Wrong Caliber

Marv forwarded this article.

I was surprised that I owned two of the guns mentioned.

A Savage 99.

 

A Winchester Model 54.

 My 54 is in the wrong caliber, it's in .30-06.

Both guns still shoot just fine.

They exceed both my eyes and my skills.

Paws

 Shadow sleeps with an iron grip!

Memories

Saw a compilation of military fails.

One of them was a group of Marines looking in a grassy field for a missing suppressor.

I remember during Reforger hearing about a unit that had lost an M9 near where we were operating.

We all looked at each other in the turret for a moment and simultaneously said, "free pistol!"

Hey, it's not like we signed for it!

Sadly, we did not find it. 

Remember!

Starting Tuesday, it is gauche to wear white until next spring.

#TheMoreYouKnow

hat-tip Mr Fleetwood 

After A Point

Doing the Gun Stats math on 12ga 2-3/4" shotgun ammo.

It doesn't quite match the Basic Set or High Tech stats.

One load of 00 buck matches exactly, most don't.  The 1,325 fps stuff gets 1d pi instead of 1d+1 pi.  1,600 fps gets it to 1d+1 pi, but that's a single Hornady loading. 

But once you do #2 birdshot, the damage stays 1d-5(0.5) pi-, you just get more pellets and a higher chance to hit, until #9 birdshot when it changes to 1d-5(0.2) pi-.

I will probably calculate all of the shot sizes because you lose range with every decrease in shot size.

00 Buck is 40/800 for range.  #4 birdshot is 16/312.

Steel shot doesn't do less damage than lead, or lose range, but you get more pellets. 

It Wasn't A Problem 20 Years Ago

NRA is suing over Denver's non-resident carry ban.

Back in 2007 when I was in Denver to say goodbye to Mom, my Florida permit was good to go.

Not sure what happened in the meantime, but...

The NRA wouldn't have to sue if it hadn't changed.

Customer Appreciation Day

My favorite local brewery does a customer appreciation day over Labor Day weekend every year.

They grill burgers and hot dogs and give them out for free.

Something that stands out is how many new faces I see there.

The customers bring their extended families for free grub...

But they're not the worst.  You can make the case that they appreciate the family letting their customer come to the brewery.

The worst are the people, families in tow, who have never patronized the place. 

It ticks me off.

I like the owners of the brewery and I don't like seeing these people take advantage of them. 

However

If someone is so mentally off center that they're a danger to others, they need to be kept from others.

Not guilty by reason of insanity should lead to a mental hospital.

The stay to be governed by how long it takes them to regain sanity and if they never do, then they stay forever.

An insanity plea shouldn't be a means to escape all the consequences of their actions.

Arguably, a successful insanity defense should yield a worse "punishment" than prison because release is predicated on showing they have, fully, recovered from their psychosis and are safe to be among the rest of us.  That predication makes the sentence open ended and indefinite.

I'm open to the argument that any mental illness that leads to a homicide should end in euthanasia.  I can also see how dangerous that idea is, so I'm not advocating for it.

We've a mental health problem in the US.  We dismantled a working system in the Reagan era, rightfully in too many cases, and did nothing to replace it.

Solid, compassionate, institutions caring for the mentally ill were closed with the callous and abusive.  Thanks Sixty Minutes!

It does need fixed, but who do you trust to do it? 

Sexism

It only took 18 minutes for a jury to convict John Battaglia for murdering his two daughters.

His defense (on appeal) was remarkably, and superficially, similar to Lindsey Clancy's.

The Lovely Harvey is following this trial closely and I'm getting snippets.

Something that stands out is the willingness to create a narrative where her husband is actually responsible, even if she did the actual killing.

But none dare call it sexism. 

Florida!

Florida, where guns are so easy to get that criminals are forced to use pick-axes to assault people!

News link.

But since guns are easy to get, our assailant got shot for his trouble.

Slow clap.

Note that this was the second time the assailant had come at the victim. 

Measure Countermeasure

The pace of armor development and rounds that penetrate said armor is evidenced by the staggering number of new rounds since the Cold War ended.

The Russians improve reactive armor, we improve the APFSDSDU.

We improve the round, the Russians make another improvement to their reactive armor.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

But such things are, presently, not in the damn rules for GURPS.

So I'm making shit up.  SWAG, but still... 

1st generation Explosive Reactive Armor (Blazer 1982, Kontakt-1 1985) eliminates the armor divisor of HEAT and HEDP and nullifies the special effects of HESH; making them just HE rounds.

2nd generation Explosive Reactive Armor (Kontakt-3 never produced), as 1st gen plus: Reduce the armor divisor of AP type rounds from (2) to (1.5).

3rd generation Explosive Reactive Armor (Kontakt-5 1988), as 1st gen plus:  Reduce the armor divisor of AP type rounds from (2) to (1.25).  Reduce the armor divisor of the second charge of an MS-HEAT round from (10) to (5).

4th generation Explosive Reactive Armor (Nihz 2003), as 3rd gen, except change the AP armor divisor from (2) to (1). 

Spaced armor, as per High Tech p.229, is designated with an S after the DR gives 1.5x the DR vs HEAT and HEDP rounds and negates the special effects of HESH.

Laminated armor is designated with an L after the DR and gives 2x the DR vs HEAT and HEDP rounds and negates the special effects of HESH. 

Starting with the M829A2 APFSDSDU round ignores the effects of 3rd plus generation ERA.  Not sure what to call this ammunition upgrade.  ERA Proofed?  Reinforced Rod?

 

Finally Some Good News

Deserter's conviction reinstated!

I can't believe this shit is still going on, nice to see resolution happening.

MS-HEAT

Gun Stats assumes that both shaped charges are the same size!

So you calculate them from the published penetration in millimeters, which comes out as half as much as a single stage, then double that damage.

A normal HEAT round that punches 900mm will do 6dx12(10) cr ex linked 6dx5 cr ex.

An MS-HEAT round that punches 900mm calculates at 6dx6(10) cr ex linked 6dx5 cr ex.

If the target is protected by explosive, reactive armor MS-HEAT does the listed damage as if the ERA wasn't there.  If it not protected by ERA, then double the listed damage. 

Silly me, I've been finding out the penetration of the precursor charge and main charge then adding them.

For example, the PG-29V fired from the RPG-29 will penetrate 900mm RHA, but only 750mm it it's protected by reactive armor.

So that means the precursor charge penetrates 150mm on its own.

I've been showing this as 6dx2(10) cr ex follow-up 6dx10(10) cr ex linked 6dx5 cr ex.

It comes out the same on RHA, but penetrates better when there's ERA than the rules as written. 

Slaved To The Gun

Some write ups comparing the fire control of the M60A3 and M1 make it seem like there's no reason to use the M1 fire control system.

Both are fully stabilized.

Both use laser range finders.

Both have wind sensors.

Fruit, fruit.  Tits, tits.

The M1 computer has more processing power and does the job faster, but it doesn't make a big difference when the time choke-point is the loader. 

The gun is slaved to the sight.

What this means is when I'm tracking a target and stab the lase button, my view, and the crosshairs stay on the target and the turret shifts.

But what makes the M1 system better?

In a word, integration.

The M1, and it's fire control computer, were designed together.

The M60's system is an add-on that had to work with existing hardware and that makes it a bit clunky.  This article gives a decent description. 

RPG Pen

If you look closely, you'll see a small hole under the smoke-grenade stowage box.

We had a HEAT round battle carried and we were pieing the corner of an alleyway when we got hit. I thought they got a 1:1mil shot down our gun tube at first.

I was the loader. My gunner and TC both got peppered pretty well from the blast and I caught a bit as well.

Gunner got medevac’d to Germany because of the flash burns to his face. “Ruined his modeling career” as he put it.

The hole in the sponson box was actually from an earlier rpg attack, but it hit sandbags in the box and never detonated.

The small hole at the lower left side under the smoke grenade box is the entrance hole of the one that did us in.

Plt Sgt had me digging in the hole with needle nose pliers trying to get something out when Col. Robert Abrams (our Brigade Commander at the time) walked up and said “what the fuck are you doing?!?” Good times.”

-- David S

The write up explains it's an M1A2SEP.

That makes the side turret DR 1,580L.  1,147mm RHAE v HEAT.

For a heat round to penetrate that it needs to be, at least,  6dx15(10) cr ex, for the average hit to penetrate.  6dx9(10) cr ex can penetrate with a max-damage roll.

The PG-7VR warhead can penetrate 900mm of RHA with its tandem warhead.  At first you think it cannot, but the damage roll is based on an average where all the dice roll 3.5.

I'm not showing all my work here, read the rules and it's clearer. 

6dx4(10) cr ex follow-up 6dx8(10) cr ex linked 6dx5 cr ex; which is treated as a single 6dx12(10) cr ex attack if there is no reactive armor.  On average it penetrates DR 1,260L

So, DR is doubled for laminated armor vs HEAT.  3160.

Divided by the armor divisor of 10.  316.

Divide by 12 to find out if we can penetrate with this round, if it's more than 36, no.  26.3333.

The PG-7VR, on a good roll, can penetrate the turret side of an M1A2SEPv1.

This GURPS.

Same Logic

Public opinion is against Flock and other similar camera systems.

To the point that the local sheriff canceled their contract with both Flock and Axios.

Governor DeSantis banned them from FDOT right of ways.

But the press is publishing lots of articles like the picture above.

It seems very much akin to saying that since the Nazis MUST have killed a few people who deserved it, then The Holocaust is completely justified.

Some of the nearby county's sheriffs are not getting the message the public is sending and are saying that they will continue using Flock cameras that are placed on private property.  I think some of them have been running unopposed for so long they've forgotten they're elected officials and subject to the opinions of their constituents.
 

Who Would Win

I've noticed that the Soviets had better guns and thicker armor than the NATO nations until relatively late.

NATO didn't start getting gun parity until the British 105mm L7.

NATO didn't start pulling ahead in armor until Chobham.

NATO tanks are almost always taller and heavier than their Soviet counterparts.

So, NATO was screwed before tanks like Abrams and Leopard II hit the scene?

Maybe not.

For the gun and armor to matter, you need to hit, and the Western designers put a lot of effort and thought into fire control.

The first step in accurate fire is an accurate determination of the target's range.

You'll see little bulges on the sides of US tank turrets.  These hold the objective lenses of the range finder, either coincidence or stereoscopic.

The earliest of these give the range which is called out and the appropriate stadia in the optic is aligned with the target.

The US miniaturized the mechanical fire control computers it'd been using on ships and put them in tanks.  The range obtained from the rangefinder could be input into the computer, along with wind speed and the reticle would be shifted so the gunner need only align a, relatively simple and uncluttered, crosshair on the target to hit.

This is all happening while the T-55 has no rangefinder at all and the T-62 uses stadiametric ranging.

The US then automated the process by putting a linkage between the rangefinder and fire control computer.

This was in the 90mm equipped M48A2, in 1953!

The M60A1 started with this.  Later versions got a solid state computer, laser rangefinder and sensors to compensate for wind muzzle droop and cant.

This is all in addition to stabilization that allowed for firing accurately on the move.

Of course, to effectively use all this fun technology requires some education and training that's, typically, absent from the Warsaw Pact and Soviet customers.

Israel vs et al kind of proves the thesis. 

To Be Fair

If we're going to count all the variations of the M1816 musket as a single service weapon, then we really should count all the variations of the AR-15 as a single weapon.

The M16 series (including the M4 series) is the king of service life, 1966 to 2022 or 56 years.

56 and counting since the M7 roll-out has not been smooth by any measure and many units, INFANTRY battalions, not support units, are still rocking the M4A1.

If we count each variation as its own weapon the M1865 is still the shortest in service, but the average number of years we stick to a specific design drops precipitously.

Even within some very short lived designs, like the Krag, there's several sub-versions.

Sometimes it's hard to tell how long a weapon was the primary infantry arm because they didn't replace the old ones, just stopped issuing them in favor of the new one.

This is true of the M1816 series and the Krag.  Units might have all the same gun, they might have a few of each.

Service Lives

Our first service rifle was, um, not a rifle.

It was the M1795, .69 caliber flintlock musket. (19 years)

It was replaced by the .69 caliber M1812 in 1814. (2 years)

It was replaced by the .69 caliber M1816 in 1816.  They didn't have an "A" designation so instead of M1816A1, we get M1822, M1835, M1840 and M1842.  The M1842 being the first caplock.  The Army didn't really consider them different guns, just different designations to keep track of small changes.  (39 years)

Those models were technically still front line weapons all the way to 1855 when we get the .58 caliber M1855 rifle musket in 1856.  Followed by the M1861, and M1863.  (9 years)

The first breech-loader is the M1865 chambered in .58-60-500 rimfire.  This is also the first Erskine Allin trapdoor to be type classified!  (1 year)

Then we get a trapdoor chambered in .50-70-450, the M1866.  Then The M1868 and M1870.  (7 years)

The cost of converting old caplocks turned out to be prohibitive and since they were making all new guns anyway, they decided on, yet, another chambering for the trapdoor.  The .45-70 M1873.  Then M1884, and M1888.  (19 years)

Smokeless supplanted black powder and the .30-40 Krag-Jørgensen M1892 hits the scene plus M1896 and M1898.  (11 years)

Then the M1903 Springfield in .30-03.  Then the M1903 in .30-06 in 1906.  (33 years)

The M1903 was, kind of, replaced by the "Enfield" M1917, but the M1917 was replaced by the M1903 after WW1.  The M1917 doesn't really count because it was a secondary standard.

We'd stopped using the year in the designation by 1936 when the M1 Garand is adopted.  This "gas-trap" version only lasted 4 years when it was replaced by the M1 with a drilled gas port.  (21 years)

The Garand was replaced in 1957 by the M14.  (9 years).

The M14 was replaced by the XM16E1 in 1966, M16A1 in 1969. (17 years)

The M16A1 was replaced by the M16A2 in 1983. (11 years)

The M16A2 was replaced by the M4 in 1994.  Then the M4 was changed to an M4A1 with a heavier barrel in 2014.  (28 years)

The M4A1 was officially replaced by the M7 in 2022.  (4 years)

The M7 was unofficially replaced by the XM8 in 2026. 

So the all time record for shortest service life goes to the M1855 with just one year!

The longest being the 39 years of the M1816 musket and its variations. 

¡Viva Cuba! ¡Cuba Libre!

Just for Technomad! 

Lee M1895 (6mm Lee) rifle: TL 6, Dmg 5d+2 pi, Acc 4, Range 800/5,600, Weight 8.6, RoF 1, Shots 5(3), ST 9, Bulk -5, Rcl 3, Cost $900, LC 3.

Krag-Jørgensen M1892 (.30-40) rifle: TL 6, Dmg 6d pi, Acc 5, Range 1,070/4,500, Weight 9.2/0.3, RoF 1, Shots 5+1(3i), ST 10, Bulk -6, Rcl 3, Cost $650, LC 3.

Krag-Jørgensen M1896 (.30-40) carbine: TL 6, Dmg 6d pi, Acc 5, Range 1,030/4,300, Weight 7.8/0.3, RoF 1, Shots 5+1(3i), ST 10, Bulk -5, Rcl 4, Cost $650, LC 3. 

And for fun, the Spanish Hornet!

Mauser Model 1893 (7x57mm) rifle: TL 6, Dmg 6d+1 pi, Acc 4, Range 1,150/4,800, Weight 9/0.3, Rof 1, Shots 5+1(3), ST 9, Bulk -5, Rcl 3, Cost $900, LC 3.

He's on his own to determine which is "worth it." 

GURPS will not show any of the numerous real-world foibles these three actions had.

Given the choice, I'm arming my men with Mausers; but remember that the troops with the Krags won in Cuba. 

Yes Yes It Does

Reader Technomad asks, "Why would the Navy adopt a different rifle in the first place? Wouldn't that complicate things?"

Yes and no.

Back in the late 19th century, the Navy and Army used completely different and independent supply and procurement systems.

It didn't matter that the Navy adopted a different rifle and cartridge from the Army because there was no interoperability requirement.

Small arms for the Navy was often an afterthought as well.

I would not be surprised that the reason the Navy uses the same rifle as the Army now is because they bought Army rifles when the Lee didn't live up to expectations and discovered how much cheaper they were because of the bulk discount the Army got and that they didn't have to spend any money on the development.

Or they didn't bother developing their own guns for the same costs reasons while the USMC starting growing past a ship-board infantry requirement into an expeditionary force.

It should be noted that the Jarheads have reverted to having their own rifles with their adoption of the M27, phase-out of the M4, and rejection of the M7 and XM8.

A Little Irony

Being on the GM side of the Ford/Chevy debate in hot-rodding means that the brakes on my car came from Australia.

I noticed that on the castings for my '79 Camaro and they were present on the Biscayne SS and Corvette too.

But The Beast is running Brembo.

I bought an Australian car and for the first time in decades, my brakes aren't.

I guess having Italian brakes means continuing the tradition of the calipers being from a different nation than the car. 

A New Record!

The Krag-Jørgensen was he official service rifle of the US Army from 1894 to 1903; until replaced by the M1903.  Nine years.

The M14 was the official service rifle of the US Army from 1957 to 1966; until replaced by the XM16E1.  Nine years.

Both are noted as having incredibly short lives. 

The M7 was the official service rifle of the US Army from 2022 to 2026; until replaced by the XM8.  Four years!

The XM8 appears to have an adoption process so truncated that it makes the rushed development of the M7 seem positively sedate.

SIGH. 

Recurring Theme

I've lost track of the number of times that a .357 has been loaded with .38 Special because...

There's no reason, it's just our policy.

The first time I bumped into this was when the SEALs in Vietnam asked for S&W Model 19 revolvers.

Someone, with authority over whether such guns were purchased or not took one to the range with the issue .38 ammo he could get from the supply system and compared it with the Model 15 and decided that there was no advantage to getting the Model 19 and ordered the Model 15's.

Yeah, exactly the same if you use .38 Special and never try .357 in it...

Then I was reading about the '86 Miami shootout.  McNeill and Mireles were carrying, with approval, privately owned .357 Magnum revolvers, Orrantia was (likely) packing the issue model 13 .357; and all were firing the issue .38 Special.

Then I keep bumping across stories of departments mandating the use of department issued ammo and nobody issuing .357 Magnum even if they issued or allowed guns chambered for it. 

If you're not going to issue .357 ammo, then why buy guns for it? 

Fun Little Details

On the cover of The Free City of Krakow is this little tidbit:

I think it says 105mm on the side there, and I don't think we ever made a nuke round for that gun.

Never mind that this is a really small box for even a 105mm howitzer round.

How Much To Be A Nuclear Power?

In GURPS: Twilight - 2000 you, too, can be a nuclear power!

An M109A4 runs $567,000.  An M198 towed gun runs $530,000 and a 5-ton to drag it around adds $41,000.

A 155mm XM454 AFAP round is $4,991,250.

So you need $5,558,250 for the track and one round.  $5,562,250 to go wheeled.

Starting wealth is $5,000, so you need 1112.45 times starting wealth to buy into this dream.

That's 50 points for Filthy Rich to get $500,000.  Another 25 gets the first level of Multimillionaire and $5,000,000.  Another couple (2) points adds another $1,000,000 getting you a total of $6,000,000 for 77 points and you now command a howitzer and a single round W48 warhead.

It's scary that this is technically possible if a player thinks ahead a little bit.

UPDATE:

The cheap route is to get a 152mm D-20 towed howitzer for $150,000, a deuce-and-a-half for $22,000 to drag it around and a 3BV3 round for $5,682,937.50.  Wait; that's not cheaper at all!

We Got Lied To

Both the US and USSR had stocks of nuke shells for their howitzers when The Cold War ended.

I was kinda assured that wasn't so when I did NBC training in 1987.

We were really worried about the chemical part of NBC but with all the yapping about IRBM's like the Pershing II, they sort of assured us that normal cannon-cockers weren't involved with the N part...

Well, I have GURPS stats for them now. 

Went Down Fighting!

The Lovely Harvey got off one shot before she became a casualty.

But she got 'im!

This was her first time out with her Sgt Barnes clone and she only had the very tip of the bottom of the butt in her shoulder.

To say that it smarted a bit GROSSLY understated the eye-watering pain she experienced and she was done shooting today.

I zeroed my Spitfire AR on Dottie.  I'm out of practice, I was hitting an 8" circle at 100 yards when I confirmed my zero.  I was a little distracted by Harvey hurting her shoulder, but that shouldn't have mattered this much.

Not sure I'm completely OK with the reticle on the Spitfire.  The center dot is VERY small and hard to see against pretty much anything.  I forgot to check to see if was better in red than green.

Eerie

Using the 40 kiloton W33 warhead in high-yield mode, we do 6dx17,889 cr ex linked 6dx11,628 burn ex rad sur.

The radius of effect from p. B414 is 2x the dice in yards, or 214,668 yards or 122 miles for the explosion.  139,536 yards or 80 miles for the flash.

The average roll of 21 on 6d gets 375,669 points of crushing damage from the explosion and 244,188 for the flash.

This is at ground zero.  So don't stand there if you can help it.

But the damage falls off fast!

Remember, the average 10 HP person is making death rolls after taking 20 points of damage, is automatically dead after taking 60 and is nearly unrecognizable as a corpse at 110. 

Nukemap says the radius of the fire ball is just 1,270 ft or 423 yards.

You divide the crushing explosion damage by 3x the yards from ground zero.  The burn explosion damage is divided by 2x the yards from ground zero.

So at 423 yards you take 296 points from the explosion and 289 from the flash.

Heavy blast damage (20 psi) goes out to 2,440 ft, or 813 yards.  Thats 154 points from the explosion and 150 from the flash.

Moderate blast damage (5 psi) goes out to 0.97 miles, or 1,707 yards.  That's 75 points from the explosion and 72 from the flash.

Radiation radius (500 rem) is 0.98 miles or 1,724 yards.  That's 73 points from the explosion and 71 points from the flash.

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns) is 1.62 miles or 2,851 yards.  That's 44 points from the explosion and 43 points from the flash.

Light blast damage (1 psi) goes out to 2.5 miles or 4,400 yards.  That's 28 points from the explosion and 28 from the flash.

At the theoretical max blast circle, you take 0.58 points of damage from the blast.

At the theoretical max flash circle you take 0.9 points of damage from the blast and 0.88 from the flash.  Someone could punch you harder than that! 

For a bit of perspective:

An M67 fragmentation grenade does 9d[2d] cr ex.  That does an average of 32 points at the detonation point.

Don't be around nukes when they go off!

This, mostly, GURPS. 

The W79 Mod 0 dialed all the way up does: 6x2,966 cr ex linked 6dx1,928 burn ex rad sur.  Average damages of 62,286 and 40,488 each.

Fireball: 100 yards - 208 from blast, 202 from flash.
Heavy: 246 yards - 84 from blast, 82 from flash.
Moderate: 517 yards - 40 from blast, 39 from flash.
Thermal: 581 yards - 36 from blast, 35 from flash.
Radiation: 933 yards - 22 from blast, 22 from flash.
Light: 1,320 yards - 16 from blast, 15 from flash.

Dialed down it's: 6dx283 cr ex linked 6dx1,928 burn ex rad sur.  Average damages of 5,943 and 40,488 each.

Fireball: 38 yards - 52 from blast, 532 from flash.
Heavy: 110 yards - 18 from blast, 184 from flash.
Moderate: 232 yards - 9 from blast, 87 from flash.
Thermal: 255 yards - 8 from blast, 79 from flash.
Light: 596 yards - 3 from blast, 34 from flash.
Radiation: 613 yards - 3 from blast, 33 from flash.

These too, GURPS!

Toe To Toe With The Rooskies

In 1981 we developed another nuke round for the 8" howitzer.

It's something interesting.

The W79 is a radiation enhanced warhead.

Normally the burn ex rad sur damage is 65% of the cr ex damage in GURPS.

The W79 Mod 0's low yield mode gets the same burn ex rad sur damage as the full yield mode!

So the XM753 with W79 Mod 0 is a rocket assisted round that does 6dx25(0.5) pi++ linked 6dx283 cr ex linked 6dx1928 burn ex rad sur in low yield configuration.

It does 6dx25(0.5) pi++ linked 6dx2966 cr ex linked 6dx1928 burn ex rad sur in high yield configuration.

The W79 Mod 1 only has a single mode and does 6dx35(0.5) pi++ linked 6dx2530 cr ex linked 6dx1645 burn ex rad sur.  (I love how it lists a damage for the projectile before the explosion, though they're all air-burst capable).

GURPS range is -/24,600.  That's about 14 miles.  <- Fixed!

GURPS range is -/24,600.  That's about 19.7 miles.  That's safe, right?

14 is a bit short of the 19 Wikipedia lists.  I could be that's because they gave the velocity for a Zone 7 charge.  Rocket assisted rounds usually use the heaviest launching charge, so...  Using the velocity for a Zone 9 charge I get about 18 miles, which is closer (and might even be correct as the exact ranges of these things are classified.)

UPDATE: I forgot that this round was never fired from the short barreled M110 and was always used with the M110A2.

With a Zone 8 charge it gets 2,770 fps. and will go to 34,650 yards which is 19.7 miles which is nearly spot-on-close-enough to the range listed in Wikipedia!

This GURPS! Now... 

We Got Lucky I Think

As I tear into all these cannon and howitzer stats and make GURPS stats for tanks; I realize how near a thing WW3 might have been if it had started before 1988.

Our tank armor wasn't really sufficient for the guns the Soviets were going to be using against us.

Our guns weren't sufficient for the armor the Soviets were fielding.

One advantage we started accumulating was the ability to fight at night.  The Soviets lagged on that.

Our fire control stuff was far better, but that doesn't matter if you can't penetrate.

We could also shoot on the move better, but again, it doesn't matter if you can't penetrate.

We'd be in a similar situation as in WW2 when our best gun wasn't punching the front armor of the enemy, and we'd have to get around to the sides and rear.  Without being able to rely on the enemy's best tanks breaking down every ten meters. 

203mm 2A44

The Soviets made an 8" howitzer too.  It was introduced in 1975 and it's still in service.

The 2A44 gun is mounted on the 2S7 Pion self propelled gun.

The rounds weigh 227 lb. or 240 lb.

A nuke round was developed. 

I have ranges from wikipedia. 

Ukraine managed us US 8" projectiles. 

This is just about all I know about this gun.

I assume there's an HE round, because every howitzer has one.

FASCAM?  DPICM?  Chem?  Smoke?

Base bleed?  Rocket Assist?

Who knows!

A copy of Jane's Artillery '95-96 is en route.  Maybe it will have some answers.

Sort of related:  There's scanty information online about the gun on the M110 and M110A2 SPG's too.  Still digging there too.

Artillery Again

Did the 8" for the M110 tonight.  This gun comes up for both Twilight: 2000 and Funny New Guys.

Same green bag/white bag deal as 155mm.

M1 Charge (green bag), Zone 1 (base increment): 6.3 lb.; 806 fps.
M1 Charge (green bag), Zone 2: 7.6 lb.; 879 fps.
M1 Charge (green bag), Zone 3: 9.3 lb.; 984 fps.
M1 Charge (green bag), Zone 4: 11.7 lb.; 1,133 fps.
M1 Charge (green bag), Zone 5: 15 lb.; 1,358 fps.
M2 Charge (white bag), Zone 5 (base increment): 17.7 lb.; 1,432 fps.
M2 Charge (white bag), Zone 6: 23.1 lb.; 1,675 fps.
M2 Charge (white bag), Zone 7: 30 lb.; 1,950 fps.
M188 Charge, Zone 8: 40 lb.; 2,316 fps.
M188A1 Charge, Zone 9: 50 lb.; 2,510 fps.

The M188 charges don't come around until the mid-70's and are used with DPICM and HERA rounds.

The fun part was calculating the damage for the M422, W33 nuclear round.  Pairs well with the 155mm M785!

6dx17,889 cr ex linked 6dx11,627 burn ex rad sur for the 40k-ton high yield setting.

6dx6,325 cr ex linked 6dx4,111 burn ex rad sur for the 5k-ton low yield setting. 

Battle Of The 8-Wheel Armored Cars

Since I've stranded a LAV-75 in Libya fighting the Afrika Korps, how would it fare against a SdKfz 232 8-Rad?

First, armor.

The LAV has, in F, L/R, Rr, T, B order,  DR 90/75/50/30/30 on the body and DR 67/60/35/35 on the turret.

The SdKfz has, with the "bumper" plate: DR 83S/33/55/14/14 on the body and DR  62/62/62/14 on the turret.

The best AP round for the KwK.30 is the PzGr.40 which is an APHC round doing 6dx3(2) pi++.  That will roll an average of 63 which can penetrate DR 126.  Decent penetration on the front armor.

The KwK.30 is completely manually controlled and sighted, so...

The 6dx5(2) pi++ from the M791 round punches 210 DR, so no problem nailing the front armor of the SdKfz.232.

Again, thermal sights and full weapon stabilization are in play with the LAV and a powered turret with a much faster traverse than the hand-cranked German turret.

The SAS would, literally, murder people in their sleep for the LRDG to get hold of a couple of these.

Top To Bottom

 

The stack of mismatched ammo from this recent post appears to be:

1x 9x19mm ball.

2x 9x19mm HP

4x 7.63x25 Luger

4x 9x19mm ball. 

There are many pictures of guns seized by the cops with wildly mismatched ammo, but I think this is the first time I've seen the wrong round for the gun included. 

I Can Gut It Out

FEMA says I need to have 72 hours of food on hand in the event of a disaster.

That'd be my generous girth, Mr Government Man.

Plus, it's impossible to forget and very difficult to steal.

Not so good for sharing with the family... 

1986

I have the part number for the bolt that holds the crash-bar to the firewall.

11588735.

That's "Multi-Purpose Bolt, M8x1.25x100."

It originally appeared in an Opel in 1986.

Full description is:

This part is a bolt, hexagon flanged head, m8x1.25x100, 22 thread, 18 outside diameter, 8.8 steel, gmw3359, m-point intake manifold, for Chevrolet, Chevrolet Trucks, Buick, Saturn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, GMC Trucks, Opel, and Vauxhall cars. It fits for 113 Opel\Vauxhall vehicles which were sold in the U.S., Europe, and the UK from 1986 to 2013. 

Really it's a bog standard Grade 8.8 bolt with zinc plating.

It's widely used too. 

I am absolutely not worried about cutting 1/4" off this thing anymore. 

What?

From the Baltimore City Crime Gun Intelligence Facebook page:

On August 23, at approximately 3:40 p.m., NED DAT detectives were in the 5400 block of Sinclair Lane when they observed an individual exhibiting behavior consistent with being armed. During the investigation, detectives arrested the suspect and recovered (1) Polymer80 9mm handgun.

The gun in question:

 

What is "behavior consistent with being armed?" 

About That 6-3 Ruling

Hey, blue states, you could have just opened up your voting rolls for inspection and proved that only eligible voters were voting.

Misrepresenting what's going on here seems to be the hallmark of the press.

I've long thought we make it too easy to get registered to vote and too easy to actually vote.

That sounds odd, doesn't it?

But what I mean by too easy is it encourages voting without considering what you're doing.

Voting is important.  Your vote matters.

If we required you to apply in person to register and only allowed you to vote in person, you'd at least have to take a moment to plan that action.

It's your sovereign franchise and you put less effort into it than deciding what you're going to watch on NetFlix.

That making it too easy also makes for casual fraud to occur is secondary to me, but the fraud is what's going to give me my druthers and make voting harder for everyone and still below my threshold. 

Just For Fun

The LAV-25 is a perennial favorite of Twilight: 2000 players.

How would the 25mm Bushmaster fare in the Libyan desert against the Panzer IIIG?

It would fare well.

M791 APDS-T does 6dx5(2) pi++ that rolls 105 on average and punches 210 Dr.
M792 HEI-T's 6dx4(0.5) pi++ linked 4d+1[2d+2] cr ex isn't gonna punch.
M919 APFSDSDU-T doing 6dx8(2) pi inc will certainly punch with an average roll doing 168 before dividing the armor in half, so it'd punch DR 336.

Even the Panzer IIIH is sweating against this 8-wheel armored car.

Of course, the frontal DR 90 of the hull and DR 67 on the turret of a LAV-25 isn't putting up much resistance against the 5cm PzGr39 (see previous post for how much DR that punches).

I think the thermal sights and stabilization on the LAV will matter a great deal.