Category: All About Guns

THE BEST SMG OF WWII WAS ITALIAN? THE MODEL 38A By Will Dabbs, MD (I WANT ONE!!! GRUMPY)

Post author By Grumpy
Post date December 9, 2022
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At first light on 20 May 1941, Hauptmann Dieter Linz sat, lost in thought alongside his 16 fellow paratroopers inside the belly of a noisy Junkers Ju 52 transport. His Auntie Ju was part of the first wave of Unternehmen Merkur, or Operation Mercury, the German airborne invasion of Crete. Linz’ Fallschirmjagers had acquitted themselves well during the recent conquest of the Low Countries. Now they formed the backbone of the largest airborne assault in military history to date.

Man dressed as German paratrooper with Model 38A — German Fallschirmjagers and Waffen SS troops coveted the Model 38A for its controllability, prodigious magazine capacity and innate accuracy.

The jumpmaster had Linz and his men up and ready before the planes cleared the coastline. Linz knew that the Luftwaffe pilots were doing the best they could, but he could feel that they were both too low and too fast. Flak erupted all around the plane, sounding like so much gravel thrown against the Ju 52’s corrugated skin. The jump light flashed from red to green and Hauptmann Linz leapt headfirst into hell.

Man dressed as German SS trooper with Italian 38A SMG — The long ventilated barrel shroud/bayonet lug is one of the gun’s most distinctive features.

The parachutes used by the Fallschirmjagers attached at a single point behind the neck and were in no way steerable. They jumped without reserve chutes. At these altitudes, there would be no time to deploy one anyway. This equipment necessitated a dive out of the aircraft and a harsh face-first landing. It also meant Linz and his men had to jump without their primary weapons.

Model 38A SMG with WWII equipment — The Italian Model 38A was an elegant and effective 9mm submachine gun. German Fallschirmjagers and the Waffen SS used thousands of the weapons during WWII.

They called it jumping naked, and it left them utterly vulnerable once they hit the drop zone. Linz carried a gravity knife, his Luger pistol, and a pair of stick grenades. In the unfettered chaos that was the DZ, he was one of the precious few to find his fallschirmbombe. This was the weapons canister that was dropped from the belly of his Junkers alongside his stick of paratroopers.

M38A muzzle brake — The well-designed muzzle brake helps keep recoil and muzzle climb in check.

Linz popped open the canister and retrieved his 9mm Italian Model 38A submachine gun. Though a bit longer and bulkier than the more common German MP38 or MP40, Linz loved his 38A. He had traded a drunken Italian officer out of it during a joint training exercise six months earlier.

Charging handle of the Model 38A — The charging handle on the Model 38 is located on the right and includes a sliding dust cover.

Linz took cover in a shallow ditch to avoid the incoming fire that crisscrossed the drop zone and blew his whistle. In clots of ones, twos and threes, the surviving paratroopers rallied to his position. By the time they got their weapons sorted and established some kind of organization, he had already lost half his strength. Regardless, he reached over the top of his subgun and jacked the bolt to the rear. Ready or not, this war started right here.

Model 38A Origin Story

The Italians are typically known for pretty girls, great food and a plethora of moldy old ruins. The exhaustive list of modern Italian war heroes is undeniably brief. However, the 38A submachine gun in 9mm shines on its own as a stellar exception. I’ve run them all, and the 38A is my favorite WWII-era subgun.

Model 38A safety lever — The safety on the Model 38A is a pivoting lever on the left.

The Model 38A was originally designed in 1935 by famed Italian small arms designer Tullio Marengoni. An evolutionary development of the WWI-era Villar Perosa pistol-caliber light machinegun from WWI, the Model 38A features a rigid wooden stock and open-bolt operation. The 38A also includes several uniquely superb features.

The safety on the gun is a sliding lever on the left aspect of the receiver. This appendage is readily manipulatable by the left hand when shooting right-handed. The fire control system is built into the dual trigger assembly. Pulling the forward trigger produces semi-auto fire; the rear, full-auto. Nothing is faster.

40 round magazine Italian SMG — The 40-round double column, double-feed magazine on the Model 38A is one of its strongest attributes.

The gun feeds from 10, 20, 30 or 40-round magazines and includes an efficient muzzle brake and bayonet lug. Oddly, the weapon charges on the right and ejects to the left. That means that to charge the piece, a right-handed shooter must reach across the gun to access the charging mechanism. This knob does not reciprocate with the bolt and includes a sliding sheet steel dust cover. The leather sling attaches on the left side of the weapon as it should.

Man holding Model 38A — While the MP40 got all the press, the Italian Model 38A was a popular weapon among specialist troops.

How Does She Run?

In a word, swimmingly. The long 12.4″ barrel yields superlative accuracy in semiauto mode. Switch to the rear trigger, and the gun runs at a published rate of 600 rpm. In my experience, it seems slower than that. Doubles and triples are easy for the disciplined trigger finger, and you can put all forty rounds inside a pie plate at 20 meters without trying too hard. The magazine release is small but is located behind the magazine for easy access with either hand.

Dual triggers of the Model 38A — The front trigger provides semi-auto fire. The aft trigger is full-auto.

The rigid wooden stock means that the gun is tougher to pack than a comparable MP40, but the practical result is a superbly stable firing platform. The Model 38A runs much like the rifles of its day. Additionally, the standard 40-round magazine seems to last about forever, particularly in comparison to the 20 and 32-round mags used by competing subguns.

Target after shooting Model 38A on full auto — At 20 meters the Beretta 38A groups beautifully on full-auto.

The Rest of the Model 38A Story

Operation Mercury was an unprecedented slaughter. While the Germans did ultimately wrest control of the island from the Commonwealth troops who defended it, they did so at a simply breathtaking cost. The 3d Battalion of the German 1^st Assault Regiment had 400 of its 600-man complement killed in the first day of the operation. One of its subordinate companies had 112 killed out of a total of 126 on the rolls. Though successful in meeting its military objectives, the invasion of Crete was such a bloodbath that Hitler refused to authorize any further large-scale airborne operations for the rest of the war. The Fallshirmjagers fought on until the bitter end as elite Infantry.

Model 38A left ejection port — For reasons known only to its designer, Tullio Marengoni, the Model 38A ejects out the left.

In addition to their unique stubby helmets and baggy “bone bag” jump smocks, the Fallschirmjagers wielded some unique weapons. The FG42 paratroop rifle represents the golden ring for the most rarefied of military weapons collectors. Additionally, the German paratroops were fairly prolific users of the Italian Model 38A submachine gun. Smooth, accurate, handy, and just a little bit weird, the Model 38A was, surprisingly, one of the finest weapons of the war.

Special thanks to World War Supply for the cool-guy gear used in the preparation of this article.

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The Last Lever Gun I’d Eve

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Post date December 9, 2022
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Gas Station Owner Hires Security Guards with AR-15s: ‘We Are Tired of the Nonsense’

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Post date December 9, 2022
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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images; Hiroshi Kai/EyeEm /Getty

AWR HAWKINS

Philadelphia gas station owner Neil Patel hired security guards with AR-15s to deal with all the “nonsense, drug trafficking, hanging around, [and] gangs” endangering his employees.

Patel, who has a Karco gas station, hired “Pennsylvania S.I.T.E Agents clad with Kevlar vest and AR-15s or shotguns” to keep his employees safe, FOX 29 reports.

“They are forcing us to hire the security, high-level security, state level. We are tired of this nonsense: robbery, drug trafficking, hanging around, gangs,” Patel said.

The guards he hired wear Kevlar vests and train regularly, maintaining firearm proficiency.

Prior to hiring the guards, Patel’s car was vandalized and an ATM was stolen from his gas station. But FOX News notes Patel’s observation that crimes–including loitering–ended once he hired security.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

————————————————————————————– If the state won’t do its job than somebody is going to have to pick up the slack. I really think that we are going see a LOT more of this coming down the pike! Grumpy

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Blunderbuss – Buckshot Patterning

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Post date December 9, 2022
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Smith & Wesson: The Old American Gun Maker Shooters Still Love By Kyle Mizokami

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Post date December 9, 2022
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Smith & Wesson Model 19

The top firearm manufacturer in America is not only an American company but one of the oldest. Established in 1852, Smith & Wesson now enjoys annual sales of more than two million guns of all types a year, enjoying a comfortable lead over competitors.

Smith & Wesson is probably the most historically significant, consistently successful firearms country in the United States, with a history of innovation that has brought iconic guns and ammunition into widespread use.

In 1852, Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson founded the Smith & Wesson Company in Norwich, Connecticut. The company designed and manufactured some of the first metallic-cased firearms using the “Volcanic” cartridge. The use of a self-contained cartridge that included bullet, powder, and primer streamlined the feeding system, leading to a rate of fire practically limited to the loading rate of the weapon.

The cartridge was combined with a tubular magazine and lever-action loading system and brought to market in both a pistol and rifle form. The company was renamed the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company before Oliver Winchester, a major investor, forced the company into insolvency, eventually spinning off lever-action guns into his own company—The Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

Smith & Wesson regrouped and started a new company, The Smith & Wesson Company, just as Samuel Colt’s patent on the revolving handgun cylinder expired. The two designed and began production of a new revolver, the seven shot .22 Rimfire Seven Shooter, eventually known as the Model 1, in 1857. Sales took off during the Civil War as soldiers purchased the compact pistols as backup weapons. Between 1857 and 1881 the company sold 261,000 Model 1s. In 1861 the company released a larger version, the Model 2, available in .32 Rimfire.

The company’s third revolver, the Model 3, catapulted it into the world of international recognition. The .44 caliber Model 3 was a so-called “top break” revolver, in which a lever caused the barrel and cylinder to rotate ninety degrees on a hinge, instantly expelling spent shell casings and making the revolver ready for fresh ammunition. The simplified reloading process made the Model 3 was particularly useful for mounted cavalry. In addition to the U.S. Army the Model 3 was also adopted by Russia, Argentina, Japan and Turkey. The Model 3 was also popular on the Western frontier, and fans included legendary lawman Wyatt Earp.

Smith & Wesson steadily rolled out new technologies in firearms, introducing a line of double action revolvers in 1880, a hammerless revolver in 1887, and in 1899 the .38 caliber Military & Police revolver, later known as the Model 10, which eventually gave birth to the .38 Special revolver round. Six million Model 10s were sold during the product’s lifespan.

The early to mid-twentieth century saw the company produce eight hundred thousand Model 10 revolvers for World War II and introduce revolvers in .357 Magnum (1935) and .44 Magnum (1955), then the most powerful handgun cartridge in America. The Smith & Wesson Model 29, designed for the .44 Magnum cartridge, saw sales explode after being featured in the 1971 Clint Eastwood film “Dirty Harry.” The year 1955 also saw introduction of the Model 39 double-action pistol, the first adopted by a law enforcement agency in the United States.

Smith & Wesson concentrated primarily on revolvers during the latter half of the twentieth century, which left the company poorly positioned to take advantage of the explosion in popularity of high capacity nine millimeter Luger revolvers in the 1980s, the so-called “Wonder Nines.” However, the company quickly recovered and launched its own line, the 4006 series. The company also released a new pistol round, the .40 Smith & Wesson, which subsequently became popular with law enforcement agencies interested in a round more powerful than nine millimeter.

Today Smith & Wesson fields a diversified line of firearms, from revolvers of every caliber to its own highly successful M&P 2.0 series of high capacity double action pistols. In 2003, the company began selling its own version of the iconic M1911A1 .45 handgun. The company also produces its own line of AR-15 rifles under the M&P line. The company was first overall in firearm sales in 2016, selling 1.7 million handguns and nearly four hundred thousand long guns. In an industry where corporate mismanagement has often lowered quality and instituted numerous, potentially dangerous recalls, Smith & Wesson has maintained a reputation for reliable, safe firearms.

Image: Smith & Wesson.

Image: Creative Commons.

Image: Smith & Wesson.

Smith & Wesson’s appeal lies in its historical significance, record of innovation, and reliability. A wide product line means consumers looking for a particular type of handgun usually can count a Smith & Wesson among their choices. Add in a dollop of popular culture, from Westerns to the streets of San Francisco, and Smith & Wesson is a compelling choice. All of these factors combined will keep the iconic gun company ahead of the pack for the foreseeable future.

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy , War is Boring and the Daily Beast . In 2009, he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch .

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We Found Colt Canada Military/LE Carbine Rifles

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Post date December 9, 2022
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Carbines anyone?

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Stolen rom Historical Firearms (A Great Blog by the Way!)

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Post date December 9, 2022
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THE MAD MINUTE

Marksmanship training in the British Army involved an exercise known as the ‘Mad Minute’ in which a soldier was expected to fire at, and hit, a Second Class figure target 300 yards out at least 15 times. A trained rifleman could hit the target 30+ times with his Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle. At the turn of the century the British Army was the most professional in the world with each soldier trained to be an expert marksman. The Mad Minute itself is arguably a myth surrounded by myth, its proper name was Serial 22, Table B of the Musketry Regulations classification course of fire. Which instructed a soldier to fire rapidly into a distant target with 15 rounds being a target.

However, this was not a requirement as the rifleman’s scores were calculated by aggregate with the other stages of the classification. The exercise of firing as many rounds as possible was probably a challenge set for fun to encourage pride in marksmanship and to see just how many rounds it was possible to fire in a minute. During the musketry classifications shoots of recruits and again shot each year by all infantrymen, engineers and cavalrymen to gauge how good of a shot they were.

The classification shoot was shot in several stages shot out to 600 yards, the various stages or serials were laid out in Table B, Appendix II in the Musketry Regulations Pt.1, these included grouping with 5 rounds at 100 yards, snap shooting with 5 rounds out at 200 yards, two 5 round stages fired slowly with the first at 400 yards from the prone position and another at 300 yards from kneeling. Then came the so called ‘Mad Minute’ stage fired from prone at a target 300 yards out.

This was to be fired with 5 rounds loaded – 1 in the chamber and 4 in the magazine, the rifleman would then reload with 5-round chargers firing until 60 seconds had elapsed. The target used for this stage was the Second Class figure target which was a 4 foot screen with a 12 inch high figure silhouette at the centre surrounded by two rings, a 23 inch inner ring and a 36 inch outer ring. This stage was then followed by three final stages fired from prone out to 500 and 600 yards.

The Second Class figure target as shown in the 1910 Musketry Regulations

If the classification was completed with a high enough score the soldier would be classified as a Marksman and given a crossed rifles badge and a 6 pence a day increase in pay – so it paid to be a good shot. The rapid fire of the ‘Mad Minute’ was accomplished by used a ‘palming’ method where the rifleman used the palm of his hand to work the belt, and not his thumb and fore finger. Each man to shoot the classification course was allotted points for where each round hit – 4 points for a ‘bull’ figure hit, 3 for a hit in the inner ring and 2 points for an outer ring hit.

Troops could be classified as follows: Marksman (with at least 130 points out of 200 across the classification), 1st Class (105-130 points), 2nd Class and 3rd Class (sub-standard). The majority of British troops, even cavalry, were excellent marksman with 50% of troops in some battalions scored as Marksman with the rest being 1st and 2nd class shots.

As such when the First World War began the average British rifleman could out shoot his German and French counterparts. At the Battle of Mons it was well documented that German infantry believed they were facing British battalions heavily equipped with machine guns rather than riflemen.

The first and confirmed record for the most hits on target during a ’Mad Minute’ was set by Sgt-Major Jesse Wallingford – 36 hits at 300 yards in 1 minute in 1908. However, this was allegedly bettered in 1914, by Sergeant-Instructor Alfred Snoxall with 38 hits within the 24 inch inner ring in 60 seconds. It has not been beaten since although there is little documentary evidence of the feat readily available. Hitting the target 38 times would require him to fire his first 5 rounds pre-loaded in the SMLE’s magazine and then reload 7 times with 5 round chargers.

Add onto this that the rifle was a single shot, bolt action rifle which required the user to push up and retract the bolt and then return it forward pushing a new round into the chamber, then aiming and fire. All while maintaining his cheek weld and line of sight. This means Snoxall must have averaged around 1.5 seconds per shot to hit the target 38 times in a minute. Quite a feat.

Here is a short video of a SMLE owner attempting a very fast ’Mad Minute’, he managed to fire 10 rounds in under 10 seconds. It certainly gives you some idea of what Snoxall and other professionals could achieve.

Sources:

Image One Source – British Infantry firing at targets at 500 yards

Image Two Source – Recruits of the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers at musketry training at Aldershot, August 1907

Image Three Source – Troops training on a miniature range at the School of Musketry c.1915

‘Mad Minute’, bbc.co.uk (source)

Tommy, R. Holmes (2004)

British Army Musketry Regulations pt.1 1909/1914

Thank you to Rob from Britishmuzzleloaders for his invaluable help

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The Basics of Tactical Shotgun Training Getting good tactical shotgun training can overcome most of the limitations of using a shotgun for home defense. by KEVIN CREIGHTON

The debate rages on: What is best for home defense, a pistol, a rifle or a shotgun? There are definite advantages and disadvantages to each of these when it comes to keeping your home safe. A pistol is easy to carry and easy to move around inside your home, but it lacks the fight-ending punch of a long gun. A rifle, such as an AR-15, is very familiar to most American gun owners, but .223 or similar calibers quite often require more than one hit to stop the threat. A defensive shotgun or tactical shotgun brings a heavyweight hammer to the fight, but it has a low ammunition capacity compared to a standard capacity AR-15 rifle, with more recoil.

Despite these apparent limitations, however, the power of the shotgun is a quite compelling argument for using it to defend your home. Pistol drills like the Bill Drill and Failure to Stop Drill exist because we understand that a pistol is often not able to stop the fight with just one shot. The same is true for the AR-15. It’s very common to see trainers teach that three, four or even five rounds on-target as a normal response to a lethal threat. This means that a 30 round magazine in an AR-15 (which is usually loaded to 28 rounds in the field) suddenly becomes a firearm that can engage 5-7 targets before it needs to be reloaded. Coincidentally, this is the magazine capacity of the typical tactical shogun. All of sudden, the ammunition gap between a defensive shotgun and a rifle or a pistol is considerably smaller, and using a shotgun as a home defense gun starts to make a lot of sense.

Tactical Shotgun Training Shows You What Your Gun Can and Can’t Do

A good tactical shotgun training class can get even more out of your defensive shotgun, which is why I attended a recent Defensive Shotgun Instructor class taught by Tom Givens. Tom is a former Memphis police officer and a legend in the firearms training community. He is a firm believer in the power and efficacy of the defensive shotgun, and his class is a “must do” for anyone who wants to learn more about using a shotgun for home defense.

patterning a tactical shotgun

In this three day class, Givens taught us why a shotgun loaded with a good buckshot round is an absolute fight-stopper, if you understand what it can and can’t do. We first learned to pattern our specific gun with our defensive shotshell of choice to see how large the spread of pellets was at 5, 10, 15 or even 25 yards. Any pellet which doesn’t hit the intended target will fly downrange, with possibly disastrous results. Keeping all our hits on-target, no matter what gun you’re using, is an important part of marksmanship, and with a shotgun, that means knowing when the spread of your pellets exceeds the area of your target.

One of the biggest benefits of a good tactical shotgun training class is learning how to tame the recoil of a full-sized shotgun firing full-power buckshot loads. Givens teaches a “push-pull” method, where the hand that grips the fore-end of the shotgun pushes out towards the target while the other hand snugs the butt of the gun up against your shoulder. This creates a “loaded spring” effect and allows you to rapidly bring the sights of the gun back on target after each shot.

Make The Most Out Of Yourself And Your Gun

semi automatic tactical shotgun

The smaller magazine capacity of the defensive shotgun can be overcome by making sure you’re feeding fresh rounds into the magazine whenever possible, and just like other guns, there are two types of reloads, emergency and tactical. An emergency reload is when your gun runs completely out of ammunition and needs to get refilled right away, while a tactical reload is adding more rounds to your gun that is partially empty. An emergency reload with a shotgun means dropping a single shell into the chamber and closing the action, thus loading the gun. Shooting that round, or loading the rest of the magazine via a tactical reload will be dependent on your situation.

There was much more to this class than just those three concepts, as this wasn’t so much a class about shooting the shotgun as it was a class about how to teach other people how to use their shotguns in defense of life and limb. A shotgun can be an extremely effective home defense firearm but is definitely not “fire and forget.” Rather, it needs skill and expertise to be used to its fullest (and most devastating) effect, both of which can be acquired with good tactical shotgun training.