Repurposing Russian Armaments

Necessity is the mother of invention and it appears the Ukrainians are doing a good job of it. They have captured a number of abandoned or semi-destroyed Russian Army tanks and armored personnel carriers. Who has not seen the videos of Ukrainian farmers towing away Russian tanks with their John Deere tractors?

Most of these vehicles are armed, in part, with the Russian PK-T machine gun. That is the tank or coaxial version of their standard PK machine gun. France 24, the French public TV network, has a story on how Ukrainian auto mechanics are re-engineering and repurposing these tank machine guns into infantry weapons. They have added a stock and bipod as well as converted the firing mechanism. You can it in the video below.

Repurposing tank machine guns for infantry use is nothing new. As Ian McCollum relates in the next video, the Finns did it extensively with captured Soviet weapons in the Winter War.

H/T Stephen Gutowski on Twitter

Forgotten Weapons On The M-1 Carbine

The M-1 Carbine is one of my all-time favorite military weapons and is an incredibly fun gun to shoot. It is light, handy, has virtually no recoil, and packs a stronger punch than usually given credit. It even has had a movie made about it featuring Jimmy Stewart as “Carbine” Williams.

My version of it was made by IBM. Yes, the computer and typewriter company. They made an estimated 346,500 of these carbines during WWII. I got it back before year 2000 and the price was a fraction of what the market demands now.

In the video below, Ian McCollum goes in great detail about the M-1 Carbine and the history of its development which he describes as a whole new class of weapon.

More On AK Mags – History And Issues

It seems I was not the only one to have issues with AK magazines fitting my AK47/74s.

Switchpod did a review of what fit and didn’t fit his Palmetto State Armory GF3 AK-47 pistol. It looks like he had similar issues to what I was having to deal with.

I saw that PSA pistol at the SHOT Show and kind of fell in love with it. The GF3 AK-P pistol with the triangular folding stock is almost a clone of the AKU-74 except that it isn’t in 5.45×39 and it isn’t a NFA short barrel rifle. It probably is as close to a Krinkov as I’ll ever get without jumping through all the hoops.

While looking at that video, I came across one from Ian of Forgotten Weapons in which he discusses the history of the Russian AK47, AKM, and AK74 magazines in all their glory.

Congratulations To Ian On 2,000 Videos

Congratulations to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons on his 2,000th video.

I know how long it took me to write 2,000 blog posts. I can’t imagine all the work that went into creating 2,000 YouTube/Full 30 videos.

I feature a lot of Ian’s Forgotten Weapons videos on this blog because a) they are interesting, b) they are educational, and c) he does a damn good job in putting them together.

You may have noticed in many of Ian’s videos filmed outside that he has quite a collection of historic-looking headgear. He goes through a large box of them in his 2,000th video below.

As for me, I have a few boonies and a ton of giveaway ball caps gathered from the SHOT Show and NRA Annual Meetings with a few fly fishing companies thrown into the mix.

A Sniper Revolver?

Oui!

The French national police’s special tactical unit, Groupe d’intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale or GIGN, is their equivalent of the FBI’s Hostage and Rescue Team. As a special unit, they are allowed free rein in picking firearms suited to the various missions they carry out.

They are unique in that in their early days they went with a double action revolver instead of a semi-auto pistol. They chose the highly accurate Manurhin MR73 in .357 Magnum as their basic handgun. From what I understand, it still remains in their arsenal.

However, the GIGN went a step further and created a version to be used by their snipers for shorter range work.

From Ian McCollum:

The MR73 was purchased and used mostly with 4″ and 5″ barrels, but a small number were also purchased by GIGN with 8″ barrels, to be made into scoped sniper models. These were fitted with a Harris bipod on custom mount, and a Bushnell 2.5x pistol scope. Outfitted this way, they were capable of pinpoint precise shots in very tight quarters where a rifle would not be a practical option. They were not meant to replace rifles in all situations; GIGN is one of those elite agencies with great latitude in arms procurement. This scoped revolver was one of many options available in their arsenal, for particular situations calling for it.

Ian goes into much more detail about the sniper version of the MR73 in his Forgotten Weapons video below.

Forgotten Weapons On The “Ballerina Molester”

The Argentine .45 ACP Ballester Molina was the first .45 that I ever bought. It was my first almost 1911. I couldn’t afford a 1927 Sistema or a real 1911 at the time.

I can’t forget who first called it the “Ballerina Molester” but I’ve always laughed at it.

Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons goes over the Ballester Molina and what makes it different and similar to the 1911.

A 5.56 FAL?

Yes, there really was a FAL in 5.56×45. It was the SAR-4800 made by Imbel in Brazil and imported by Springfield Armory. According to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, only about 700 were imported into the United States and these came with those ugly post-ban thumbhole stocks.

He discusses the history of it while examining one that was converted to the FAL Para configuration. While it probably is a bit heavy, it is still pretty cool.

Bill Ruger Designed A Machine Gun?

Years before he co-founded Sturm, Ruger & Co., Bill Ruger worked for Auto-Ordnance. When the Army’s Ordnance Department was seeking a replacement for the M1919A4 light machine gun, he designed and submitted a prototype. Unfortunately for Ruger, it failed the endurance test as did the other submissions. Ultimately, the Army went with an updated version of the Browning design.

Ian McCollum goes on to add this about the prototype which now is part of the Cody Firearms Museum’s collection.

As it turns out – and as Ruger would later write – it could be quite hard to create a ground-up new design to beat John Browning’s work in just 4 or 5 months (shocking!). When Ruger’s gun was tested, it was found to have a few good aspects, but was generally unreliable and failed to complete the scheduled 10,000-round endurance test. All of the other guns in that trial failed for various reasons, though, and a second trial was scheduled, giving the manufacturers time to improve their designs. Ruger and Auto-Ordnance were unable to substantially correct the problems with the gun, however, and it did as badly in the second trial as it had in the first. Ultimately, a separate procurement process by the Infantry Department would result in the M1919A6 Browning, which was adopted for the role of light machine gun.


This experience would serve Ruger well, as he would go on to do quite a lot more work with Auto-Ordnance before forming his own tremendously successful company.

Forgotten Weapons – A Virtual Tour Of The Renovated Cody Firearms Museum

When my family took our great Western trip during the Bicentennial, one place we visited was Cody, Wyoming. We took in the nightly rodeo and other sights. However, the highlight was the visit to what was then called the Winchester Museum and the Buffalo Bill Museum. They have since been renamed to the Cody Firearms Museum within the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

The Cody Firearms Museum has just undergone an extensive (and expensive) renovation. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons visits and gives us a virtual tour. He notes in his description of the video that it is now, in his opinion, the best firearms museum in the US.

Larry Vickers’ Delta Force Colt 723 Carbine

Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons posted an interview with Larry Vickers. They discussed his Colt 723 carbine that he was issued when he was first with SOF-D aka Delta Force.

Ian says in the description for this episode:

Use of carbines like this one by Delta and other special forces groups set the stage for the adoption of the M4 Carbine and Aimpoint M68 optic by the US military at large, and it’s very interesting to listen to Larry’s first-hand experience of how and why it was put together.

By the way, if you want to duplex magazines like that, Matt Bracken (Enemies Foreign and Domestic) has an excellent “how-to” article on it here. I’ve done it with black duct tape and a thin dowel.