stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley (no blather posts)

In Phoenix yet again

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:48:00 GMT

You might have noticed that last week we were in Phoenix again. That meant yet another trip to to firing range, although this was also James' first trip to the range. The new addition to the collection of weapons fired was a Romanian AK-47:

It was surprisingly accurate, but has a definite recoil. Most of us ended up bruised, except for James. It turns out that James is some sort of automatic weapon idiot savant, as he also ended up with a really nice grouping at the end. The history of the AK-47 is also interesting if you're unaware but into such things.

We also fired the Remington Model 870 pump action 12 gauge shot gun (slug gun variant) again:

As well as the seemingly traditional Magnum 50 calibre model 500:

And then the Springfield 1911 45 calibre:

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Back in Phoenix again

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 15:54:00 GMT

...so off to the firing range we went. We went to the same place as last time although this time the intention was to fire some rifles instead of handguns. That didn't work out as well as planned, because there wasn't space on the rifle range at the time. Therefore, we started out with the Smith and Wesson Magnum 50 calibre model 500, which is still an insanely heavy and over powered handgun. I was more accurate than last time though, which I suspect is because I knew more about what to expect from it. In case you've forgotten, here's a picture of that gun:

Next was what I am going to call "the James Bond gun", a SIG Sauer 380 p232, which doesn't have a Wikipedia page. It's interesting to me that most of these gun companies have interesting histories. For example, SIG (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft) is among other things a railway company, packaging and firearms company. Because of Swiss law, they weren't allowed to export guns, so they had to come to an arrangement with Sauer to make that happen. Hence the name. So, you can see how Bondy this one is:

That was a nice gun, although not very accurate. Hardly any recoil. Next was the Glock Model 30 45 Calibre and it's friend the Glock Model 30 45 Calibre with compensation. I much preferred without compensation to be honest:

Then the rifle range became available. Here I warmed up on what one gun manufacturer I found yesterday described as "the persuader" -- a Remington Model 870 pump action 12 gauge shot gun, the specific model I was using is the reinforced slug capable model. The slugs are pretty scary -- thing tennis ball sized hole in the target. Buck and game shot is less scary, but would certainly get some attention. The most interesting bit of this gun is it really looks like it should be in a terminator movie:

And then finally, there were two versions of the civilian edition of the M-16, the AR-15. The first is the standard issue AR-15:

To be specific, this is a Bushmaster AR-15, with forward assist. The other version was a carbine:

The only real difference to note here is the collapse-able stock. This rifle is very complicated compared with the AK-47, which I didn't fire as they didn't have any ammunition at the time we were there. Then again, it's very accurate over much longer distances than any of the other guns I have fired so far.

So, to finish up I've spent a little time with rifles now. I wouldn't consider myself an expert, and I still have no desire to actually own a gun, although Boing Boing does recommend it as a way of keeping your expensive stuff safe when you fly in the US. I think the bit I find really interesting here is the technical complexity (or sometimes brutal simplicity like in the case of the Springfield 1911) of these machines. I would agree with those who expressed an opinion last time that guns are designed to hurt people and are therefore bad, but I still think knowledge is a valid goal.

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I promised pictures of my targets

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:51:00 GMT

When I mentioned my trip to the firing range, I promised to put the targets online, and I have finally gotten around to it. So, here we go (without this getting too verbose):

Fabrique Nationale 57 USG

HK 45 USP

Magnum 50 calibre model 500

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Phoenix, Guns, and Wikipedia

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 13:45:00 GMT

I imagine that not everyone will approve of this post, but this site is about me and my travels, so you'll just have to get over that. For some time, David has been promising that next time I come to Phoenix he'd take me out shooting at a local firing range. This was my idea, although David seemed more than happy to facilitate my wild desire to hold a gun for the first time, let alone fire it. After some shopping around, we settled on the rather quaintly named Shooters' World. It's about a 20 minute drive from the office, but when you're in a city where a cool day is over 35 degrees Celsius, having an air conditioned range seemed like a good idea.

After some fast talking, Chris (an ex-Marine) and yet another Michael (we have a large supply of those at work -- this one is from Santa Monica) agreed to come. I'm personally really glad of that, because I found it quite reassuring to have someone who fired guns for a living doing the training.

Off we went to the firing range. The first gun I got to fire (I'm resisting using the word play, it seems like much to serious a topic to be light about), was the Springfield 1911 45 calibre. At the time that Chris was in the Marines this was apparently the standard issue Marine side arm, and it's a nice feeling weapon. It's got a clever safety too, you need to be squeezing the handle before you can fire. Here's a picture of the 1911 for the curious:

The Springfield armoury has an interesting history by the way, and I should add it to the list of places I should visit, if I ever happen to be in Springfield, Massachusetts. The 1911 has an interesting history too, the basic design for this automatic pistol goes back to late 1890s. I must admit at this point that I was using a newer remake of the gun, not the exact gun from over 100 years ago.

Next there was the Fabrique Nationale 57 USG, which at the time I thought was a bit pathetic because it fires very small rounds. It is disastrously accurate though, even for someone with no experience like me. When I get a chance I'll scan one of the targets I used and you'll see what I mean. When we all went back to the office and David did some Googling, it's interesting to note that this gun is by far the most controversial, as it's currently the target of a proposed ban. I guess that's not surprising, as it turns out the reason for the very thin rounds is because they pierce light body armour. To quote from the Wikipedia page:

Conventional pistols usually use 9 x 19 mm, .45 ACP and similar cartridges that are effective for stopping a hostile individual in ordinary circumstances. However, FN argues that if that individual is wearing a light Kevlar vest, these bullets will be stopped without causing lethal damage. Such body armour is currently in use with over 50% of the world's armed forces. Law enforcement officers also need the ability to pierce body armour, as it is worn by an increasing number of criminals. FN claims that thanks to the use of their newly designed 5.7 x 28 mm cartridge, the Five-seveN is capable of piercing the older U.S. Army PASGT vest at 300 meters range, and a U.S. Army PASGT helmet at a range of 240 meters. However, these penetration statistics are for the military SS190 cartridge. Other available cartridge variants may not be armour-piercing, according to the BATFE.

So, that's a pretty scary gun given it was by far the most accurate of all of those I fired, had the biggest clip, and isn't stopped by traditional armour. Oh, and did I mention that the gun is all plastic except for the barrel? Holy crap. The only real catch was that the barrel tended to over heat leaving the gun jammed after rapid firing. I imagine this could be annoying if you're feeling the need to use a gun for real. Chris suspects that it might just be because the range gun needed some love though.

Next on the tour was the HK 45 calibre USP. This gun was terribly inaccurate (again, I'll put the scanned target online soon-ish), but seemed to do the job. It certainly looks the part as well:

Finally, Chris had some strange out of body experience, and went back outside to pick up this thing:

It came in a case labelled "the law giver", which should give some indication of how serious it is. This thing was crazy, it's heavy. Really heavy. That might have something to do with the fact that it's about a foot long. It's balance is weird, and it wants to point at the ground naturally. It's got a hair trigger, which makes it easy to fire accidentally if you've hand cocked the weapon. Oh, and it fires 50 calibre shells, which are mainly lead. The bullets were $1.50 US each if you bought a box, or $4 US each. Oh, and it's a Smith and Wesson Magnum 50 calibre model 500 for reference.

The Magnum 50 calibre was totally terrifying to fire, let alone be the target of. First off, the recoil is huge, and my wrist hurt for about 30 minutes afterwards. Secondly, Chris isn't a small guy, and he was being pushed back a step each time he fired. Oh, and checkout the fireball it created when fired. Have I said holy crap already in this post? Oh, and the Magnum was almost instantly nicknamed "Mr Blasty", although Chris seemed to prefer just calling it a canon.

So, does this make me a gun nut? The firing range was fun, and I will certainly go back sometime. I have no particular urge to have a gun at home (unless I get into sport shooting, when it would be cheaper, and nicer, but at that point I think I would store it at the firing range). Then again, apparently around 50% of Arizonian cars have a gun in them, presumably loaded. There were also two serial killers on the prowl while I was there, although they have now caught one of them .

Oh, and a final point? I'm really surprised by the excellent gun coverage at Wikipedia. Wikipedia seems to always have more content that I could possibly need.

Oh, and one other final point. I flew back with five 50 calibre shell casings in my hand luggage. I was impressed when the x-ray guy correctly identified the casings from the x-ray image, although he thought they came from the Israeli manufacturer Desert Eagle, which is also a 50 calibre pistol. It's strangely reassuring that the airport security folk can find things like this, although they seemed completely unconcerned (the Phoenix airport informational video suggests that if you're travelling with guns to put them under the plane, so this sort of thing must be fairly common).

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