If you can accept the fact that this is a cartoon, it’s quite amazing. It is all true, and is narrated by the real guys that were there. Tank warfare is sort of a bizarre concept really; its like a slow-motion fight. It’s amazing that this type of vehicle is still used today, almost exactly the same way it was in the first world war!
Coming next- a breakdown of the M1 Abrams main battle tank. It uses a jet turbine engine…..
For some reason my brain has been dredging the handgun world lately. I felt the need to understand some of the mechanics behind semi-automatic pistols, beyond what i already knew. I don’t presume to be a gun expert by any stretch, but I do enjoy shooting them- so it seems only natural to understand how they work- exactly. A while back I disassembled my 1913 colt, right down to every little spring and set screw.
While a 1911 colt is not the first semi-automatic handgun ever designed, it is about as basic as a semi-auto can be. It is considered a single action. Once set up with a round in the chamber and the hammer cocked, the trigger performs a single function: letting the hammer go. Once that happens, the same energy that launches the bullet forward propels the “slide” and hammer back, “resetting” the gun all by itself. This way you can fire off 7 rounds (in this guns case) as fast as you want, with a nice easy to pull trigger.
This firearm was designed by John Browning exactly 101 years ago, and it is still used today. It is also the basic “blowback” concept almost all semi-automatic pistols use.
The one thing I don’t like, and it may seem silly to most gun buffs, is that the only logical way to carry this gun is with the hammer cocked and a round chambered. If you carried it any other way your odds of surviving a gunfight would be slim because of the time it would take you to “rack” the slide. Now carrying a gun cocked may seem dangerous except for the fact that there are 2 safeties built into the 1911: a manual safety that holds the slide slightly rearward (preventing the hammer from being able to hit the firing pin), and a grip safety. The bottom line- it is not going to go off by accident if you have a brain.
Clearly my discomfort with the cocked hammer is my own personal problem, but it hasn’t stopped me from looking for something better. Enter the wide world of double action and single action semi-auto pistols. They are simply referred to as SA/DO. This means that the trigger performs at least 2 functions, usually cocking the hammer and letting it go. Generally this means that the user can rack the slide (loading a round into the chamber), but not have the hammer cocked. The first shot requires a heavy, long trigger pull because you are fighting the hammer’s return spring until it gets all the way back and drops. After that the gun essentially turns into a single action because the blowback action takes over, like before.
This is nice because you don’t have to walk around with the gun “cocked and locked”, making it, in theory, safer. Here are some common double action semi-autos you may recognize….
the classic Beretta. “putting all the holes in your sweata’” as Biggie would say…
The Browning “High Power”…
and a Smith and Wesson 39.
Here is what I found hard to understand: if you have a round in the chamber, and the hammer is down, isn’t the hammer essentially resting on the same firing pin it would otherwise hit when fired? I mean, what would happen if you dropped it and it landed on the hammer end? wouldn’t it fire? It seems that each gun manufacturer has addressed this with some little mechanism, like a “firing pin blocker” or a firing pin that moves out of the way slightly, etc. To me, it seems as if by solving one problem we run into more complication, and to me when it comes to things that will kill you, complication is a bad thing….
Perhaps if I could see the pin blocker (or similar safety) actually working it would easy my fears, but that is impossible because it is buried inside the rear end of the gun. You, once again, have to assume its functioning properly.
My research has uncovered a lot more info… stay tuned.
As a disclaimer, these are just my personal observations, and may not be entirely accurate frankly. Hopefully by the end I will know exactly how they all work, but until then be careful! These things are designed to kill people, and they don’t give a shit who.
The A 10 is an interesting plane. It is known by several names, including the “warthog” and the “tankbuster”. Developed in the early 1970′s by Fairchild-Republic, it is used for close air support (assisting troops on the ground). It’s entire front half is literally built around its main armament, a 30mm General Electric GAU-8 Avenger gatling gun. This gun is an unbelievable piece of machinery, designed originally for anti-tank applications. The thought of being able to destroy a tank with bullets sounds ridiculous, but not when you consider that the rounds are a mix of HEI (high explosive incendiary) and armour-piercing incendiary, have depleted uranium cores, and are over 1 pound each. The gun is so big that the cockpit had to be moved up and over it, because the gun took up too much room in the nose. The gun weighs over 4000 pounds and is 19 feet long. It has 7 barrels, is hydraulic powered, and fires at a rate of 4200 rounds per minute. It can only fire in short bursts to prevent the barrel from melting, and actually slows the plane down when it fires. wow. check her out… this gives a good perspective!
Besides tanks and armoured vehicles, it seems to work pretty well against foot soldiers (gotta be messy), as this aircraft has seen a lot of action in the middle east these days. Here is a video the gun in action:
Here is one of the warthog giving air support to some troops on the ground (watch the whole thing). Remember, the bullets have such a high velocity that you see them hitting the target before you hear the gun firing! Listen for the VVVRRRRRRRPPPP sound…
One more. This was obviously a bit close for comfort, but looks like everyone was ok. Gives you an idea of how big those rounds are!
More coming soon, stay tuned….
Here is my 1913 colt. I posted a while back about John Browning, the inventor who was responsible for this gun, among many others. I wanted to see exactly what it was that he accomplished with this gun design, exactly 100 years ago (this model was first made in 1911).
Beginning of the basic “field strip”. This is a partial breakdown of the gun to clean the top half, the area that gets the most contamination from powder residue and dirt. It is also a procedure that doesn’t require any tools, and there are no micro parts to get lost. First step, take out mag, empty chamber, remove barrel bushing to release tension on the recoil spring…
Ok, this is what a complete “field strip” looks like. kinda complicated, but not impossible to understand. This is about as deep as, most 1911 owners go. Since mine is 98 years old, I figured I better go a bit deeper because before me, the poor thing probably sat in some jerrie’s bedside table for 60 years.
Ok, wow… about an hour later I have broken down every single component inside this gun. In reality, the only part that really struck me as “insane” was the trigger mechanism. There is an amazing relationship between the trigger, hammer, grip safety, and manual safety. To think that this was designed by a Mormon 100 years ago, making prototype modifications with tiny files and crude machine tools is mind-blowing. This design was so revolutionary that 100 years later no one has really come up with a better design. Glocks are probably the most different, and there are some “rotating bolt” pistols out there, but even they share most of the design cues with this gun. My friend Joe has a 1991 colt, and the parts are interchangeable- awesome! Oh, by the way, you probably shouldn’t try this at home, because re-assembling it wrong may result in it blowing your face off- seriously. I’ll probably get some hate mail from a gunsmith for this post…oh well. Dont worry dad, I put it back together right!
This guy definitely has his priorities straight. Good job finding this G -L
pretty cool idea. I wonder how long it will be until i can buy one at my local gun shop?
My new obsession, obtaining one of these! This is the predecessor to the famous colt 1911 handgun. You have to understand that almost every modern autoloading pistol in the world can trace it roots back to this design. It was designed by John M. Browning, the OG of badass firearms. This man, a Mormon no less, was responsable for almost all the iconic american gun designs, such as the BAR rifle (browning autoloading rifle), the lever-action shotgun (aka terminator 2 gun), the first gas operated machine gun, the colt 1900 and 1911 handguns, and the first auto loading shotgun (A5, I own one- its cool). He also invented the infamous 50 BMG round (Browning Machine Gun). Back to this gun: made by Colt in Hartford, CT. Chambered for 38 ACP, and is so simple compared to the 1911. If anyone wants to see one up close- New England Air Museum, first room, far right glass case….
