Vuurwapen Blog

Lightweight, compact rifles are highly sought after in the United States military. However, the supply of these weapons is often constrained by budget or other issues. The USMC, especially, does not have the budget to replace all of its M16A4s with M4s, as the Army seems to be doing – and apparently the Army is moving towards replacing all of its M4s with M4A1s, or at least as far as the barrels are concerned.

Furthermore, the USMC doesn’t want to completely abandon the extra velocity offered by the M16A4, and is apparently looking forward to future conflicts as well. “Every Marine a Rifleman” is probably not far back in the equation, as well.

Therefore, what the Marine Corps could do is make its current rifles more maneuverable and adaptable to different situations, different Marines, and different amounts of gear worn by said Marines. I’m speaking, of course, about a collapsible stock. However, the solution is not as easy as attaching a carbine lower to a rifle upper. While many who shoot brand new semi automatic rifles will never know of the potential issues, on full auto – or with a well used rifle on semi – MRBS (mean rounds between stoppages) drops to merely 30. This is reportedly a result of bolt bounce.

Bolt bounce occurs when the bolt, propelled forward by the action spring, makes contact with the barrel extension at high speed. As metal objects are prone to do when they come in contact with one another at high speed, they “bounce” apart. In this case, the bolt partially unlocks. With either the M4 or the M16A4, this is where the buffer comes in. The weight inside the buffer slams forward a moment after the bolt has gone into battery, preventing it from bouncing back by adding just the right amount of force to the equation.

The 3 ounce carbine buffer and carbine spring, however, are insufficient for the rifle gas system, which is normally used in conjunction with a 5.2 ounce buffer and a longer spring. One could, as the Canadians have done with their version of the M16 series rifle, simply use a heavier buffer, which would eliminate some of these issues. However, this means reduced compatibility with other weapons as well as a wide variance in carrier velocities and other consistency-related issues.

Enter Vltor Weapons Systems, manufacturer of a variety of firearms and accessories, from the upcoming Bren Ten to popular stocks like the EMod and receivers such as the MUR and VIS. Vltor developed a 7 position buffer tube that is slightly longer than the standard carbine tube, attached the excellent EMod stock to it, and also developed three buffers – up to 7 ounces – and a non-carbine spring for the system. Not only does it work with the M16A4, but it functions with the M4 and systems in between as well – in fact, Vltor says it works with all direct impingement AR-15s. The heavier buffers are recommended by Vltor for over-gassed carbines or piston systems.

This may be the ideal solution for both the USMC and civilian shooters that want to ensure that they have the best buffer system available for their AR-15s. I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on a system and testing it against the regular A2 stock in a rifle configuration, and other buffer systems such as the Spike’s ST-T2 in the carbine format.

As you can see on this blog, some unknown hacker has done the world a favor by releasing emails and internal memos, among other documents, from a group that receives money from several world governments to do climate change research.

I won’t bother copying what the other blogger reported, but here’s a nice quote from one of the emails:

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps
to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from
1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

Good to know that they were being honest, eh? As if many people didn’t already know that “global warming” is akin to looking at two seconds worth of temperature data from one thermometer located in direct sunlight, they have to falsify data, too? This, and the earlier debunking of the famous tree ring data, should give any thinking person pause before supporting “climate change legislation”.

Something to think about, also from the file:

“The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at
the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data
published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there
should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong.”

…actually, it’s going to be a bumpy year.

I’ve no doubt that the Democrats will lose big in 2010 – and any chance for the Pelosi/Reid/Obama machine to “change” our country will be gone at that point.

But who will take their place? And what will they be able to accomplish in the meantime?

Edit: They know it, too. President Obama made reference to “casting a vote that might lose an election for you” when he addressed House Democrats. Translation: They know the end is coming – soon – and I believe we will see more legislation such as this come before Congress. That is, radical legislation which has no basis in the Constitution and turns America into just another socialist state.

Today our nation mourns the loss of 13 warriors, and prays that the dozens in hospital will recover fully, although the sad reality is that many will be damaged for life, both physically and mentally.

We have not yet heard renewed calls for tighter gun laws, although with the inevitable copycat shootings that are sure to follow, we probably will.

What most gun control advocates conveniently ignore is that the majority of mass shootings take place in “gun free zones” – shopping malls, schools, businesses, and in this case, a military base. Under most state laws, if a business clearly states that firearms are not allowed, it’s illegal to have a firearm there. It’s also illegal to discharge a firearm within city limits, it’s illegal to brandish a firearm, and it’s illegal to commit murder.

And yet we still have mass shootings. What is the answer?

Here is the fundamental difference between people such as myself and people who want tighter gun laws.

I believe that the answer is more personal responsibility – more people looking out for themselves. Gun control advocates want the government to take care of us as much as possible. They want more laws and more regulations. I want fewer laws and fewer regulations. I want more trained citizens to be able to carry, more of the time.

Lawful concealed carry in the United States has not resulted in the streets “running red with blood” as anti-gun folks predicted. Citizens who take the time to go through the concealed carry permit process are not a threat to civilized society.

The simple fact is that you could never remove all firearms from the United States, and no matter what smokescreens are put forth about preserving the “American hunting tradition”, this is the ultimate goal of gun control advocates. Some people will never give up their guns, and some people will always be able to find them. In the UK, police officers didn’t have to be armed until after practically all firearms were banned – now, London police officers are arming themselves with submachine guns.

The hard lesson of these incidents is that active shooters will not stop until they are neutralized with gunfire. We will keep learning that even brave and well-trained police officers such as Officer Kimberly Munley cannot be everywhere, and by the time they are able to respond, dozens may be dead or dying.

In an event such as this, a law will not protect you. A ban on “high capacity” magazines won’t protect you. Police officers may be unable to protect you. The only person who you will always be able to rely on for protection is yourself.

Today I saw a bumper sticker that read, “If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention.”

I don’t know if that person was a liberal who applied the sticker during the Bush administration, or a conservative who applied it after the election of President Obama. Either way, it’s very applicable to our present times.

Today the White House announced that it would move to slash the pay of executives at companies which accepted bailout money.

“Fine, sure,” you say. “Those AIG folks shouldn’t have gotten those big bonuses.” Well, that’s another matter…

But are you aware that the federal government coerced some corporations to take bailout money?

In effect, the government has suddenly, and with practically no opposition, taken over a large portion of corporate America. Soon, I fear that it will be hard to distinguish the two.

To borrow a phrase from a certain scumbag, “Dude, where’s my country?”

We’ve all heard that the M1 Garand is the “greatest battle implement ever devised”, and many folks speak of it as if the weapon never malfunctioned. It’s pointed to as an example of how a semiautomatic rifle with a piston and an op-rod is immune to external influences such as mud or dirt.

Unfortunately, this article from 1941 tells us that that simply wasn’t the case. One sentence accurately describes the testing: “Sum & substance of the findings was that the Garand was a fair-weather rifle.”

Roy Dunlap’s book Ordnance Went Up Front tells us:

“The M1’s were going to ruin for lack of cleaning in the holes up front-the poor guys did not have anything to take care of them with, and often were not in a position to shoot them often enough to keep the barrels clear of corrosion (grass won’t grow on a busy street-regardless of the corroding primer compound, if a .30-06 barrel gets a bullet through it every six or eight hours it will stay in pretty good shape). As a result of the fouling of gas cylinders and pistons, a large percentage of our semi-automatics were becoming singleshots.”

The Garand was certainly an excellent rifle, but its legendary status in some circles proves to be a little too excessive.