Shotgun Basics: Buckshot (Part 1)

February 25, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Ammunition Files, Another Reason to Be Armed, Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Know Your Ammo, Know Your Weapons, Self-Defense Issues, Shotty Corner, Tradecraft, Weapons & Ammo, Weapons Training Issues and tagged #4 Buckshot, 00 Buckshot, Ammunition Files, Arms and Ammo, Know Your Ammo, Know Your Weapons, Self-Defense Issues, Shotgun for Home Defense, Shotguns, Shotty Corner, Weapons

Shotgun Basics: Buckshot (Part 1)

I have been reloading for most of my adult life and have used just about ever flavor of shotgun load there is and for my money a good 00 Low-Recoil and #4 Buckshot are my “GO TO” loads for 2 legged critters.

Irish Shotgun

February 18, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Another Reason to Be Armed, Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Guerilla Gunsmithing, Improvised Weapons, Know Your Weapons, Weapons & Ammo and tagged Another Reason to Be Armed, Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Guerilla Gunsmithing, Improvised Weapons, Pocket Pipe, Slam Bang Shotguns

Minimalist 101: Sometimes a piece of pipe, a nail, some shotgun shells and a whole lot of Attitude is all you need.

Impro Guns

Members of the Irish Gardai were reportedly fired upon by a man armed with a pocket pipe during a drug raid on a property in Cork.

“They are known as slam bang shotguns – they are very crude but very effective improvised firearms, they work every time and never jam,” said Det Insp Coholan, adding CCTV footage showed them being moved into the house from a nearby derelict property in the days before the raid.

He said that in addition to the two improvised shotguns and the discharged cartridge, gardaí also found 20 other live rounds of ammunition as well as a collection of pitchforks, slash hooks, a broken pool cue and a knife as well as 25 petrol bombs ready for use, some in the house and some in a shed. “

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Know Your Weapons: The Cap and Ball Revolvers Prior to the Peacemaker

January 28, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in American History, American History 101, Ammunition Files, Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Curio and Relics, Historical Study, History of Weapons, History Remembered, History Roundup, Know Your Weapons, Revolver Corner, Weapons & Ammo, Western Scenes and tagged Cap and Ball Revolvers, Colt Peacemaker, Historical Study, Know Your Weapons, Revolver Corner, Revolvers of the Old West, Weapons of the Old West

Prior to the Peacemaker

The Revolvers that ‘Really’ Won the West

Before the Colt Peacemaker? Before the Colt Peacemaker there was a whole boatload of other Colt single action revolvers. And in truth they had a lot more influence in the Old West than did the Peacemaker because the wildest and woolliest times had passed by the time Colt got around to developing the Single Action Army.

Know Your WW1 Weapon’s History: The Flammenwerfer

January 20, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Firearms History, Historical Study, History of Weapons, History Remembered, History Roundup, Know your History, Know Your Weapons, Military History, Military News, Military Weapons from the Past, Military Weapons History, Strategy, Studies in Warfare, Tactics, Tales from the Battlefield, Tank Warfare, Warfare, Weapons & Ammo, World War I History, WW1 Era Weapons and tagged Battlefield Tactics, Flamethrowers in WW1, Flammenwerfer, German Weapons in WW1, Historical Study, Know your History, Strategy, Tactics, Warfare, Weapons History, WW1 History

Flammenwefer — World War I German Flamethrowers

It appears the first flamethrower of modern design was patented in Germany by Richard Fiedler in 1901. During the same year, the German army funded his continued work on flamethrower designs. Fiedler, a private citizen, designed several flamethrowers models and presented a working product to the German army in 1905. Based on the feedback he received, two versions of the flammenwerfer were delivered to the army in 1908.

Around the same time, a multi-talented man by the name of Bernhard Reddemann began his own experiments in designing flamethrowers. Reddeman was an officer in a German Pioneer battalion until 1903. At that time, he transitioned to a reserve officer and stayed in a Pioneer unit. Pioneers were specialist troops frequently responsible for the demolition of fortifications, engineering strong points and using specialized weapons.

Know Your Rifles: The “Krag” aka Springfield Model 1892 Infantry Rifle

January 11, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Firearms History, Historical Study, History of Weapons, Know Your Weapons, Military History, Military Tech, Military Weapons from the Past, Military Weapons History, Rifle Corner, Warrior Tech, Weapons & Ammo and tagged Charge of San Juan Hill, Firearms History, Know Your Rifles, Military History, Rifle Corner, Springfield Model 1892 Infantry Rifle, Story of the Krag, Teddy Roosevelt, The Spanish-American War, Weapons History

Story of the Krag: The Springfield Model 1892 Infantry Rifle

The formal appellation Springfield Model 1892-1899 describes the several subvariants of the Krag-Jorgensen bolt-action repeating rifle developed in the late 19^th century. U.S. troops affectionately referred to the weapon as a “Krag.” The rifle was actually a collaborative effort of Norwegian gun designers Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jorgensen. The Krag was developed at a time when the entire planet was discovering bolt-action repeating infantry weapons. It nonetheless featured some radical new design elements.

Where most contemporary designs featured an internal box magazine loaded via stripper clips from above, the Krag magazine and its lateral loading system were integral components of the receiver. To load the weapon, you pivoted open a machined steel cover on the right and fed rounds one at a time from the side. Eventually, the army issued a claw-style clip that allowed the magazine to be loaded in a single step.