not Gona stick his head up or somthing like that
Sounds like a good place for a moving target.
@@seanuridil6546 use cinderblocks.
With the Navy buying high-tec guns ( 30:00 ) I suppose it also helps that they can get to the fight with fresh, newly serviced guns, since they didn't have to walk thru mud to get to the fight, and when the fight is over they can go right back to the ship and service their guns in clean environments.
I'm looking forward to see the Finnish Galil and the Israeli Valmet being featured soon. Lol
So how feasible is this really? I’m reading this before it comes up in the video…
For the LMG Trials, score the length of time a rarget can be effectively suppressed, the longer the enemy is suppressed the longer amount of time the rifle element has to manuver; also the amount of damage that cam be done to a maneuvering enemy rifle element, and a point target such as an up armored vehicle the enemy comm tent or something like that.
LMG assessment stage:
Large paper target simulating a squad sized beaten zone (either wide and low but upright - say a 10 x 1 meter banner at ground level, or a large square about 10x10 meters laid flat on the ground). 1 point for each hit on target.
Interspersed with the area "suppression" target, have upright targets (say falling steel or IPSC type targets) at ground level, for which you get more points for hits (5 or 10 points).
Another idea for the "area" target - require at least one hit on every square meter of the large target - maybe give only one point for each square hit, regardless of number of hits, while still having the higher value point targets interspersed.
Coming to mind the MG-34 The Universal Machine Gun Concept. Might come close to the gun that could be the answer to the " replacing 3 different guns with just one?" question
It's kinda loose, but I'll take it.
Replaced the MG08 heavy, MG08/15 light, and whatever the Germans were using in tanks.
@@quentintin1 oh, right, forgot that one.
Maybe make the LMG course be a two person team. set up a large, steel target on some kind of spring, and have the LMG gunner have to keep the target from resetting (using full auto) and the second teammate having a carbine that they have to hit targets on. the assistant gunner would be able to carry extra ammo for the LMG and help with reloading, but the steel target shouldn't reset until the assistant has completed their course of fire. (penalty if it does). Once the assistant gunner is done with their course of fire, the LMG would also likely have another short course of fire where they would have to hit a more precise target.
As for assessing effective suppressive fires; balloons work well. The number of balloons destroyed per rounds fired Per rounds fired and time allotted is pretty easy to assess. Target reset and clean up should be fairly easy as well.
In regards to the "detailed photography" question. You could lay something like a cutting mat on the table so that people who want measurements have something familiar to reference off of.
For suppressing fire, maybe measuring DB at the target is a way to quantify it? Assuming that suppression is basically not making a hit necessarily but making a lot of noise that makes you afraid and want to take cover, then recording the amount of sound you get might be a way to measure it’s effectiveness?
One thing to keep in mind with Navys is that they usually aren't in the rough stuff like regular Armys so they wouldn't be as worried about reliability in rough conditions.
No more open minded don't have fudds who think soldiers will fire too fast or need 1000+ yard rifles
Look carefully at many submachine guns in slow motion and you'll see the biggest jolt is when the heavy bolt slams closed and the forward inertia of the bolt is transferred to the gun slightly pulling it out of their shoulder.
Then as the bolt is pushed back by the cartridge the gun is being slowly accelerated back into the shoulder, this causes high perceived recoil.
For constant recoil on a submachine gun you need the cartridge to ignite while the bolt is still moving forward and totally reverse the forward momentum of the bolt before it collides with the breechface.
This is easier to do in a gas operated machine gun as you can have the bolt lock closed and the recoiling mass of the gas piston still be moving forward.
Can we get Ian a really Chinese themed/pattern of material smoking jacket to wear for all the updates with the chinese warlord book? I'm just saying he'd look smashing in red. Or is that a goal that hasn't been unveiled yet?
A hypothetical method of testing or evaluating suppressive fire for an LMG could be small-ish silhouettes, like an upper torso, that flip down when hit for a small, possibly randomized, or even fixed 1-3 second periods. The test would require multiple of them to be set up, somewhere like a dozen across various positions, including tight groups and singular entities.
The targets could also be made to stay in the down position after being hit a number of times and going through several cycles, so the actual test for the LMG would be how quickly it would be able to engage all of the targets and score repeated hits on them until they are actually down.
It could also test the shooters ability to re-pick up threats/targets after moving onto other ones.
Jack Daniels tour is pretty cool, plus it's close to Huntsville where a bunch of gun manufacturers are located and you could swing by the Barret factory in Murphreesboro, TN.
Pls visit Korea and do a soju distillery tour / kbbq special with a DPI/SNT Motiv tour!
The PTRD looks a lot like the RN-50, and we all know how that turned out when someone put a hot SLAP round in it without knowing it was a counterfeit
A youtuber is wounded and it’s a tragedy. A Soviet soldier is wounded and it is a statistic
@@andreahighsides7756 is this ironic
It wasnt necessarily counterfeit, it might have just degraded with time, maybe it was also stored badly.
@@georgec8859 depends on what you define as irony. I would just call it a joke but ya know.
@@termitreter6545 It was counterfeit, casing shape is different from official ones
Love the globe bar.. My brother in law had one it always had Bushmills, and Chevias Regal ...or was it Johnny Walkers Black label.
I had many a beverage from the Globe as a youngman.
I'd be down for a PTRS as you never see them.
#38.02: Tagets that can count hits being made and "fall over" when hit - and be electronically reset: SAAB made (and still does?) such targets. We have been using them in this country for at least the past 30-35 years, both on traditional fixed-distance ranges and on more "field-like scenario" ranges. One variant of the target can be operated by radio signal and set to be visible for a specific interval of time.
They do not "fall over" because of the impact - the target is only a thin sheet of steel or aluminium, but once the mechanism registers hit(s), it will lower the target, thus giving visual feedback to the shooter of having made a hit.
Re assessing suppression fire… first thing that’s easy that comes to mind is a large (4x8’) sheet of AR500 with a set of acoustic sensors glued to angle irons welded to the back. The sound of an impact will travel through the plate and acoustic sensor can pick it up. Getting that sound down to the rangemaster for scoring is the trick. Cable that’s buried is simple but infrastructure hard at 100 200 plus meters (unless someone owns or rents a trench digger machine). Wireless with an expendable reflector out on the side a ways might be cheapest. Or could have it raise a flag or hoot a horn or something after specified number of hits.
I have an idea(s) for an expensive but easily reusable method for evaluating MGs in a competition.
I also think that having one pool of weapons to share for the competition would allow much more competition, and better competition.
"I dont think its happening anymore" as i look at that exact hashtag above the video title 😂😂😂 lol well always love you Ian even if you have cryptic hashtags
At 38:13 Suppressing Fire: Cut apart cardboard refrigerator boxes. Place them in lines or "panels" next to each other, 5 to 20 feet wide. Make several panels placed at different heights. The whole array 100 feet wide. Then just change them out between competitors. This would simulate a line of troops each hiding behind different cover.
37:04 easy solution Ian, a large row of 10 or so clay pidgeons in man size targets or even better nock down steel targets In a formation similar to a platoon or quad, with 100 rounds or maybe 75 or 50 the machine guns must engage those targets and nock them down, any target left standing is a negative.
You could also set an enemy machine gun nest with a small opening and a couple targets to nock down inside down to neautralize the nest,
as well as moving targets to engage from an emplacement position as well as having to shoot targets through (probaly soft) cover, maybe to activate the moving targets or something similar!
In the end just be a bit lenient with hits, there should be a focus on fun as this are not exactly easily cuantifiable things so like, obviously no hits would be bad, and one hit is okay, but from one hit on you just count them as eliminated, you could also have people do the machine gun belt boxes run to add some fisicality to it, with their actual ammunition reloads in them! (Use large enough cans to acomodate both mags and belts).
Kyrö is very near Lapua.
.338 Lapua Magnum is my favorite cartridge because it hits the target so well.
Regarding your LMG competition measurements, if this has not already been answered since, I suspect you could do something like the following with help from a tech enthusiast.
- Have your steel or other rigid target material
- Purchase a raspberry pie or similar microcomputer platform
- Attach some kind of pressure or impact sensor to material and the raspberry pie
- Measure the material while you shoot it and track the impulse which should occur on the sensor
- For a competition, measuring the number of impulse peaks recorded by the sensor over a given period of time should correspond to the number of bullet impacts assuming you have sufficient minimum impulse cutoff and your sensor can update fast enough to track multiple shots (should be possible since guns are snails when it comes to timescale in electronics)
I'm certain it you would encounter unanticipated things to solve while trying that approach but there's a tech focused suggestion!
I find the HK sights to be exceptionally good and the rear notch setting is lightning fast for me inside of reasonable distances. I run a G3 with an LPVO on a lightweight mount that leaves my sights visible and transitioning to the rear notch is even quicker then going to an offset dot or anything else I've tried.
Based but still obsolescentpilled
Update: I took the entire rear drum assembly off forever ago and I just use the aero mount itself as my rear aperture. If my scope somehow breaks or becomes unusable I can still reliably make hits on my half size silhouette out to about 150m. Definitely a downgrade in terms of precision but I can't bring myself to let the original hk sights get all banged up.
GPMG probably comes the closest to the "Three for One" replacement, because they can (and originally did) replace water cooled heavy ".30-ish", air cooled ".30-ish" belt feds (whether infantry mediums like the M1919, or vehicular guns), and ".30-ish" LMGs in most cases.
Congrats on the big 50!
From the thumbnail I assume one of the questions is “aren’t anti tank rifles ineffective in CQB?”
That entirely depends on how adept you are at tomfoolery and also hijinkery
I know I’ve seen lmgs tested using a field of balloons. It was specifically to show the increased effectiveness of cross fire vs direct front fire
Engineering is apolitical ...this is why I love this channel. This is why you are Gun Jesus🥰
It's great to see a gun TH-camr who's not annoying and mean spirited, especially associating interest in guns somehow influencing your views on completely unrelated ideas.
I LOATH aperture sights. I've never been able to line them up properly. The notch sights always vibed with me.
Now that I saw that question about reliability on harsh enviroments, I have to ask about Ian's take on operating firearms on the moon. In theory, bullets would indeed work on the moon without atmosphere (powder carries its own oxygen) but what about the rest of the gun? How would it cool itself? How would it handle heating from the sun? How would it handle lunar dust and regolith jamming it? There's got to be a prototype on a museum ...somewhere. :D
I’d expect the air inside the case to escape, rendering the round inter. As to cooling, that’s no issue on the dark side or in the shade. As to heating, I don’t think the sunlight itself would heat a gun beyond it’s native limitations. If you had ammo that would work, probably then. Here’s the real question: what are lunar ballistics like, with no air to bit into, push against, and 1/6 of the gravity?
@@txtifosi No the rounds wouldn't become inert and that's easily demonstrable. Gun powder carries its own oxygen required for detonation, chemically bounded in itself(not as air molecules). Some kind of new research would be required of course for internal ballistics, but external ballistics I would imagine to be easier to calculate than normal conditions. Terminal ballistics should be the most interesting part, since you can now have all kind of crazy projectile designs that woudn't work inside an atmosphere simply because they are not stable enough to reach a target.
However, I still think having a reliable design is the more interesting question. Heat is a problem regardless of the source (the sun, or the firing of the weapon) if a weapon cannot be cooled. Lubrication is also a challenge (cold welding).
A possible "target" for an LMG course could be pop up paper or wood silhouettes of "squads", with a microphone field. Count the number of impact sounds or bullet cracks. Actual hits on silhouette are worth more, but scoring bullets that come close by sound may be close to actual supression.
If you can count the number of impacts after the fact (or record and report later), then being able to know what you did and didn't hit could be part of the contests. I'd go for pop-up targets that drop after a measured time regardless of how many hits. I'd think drop-on-hit would encourage point shooting rather than suppression.
And "target impact sensors" are a thing for steel plate targets.
For the destillery tours: Does a establoshment have to be a dest or could it be local alcohol production, like beer for southern germany to czech, wine for austria, france or italy. Sake for Japan maybe.
Ouzo is amazing, glad to see you like it too Ian.
The corpse reviver 2 is a great cocktail that uses only a "rinse" of the glass with absynthe
Regarding LMGs in a match setting for grading:
I was thinking you have a combat vet/machine gunner downrange in the pits, and he doesn't know who is shooting. He's just hanging out in the pit and hearing the rounds crack over his head. At the same time, you have tombstone formation targets that the shooter is trying to suppress/hit. He, and an assistant can roll down the target, count and tape the hits, and radio the number of hits back to you at the firing line. The veteran would give a 1-10 score on the volume and "perception value" of the suppression, combined with the number of hits.
Suppression and it's effectiveness revolves around mechanical and physical elements, but it's also very psychological. Hits are extra credit, but it essentially regards the unwillingness of enemy troops to relocate, move, or advance in the face of what they perceive to be relatively dangerous fire at distance from a machine gunner who knows they're there, and is doing his job well.
Afghan and Iraq 11B, machine gunner in both, and that's the best I can think of to attempt to quantify and score suppression.
I've only ever seen pits at Camp Perry, I'm not sure if that's a thing in the civilian world at large.
"Firearms design is apolitical. "
M14 sweats profusely.
"Design" and 'development process' aren't the same thing.
All Japanese firearms too.
@@ryfish5 A lot of the weapons adopted by the Japanese military were based off of successful Western designs. With a few exceptions, they functioned reasonably well.
German commission rifle. HEAVY SWEATING
Mechanical design is apolitical. Development of requirements can be extremely political.
Ian, on the question of machinegun matches - consider reaching out to the public affairs officer or the commander of a national guard unit near you.
National guard bases are not subject to the same onerous restrictions about use of firearms as federal installations, and a great deal of discretion is allowed to the national guard units about what policies are in place - for example, the Michigan national guard recognizes the right of people to carry firearms on Fort Custer with a valid state CPL which would be unthinkable on any federal base.
In addition to this, these bases are generally built with standard army carbine and machinegun ranges with falling and self-resetting targets - some machinegun ranges even have arrays.
It could be fun to watch you tag along for a machinegun range with one of their units, or potentially host a match there if you can build some rapport with one of their officers, they're usually very chill.
There seemed to be a stronger correlation between countries known for making firearms and beer than hard liquor.
Would AK count? It replaced SKS, SVT-40, Mosin and PPSH all eventually, depending how you look at the timeframe.
And yeah, I get it's replacing a rifle and a SMG in a way, just that it's replacing a ton of WW2 jank too. Maybe that means it does not count.
Could one argue that some shorter rifles replaced pistols, Rifles and SMGs?
Prototype design that was *this close* to being really good? Although the Hotchkiss Universal was not only a prototype and was even produced in moderate numbers the Universal could have been easily made much more practical by making the barrel and pistol grip unfoldable and having a more comfortable pistol grip instead of the hollowed out pistol girp. The stock could have been redesigned to fold to the side instead of under the gun and the rear sling swivel moved to the receiver cap or stock instead of being on the pistol grip.
Effective suppressing fire is generally considered to be one round per second striking within 1 meter of the target.
Ian, are you part of headstamp or just having them print your books?
I am a founding partner.
@@ForgottenWeapons I’m really glad to see so many good reference books coming out of Headstamp. Growing up in the early 2000s, old Cold War era reference books were one of the big things that got me into firearms (as well as tanks, airplanes etc.) Would love to see a Headstamp book covering American lever actions if you (or a colleague) is ever so inclined.
@@JMAN-pg4tg would be more in Karl's department
@@kaschberle6948 the thought occurred to me. Maybe Karl could write the book if he was interested in doing so, and Headstamp could publish
Hi All, I went to a police auction, the auctioneer said that most of the guns were broken, that unless somebody was interested in something in particular he wasn't going start bidding. If somebody was interested in one gun he would.
Do a video of broken guns, he could have shown you dozens, at your local police auction.
You would not have to travel. Thanks, take care.
That answer to the Soviet question was one of the best I’ve seen. Whenever someone says that “capitalism breeds innovation,” Soviet arms design, the polio vaccine, and US manufacturing in WWII are the best examples
I do sometimes wonder how much capitalism might stifle innovation. Just the pressure of having to turn a profit (and do so quickly) must have some effect that discourages trying something radically different that might bomb or be the bomb. But if the government's paying for it...
Then again consumer goods and a weapons procurement program to equip a national army are vastly different things, so maybe that's just a case of the apple calling the orange the new black.
I have to disagree on the U.S. WWII production numerous companies took contracts to produce new or experimental armaments many produced working prototypes.
For an LMG competition stage, what if you had bunch of knock over targets at whatever range with a Time constraint and ammunition points? There would be a trade off of time vs ammo spent. Would make for interesting comparisons of belt-fed vs magazine-fed LMGs.
You could do the "pop up" as we call them. You could also do what they do for tank and Bradley gunnery. Get a hit on target and then "suppress" the area with a "Z" pattern. It takes multiple target set out in an area for the gunner to engage. You could make one steel to assess a hit and them the usual cardboard ones for the area suppression. You could then time the engagements. I would suggest having the gunner move to different positions and have several engagements.
I guess the big "what if" for 7.62 NATO would be "what if the US had signed off on the plan to have the FAL in .280 British as a standard NATO rifle?"
RE: the LMG competition ideas, I could see a kind of "whack-a-mole" stage. A bunch of large targets (torso or larger) that pop in and out of cover randomly, scored on hits on paper, or some kind of heavy knock-over system. This could simulate keeping multiple enemy combatants suppressed at the same time. Disclaimer: I have literally no experience here.
For the LMG competition I would want to use automated popup and moving steel targets, and then control them via networked Arduinos to run a program that run the logic for the popups, moves and stages. An added benefit of this is that you could automate the scoring/timing.
I would do popups with pneumatics, and moves would be done by an electric motor on a chain. By moving a set of 5-10 targets across the range, you'd simulate a squad moving without cover. Groups of popup targets test the user's ability to lay down effective suppressing fire. You get the idea.
This would be ALOT of development, but you really only have to do it once, and its well within Ian's skills as Mechanical Engineering Technologist. I imagine if you marketed right (patreon tier or Kickstarter, plus InRange and FW) you could charge quite a bit and make a decent profit.
Also a Kasarda drill with an LMG, where you have to empty a belt, would hilarious.
On the topic of the .32ACP SMG, IMO it is complicated by being the physical manifestation of a contradiction. The Skorpion is pistol sized but used like an SMG with bursts. Given the performance of the round, that gives it functionality similar a short barreled, small bore shotgun loaded with #1 buckshot that has an insane degree of choke. It isn't a pistol, it isn't an SMG, but it can be compared to a 28ga lupara.
@ 24:30 The Remington model 8 was chambered in 30 Remington. That was the parent case for the 10mm auto. Jeff Cooper and friends cut off the bottle neck, stuck in a 40 caliber bullet, and called it 10mm. The 6.8 SPC is also based on the old 30 Remington.
Last time I was this early Turkish Mauser ammo was standard velocity
You should keep the hashtag, when you click on it, it brings you to 700 videos of yours. It even brought up a few I'd never seen.
Chromelined bores also protect the bore from corrosive ammo. Funny thing, I acquired some .45 ACP from 1943 that was marked corrosive with steel casings, but as far as I know, they never chrome lined 1911 barrels.