Weapons Man
How Big Should a Recon Team Be?
You’re going to know the answer before we say it: “It depends.” Well, it does, really, but there’s room for a discussion of the factors it depends on. This post got its start in a reply to a commenter, then it just grew.
...Shoot Like a Fed II: The FBI Qualification 1997-2013
Can you shoot like an FBI Special Agent? A single box of ammo will tell you, as the qualification runs 50 rounds. True, this is an outdated certification that dates from the days that the Bureau issued DA/SA SIG pistols. (The current qualification has some insignificant changes, like starting at the close targets and working back; and some significant ones, like eliminating the 25-yard line and requiring all strings to be fired after drawing from concealment. We may cover that in the future).
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Southland Sunday
Actually, we’re entirely in the wrong end of Florida for it to be the Southland any more. The most common accent you hear around here is New York, followed by Joisey and Bawston. In the Panhandle or around Lakeland, we sometimes need the bailiff to step out and fetch the New Hampshire Turkey Herder interpreter, because the noises the locals make are clearly an attempt at communication, but are unintelligible.
...That Was the Week that Was: 2015 Week 46
Busy week with a lot of stuff going on. Today — hopefully you didn’t notice it, thanks to scheduled posts — was a travel day, and in this coming week we may wind up cutting back on posting to one or two posts a day. We promise to give you decent quality even when the quality quantity must flag. (Note: quality reflagged. Sheesh. -Ed.)
...Saturday Matinee 2015 046: Stosstrupp 1917 (German, 1931)
First things first: this is a Nazi propaganda film. Writer-Director Hans Zöberlein was unquestionably a Nazi: Party member #869, Beer Hall Putsch participant, and ultimately a Brigadier (Brigadeführer) in the SA storm troops, and leader of the short-lived Werwolf Nazi resistance. In that capacity he was responsible for the summary court-martial and execution of a number of anti-Nazi citizens who had, briefly, supplanted the Nazi mayor of the small town of Penzberg.
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever: Vietnam, 1968
The Greatest Beer Run Ever? That’s what PBR calls John “Chickie” Donohue’s one-man invasion of Vietnam, using his merchant seaman’s papers, a ride as a crewman on an ancient Victory ship, and a bullshit story to visit his friends in-country: his best friend, Bobby Pappas at Long Binh; Tommy Collins, an MP in Qui Nhon; Ricky Duggan, a grunt with the 1st Cav at Quang Tri, who was out on the perimeter when Chickie showed up.
...Great Research, Weak Conclusions on Defective Small-Arms Parts
We do a lot of posts based on tips commenters send us, but this one was tipped at least three times:
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Poly-Ticks: No One Wants to Ban Your Guns
Have you ever noticed that that’s what all the people who want to ban your guns say? Because they keep shifting propaganda themes and claimed rationales, and because of the nature of their movement, they usually claim only the single goal that is their fifty-meter target, and they claim it in the most innocuous of terms.
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OT: What’s Wrong with this Picture?
From a university course’s slides on the subject of Computer Numeric Controlled machinery. Slide 36:
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Ghost Gunner Update x 3
Today, we have not one, but three, Ghost Gunner updates for you. The first is from the website, and brief; the second is a longer, official one, from Cody R. Wilson of Defense Distributed. The third is our own, and it is unfortunately briefer, as we have received the unit but haven’t had time to put it into production. We had a post half-drafted with some complaints, but as Cody, if not exactly answering, does explain why we have those complaints, we thought we’d let him go first.
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Art in an Artless Place
“Medic!” by Master Sergeant (Retired) Henrietta Snowden. Somalia, 1993.
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