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Vickers Machine Gun – In The Movies

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What I call having a lot of fun!

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Combat Shotguns of the Vietnam War | Collector’s and History Corner

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California

Back in the Glory days of Los Angeles!

The Motormat drive-in in Los Angeles, 1948. The food tray was sent out on rails right to your car. The little awnings provided a shade for your food.

HISTORIC LOS ANGELES
The Track
What could go wrong? One of the most intriguing L.A. architectural novelties we’ve ever seen was this take on the drive-in. It’s The Track, with “Motormat” technology, “Track” apparently a reference to racetrack—hence the striped service trolleys that were sent out to cars at 120 feet per minute, each unit named after a famous racehorse.
A theme, however, was not enough in the face of Rube Goldberg technology. You just know the crazy trolley system must have hit snags constantly, with burgers and fries and chicken wings and cokes flying all over the hoods of Hudsons and DeSotos…and yet at one time there seems to have been as many as three outlets in the Los Angeles area, for however long they lasted. Here’s a description of the operation from The American Drive-In, by Michael Karl Witzel:

“Debuted in 1949, a Los Angeles innovation promised total elimination of carhops. At a new drive-in called “The Track,” it attracted customers from as far as Santa Monica with its unique type of service. Like a group of horses at a trough [there’s a gracious image], cars ringed around a central building, forming a circular pattern. Twenty semicircular parking spaces bridged a center kitchen by means of metal tracks. Food and condiments rode the rails within carrying…compartment[s] each powered by a small ½-horsepower motor…. The mechanical setup was reminiscent of the wackiest Rube Goldberg device. Positioned in a pre-determined [?] parking space, the diner rolled down the car window and was greeted by a stainless-steel bin that could be made flush with the door. Inside the box were plastic cups, a water bottle, menu, order pad, and change tray. It was large, too. Food for six people could be ferried back and forth on the elevated platforms. Patrons would jot down their orders and with the push of a button, the unit scooted a return to the kitchen…. When the empty bin arrived at the kitchen, an attendant put through the order and added up the bill. As hamburgers and other entrées were prepared, the rail box made its second journey to the automobile to collect the money. By the time it returned to the preparation area, the food was ready to go—loaded into the compartment along with condiments and the customer’s change. According to inventor Kenneth C. Purdy, the spoke-and-wheel-track arrangement sped service 20-25 percent.”

Well, needless to say, we wanted to know where this madcap drive-in was. There was a 1951 phone-book listing for a “The Track No 3” at 3816 Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City, now the site of a Carl Jr’s, but current visual cues there don’t jive with the vintage shots seen here. So we squinted at the pics, especially the one at top, and decided that the sign on the Herman-Something real estate office must have said “Herman Shrager”—who, it turns out, dealt in cemetery real estate, as in plots.

Anyway, after more digging we found that Herman had an office at 8152 Beverly Boulevard…and eureka! It all fell into place. Across from Herman’s one-time haunt, at the northwest corner of Beverly and Kilkea Drive, the distinctive Welch’s Candy building still stands…and so across Kilkea from Welch’s would have been The Track, at 8123 Beverly.
The mini-chain’s other locations may have survived longer, but with maintenance obviously a nightmare and profits hindered with what was clearly too much real estate given over to servicing too few cars, it was all over in a few years. Advertisements for an auction of the pieces of The Track appeared in the Times in February 1952.

The view from the kitchen, above. Below:
Assuming that the contraption made it out to his car,
the driver received his order in this box:
As seen in the Los Angeles Times on February 17, 1952
 Looking north today at Beverly Boulevard and Kilkea Drive

The Track
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What could go wrong? One of the most intriguing L.A. architectural novelties we’ve ever seen was this take on the drive-in. It’s The Track, with “Motormat” technology, “Track” apparently a reference to racetrack—hence the striped service trolleys that were sent out to cars at 120 feet per minute, each unit named after a famous racehorse. A theme, however, was not enough in the face of Rube Goldberg technology. You just know the crazy trolley system must have hit snags constantly, with burgers and fries and chicken wings and cokes flying all over the hoods of Hudsons and DeSotos…and yet at one time there seems to have been as many as three outlets in the Los Angeles area, for however long they lasted. Here’s a description of the operation from The American Drive-In, by Michael Karl Witzel:

“Debuted in 1949, a Los Angeles innovation promised total elimination of carhops. At a new drive-in called “The Track,” it attracted customers from as far as Santa Monica with its unique type of service. Like a group of horses at a trough [there’s a gracious image], cars ringed around a central building, forming a circular pattern. Twenty semicircular parking spaces bridged a center kitchen by means of metal tracks. Food and condiments rode the rails within carrying…compartment[s] each powered by a small ½-horsepower motor…. The mechanical setup was reminiscent of the wackiest Rube Goldberg device. Positioned in a pre-determined [?] parking space, the diner rolled down the car window and was greeted by a stainless-steel bin that could be made flush with the door. Inside the box were plastic cups, a water bottle, menu, order pad, and change tray. It was large, too. Food for six people could be ferried back and forth on the elevated platforms. Patrons would jot down their orders and with the push of a button, the unit scooted a return to the kitchen…. When the empty bin arrived at the kitchen, an attendant put through the order and added up the bill. As hamburgers and other entrées were prepared, the rail box made its second journey to the automobile to collect the money. By the time it returned to the preparation area, the food was ready to go—loaded into the compartment along with condiments and the customer’s change. According to inventor Kenneth C. Purdy, the spoke-and-wheel-track arrangement sped service 20-25 percent.”

Well, needless to say, we wanted to know where this madcap drive-in was. There was a 1951 phone-book listing for a “The Track No 3” at 3816 Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City, now the site of a Carl Jr’s, but current visual cues there don’t jive with the vintage shots seen here. So we squinted at the pics, especially the one at top, and decided that the sign on the Herman-Something real estate office must have said “Herman Shrager”—who, it turns out, dealt in cemetery real estate, as in plots. Anyway, after more digging we found that Herman had an office at 8152 Beverly Boulevard…and eureka! It all fell into place. Across from Herman’s one-time haunt, at the northwest corner of Beverly and Kilkea Drive, the distinctive Welch’s Candy building still stands…and so across Kilkea from Welch’s would have been The Track, at 8123 Beverly. The mini-chain’s other locations may have survived longer, but with maintenance obviously a nightmare and profits hindered with what was clearly too much real estate given over to servicing too few cars, it was all over in a few years. Advertisements for an auction of the pieces of The Track appeared in the Times in February 1952.

The view from the kitchen, above. Below:
Assuming that the contraption made it out to his car,
the driver received his order in this box:
As seen in the Los Angeles Times on February 17, 1952
 Looking north today at Beverly Boulevard and Kilkea Drive
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Brownells AR-15/M-16 Magazine Maintenance

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The Green Machine

Just another reason why I am so Happy that I did not go to John Wayne High School!!

https://youtu.be/5EQp4r3I6iI

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Canada imposes import ban on handguns By Cam Edwards

(AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)
Back in May, the Trudeau administration announced support for a bill that would halt the legal sale, purchase, and transfer of all handguns in Canada and allow for municipalities to ban the possession of pistols outright. In the months since sales of handguns have surged across the country; a development that should surprise no one. If people are told they won’t soon be allowed to buy something, that tends to increase their desire to get it before it goes away. This particular “limited time offer,” however, has not only prompted thousands of Canadians to purchase a handgun for the very first time, it’s led to the Canadian government to up its anti-gun stance by banning outright the importation of pistols into the country.

Such guns “have one purpose and one purpose only and that is to kill people,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a press briefing announcing the move.

Global Affairs Canada added in a statement that the ban for businesses and individuals was a temporary measure, set to “last until the national freeze comes into force,” which is expected to happen by the fall.

The announcement was welcomed by arms control group PolySeSouvient, which called it an “important and innovative measure that will undoubtedly slow the expansion of the Canadian handgun market pending the passage” of the handgun freeze.

Experts remain skeptical about the effectiveness of gun control measures taken by Ottawa, pointing to the smuggling of guns from the neighbouring United States as the real problem.

On Wednesday, the Canada Border Services Agency announced two major seizures in western Canada of “ghost guns,” which have no serial numbers and are difficult to trace.

Just like with gun control laws here in the United States, criminals are going to shrug off Trudeau’s backdoor gun ban because they’re not getting their guns through legal means in the first place.

Unlike the United States, however, there is no right to keep and bear arms in Canadian law, at least according to the country’s highest court.

“Canadians, unlike Americans, do not have a constitutional right to bear arms,” the high court stated in 1993, in a decision over the possession of convertible semi-automatic weapons.

“Indeed, most Canadians prefer the peace of mind and sense of security derived from the knowledge that the possession of automatic weapons is prohibited,” said the court.

The rights issue was tested again in the case of an Ontario firearms dealer and manufacturer.

Bruce Montague was charged with several weapons offences after police found more than 200 firearms and 20,000 rounds of ammunition at Montague’s home in northwestern Ontario.

Montague didn’t renew the registrations on his weapons, convinced that he had a constitutional right to bear arms without government interference or regulation, despite the passage of Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, in 1995.

Montague argued that he had “a constitutional right to possess firearms for self defence” derived from the constitution of Britain.

He pointed to the preamble of the Constitution Act, 1867, Canada’s founding constitutional document, which in his view imported the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which states in Article 7: “That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law.”

Montague further argued that in 1982, this historical right was shielded from any ordinary legislation by section 26 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which reads: “The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed as denying the existence of any other rights or freedoms that exist in Canada.”

His convictions were upheld in the Ontario Court of Appeal and in September 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a final appeal, without offering reasons.

We may see a lawsuit filed by one or more gun shop owner over the import ban, but I think any litigation hoping to undo the move is unfortunately going to face long odds in court.

I also doubt that Trudeau is going to stop here. When (not if) this ban fails to stop violent criminals from illegally using guns in violent crimes it’s likely that the prime minister will finally adopt what gun control activists in Canada have been calling for all along: an outright ban on the possession of all handguns. The Trudeau administration is already moving ahead with its compensated confiscation of so-called assault weapons, and Canadian gun owners are right to be concerned about a similar push to confiscate handguns from law-abiding citizens in the not-too-distant future.

 

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Countries Exporting the Most Guns to the US by Samuel Stebbins

Gun sales exploded in the United States in 2020, reaching an all-time high of nearly 23 million. Surging U.S. sales were a boon not only for American gun makers, but also for the global firearm manufacturing industry.

Many of the world’s largest firearm companies – including Sturm, Ruger & Co., Remington Outdoor, and Smith & Wesson – are located in the United States. However, the spike in gun sales also led to an influx of firearms from overseas. The U.S. imported over 6.8 million guns in 2020, up 71% from the previous year, and by far the most ever recorded. For comparison, American arms manufacturers assembled 7 million guns in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available. (Here is a look at the states with the most gun shops). 

Using data from the 2021 edition of Firearms Commerce in the United States, a report published by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 32 countries exporting the most guns to the US. Countries are ranked by the total number of handguns, rifles, and shotguns imported into the United States in 2020.

The largest share of all U.S. imports of firearms in 2020 – nearly 60% – were handguns. Shotguns were the second largest category, accounting for about 28% of all firearm imports, followed by rifles, which made up just under 13% of all imports.

The vast majority of countries on this list are located in Europe, though this list includes some Asian and South American countries as well. Some of the countries sending the most guns to the U.S. are home to firearm brands that many American gun enthusiasts and sports men and women would be familiar with, including Beretta, which is headquartered in Italy (No. 6 on the list); Glock, headquartered in Austria (No. 2), and Taurus, headquartered in Brazil (No. 3). (Here is a look at the 25 counties selling the most weapons).

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Some Red Hot Gospel there!

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Colt Walker Ballistics, Accuracy, Shooting Tips by PAUL HELINSKI

This is my original Colt Walker. I removed the blueing on the cylinder because that was the way the original first order of Walkers was shipped from the factory.

Eras Gone Dragoon bullet mold – currently available
Eras Gone Johnson & Dow mold – currently available
44 Walker Paper Cartridge Forming Kit – currently available at Star & Bullock Hardware

America has always had an affinity for big guns in large calibers, and biggest and most famous of the all is probably the Colt Walker. When horses were a thing, the Colt Walker was a “horse pistol.” Weighing in at about four and a half pounds, and fifteen and a half inches long, you will be hard pressed to find a larger pistol throughout the history of repeating firearms.

Designed in 1840s as a collaboration between Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker and Sam Colt, the gun eventually hit the shelves in 1847, the same year that Colonel Walker actually died in the Mexican-American War. He was carrying two Colt Walkers at the time, in saddle holsters as they were designed to be carried. Movie characters such as Clint Eastwood in “The Outlaw Josey Wales” have carried the guns in belt holsters, but that was uncommon back in the day. Surprisingly, the Wikipedia is pretty sparse on the gun. I have said for many years that the Walker really was not a significant firearm in history. But in firearms development it was pivotal.

At 4 1/2 pounds, the Walker is not the most practical gun to carry, even in a drop leg holster. The weight makes the recoil very manageable, even with those bit 260 grain Dragoon bullets. But it was designed and carried originally as a horse pistol.

At that time, America was not obsessed with large calibers. A hundred years prior, American gunmakers had scaled down the Jeager rifle, which had come over with German and Dutch immigrants into what we now call the American Longrifle. The Jeagers had been as large as 75 caliber, and the Longrifles were more often in 40 or 45. And in pistols it was no different.

The Walker emerged as “too much gun” for most shooters. Horse soldiers didn’t take longer shots with a pistol than infantry did, so they didn’t need such a big heavy pistol. All the way up through the Civil War, 36 caliber revolver dominated sales of the Colts, both military and civilian. All of the Colt copies made in the south, as well as the Whitney were all in 36 caliber, which is really a .375.

The Walker is called a “44 caliber” like most big bore cap and ball pistols, but like the rest it actually takes a .454 ball. The bore diameter is more like .451 or so. I personally use .457 balls, because I feel like if you shave more lead from the ball it increases the bearing surface on the rifling.

My focus in this Black Powder Project has been to examine these guns in the light of a practical and useful firearm. A lot of people are stuck in cities where there is nary a gun dealer, and to get a handgun takes a crazy amount of paperwork. For some people, even owning a pistol is impossible, even though in a red state they would be able to legally walk into any gunshop and buy one. In most of those states you can still buy a black powder pistol and have it shipped to your door. In the others you may have to ship it to an FFL dealer, but from what I have seen, no permit or 4473 is every required. There are no federal laws governing these guns at all.

With paper cartridges designed for the guns, all Civil War era cap & ball pistols are formidable weapons for people who can’t own cartridge handguns. The Walker is just the monster of them all, and it does have it’s own paper cartridge system at cartridgekits.com.

The Walker is a formidable handgun. You will see in the video that it fired a standard 141 grain lead roundball at over 1,200 feet per second. That is 500 or so foot pounds of muzzle energy. Compare that to a heavy 9mm round the 147 grain, that even in a 12″ barrel, does not reach 1,100 fps. Even a 44 Magnum fires a 240 grain bullet at only about 1,300 fps. in a 6″ “Dirty Harry” sized barrel, so we are approaching magnum velocities, even without loading the gun up to snot.

I did not load any of these bullets to the top of they cylinder with compressed Triple Se7en. Over about 1,100 fps pure lead bullets tend to lead the barrel, and it is a bitch to get out when you can’t just fire a jacketed bullet to scrape it out. So these loads were pretty tame.

I don’t load the Walker as heavy as it will go, because I know that with pure lead, once you get supersonic, over about 1,100 fps, you start to really get barrel leading. If we were making bullets for a cartridge gun we could just add some antimony and the bullet will get harder and more resistant to leading, but in a cap & ball revolver you can’t do that. Ideally the ball or bullet will “shave” as you compress it into the cylinder with the loading lever, so you are left with a lead ring. This insures a consistent jump to the forcing cone, and usually prevents the bullets in subsequent cylinders from moving forward with recoil from that which is currently being fired.

Most people are going to shoot a .454 lead roundball in their 44 cap & ball revolvers. It is easy to make a paper cartridge with balls, and at the very least will give you more range time for shooting instead of loading. They compress right into the cylinders and fire 100% reliably with this method.

I also tried the Eras Gone Dragoon bullet. Some molds are currently available as I write this, but they are more often than not sold out. That page at Eras Gone says that they do not fit the Walker without modification, but the bullets scoot past the loading cutout on all three of my guns just fine. I don’t think the information on that website has been updated in some time. He is still linking to a really bad paper cartridge making system that most people have moved on from as well.

As of this writing there are some Colt Dragoon bullet molds available at Eras Gone, and Star & Bullock Hardware sell them at cartridgekits.com as well. They are a whopping 260 grains, heavier than a standard 44 Magnum handgun bullet.

Paper cartridges are great for the Walker. I use the system that everyone uses now, from Star & Bullock Hardware at cartridgekits.com. The powder dipper that comes with the kit, with the dipper edges showing, loads to about where you see here with the conicals, and loaded to overflowing, where you see with the balls. More powder than this will most likely lead your bore, but if you want more, all you have to do is cut the paper longer. i will include a video on how to make paper cartridges here as well.

For a 260 grain bullet, the Walker screamed that sucker at over 1,000 fps. And again, not loaded all the way up. Consider what I said before that the 6″ 44 Mag is clocking only about 1,300 fps on a 240 grainer, this is a not a gun and a load to be trifled with, or that you need to increase at all. Lesser loads have killed many a buffalo and grizzly.

I use Hodgdon Triple Se7en in the FFFG granulation for all of my black powder handguns now. It isn’t that I don’t have or can’t readily get FFFG black powder. I have a ton of it. It’s that I don’t necessarily get to cleaning my guns the same day, and it is safe to leave them for a few days because it is a modern powder that does not contain sulfur, and does not not readily rust your guns. It also increases performance quite a bit, and does not crap up your cylinder gap. With real black powder you have to clean your cylinder face regularly with a wet cloth or it will begin to bind. And if you force it, you can bend your internal parts.

I use this stuff almost exclusively in my BP guns these days. It does not rust your guns or crap them up as readily as real black powder or pyrodex, and the performance is superior.

In the video you will see that I also tried the roughly 220 grain Johnson & Dow bullet from the same Civil War ordnance era, and I also saw in excess of 1,000 fps. That mold has not been available for a while, but it just so happened when I went to collect up links for this article that it is. They also do sell the finished bullets, however, at cartridgekits.com.

Overall my speeds were from over 1,000 fps to over 1,200 fps with the 141 grain roundballs.

The Walker is a fairly accurate pistol, even with these fairly heavy loads. A roundball will generally be the most accurate bullet for cap & ball guns. I have 1911s that don’t shoot as well as the Walker with .457 roundballs. The conicals hit harder, but they would take some tuning to see where they like to be loaded, and the most accurate loads are never going to be full power, with any gun really. At normal gunfight distances the Walker is plenty accurate, and it’s long sight radius lends itself to taking longer shots. Just remember that when you rest a revolver, and especially a BP revolver, on a bag or something, it will burn it if too close. A lot of heat and pressure escape that cylinder gap.

You will see in the video that in casual shooting from a table, I was able to keep some groups into 3″ or so. Roundballs are always the most accurate in these guns, but you can see here that even the heavy 260 grainer, loaded to over 1,000 feet per second, kept well into center mass size at ten yards.

When I was shooting the Walker, I did not intend to fire my at that time unfired Colt 3rd Generation. But it is identical to the current Uberti Walker, and I picked it up by mistake, loaded it and shot it. So my groups went from roughly point of aim on the Uberti to about 8″ high on the Colt. Until about five years ago, the Italian gunmakers couldn’t have cared less if your guns shot to point of aim or a foot high, so most of them shot a foot high, and that was the case on my real Colt. This also confirms my suspicion that the 3rd Gen guns were all made completely in Italy and perhaps screwed together in New York. Don’t waste your money on a “real” Colt. The modern Uberti is better for actual shooting.

I should mention that a standard cap & ball holster will not fit the 9″ barreled Walker. i do have a holster from a seller on Ebay that is nice, and reasonably priced. If you are one of those Americans who just want the biggest, the Walker is probably for you. RINO and perennial POS career politician Texas Governor Greg Abbot (who you jackasses in Texas just blew your chance to get rid of) named the historically irrelevant Colt Walker the official handgun of Texas last year. It was designed by a Texas Ranger, but the Colt Paterson was also made famous by Texas Ranger Jack Hayes, so BFD.

As a self defense gun, the Walker is probably overpowered and cumbersome to be practical. There are better choices for sure in a cap & ball pistol. But if you have tiny feet, and you just want the biggest, it might just be the gun for you.