OT: The FSU Firearms & Second Amendment Thread.

Excellent scores. They'll probably try to talk you out of CA now

You should have asked them about available language slots at DLIFLC! You would have loved Monterey

Damn, I'd like to be a backwards map reader.

US Army Military Intelligence Branch
• 33W (35T) MI Systems Maintainer/Integrator
• 96B (35F) Intelligence Analyst
• 96D (35G) Imagery Analyst
• 96H (35H) Imagery Ground Station Operator
• 96R (35H) Ground Surveillance Systems Operator
• 96U (35K) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator
• 96Z (35X) Intelligence Senior Sergeant
• 97B (35L) Counterintelligence Agent
• 97E (35M) Human Intelligence Collector
• 97L (35Q) Translator/Interpreter
• 97Z (35Y) Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence Senior Sergeant
• 98C (35N) Signal Intelligence Analyst (Linguist)
• 98G (35P) Cryptologic Linguist
• 98P (35U) Multi-Sensor Operator
• 98Y (35S) Signals Collector/Analyst
• 98Z (35Z) Signals Intelligence Senior Sergeant
• 09L (35V) Translator Aide
• 05h EW/SIGINT Morse Intercept Operator

If he would have mentioned available slots in either of those two (I was a 98 Golf after my 11 Bulletstopper tour, now referred to as 35 Papa,) that would have meant a year in beautiful Presidio of Monterey, CA, by far the most desirable post in all of CONUS. Not much backwards map reading as a 98G/35P

Back in my day, the 98 Charlies didn't have to be language qualified, so that is a change - back then the Charlies and the Yankees were the backwards map readers.

The 97 Echoes/35 Mikes, of course, are the big, bad interrogators, with a much more politically correct title in Army jargon-ese.

Not too late to change your mind!

Speaking of CA, this is pretty bogus...

Blech. I hate it. So does Iron Mike. Not NEARLY as classy as the original:

Actually looks kind f similar to one of my former units, the 205th IB (last infantry positing before heading to DLI.)

The military EBRs are made by the Navy, one of the Special Surface Weapons Support groups, I forget which. Sage I think still does the chassis for them, and Sage also sells EBR style chassis for the M1 and Mini-14/Mini-30. Fulton Armory makes a nice EBR complete that supposedly is virtually identical to the military version, but they are spendy, base price around $3500.

I think I'm gonna start with a base Springfield Armory SOCOM and do my own mods at a quarter of the price. However, if one wanted to do a project for max bang for the bucks (sticking with 7.62 NATO, which would be a must for me), one could pick up a used Mini-30 and the Sage chassis with a '16 style receiver extension tube for much less than a base SOCOM. Tempting, and I do like the Mini-14/30s, but I think I'll stick with the base issue of the real deal.

LokoZ, if you want to add some soon to be hard to find legends, take a look at this:

Civilian Marksmanship Program

I honestly thought this program was long dead, a casualty of the Clinton Administration...I don't ever recall them being mentioned in either of the 2 NRA magazines I get, which is strange. Lo and behold, their catalog showed up in today's mail.

They are out of just about everything except for M1s - which I do covet, the M1 might be the finest semi-auto combat rifle ever designed, and with today's technology with synthetics (the one downer of the M1 Garand is that it weights a TON, the SKS (another boat anchor) is light by comparison). I've had a chance to buy special grade M1s before, at over twice the price of what CMP is asking - I'm going to jump on this one, one of the Springfield models they have listed in special grade is very hard to find these days.

Field Grade or better M1 carbines and the M1903A3 Springfields are even harder to fin, and CMP is out - BUT - South Korea recently wished to return a significant number of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines, many of them never fired, and still packed in cosmoline and their original brown plastic protective coverings, that they had kept in their arsenal for decades. This, of course, was held up by some pinhead at the ATF not wishing to violate the law forbidding the bulk import of "foreign made" (huh?) assault weapons to "private parties or individuals" (double huh? They were/are all earmarked for CMP.) Honestly, of all the federal agencies you will have a chance to work for after your military service is over, please don't join the ATF - it seems like a frontal lobotomy is required to work there. Anyway, I called the NRA about this, seemingly they have made this a hot button issue and I was told that they have assurances from certain members of the current and incoming members of Congress that the ATF snafu should be cleared up relatively early in 2011.

If you have been issued your Military ID card already, that takes care of both the Marksmanship requirement and the Membership in a CMP affiliated organization requirement (I need to provide a copy of my MN Permit to Carry and my American Legion membership card, and that's it - used to be you had to send in a copy of your honorable discharge and your DD-214 as proof of service, but nowadays they take membership in vets organizations such as AL, VFW, DAV, MCL. etc.)

Keep it on your radar - if they show up with some of those SoKor M1 Garands and carbines someday soon, you are definitely going to want to grab a piece of history that will most likely sell for 3-4x the price you paid to CMP.

Glad I pulled up this thread; reminded me to see what CMP has in stock these days. I heard that massive consignment of M1 Garands and carbines from SoKor was finally released, hopefully they'll turn up in CMP inventory soon.

Been doing a lot of competition shooting lately, after picking up a Fabrique Nationale Herstal FiveSeven in 5.7x28mm - what an amazing handgun, and a unique round. Basically a botttlenecked rifle cartridge in a pistol - hitting half sized silhouettes from 100 yards and beyond is a piece of cake with this handgun. Zero muzzle flip, with negligible recoil and 2100+ fps muzzle velocity; a tumbling round with virtually no drop @ 100 yards...no wonder NATO took a serious look at replacing the M9 with this (and probably would have if not torpedoed by the sore loser Krauts (Heckler and Koch, with their problematic 4.6x30mm offering and since discontinued UPC pistol chambered in that round.)

If anything, the FiveSeven makes match shooting almost too easy. It is a real challenge to get a decent score with even a match grade 1911; completing the same course with a perfect score with a FiveSeven is child's play.

So happy with the FiveSeven, just placed an order with Tombstone Tactical for a FN PS90, curious to see how the round shoots through a bullpup based carbine. Also ordered a FN FNP-45 Tactical with a Trijicon RMR holographic sight, which is right now is the likely frontrunner to replace the M9 in tests the US Army is currently running - and, yes, I was one of those guys who thought that replacing the 1911 with the M9 was a big mistake, not a big believer in 9mm. Finally, decided against the Springfield Socom II, too d@mned heavy, decided to go with the Armalite AR-10A4 chambered in 7.62 NATO with an EOTech holographic sight and swing-away 3x magnifier. Looks to be a busy summer at the range

Also picked up a Smith and Wesson Governor a few months back, the S&W answer to the Taurus Judge that shoots .410 shotgun shells and .45 Long Colt. S&W's offering is a six shot wheelgun vs. the Taurus 5 round capacity, and it also shoots .45 ACP with supplied moonclips (probably the only reason I bought it.) I think it is an adequate revolver for home defense (best home defense choice will always be a scattergun), especially when loaded with the Winchester PDX rounds for .410 and .45 LC, or simply buckshot. Beyond that, the uses are limited - looks good, but way too big and heavy for a carry piece. Devastating patterns at the range with the .410 PDX rounds, and any wheel gun that shoots .45 Auto can't be half bad .

Saw a really nice used Polish Makarov @ Gander Mountain a few days back - passed on it and now wish I hadn't. Gonna swing by there today and see if it is still there, would make a unique alternative carry piece to my everyday carry, a S&W 637 J-Frame loaded with Hornady .38 Special +Ps.

Fine weapon, I'd be curious to just how "light" it is. Ever BAR I have ever shouldered, I wouldn't want to lug it around in the woods long as my hunting rifle. Just over 7 lbs. seems impossible! If it was me, I'd get it in .308 Win for all purpose use, for bear, .300 Win Mag. I'd consider brown bear as "big game", not like the smallish black bears most people hunt, and 300 Win Mag is a true "big game" cartridge. Deer, you'd be good with either 30-06 or .308.

Never been bear hunting. One of my uncles was big into bear - personally, I found the meat to be pretty poor, way too gristly and greasy. He loved the stuff, though.

I don't necessarily think the M9 is a bad weapon; I just don't see in any way how it is an improvement over the 1911, especially the Colt design (sold now as the Colt 1991) that was competing against it back in the 80s. I get the NATO standardization bit and all, but that was never the #1 concern in the debate back in the day between 5.56 NATO and 7.62 NATO, or for that matter in the recent NATO evaluation of the FN 5.7x28mm vs. the HK 4.6x30mm. And no one will ever convince me that 9mm is a better handgun round than .45 ACP. Just ain't gonna happen.

Truth be told, both cartridges cannot really compete on today's battlefield with the FN 5.7 or the HK 4.6, which are both basically very hot bottlenecked rifle cartridges used in a handgun platform, both with the capability to defeat body armor at combat ranges. However, I still think .45 ACP has specific close quarters applications that the 9mm does not; in my mind, right now 9mm is basically a cheap and readily available cartridge best intended for use by the civilian market.

Speaking of hot cartridges, I wonder why no one has tried to make a pistol platform for .17 Hornady or .17HM2 yet?

$200, good shape, bakelite grips and all. Neat little pistol. The 9x18 Makarov cartridge is pretty punchless, though, especially compared against a .38 Sp. + P round like the Speer Gold Dots I usually use in my J-Frame.

Funny how you keep running into Tokarevs, and I can't seem to find one in decent enough shape to buy. In my experience, they're pretty rare even just average/field grade condition.

The only Moisin-Nagant I currently have is the M44 carbine, Tula Armory with a 1945 manufacture date and a "Russian-American Arms" receiver stamp, on the side. Shoots well (always thought the 7.62x54R cartridge was one of the most underrated cartridges of all time, and still easily obtainable and cheap) although I've never hunted with it. Your sniper project sounds interesting; if I was going to do something similar, my retro sniper project would be with an '03 Springfield. Although......CMP is listing M1C/D Garand sniper models for sale now, that would be an interesting project as well:

http://www.thecmp.org/Sales/m1garand.htm

Say what you will about a J-frame, but my 637 is my carry piece 80% of the time. Kind of like a 1911, every one should have one in their collection, even though bagging on both recent S&W quality and the .38 special as a useless round is not very much in vogue. (I will say, I would NOT buy a S&W MP right now, their quality is significantly below that of Glock, the Springfield XD series, and FN for around the same price point.) I am almost tilting on purchasing the Uberti reproduction of the Schofield #3 New Model Russian top break revolver, which many consider the finest evolution of the excellent Schofield revolver:


http://www.uberti.com/firearms/top-break.php

I'd love to be able to order it in .44 Russian, but THERE'S a caliber that is hard to find and expensive to boot, so I'll most likely get it in .45 Long Colt.

Interesting to note that, although the Schofield was far and away the best cavalry sidearm of its time, it was never widely adapted by the US Army, and that the Imperial Russian Army was the biggest customer Schofield Arms ever had.

Last item for the day - anyone else notice the used market is suddenly flooded with Romanian AK-47s? Wonder where they all came from? My local gun shop has at least 50 of them in stock; no aftermarket barrel or receiver stampings, either, and all of them are in pretty good shape, doesn't look like they've been used much, selling in the $400s/low 5s. Iraqi Army surplus (thrown away only once, never used? )