Stop With The Weapons Of War

A lot of hay is being made by calling the AR-15 a weapon of war.

I understand this is because of its strong resemblance to an M16 or M4.

Want to know what else is a weapon of war?

But, Thag, that's a bolt action hunting rifle!

It is NOW, but in 1892 it was a state of the art design with an incredible rate of fire.  40 aimed shots a minute!

It replaces another weapon of war, what's known as the Trapdoor Springfield.  A single shot rifle it too had an incredible rate of fire of 15 aimed shots a minute!

Cartridge guns were the assault rifles of their day.
Magazine fed guns were the assault rifles of their day.
Semi-automatic fixed magazine guns were the assault rifles of their day.
Now assault rifles are the assault rifle of the day... but they're not semi-automatic.  They're selective fire.

AR-15's merely look like their military counterparts.  There are small, but important differences in the guts that make them shoot much more slowly.

Oh, that reminds me.

This:

and this:

Are direct descendants of this:

Not only a genuine weapon of war, but a weapon used in WW2.

"But, Thag, those guns are obsolete!"

If you don't think that .30-06 can still kill, I invite you to wear a deer costume in hunting season.

Charles Whitman made the majority of his 47 hits with a Remington 700, it too being derived from a military bolt-action rifle like pictured above.

By the way, Whitman was stopped by a combined effort of the police and armed citizens.  People whom didn't hesitate to charge into the gunfire and try to stop the murderer.  Many people were injured or slain attempting to help those who'd been shot previously.

Iron and Wood Comparison

This is Vanessa; she's a 1916 made SMLE #III* from the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield.  She mostly lives on my wall since ammo is expensive.

 Top is Svetlana, bottom is Catherine.  They were made only a year apart.  Both represent the last bolt action rifle issued to the infantry as a primary weapon in their respective nations.

Top is Svetlana, bottom is Rosie.  Made two years apart.  Both represent the main rifle issued to the infantry as a primary weapon in their respective nations during World War 2.  Also the main rifles issued to North Korea and China versus the United States in the Korean War.

I don't have a later pattern bayonet for the Garand; I accept donations.

I think the third photo is very interesting since in 1941, the M1 was technologically one of the most advanced infantry rifles in the world.  In 1950, however, it was no longer state of the art with the Soviet Union having replaced the Mosin with the SKS then AK-47.  The US replaced the Garand very shortly with a Garand derivative; the M14.

The histories of these specific guns are a bit shrouded.

Vanessa was made during The Great War and would almost certainly have seen action.  But I have no idea where or with whom.  With all the weapon shortages during WW2, it seems likely that she was either still in service or was returned to service.  My bayonet is an Indian pattern item, I keep meaning to get a proper British model.  She's been out with me as an impression of a Blackwatch soldier twice and once as a trooper from the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers.  I learned I am not so much into reenacting from those experiences; but at least WW1 reenacting will let you keep your beard!

Catherine was issued to a Marine in the Pacific Theater.  He was the best shot in his platoon, so he got the marksman's rifle.  He carried from issue in 1943 through the end of the war and took it home with him.  It sat in his closet for the next seventy years.  His son sold it to me.  I don't have a scrap of paperwork to verify that story.  I just have an old man on oxygen telling me about his experiences with a blurry globe and anchor tattoo.  And an astounded son who'd never heard his dad tell some of those tales.  I've bumped into this before, some stories are for "members of the club" only.

Rosie is a late 1944 gun.  She's really in too good of shape to have been issued in WW2.  She's marked with arsenal marks from Red River Army Depot indicating she'd be arsenal refinished in 1962.  She may have been to Korea, she may not have.  I tend to think she didn't since we gave the ROK army a lot of Garands I believe almost all of the guns we took over there for the conflict remained.

Svetlana is from 1942 and the Soviets weren't in the habit of letting useful materiel sit about unused.  She was almost certainly issued and was definitely arsenal refinished sometime after the war.

Weapons Of War

Pictured above are genuine weapons of war.  The bottom one served in the Pacific theater in WW2.  These are not neutered variations or clones of the real thing.  They ARE the real thing.

I mention this because I read this dead link and thought appropriate to mention it too.

My ARs and the SA58 are mere shadows of the guns they resemble.  All of them lack the third position on the fire selector.  Not a single one of them has that final requirement of a true assault rifle.

The '94 Assault Weapon Ban did not affect these old warhorses at all.  .30-06 HOLLOW POINTS penetrate more armor than 5.56 ARMOR PIERCING!  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.  That .30-06 will also reach out and touch at about three times the range of an AR or more than four times the AK.  The country is literally awash in these old guys.  Garand, Springfield, Krag, Mosin, SMLE, MAS etc...  All of them built around a real live high-power cartridge.

What happens if we pass no laws banning guns?  Nothing more than is happening already, really.  I definitely would like to illuminate that these old guns are simply never used in crime.

What worries me is someone will forget some hard history lessons and attempt to ban the scary looking guns.  What happens when that mythical 3% believe that they have less to lose by shooting than obeying?  These boys are shooters!  They expend thousands of rounds every year.  I've seen the police and Army shoot.  The Army makes up for their accuracy in volume.  The police?  Not so much.  And it will be the police that bear the brunt of their shooting.

I've read repeatedly about how the cops are mostly good guys and support our rights fully.  OK.  But someone is going to have to reconcile that confiscation under a ban would be carried out by the police and our "good cops" will be wearing the uniform of the enemy.  Will the good cops accept being fired and thus both unemployed and barred from future employment as police, or will they simply obey the orders to enforce the law?  Will we see sheriffs, elected officials, order the arrest of ATF or FBI agents attempting to enforce unconstitutional laws or will they order their deputies to cooperate in order to keep federal funding flowing?  I don't think this is a very hard question, really.  I also think that behavior of the police in and around New Orleans during and after Katrina shows us what the answers are.  It makes me sad.

It can all be averted.  Simply leave the topic alone.  The status quo is being tolerated.  Sure, the gunnies grumble and yes, the laws we have are unconstitutional, but they aren't causing anyone to start shooting.  The unconstitutionality of those laws are currently the subject of debate and a willingness to get them repealed by the same means as they were imposed.  Isn't that much better than civil war?  I think so.

That Had To Be Hard To Write

The LA Times admits that Benitez's ruling is probably going to stand.

One quote stands out, "Newsom contends that the AR-15 is “nothing more than a weapon of war.”"

Let's go there, Gavin!

I direct you to Miller v US where the case was remanded back to the lower court because nobody could show that a sawed-off shotgun was a weapon of war.

If Miller had been busted for having a BAR, the entire NFA would have been gutted like a trout in 1939.

So, pull at that thread, Gavin; the only thing that's kept it from being reaffirmed is the court's ignoring the 2nd Amendment and a flat refusal to incorporated it under the 14th.

Cue Bob Dylan...

The times, they are a changin'.

Thanks! Cocaine Mitch! because the 9th Circuit, today, doesn't look like it did thirty years ago.

Convoluted Path

I was reading about horse cavalry and World War 1.

There's something odd about thinking a guy on a horse with a spear is still effective after the invention of the machine gun.

It also reminded me that there's a difference between cavalry and a dragoon.

In a nut shell: cavalry fight from their horses, dragoons are infantry using horses as transportation.

Dragoons dismount to fight.  The United States gave up on cavalry after the end of the Civil War.  All "cavalry" from then until tanks were developed were actually dragoons.

Europe kept both with dragoons slowly becoming elite infantry as the horses were supplanted by trucks.

As is typical, a character idea spawned this little research trip.  And a scene from a television show inspired the character.

A little background.  In GURPS 4e if you want something that's from a more advanced Tech Level you will pay double for each level that item is above the campaign normal.  So if the local tech is 3, you pay 2x for TL4, 4x for TL5 and 8x for TL6 and so on.

They typical sword and sorcery world like Dungeons and Dragons is a TL3 world in GURPS.  World War 1 is TL6.  Today is TL8.

When making a character who is going to be from off the local world one wants more advanced stuff than the locals.  Stuff like guns!  You will want to be familiar with the primitive transportation systems, because a car is REALLY expensive and AAA doesn't offer interplanar towing.

This kind of limits the choices for reasonable character designs.

Through the beginning of WW2 (which is mostly TL7) horses were still viable and common transportation in many places.  Post apocalypse characters where the infrastructure has collapsed might also be viable here.

But costs start to bite you.

A K.98b is $400 in its native TL6.  That's a $3,200 rifle in a place like Middle Earth.
A Remington model 700 is a mere $450 in the TL7 it's from; but that balloons to $7,200 when the GM lets you have it in a TL3 world.
Just to show some insanity an Accuracy International AW is a TL8 rifle selling for $4,700.  To bring that into a TL3 world would require 32 times the cash or $150,400!

Starting wealth is a mere $1,000 in a TL3 world.  You can purchase more wealth during character creation, but there's limits.  The wealth levels are 2x, 5x, 20x and 100x the starting value.  With the 100x level costing 1/3 the points given to a "typical" adventurer.  And you still can't afford the AW!  You can have 1,000x wealth for 50% more points, but that's half your character points!

It gets even more nasty if the GM enforces the settled lifestyle limits on your character.  The wealth assumes that you have a home someplace and 4/5 of your money is tied up in it.  For a TL3 wandering adventurer, it's not too hard to justify.  Do you know ANY homeless people who can afford a high end rifle like an AW, or any rifle at all?

But lets back up a tad.

In game terms there's not a lot of difference between a K.98b and the AW except for the scope.  The TL6 WW1 lancer is definitely a more viable character in TL3 than his TL8 Twilight 2000 counterpart simply because there will be vastly fewer points spent on wealth.

Another price point.  "Light" machine guns.  An MG.08/15 is a 45.8 lb. $7,000 item in the trenches but $56,000 when used on Orcs.  The MG.42 is a mere 30.5 lb. and $3,400 against Stalin, but $54,400 against Sauron.  An FN Mk.48 Mod.0 is 25.3 lb. and will set you back $8,000 on the Taliban and $256,000 on the Urak-Hai.

The same price hits happen on ammo too!  It might not be a bad idea to find weapon of a given TL that uses ammo developed for the previous TL.  Like that MG.42.  The ammo is TL6 where the gun is TL7; 16x for the gun but 8x for the ammo.

Hopefully you'll only have to do the math once during character creation.

Things That People Ignore

The M16, M16A1, M16A2, M16A3 and M16A4 have 20" barrels.

Colt made several carbines based on the M16 series with 10-14.5" barrels for military service. So far, only the M4 has gotten wide issue.

Where did those carbine barrel lengths come from? The 10" barrel comes from the old Colt R607, the first carbine they offered. This is basically placing the gas port where the pressure curve has dropped to the point where it's just barely safe to open the bolt. Since the front sight base is common with the M16 and they left room for threads for a flash-hider it dictates the 10" length.

The 10" barrel was not very reliable because the pressure dropped very quickly once the bullet had passed the gas port. Colt introduced a 3.5" blast moderator to help with both the flash and to increase back-pressure for more reliable function. While it helped with the blast, further flash reduction and reliability was desired, so a 4.5" slotted moderator was introduced. This was carried over into both the XM177 and XM177E1.

Reliability was improved, but more "dwell", the time between the bullet passing the gas port and exiting the barrel, was needed. The M16 had 8.5" more dwell than any of the early carbines. Increasing the barrel length to 11.5" and using the 4.5" moderator made the XM177E2 even more reliable. Unfortunately, the Vietnam war ended and the funding for the project mostly dried up. Some issues were never resolved entirely.

Where did 14.5" come from? If you took the barrel that extends from the front of the front sight base on an M16 and put it in front of a front sight on a carbine, you have a 14.5" barrel. It is reasonably reliable and can accept an M16's bayonet; which the XM177E2 cannot. It also ends up being about 5/8" shorter than an 11.5" barrel with a 4.5" moderator! The SEALs adopted this 14.5" carbine; Colt called it the R653. The Philippines even manufactured them.

All of these guns used the same M193/M196 5.56x45mm ammunition that the M16 and M16A1 used. It was noted as far back as Vietnam that the shortened barrels had a dramatic effect on the effective range. Since the R607, and XM177 series were issued primarily to special warfare troops where the short length and lighter weight combined with different tactics from the infantry compensated for the lack of range.

The M16A2, M16A3, M16A4, M4 and M4A1 use M855/M856 ammunition.

Like the M193, the M855 was designed with a 20" barrel in mind. Like the R607, XM177 series and R653, performance dropped because of the reduced muzzle velocity from losing 5.5" of barrel. The shorter weapon was definitely handier for riding around in the back of a Bradley and the lack of long range was not a factor in urban environments.

Like so many times in the past, we ignored that the war we just fought, or the conditions we are currently encountering, will not be the environment of the next war or even engagement; thus the M4 became the primary issue service "rifle" for the Army. The Marines retained the M16A2 and adopted the M16A4. The current conditions in Afghanistan are screaming for something hard hitting with long range and even the Marines are having some issues reaching out to the ranges required. The M14 in 7.62x51mm has made a triumphant comeback in these conditions.

Will we abandon the M16 platform altogether for a 7.62x51mm rifle? Will we change the caliber of the M16 and M4 to something with a bit more reach? Will we develop something completely new? Will we look back at the rifle developed for the conditions in Afghanistan right now and wish we still had the M4?

EDIT
By they way: the 16" barrel we see on civilian versions of the carbines comes from a legal requirement.

Personal 5.56 History

In the way back...

I was fully convinced that the absolute best 5.56 rifle was the Stoner weapons system because it looked so entirely cool on pages 2403 to 2404 of volume 22 of Weapons and Warfare.

I've never even seen one in person.

My lust moved to the Galil next.

It was perfect and because it had 35 or 50 round magazines in Twilight: 2000's RDF Sourcebook it was better than any other 5.56 rifle.  The Galil had also appeared on my radar in Top Secret.

Plus, looked damn cool.  Besides, does your assault rifle have bottle opener built into it? *mic drop*

I had no idea, at the time, that the IDF had essentially dropped the Galil in favor of the M16A1 by then.

The first 5.56 rounds I ever fired were from a buddy's AK just before I left for the Army.  Taki was a 'Nam vet and MAC-V SOG Marine.  What he learned about shooting and fighting didn't apply to anything I'd see later.  Very short sight distances, very short ranges, nearly always in the dark.

I didn't take to the M16 in the Army thanks to assholes being assholes and demanding a level of cleanliness that was not needed for the function or longevity of the weapon.  It throws one off one's feed about a rifle.

But I didn't think there was anything about 5.56 that was inherently bad for most personal problems. (Que Willard and a treatise (that I'll agree with) on the superiority of 7.62x51mm.)

In the wide world of sports, just like the Primary Arms scope vs an ACOG; 5.56 vs 7.62 is a matter of "ideals vs good enoughs" and 5.56 will do for nearly everything I am legally allowed to do with a rifle in a self-defense or anti-looting scenario.

The advantages 7.62 brings to the table become overkill, bulky and heavy for my now civilian butt.  The Willard treatise will explain why this isn't necessarily true in a war; especially for feeding a machine gun.

But, back to me, post-ETS and getting into guns.

As with so many catalysts in my life, FuzzyGeff is to blame.  He decided, out of the blue from my perspective, to buy a semi-auto rifle.  Because I knew a lot more about guns than he did (and as it turns out, not near as much as I thought I did) he asked my opinion on the "best" gun.

Once we'd determined that the Bush Import Ban had made the obviously best gun, the Galil, unaffordable; we discussed the alternatives.

FuzzyGeff's drill sergeant shaped scars were deeper and more painful than mine with regards to the AR, and the only AR you saw in Iowa in 1991 was a Colt with all of the neutering they could muster.  Plus they were expensive.

This led us to consider the Mini-14.  There didn't appear to be anything wrong with them, they were in a price range we could afford and...  Wow you could accessorize the shit out of them.

Shortly afterwards, I bought one too.

Then Software Janitor, then Technomad... and three other friends.

We all standardized on the Mini and prepared for the end of the world that never came.

Remember all that accessorizing?

I made a heavy pig out of a light, handy carbine.  Polymer folding stock, Harris bipod, B-Square scope mount and Aimpoint 1000.  Plus replacing the front sight with a flash-hider/bayonet lug combo.  It was heavier than a Galil by the time I'd finished.

And the zero wandered.

The front sight combo thing didn't stay put, so the sights moved around.

The B-Square scope mount didn't hold zero between sessions if you removed it, and we always removed it...

It was a love-hate thing.

Then the AWB hit.

Suddenly magazines were scarce.

AR magazines were plentiful.

So I sold the Mini to Anglave and got me a Daewoo DR200 with a thumbhole stock.

MUCH lighter than the Mini, decent military sights and a pedigree of being made by a nation who might just be going to war in a moment (just like Israel!).

'Round about here two of the Mini-14 converts changed 5.56 guns.  One, just as the AWB took effect, went to a Bushmaster AR from parts.  FuzzyGeff went with a Bushmaster M17 bullpup (because we hadn't yet learned that bullpups suck and the M17 took AR mags).

Then I moved to Florida.

ACE Limited even made a stock conversion that conformed to the 922r rules and let me have a normal pistol grip on my DR200.

I still had it in 2007 when I started getting into ARs...

Top to bottom: My DR200; FuzzyGeff's M17S; FuzzyGeff's first AR, Olga; my first AR, Kaylee; Marv's first AR.  We still own the bottom three, but none of them still look the same.

 It's Software Janitor's fault.

He started rolling his own AR's as soon as the AWB expired.

That led to me learning that my problems with the AR stemmed from assholes yelling at me and inadequate cleaning materials being milspec issue.

You might even have noticed that I have a couple three 'round here now.

Even FuzzyGeff overcame his scars to own a couple.

Never Mind The Real World

Combat rifles and GURPS!  Weights and loadouts assume a loaded rifle; ammo weight is the spare ammo.

Let's start with the Civil War.

The M1861 Rifle Musket fires a .58 caliber minie ball round doing 3d+2 pi+; weighs 9.3 lb. and the basic load of 60 rounds added 5.2 lb.  Being a muzzle-loading caplock the RoF is a slow 1(20) giving us 3 shots per minute.  The average shot does 18 to the torso and a mere 54 per minute; 1,080 per loadout.

With the M1860 Spencer you sling a .56-56 rimfire round doing same damage from an 8.8 lb. gun.  With a 10 tube Blakeslee loader box you add 7.2 lb. for ammunition and get 70 rounds.  RoF is 1 and reloading with the Blakeslee loader takes 5 seconds so you can dump five magazines per minute, or 35 rounds.  Thats a minute average of 630!  Shooting all your ammo averages 1,386 points.

Now to The Indian Wars.

An M1873 trapdoor carbine firing .45-55 does 4d-1 pi+; the gun weighs 8 lb. and the 41 round basic load is 3.3 lb.  RoF is a typical for a single shot breechloader 1(3).  So you get 20 shots a minute.  A torso hit will, on average, do 19 points of damage; so 380 points per minute!  A basic load will do 798 points.

Heading up San Juan Kettle Hill...

...With our M1896 Krag-Jørgensen carbine firing .30-40 doing 5d+2 pi.  The gun is 7.8 lb. and 100 rounds are 6 lb.  RoF is 1 and the five round magazine takes 10 seconds to reload; so 20 shots a minute.  Average damage is 19 points to the torso and 380 per minute or 1,900 with what's on your belt.

To the trenches

The M1903 Springfield firing the .30-06 round does 7d+1 pi, weighs 8.8 lb. and the 105 rounds on five shot clips weigh 6.3 lbs.  RoF is still 1, but the five round magazine can be reloaded in 3 seconds so 37.5 shots can be fired per minute.  The average hit is 25 and the average minute deals 937 points of damage down-range.  Exhausting your ammo sends 2,750 points towards the Huns.

On D-Day.

The M1 Garand does the same damage as the M1903, because it's the same round.  The tubby M1 weighs 10.1 lb. and the basic load of 104 rounds is 6 lb.  RoF is 3 and the magazine can be loaded in 3 seconds: 80 shots per minute; 2,000 points of damage per minute for the average torso smack.  2,600 points of damage tends to spew out for the basic load.

An M1 Carbine fires .30 Carbine tritely enough doing a whopping 4d+1 pi.  The gun weighs 5.8 lb., a full load of ammo of just 75 rounds weighs an extra 2.4 lb.  RoF is 3 and the 15 round magazine can be replaced in just 3 seconds.  This load out doesn't support a minute's worth of shooting!  The whole loadout doing an average of 15 per shot does 1,125 points in 37 seconds.

Freezing at Chosin...

The Garand stays the same, but the M2 Carbine comes along.  Now the gun weighs 6.3 lb. and the 8 spare 30-round "banana clips" add 8.8 pounds.  If we fire semi-automatically we can send around 138 rounds (of 270 carried) towards the enemy in a minute for 2,070 points.  If we rock and roll we can can be rid of all the ammo in 51 seconds and do 4,050 points (assuming we hit with all of them which we won't)

Running through the jungle

The M14 firing 7.62x51mm from a 20 round detachable box magazine does 7d pi per bang.  The rifle is 10.9 pounds and four spare magazines are 6.4.  Semi-auto would send 120 rounds down-range, but we only have 100...  The average hit is 24 so 2,400 is what we get from a basic load and 50 seconds.  If we conned the armorer to leave the selector installed, we could be rid of all that ammo in a mere 22 seconds; and probably doing less damage because of more misses.

The M16A1 spits the 5.56x45mm M193 round from a 20 18 round magazine and does 5d pi per shot.  The gun is 7.2 lb. and 8 spare magazines are 5.6 lb.  With a RoF of 13 the entire 162 rounds carried can be discarded in 51 seconds.  Semi-automatically we run through 120 rounds in a minute.  A minute at RoF 3 does 2,040 points and the whole load does 2,754 from an average of 17 each.

Blood for oil.

The M16A2 fires a different 5.56x45mm round, M855, that does the same damage.  The magazines are now larger and hold 30 28 rounds.  A basic load of six spare magazines weighs 6 lb. and the weapon 8.9 lb.  Semi-automatically it's 129 rounds a minute for 2,193.  The RoF 9 bursts can dump the whole 196 rounds carried in 46 seconds for an average of 3,332.

Watch me while I endure this freedom!

The M4, being a shorter optic equipped M16A2 fires the same number of rounds, but only does 4d+2 pi for an average hit of 16 per shot.  It's lighter 7.3 pounds even adding the pound for the M68 CCO.  129 rounds in semi does 2,064 and tearing through the full load 3,136.

Spraying and praying with the RoF 15 M4A1 empties the pouches in 32 seconds and doesn't do even a pip more potential damage.

In the Zombie Apocalypse®.

An AR in 6.8x43mm SPC (like Dottie) does 6d pi.  It's 8.5 lb. plus 0.8 for the M4s optic and carrying 6 spare 25 round magazines for 7.8 lb. more (175 rounds total).  Semi-automatically it can shed 125 rounds a minute doing an average of 21 each for 2,625.  If it's really an apocalypse, then let's rock and roll baby!  RoF is 12 so the ammo only lasts 39 seconds but spits 3,675 points at the zombies.

Military Features

Like on a weapon of war?

There's not a single advance in firearms which is common on everyday civilian guns which wasn't used in war.

In fact, most advances in firearm technology were explicitly for military firearms.

The prosaic bolt action in particular.

The Lebel 1886 and Gew.88 were the AK-47s of their days.

As was the Garand.

Personally, I ain't skeered of my fellow man possessing any and all manner of military features.

If such things were really an issue, there'd be no denying it.

There's millions of the things out there now, there weren't back in 1994.

This is Kaylee.

Kaylee is my first AR-15.  She started life as an attempt to make a clone of an XM177E2.  Unfortunately, I didn't know much about XM177E2's when I started; in fact I thought CAR-15 was the proper designation.  I later made a much more faithful clone of an XM177E2, and then I decided to make Kayee more of an Israeli  carbine.

This Israeli carbine, in fact.

But as time passes, plans change.  Kaylee was entirely too similar to The Lovely Harvey's Cheyenne.  Cheyenne is a clone of an R653-P because Harvey loves the carbine carried by SSG Barnes in the film Platoon.

Because she felt I was stepping on her toes, I changed Kaylee's furniture.  Then did some swapping with some Arfcommers and ditched the carry handle.

What we have here is a Del-Ton carbine kit that I have modified.  The 16" HBAR barrel that came with the kit was replaced with a 14.5" 1:7 nitrided Palmetto State Armory barrel with an A2 flash-hider (not shown is the $200 piece of paper that lets that be legal).  The C7 upper has been replaced with an Aero Precision flat-top and Matech BUIS.  The lower receiver came from Anvil Arms, who are no longer in business.  Surplus Colt M4 pistol grip, Damage Ind. M4 stock with QD and Colt M4 handguards.  Bravo Company mil-spec receiver extension and H Buffer.

Complete history after the fold.  There have been a lot of starts and stops along the way while I figured out what I wanted to do with her.  And yes, I give my rifle's girl's names.  And yes, you've seen this post before, it gets bumped and updated as I make changes.

Click Me For The Full Post

9/- To 13

You find yourself in Poland, near Kalisz, in the year 2000 and your commander has just said, "Good luck, you're on your own," just before a big explosion takes out the TOC...

After a few days of dodging Soviets and marauders you decide you're fed up with the 3-round burst mode of your M4.

You remember your dad talking about how they got authorization, during the Gulf War to "bend" something in the fire control parts that disabled the burst and allowing full-auto fire.

What are you going to bend?

Well, dad doesn't know the whole story.

The fast way to remove the burst mode is to remove the burst interrupter, but that will let the normal interrupter to slide too far left to right in the trough in the trigger, giving a Malf of 16 in full auto fire.

Inserting a spacer the same thickness as the burst interrupter solves this issue.

If you're never going to put the 3-round back in, you can use the burst interrupter as the spacer by simply filing off both hooks.

Knowing this and doing this is Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms).  If you don't have this skill, the default is Engineering/TL8 (Small Arms) -5 or Guns/TL8 (Rifle) -5.

But there's another way!

If there's an M16, M16A1, M4A1, C7, C8, C8A1, or L119A1 laying around that's deadlined for some reason besides the fire control group; you swap all the trigger and hammer parts between them and et voila!

This will give a +3 to your Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) roll because it's so much simpler. 

Please note that none of this will change a semi-automatic civilian version of an AR to a select fire weapon.

For that you need to do some drilling (and machining with some lower receivers).  That's an Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) roll at -2 because of the precision required in modifying the lower receiver.  Then you toss the semi-auto hammer-trigger-sear parts and plop in the full-auto or burst parts.

Even if you make a drop-in auto-sear with an Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) you're still going to need the full-auto or burst parts.

Changing semi-auto parts into full auto parts requires adding material to the parts and some finesse.  Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) -5 and appropriate tools are required.

Neutering full auto parts to delete select fire is Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) +5.

Doing all of this legally...  If you already own a legally registered machine gun, you can swap parts to your heart's content.

If you don't have a legally owned machinegun, the police will want to have a chat and you will be booking a room in one of the worst hotels on the planet for an extended stay.

In the world of Twilight: 2000, all bets are off!  There's a slim chance of coming back under control of the chain of command who will object to modifications you've made to your issued weapon.

How did I become a gunner?

Jennifer wants to know.

I don't have a definite point where I wasn't a gunner before but I definitely was after.  It was a nebulous transition period.

When I was a child, being a boy, we played cops and robbers, cowboys and indians and war.  All required some sort of toy gun.  My parents didn't care I was out of the house and those games meant I was exercising.

My circle of friends loved the WW2 films and TV shows that were on syndication on the local UHF channels.  This led us to an interest in military technology and 1/35 scale models of tanks, and 1/48 scale models of planes.

For me the model thing led to ever more detailed research to build better and better (read more accurate) models.  It also led to changing to 1/72 for airplanes because of space considerations.

At some point I found myself in Iowa (visiting relatives; I lived in Bolingbrook, Illinois).  I fired my first round ever from a .22 rifle my uncle owned.  He took my cousin (his son) my sister and me all shooting at some cans.  I had a great time!  Alas, my home appeared to be a gun free zone.  I didn't know about Illinois and guns at the time (being a wee lad of 3-9).

My dad had a 1911 stashed away, illegally, that I had stumbled across at least once as a kid.  But dad never went shooting or took us with if he did.

Then there was the divorce.  Mom took my sister and I to Iowa where her relatives lived.

There I was reintroduced to the idea of guns through a boyfriend of Mom's.  Again, a .22, again FUN!

At some point I acquired a bb gun (gift from dad) and even got in trouble for shooting at a friend's brother's feet.  Got the "you'll put an eye out" lecture and everything.  Problem here is that I had nobody TEACHING me about guns.  I got better about it.

Some place around here I got the idea that we didn't need guns, so banning them would be OK.

I remained interested in guns because of my interests in mil-tech and because I had discovered table-top role playing games.  Champions, Traveller, Twilight 2000 and GURPS more than AD&D.  Characters needed guns and knowing the real stats about them gave you an edge over the GM.

I have more than one musty old character sheet where the character packs a Browning GP35 for no reason other than it held 13 rounds instead of 6 or 7.

For Twilight 2000 and GURPS I delved even more into real stats since those were the first games I played that even came close to dabbling in real numbers.

Some place in here I had my first debate about needing a gun.  I blame this guy.  He is the first person who confronted me about what I was thinking and why.  Introduced me to the idea of critical thinking, he did.

I was still brutally ignorant about firearms laws, I thought there was 100% registration and all sorts of nonsense.

Along in here my Dad admitted to owning some guns, which I was allowed to shoot on rare occasions.  I acquired some friends who had .22's and we went plinking from time to time; but I had only a small interest in actually owning a gun.  That small interest was a Galil.  It was the coolest gun evar!  It's far superior than anything else because it holds 35 rounds not 20 or 30...

But I never got that Galil.

Instead I joined the Army.

I joined in 1987 just short of my 19th birthday.  '87 was a transition year for someone going into tanks.  I was signed as a 19K (Abrams Crew) but we learned the M60A3 as well; just in case the unit we were assigned to had not changed over yet.

Gun geek heaven!  But I was not yet a gun geek.  I had fun shooting and learning all the different guns though.

At some point in here I decided that I would personally own a firearm.  At some undefined future date.

Then my unit had a bit of a hiccup in the supply lines.  We'd turned in our M1911A1's and all the ammo and drawn 9mm in anticipation of being issued new M9's.  Except the M9 was having some sort of production stoppage and there were no pistols to issue us.  We were scheduled to leave for the West German-Czech border any time now to cover a unit there that was going to Graf for training.  We got permission to hit the rod-and-gun club's gun shop and order, "anything that shoots 9mm," and we'd be compensated for the purchase up to some amount I don't recall.  I bought a Glock 17; my first gun!  I chose it because it held 17 rounds, that's more than a Beretta so better!  Someplace in here is where I learned 17+1 too.  I was just barely 20 when I injured myself in a fall from a tank and had to sell the gun before returning home, had to be 21 to bring a handgun back with you from Germany in those days.

My first brush with gun control.

I got my medical discharge, my service connected disability, vocational rehabilitation and a stipend.

I wanted my Glock back.

But this guy wanted to buy "a gun".  Because I was the person he knew who knew the most about guns, he asked what would I recommend.  It came down to a Mini-14.  I've never had a problem with 5.56 as a killer and the Mini seemed like a good gun from what I had available to read.  His worked well enough that I bought my own, and so did a couple more of our friends.  We practically standardized on the Mini.

Then I bought a replacement for  my Glock 17.

At this point I an now a gun owner, but not yet a gunnie.

That moment happens in late 1993.  The Brady Bill and Assault Weapon Bans get passed.  I have a, "what did I do," moment since not a single one of my firearms had ever shot up a school yard.

In response to the AWB I built my first evil black rifle, an L1A1 from a parts kit on an Entrèprise receiver, literally days before the ban took effect.

This marked a dual change.  First I became interested in politics for the first time.  Second I started really looking at how guns work and understanding the differences between the types of actions.  I wanted to touch and feel and taste the differences and variations.  Then I was a gunnie.

War On Poodles

I think some folks need to accept that 5.56x45mm isn't going anywhere.

It's been around for more than 50 years and it's been thoroughly vetted by real fighting.

The flaws and virtues have been extensively explored and it's sufficient.  It's killed effectively from war to mass shootings to self defense to hunting.

So adequate, that even with the known flaws, that nations are replacing rifle designs but keeping the cartridge.  If it were a completely useless clusterfuck we'd see these new rifles in a new round and NATO standardization of that new round.

This sufficiency is predicated on the weapon fitting into its proper place in a combined arms military.  Your survivalist/prepper needs may vary due to the lack of artillery and air support.

Although, it may be just fine for social purposes because of the legalities of shooting a looter WAY down the street should society return to normal rather than going Wetdream Omega Man®.

I say all this as an owner of ARs in 6.8x43mm and an FAL in 7.62x51mm.

The replacement of the rifle rather than the cartridge might bring to light the real reason ol' two-twenty-three is so hated.  There's some who just cannot stand the rifle that introduced them to the round.  Those scars run deep.

There's also an undercurrent of what constitutes the best rifle.  The best rifle ever designed is virtually always the first rifle that worked when you absolutely needed it to and never didn't.  The worst rifle ever designed is virtually always the first rifle that failed when you absolutely needed it, if even only once.

There's certainly a body of people who went to war for the first time with an M14 or an FAL, cementing those as the BEST rifle for all time.  Likewise, someone stuck with an M16 when it was in its birthing problems stage or an L85A1 is, forever, going to hate those rifles.

Non-Equatable Skills

There was once a time where I'd thought that my skill with sword and shield from The SCA meant that I'd be good at fencing saber.

I was dissuaded of that notion nearly instantly.

A sword is a sword, no?

GURPS even makes them different skills.

Fencing as a sport isn't a melee weapon skill at all, in fact.  It's Combat Sport (fencing weapon) as opposed to Melee Weapon (fencing weapon).  They have the same difficulty and default to each other at -3.

What I was trying to do was to use my Melee Weapon (Broadsword) for Combat Sport (Saber).  There's no direct default between these skills.  It's skill -4 to go from Melee Weapon (Broadsword) to Melee Weapon (Saber) and another -3 to go from Melee Weapon (Saber) to Combat Sport (Saber); so a -7 to Broadsword if the GM allows it.

I wasn't very good at Melee Weapon (Broadsword) to begin with...  Prolly a skill of 10 or 11 max.  So a 3 or 4 with a fencing saber.

The same divide is present between Kendo and Kenjutsu where Kendo is a combat sport skill and using a war katana is Melee Weapon (Broadsword) or (Two-Handed Sword).

My AR Is Useless Against The Might Of The US Military

Two words:  Warsaw Ghetto.

A very small group of people with nothing left to lose took a handful of handguns and held off the most powerful military in the world.

The method was as old as war.

Use the inferior weapon to get a better one from an enemy soldier, hand the inferior weapon to the next guy on your side.

Warsaw was only taken when the National Socialists gave up on capturing it intact and leveled the place.

That going to fly here?

The Germans had nobody they knew or cared about living in Poland.  Their only reason for wanting Warsaw somewhat intact was spoils.  Loot.

It's a refrain that repeats over and over.

A tiny group of determined resistors can pin down gigantic militaries.

Something that hasn't happened yet is a resistance spawning from a place were guns were present in one of three households before the shooting started.

If a handful of handguns can hold off Nazi Germany, how will millions of AR's fare?

If around 700 IRA terrorists can stop The Royal Army for decades, how will millions of gun owners fare?

Militaries hate counterinsurgency.  The US military, by the way, isn't good at it.  Our endgame is always to give up and go home.

A domestic insurgency will not have that option.  They're already home.

Their supply lines are very dispersed thanks to pork-barrel spending policies.  How long does that whiz-bang drone keep flying when there's no transportation out of Wichita for a few days and a widget becomes unavailable?  Then, when they solve that outage, another component is delayed from Titusville?

Never mind the antenna farms that allow those things to work are fixed installations HERE and are WAY more accessible to an American resistance fighter than around the planet like in Afghanistan.

The really sad thing is its not necessary.

"Don't start none, won't be none," is actually in place.  The American gun owner isn't committing crime and wishes to be left alone.

But keep poking at them and eventually there's going to be a violent reaction.  Remember what I said about the Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, "nothing left to lose."

NEVER back someone with nothing left to lose into a corner.

Range Weapon Fail

While I chide the Marines on their insistence for using known distance and long range riflery...

At least they grok that a rifle is a distance weapon.

I've been half shopping for a carbine class...

Luckily, there's lots of them to choose from and so far their own websites and videos are enough to save me money.  If I'd spent money to attend such idiocy, I'd be pissed and I'd have a gun...

There's such an astonishing emphasis on CQB in some of these places you start to wonder "why no bayonets?"

And if you're in hand-to-hand with a loaded rifle, you have failed as a user of a ranged weapon.  If you're at pistol ranges, it could be said you've failed as a rifleman.

I understand that circumstances can get out of hand, but these classes seem aimed at JUST the hand to hand aspects, and have doctrines explaining why your gun sucks and you should feel bad based on how well the magazine design aids in arm bars!!!

If your instructor is telling you to how to pick your distance weapon based on its hand-to-hand characteristics, stop listening to them immediately and seek wiser council for a firearms instructor!!!

It's akin to making a decision on what sword to buy based on how well it's balanced for throwing.

By the way, if you're planning on using your rifle primarily as a hand-to-hand weapon, may I suggest something from World War One?

MilSpec

"No civilian should have a military specification handgun!" paraphrased because I cannot be arsed to find the actual quote.

Found it! 

Well, ignorant gunbanner, this is a Revolver, .45 Caliber, M1873, "Altered."  Not quite state of the art in 1892 but still military issue and a genuine weapon of war.

I notice you never mention six-guns when you're frothing about "military" guns.

In point of fact, every single bolt-action hunting gun has a lineage that can be traced back through some military arm.  Some retain more of that lineage than others, but a staggered internal box mag on a bolt gun is a military innovation.

Reasons

Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

Wait.  Wrong intro.

I am a Twilight: 2000, or T2K, junkie.

I've updated the T2K 1.0 ruleset to GURPS no less than three times.  Twice for 3e and ongoing for 4e.

The scenario laid out in the game made enough sense that it influenced what branch of the Army I joined.

I've played it long enough that it's gone from speculative fiction to alternate history.

My M16A2 clone is a double nostalgia trip.  The tank was issued one and it's still the primary weapon of the US Army in T2K.

That photo is a recreation of one of the game's book covers!

The nostalgia trip to make an AK-74 stems from this game too.

The original scenario of the game begins with the last big battle of a big war where the opposing forces are essentially and finally spent against each other near Kalisz, Poland.

The next five adventure modules are set in Poland as well.

The Poles went their own way on weapons design so the Kbk wz.88 is distinctively Polish, and appropriately period for the game.

The M16A2 project is also my first foray into more serious hobby gunsmithing.  She started out as an 80% receiver because I wanted a specific markings and serial numbers.

Building the wz.88 from a parts-kit continues the tradition.

Troubled Service Rifle

Much has been recently written about the M14 and it's troubles.

The timing of the trouble and the availability of the, recently adopted by the USAF, M16 caused Robert SPIT MacNamara to put his shoulder to replacing the problematic M14 rather than putting the effort into fixing it.

Congress was agitating at the same time and wanted heads to roll over the fiasco.

Heads did indeed roll and when the dust had settled, the M14 was replaced with the M16A1 and The Springfield National Armory was shuttered.

Without that congressional agitation, it's likely we would have seen an M14A2 or some such with some further rationalization towards making it easier to manufacture and/or the problems with QC effectively addressed along with changes made to fix deficiencies discovered in the field.

If Armalite had not successfully courted General LeMay, the gun that replaced the M14 could very likely have been an inch pattern FAL.  H&R and High Standard had already shown they could make them (which is funny since H&R had a lot of trouble making M14s), and FN was very effective about getting licensed manufacturers past the initial start-up.

Woulda coulda shoulda...

But Springfield dug its heels in on the M14 and fought every attempt to find the cause of the quality problems, let alone get to fixing them; besides it doesn't matter because SPIW is going to be replacing everything Real-Soon-Now®.

Honestly, nobody should have been surprised that the M14 had some failings.  I am not sure we've ever had a service rifle introduction that went smoothly.  The vaunted M1 Garand did not enter WW2 as originally type classified.  The changes made during the war are nearly legion, to the point that they marked the revision number on the parts.

The M14 was a fairly young weapon when things started going all wrong, it's not certain that all of its problems are inherent in the design.  The M16 was barely out of prototype when it started full rate production as the XM16E1 and received wide issue to troops in the field.

It should be noted that the M16A1 known to the retro heads as a "late R603" had been truly sorted out; just in time for the end of our involvement in Vietnam.

Why was the effort expended to fix the M16 where it wasn't with the M14?  Because Colt and Armalite were responsive to fixing the problems and in several cases proactive about suggesting fixes.  A couple of those fixes were resisted strongly by the Army because of logistics issues, by the way, like the extractor spring.

Had Colt decided to stonewall, we'd likely have Rifle .30 Caliber M17 aka FAL and H&R would probably be a bloated defense contractor...

Key Words

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making a list, checking it twice.  Going to misdirect them with a list of all the things they're looking for thrice.