My Favorite Veteran's Favorite Weapon

My father never actually saw any combat duty but served as a BAR gunner during the occupation of Japan. Though he never had to view the horrors of the battlefield, he was assigned to the island of Kyushu...occupying a city called Nagasaki. He has never spoken about what he saw at all that I know of...but we did get him to write down the filthy (and seemingly interminable) song he still remembers from boot camp! It's a start...

On July 4th of this year I managed to arrange a "present" for my father and he got to fire a Browning Automatic Rifle, the weapon he trained on when he was 17, for the first time in 56 years. If anyone ever needed to know whether or not Class III full-auto ownership was a "good" thing take one look at the smile on his face in the following picture, it says it all. The first words out of his mouth when he finished off the magazine were, "That is sweet!" And for you purists...yes, this BAR is in the "cavalry" configuration (about 8" shorter than normal), it has a Swedish pistol grip installed, that is a decidedly not period ACOG scope, and those with sharp eyes surely recognized the M-60 flash hider. Believe me, it beats the heck out of when it was in the green and gold "big pimpin' configuration" (not for the BAR fan with heart problems!)

Happy Veterans Day Dad and All Other Veterans!!

Thank you for fighting to preserve our country, our freedom, and our right to bear arms.

A Tough Little Rifle: the SKS

Mugwug is an enthusiastic shooter. He approaches the shooting sports like a master craftsman: carefully, full of reverance for the art as well as for the tools. That's why he's interested in doing some research as well as working on his skills at the range. One extra point in his favor is that he's a Canadian, yet he still manages to...well, manage.

The following short tutorial is from his own blog, Moral Flexibility. It's worth checking out.

Simonov Self Loading Carbine - History and Pictures

The SKS rifle was designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov, based in part on his earlier work on the PTRS anti-tank rifle.

The SKS entered soviet service in 1945, and was replaced in 1947 by the AK-47, the SKS was then relegated to ceremonial duty and as a reserve weapon. Manufacture and export of the rifle continued past the adoption of the AK47, and eventually the tooling and a large number of spare parts were turned over to the chinese (see sino-soviet SKSs).

The SKS is a semi-automatic rifle, firing 7.62x39mm ammunition from an integral 10 round magazine. Designed to be loaded from above using "stripper clips" (or chargers) the rifle is capable of effective fire out to 300 meters.

I personally own four SKS rifles, one each of Russian and Yugoslavian, and two Chinese (a standard SKS and an SKS-D).

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