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Some very scary math

The Mathematics of Countering Tyranny

   
 
Introductory Proviso: The following essay on possible gun confiscation is a purely conjectural gedankenexperiment about the future that extrapolates from recent history and current trends. Nothing herein is seditious (per 18 U.S. Code § 2384), nor a call to arms, nor a threat to our government or to any individual, agency, or group.

THE COLLECTIVIST DREAM

The current mass media-driven “debate” on firearms (actually more like paternalistic lecturing or chiding) seems to be leading toward greater restrictions by Congress. The collectivist gun grabbers have the dream of ignoring the Second Amendment and somehow magically removing all detachable magazine semi-auto rifles from civilian hands. But it is just that: a dream. If they think that they can disarm us, then they are thoroughly deluded.  I’ll explain why, with some simple mathematics.
The United States has the world’s first or second most heavily-armed populace, per capita. (It’s possibly second only to Yemen.) The number of FBI firearms background checks for transfers by Federally-licensed dealers from November 1998 to April 30, 2018 totaled 287,807,015. That isn’t all new guns. It of course includes many second-hand sales that cycled back through FFL holders. But it is still a staggering number. And it does not include any private party (“not through a dealer”) sales of used guns. That is thankfully legal in most states. Nor does it include guns that are legally made at home. (Typically made with 80% complete receivers.) Those home “builds” are becoming quite popular. Their ownership is mostly opaque to any would-be tyrants who might covet seizing them.
There are somewhere between 370 million and 420 million privately-owned firearms in the United States. Let’s just call it 400 million for a nice round figure. Most of those guns are not registered to particular owners. That is why there are only rough estimates. It makes me feel good to know that Big Brother has no idea where those guns are, and who owns them. When I last checked, the total U.S. population is 327,708,500.  So that is about 1.2 guns per person. The adult population is around 249,500,000. And according to Wikipedia, the “Fit for service” Military Age Male population (men, ages 16-49) of the U.S. is just 59,764,677. That equates to 6.6 guns per Military Age Male in the United States.
Of the 400 million American guns, roughly 20% are single-shot or double-barreled, 60% are manually-operated repeaters (e.g., bolt action, lever action, pump action, or revolvers), and 20% are semi-automatic. There are only about 175,000 transferable Federally-registered full autos. That number would have been much larger by now but production was sharply curtailed by a hefty $200 tax (starting in 1934) and then there numbers were effectively frozen in 1986. It is noteworthy that if it were not for the National Firearms Act of 1934, selective fire guns would by now be in what the Heller decision calls “common use“. After all, it costs only a few dollars more to manufacture a selective-fire M16 than a semiautomatic-only AR-15.
With every passing year, the predominance of semi-autos is gaining for both rifles and handguns. (In sheer numbers produced, revolvers are becoming almost passé.) The biggest-selling handgun in the country is the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm, followed closely by the Glock Model 19 9mm. Gaining rapidly is the highly modular SIG P320, which was recently adopted by the U.S. Army. All three of these are semi-automatic. Standard magazine sizes for autopistols range from 13 to 20 rounds. And the most popular rifles of the decade are AR-15s and their clones. Their standard capacity magazines hold 30 cartridges. (That isn’t “high capacity”.)

THE MATH ON AR CLONES

AR-15 and AR-10 variants are truly generic and have been sold under more than 120 brand names. The number of ARs (AR-15s, M4s, AR-10s, and variants) sold from 2000 to 2014 was approximately 5,672,900. Since then, AR-15 clones have become even more popular and ubiquitous with approximately 1.2 million more produced in 2015, 1.6 million in 2016, and 1.5 million in 2017. At least 1.2 million will be produced in 2018. It can be assumed that 99% of the ARs produced since the year 2000 are still functional. There were more than 2.3 million other ARs produced for the civilian market between 1962 and 1999. It is safe to assume that at least 95% of those of that vintage are still functional. So the total number of functional ARs in private hands in the U.S. is somewhere around 11 to 12 million. (As of May, 2018.)

SOME MATH ON OTHER SEMI-AUTOS

Next we come to the more fuzzy math on the wide variety of other models of semi-auto centerfire rifles in private hands. They include detachable magazine, en bloc clip, and stripper clip-fed designs. Here are some rough estimates. (Some of these estimates are based on my own observations of the ratios of different models I’ve seen offered for sale):

  • Various semi-auto hunting rifles (Remington 740/7400 series, AK Hunter, Browning BAR, Winchester 100, Valmet Hunter, Saiga Hunter, HK SL7/SL8, HK 630/770, et cetera): 2 million+
  • Ruger Mini-14 and Mini-30: 1.2 million
  • M1 Garand: 800,000+ (With many more being imported, soon.)
  • AK Variants (imported and domestically made, from all makers including Valmet and Galil): 2 to 3 million
  • M1 Carbine: 1.5 to 2 million
  • AR-180 and AR-180B: 35,000
  • M1A and other semi-auto M14 variants: 360,000
  • SIG 550 series: 80,000+
  • Thompson Semi-Autos (West Hurley and Kahr Arms): 75,000
  • HK variants: CETME, HK91/93/94 series, PTR91, etc.: 600,000 to 700,000
  • FAL variants: FN-FAL, FNC, and L1A1:  425,000
  • SKS variants: 1 million
  • Steyr AUG: 110,000
  • IWI Tavor & X95: 70,000
  • Various semi-autos assembled from military surplus full auto parts sets (M1919, BAR, Sten, M2 Browning, M3, Etc.): 75,000+
  • Assorted Other Models (These include: Kel-Tec, Barrett, Leader, FAMAS, Uzi carbines, Wilkinson, Feather, Calico, Hi-Point, SIG AMT, SIG PE57, SIG MCX, SIG MPX, Johnson, BM59, HK USC, TNW, Demro Tac-1, Calico Carbine, ACR, SCAR, Chiappa Carbine, SWD (MAC), Robinson, Hakim, Ljungman, Beretta AR-70, Beretta CX4, CZ Scorpion, Kriss Carbine, FN-49, SVT-40, SVD, PSL, Gewehr 41 & 43, Daewoo, FS 2000, Ruger PCR, Marlin Camp Carbine, et cetera): 2+ million.
THE AGGREGATE GUN MATH
Totaling the list above and adding it to the preceding estimate on ARs, there are 20 million semi-auto centerfire rifles that are in civilian hands here in the States. And that number is increasing by nearly 2 million per year. (More than half of which are AR-15 or AR-10 clones.) Again looking at the Military Age Male  population (men, ages 16-49) of 59,764,677, that equates to roughly one semi-auto rifle for every three Military Age Males.

 
If a production and importation ban requiring registration were enacted, there would surely be massive noncompliance. For example, the registration schemes enacted in the past two decades in Australia, Canada, The Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, and the States of California and New York have been well-documented failures. They have been met with noncompliance rates ranging from 50% to 90%.

Even with an optimistic 50% registration compliance rate, that would mean only 10 million of the nation’s 20 million semi-auto rifles would have a current name and address attached, to allow eventual gun confiscation.

 
Let us surmise that following several years of a registration scheme there were an outright “turn them all in, Mr. and Mrs. America” ban. I predict that even if $1,000 per gun were offered, no more than 11 million would be turned in, by compliant and history-ignorant Sheeple. (An aside: They’ll probably call this a “Buy Back”, but that will be a lie. They can’t “buy back” something that they’ve never owned.)

But that would still leave at least 9 million in circulation, as contraband.
THE SWAT AND ATF MANPOWER MATH
So let’s suppose that a full Federal semi-auto rifle ban were enacted with a gun confiscation order issued.
This is where the math gets very interesting: There are only 902,000 sworn police officers in the United States. At most, about 80,000 of them have had SWAT training. There are only 5,113 BATFE employees–and many of those are mere paper shufflers. As of 2017, there were just 2,623 ATF Special Agents. The FBI’s notorious Hostage Rescue Team (HRT or “Hurt Team”) has a cadre strength that is classified but presumably less than 200 agents. Together, they comprise the pool of “Door Kickers” that might be available to execute unconstitutional search warrants.
If they were to start going door-to-door executing warrants for unconstitutional gun confiscation, what would the casualty rates be for the ATF, HRT, and the assorted local SWAT teams?  It bears mention that the military would be mostly out of the picture, since they are banned from domestic law enforcement roles, under the Posse Comitatus Act.

THE DIVISION EQUATIONS

Next, let’s do some addition and then divide:

80,000    SWAT-trained police
+ 2,623     ATF Special Agents
+    200     FBI HRT Members
=  82,863    Potentially Available Door Kickers
… presumably working in teams of 8, attempting to seize 9,000,000 newly-contraband semi-auto rifles.
Before we finish the math, I’ll state some “for the sake of argument” assumptions:

  1. That every SWAT-trained officer in the country is pressed into service.
  2. That there would be no “false positives”–meaning that 100% of the tips leading to raids were accurate. (Unlikely)
  3. That no local police departments would opt out of serving unconstitutional Federal gun warrants. (Unlikely)
  4. That all raids would be successful. (Unlikely)
  5. That each successful raid would net an average of three contraband semi-auto rifles. (Possible)
  6. That every Door Kicker would get an equal share in the work. (Very unlikely)
  7. That every Door Kicker would be alive and well through the entire campaign of terror–with no incapacitating injuries or deaths of SWAT officers, no refusals, no resignations, and no early retirements. (Very unlikely)

A lot of those are not safe assumptions. But for the sake of completing a gedankenexperiment, let’s pen this out on the back of a napkin, as a “best case” for an unconstitutional gun confiscation campaign. Here are the division equations:
9,000,000 ÷ 82,863 = 108 (x 8 officers per team) =  864 raids, per officer 
Let that sink in: Every officer would have to survive 864 gun-grabbing raids.
Those of course are fanciful numbers. There will be a lot of false tips, and there will be many owners who keep their guns very well-hidden. Each of those raids would have nearly the same high level of risk but yet many of them would net zero guns. And it is likely that many police departments will wisely decline involvement. Therefore the “best case” figure of 864 raids per officer is quite low. The real number would be much higher.

How long would it be until mounting law enforcement casualties triggered a revolt or “sick-out” among the rank and file Door Kickers?  For some historical context: Just four ATF agents were killed and 16 wounded in the Waco raid, and that was considered quite “devastating” and “traumatizing” to the 5,000-member agency.

 
Here is some sobering ground truth: America’s gun owners are just as well trained–and often better trained–than the police. There are 20.4 million American military veterans, and the majority of veterans own guns.

RESISTANCE STRATEGY AND TACTICS
Rather than meeting the police one-at-a-time on their doorsteps, I predict that resisting gun owners will employ guerilla warfare strategy and tactics to foil the plans of the gun grabbers:
1.) They will successfully hide the majority of their banned guns. This is just what many Europeans did, following World War II. There are perhaps a million guns in Europe that were never registered or turned in, after the war. Particularly in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Spain, and Greece, there is still massive noncompliance. It has now been 73 years since the end of WWII. So the gun registration noncompliance in Europe is now multi-generational.
2.) They will form small, fully independent “phantom” resistance cells. This is commonly called leaderless resistance. Such cells are very difficult to detect or penetrate. These resistance cells will carefully choose the time and location of their attacks, to their advantage.
3.) They will individually target the legislators who voted for unconstitutional gun ban legislation. This will make it  almost suicidal for these legislators to return to their home districts.
4.) They will individually target any outspokenly anti-gun police chiefs.
5.) They will target all BATF agents and FBI HRT agents–first with intimidation, and then with targeted killings.
6.) They will pillage or burn down the facilities where confiscated guns are being stored and destroyed.
7.) They will anonymously phone in false police reports about gun control advocates. (This is commonly called “SWATing.”)
8.) They will use time-delayed explosives, time-delayed incendiaries, time-delayed bursting toxin containers, cell phone-triggered IEDs, computer program worms and viruses, and long-range standoff weapons to minimize the risk of being detected, apprehended, or killed. Likely targets will be Federal buildings, courthouses, SWAT training facilities, police training ranges, and especially the private residences of anyone deemed to be a gun-grabber.
9.) They will use anonymous re-mailers and VPN to encourage others to resist by forming their own leaderless resistance cells.
10.) They will begin a War of Attrition on the Door Kickers, with tactics such as these:
  A.) Ambushing SWAT vehicles while in transit, rather than waiting for the SWAT teams to set up raids.
  B.) Ambushing individual SWAT team members at unexpected times and places–most likely at their homes.
  C.) Sabotaging SWAT vehicles, most likely with time-delayed incendiaries.
  D.) Targeting SWAT teams or individual team members while they are at home, in training, or when attending conventions.
  E.) Harassing and intimidating individual SWAT team members and their families. The systematic burning of their privately-owned vehicles and their unoccupied homes and vacation cabins will be unmistakable threats.
11.) They will individually target “gun control” advocates, organizers, and group leaders.
12.) They will individually target the judges that issue gun seizure warrants.
13.) They will individually target journalists who have vocally advocated civilian disarmament.
14.) Some owners of M1 Carbines, AR-15s and HKs in the resistance movement will convert them to selective fire. (They will assume: “Well, if it is now a felony to possess a semi-auto, then what is the harm in making it a full auto?”)
15.) They will be willing to wage an ongoing guerilla warfare campaign using both passive and active resistance until the collectivists relent. This would be something like “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, but on a larger scale, with greater ferocity, and with far more weapons readily available. Unlike the IRA, which had to import arms, all of the the firearms, magazines, and ammunition needed for any American resistance movement are already in situ. It is noteworthy that the agreed “Decommissioning” the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was delayed for more than five years because of their remaining caches of arms, which by then included only around 1,000 battle rifles!)
THE GUN CONFISCATION END GAME
I believe that once it was started, the whole affray would be settled within just a few weeks or months.American gun owners clearly have the numbers on their side. Once the shooting starts, the gun-hating politicians will quickly feel isolated, vastly outnumbered, and incredibly vulnerable. And when they realize they’ve lost their Door Kicker shock troops, they will capitulate. After some horrendous casualties in a brief but fierce civil war, the politicians would be forced to:
  1. Declare a cease fire and stand-down for all gun confiscation raiders.
  2. Repeal all Federal gun laws.
  3. Order the destruction of all Federal import, purchase, transfer, and registration records
  4. Issue unconditional pardons for all convicted Federal gun law violators.
  5. Declare a general amnesty for all involved in the resistance, and drop all pending charges.
  6. Disband the BATFE.

Without all six of those, the hostilities would continue.

BUT THERE’S MORE
The foregoing math on the roughly 20 million semi-auto rifles is not the full extent of the problem for the gun grabbers. Additionally, there are at least 50 million centerfire handguns that would be suitable for resistance warfare. (And another 3 million being made or imported each year.) There are also perhaps 40 million scoped centerfire deer rifles in private hands. The vast majority of those have no traceable paper trail. Fully capable of 500+ yard engagement, these rifles could be employed to out-range the tyrants and their minions.

 
Then there are the estimated 1.5 million unregistered machineguns now in the country.  Except for a 30-day amnesty in 1968 that generated only about 65,000 registrations, they have been contraband since 1934. Their number is particularly difficult to accurately estimate, since some semi-autos such as the M1 Carbine, HK91/93/94 series, and AR-15 are fairly easy to convert to selective fire. Similarly, nearly all “open bolt” semi-auto designs are easy to convert to full auto. Large numbers of conversion parts sets have been sold, with little recordkeeping. Some guns can be converted simply by removing sear springs or filing their sears. Just a trickle of unregistered full autos are seized or surrendered each year. This begs the question: If Federal officials have been unable to round up un-papered machineguns after 84 years, then how do they expect to ever confiscate semi-autos, which are 15 times more commonplace?
As evidenced by the 1990s wars in the Balkans, when times get inimical, contraband guns get pulled out of walls and put into use. We can expect to see the same, here.
Now, to get back to the simple mathematics, here are some ratios to ponder:

  • NRA members (5.2 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 63-to-1 ratio
  • Military veterans (20.4 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 249-to-1 ratio
  • Unregistered machineguns (1.5 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 18-to-1 ratio
  • Privately owned semi-auto rifles (40 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 485-to-1 ratio
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
The mathematics that I’ve cited don’t bode well for the gun-grabbing collectivists. If they ever foolishly attempt to confiscate semi-auto rifles, then it will be “Game On” for Civil War 2. I can foresee that they would run out of willing Door Kickers, very quickly.

I’ll conclude with a word of caution: Leftist American politicians should be careful about what they wish for. Those who hate the 2nd Amendment and scheme to disarm us have no clue about the unintended consequences of their plans. If they proceed, then I can foresee that it will end very badly for them. – JWR
End Notes:
Again, the preceding is a purely conjectural gedankenexperiment about the future that extrapolates from recent history and current trends. None of the foregoing is seditious (per 18 U.S. Code § 2384), nor a call to arms, nor a threat to our government or to any individual, agency, or group.
Permission to reprint, re-post or forward this article in full is granted, but only if credit is given to James Wesley, Rawles and first publication in SurvivalBlog (with a link.) It must not be edited or excerpted, and all included links must be left intact.

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A COLT 1917 COMMERCIAL 45 ACP CALIBER REVOLVER. ONLY 1000 of them were MANUFACTURED IN 1932.

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How to Track Animals: A Primer on Identifying Footprints

Brett & Kate McKay | January 11, 2016

Manly Skills, Outdoors

how to identify and track animal footprints illustration

“It is hard to over-value the powers of the clever tracker. To him the trail of each animal is not a mere series of similar footprints; it is an accurate account of the creature’s life, habit, changing whims, and emotions during the portion of life whose record is in view.” –Ernest Thompson Seton, Boy Scout Handbook, 1911

The other day while hiking some muddy trails with my family, my son pointed to a set of tracks and asked me what animal had made them. “That’s easy,” I said, “those are the tracks of a whitetail deer.” “What about those?” he asked, pointing to another set of footprints. “Those are, um, hmmm, well, I’m not sure what they are,” I confessed. I realized I needed to brush up on my knowledge of animal tracks.

Learning how to track and identify the footprints of animals is an ancient and largely forgotten art — one that’s not only important for hunters, but also enhances any outdoorsman’s experience in the wild. It’s fascinating to know what creatures are sharing the woods with you, and trying to track them down by following their trail is a lot of fun. Learning how to read tracks allows you to pick up on the little dramas enacted by wildlife that usually go unnoticed by the human eye. It’s thus a skill that both deepens your understanding of nature and heightens your all-important powers of observation.

Becoming an expert tracker takes years of practice. To get you started, today we offer a primer on the basics of identifying the footprints of common animals. We’ve taken as our guides two master woodsmen of yore — Ernest Thompson Seton, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts, and Charles “Ohiyesa” Eastman, who was raised as a Sioux tribesman — as well as drawn on tips from Tom Brown Jr., one of the foremost modern trackers.

Let’s head into the woods and see what we can discover!

Where to Look for Tracks

“Never lose the chance of the first snow if you wish to become a trailer.” –Ernest Thompson Seton

Winter is primetime for animal tracking, as the prints are easy to find in the snow and can be followed for a long distance. However, as Seton explains:

“the first morning after a night’s snow fall is not so good as the second. Most creatures ‘lie up’ during the storm; the snow hides the tracks of those that do go forth; and some actually go into a ‘cold sleep’ for a day or two after a heavy downfall. But a calm, mild night following a storm is sure to offer abundant and ideal opportunity for beginning the study of the trail.”

The drawback of snow tracking is that in deep, soft snow you may find only the holes made by the animal’s feet and legs. Further accumulation and melting can also easily obscure the trail. And of course, some animals don’t come out at all during the winter because they are hibernating.

For these reasons, mud and fine, wet sand can be an even better medium, as they hold the shape of the footprint well. A mudbank stream is one of the best places to look for tracks, as it’s frequented by shore birds and waterfowl as well as animals like the raccoon and muskrat looking for food. After a rain, sand bars, ditches, and muddy gullies are also fruitful places to find the tracks of deer, possums, and other creatures. Looking over a dewy, open field in the morning can reveal the tracks creatures made in the night as well.

Whether in snow or dirt, a track is best and easiest to follow when it is freshest — before wind, rain, melting (in the case of snow), and debris have obscured the prints.

While it’s surely fun to track animals through the wilderness, it’s also enjoyable to try to find their footprints in your very own backyard (and around the trashcan!). So always be aware of your surroundings wherever you go, and you never know what you’ll see.

Learning the Tracks

In learning which tracks belong to which animals, it can help to know the basic classifications of common animal families. Simply by counting the number of toes in a footprint, you can figure out which family the creature belongs to, and from there work on narrowing down which species you’re looking at.

In this narrowing down process, it’s useful to know which animals are common to your area. As Seton explains, “In studying trails one must always keep probabilities in mind”:

“Sometimes one kind of track looks much like another; then the question is, ‘Which is the likeliest in this place.’

If I saw a jaguar track in India, I should know it was made by a leopard. If I found a leopard in Colorado, I should be sure I had found the mark of a cougar or mountain lion. A wolf track on Broadway would doubtless be the doing of a very large dog, and a St. Bernard’s footmark in the Rockies, twenty miles from anywhere, would most likely turn out to be the happen-so imprint of a gray wolf’s foot. To be sure of the marks, then, one should know all the animals that belong to the neighborhood.”

Below you’ll find illustrations of the footprints of the track classifications for the most common families of animals; they break down not only what the tracks look like when the animal is walking (which is its typical gait), but also hopping/running (which it may do when chased by a predator, or doing some chasing of its own).

Cats

house cat footprints identify animal tracks illustration

identify animal tracks illustration cougar bobcat paws

Cats leave rounded prints that show four soft, pliable, spread toes. The prints lack claws, since they’re retractable. A cat also walks in what’s called a “single register” —  its hind legs exactly track its front legs, so that it appears to only be walking with two legs, rather than four. This aids in quiet, stealthy stalking.

Canines

identify animal tracks illustration canines dog coyote

Canines have four toes like cats, but their feet are harder and their claws can be seen as they don’t retract. While the fox walks in a single register, dogs and coyotes walk in an indirect register — their hind legs land a little behind and to the side of the front print, leaving a messier track than that of a cat.

Weasels

identify animal tracks illustration skunk mink weasel otter

Members of the weasel family have five toes on both their front and hind feet, though all five don’t always show in the track.

Five-Fingered Outliers

identify animal tracks illustration bear opossum raccoon

While bears, possums, and beavers don’t belong to the weasel family, their tracks are similar in that they also have five toes in both back and front. However, they differ in the flat, human-like nature of their feet.

Rodents

identify animal tracks illustration chipmunk squirrel muskrat beaver

Rodents have four toes on their front feet, and five toes on their hind feet.

Hares & Rabbits

cottontail rabbit footprints identify animal tracks illustration

Rabbits have four toes on both their front and rear feet, and in almost all species the back feet leave tracks that are at least twice the size of the front.

Hoofed Animals

whitetail deer footprints identify animal tracks illustration

The tracks of hoofed animals are easy to recognize, and deer tracks are some of the most common to find in the woods. You can distinguish a doe from a buck, in that the female has sharper hoofs and a narrower foot than the male.

Tips for Following the Trail

“I will now ask you to enter the forest with me. First, scan the horizon and look deep into the blue vault above you, to adjust your nerves and the muscles of your eye, just as you do other muscles by stretching them. There is still another point. You have spread a blank upon the retina, and you have cleared the decks of your mind, your soul, for action.
It is a crisp winter morning, and upon the glistening fresh snow we see everywhere the story of the early hours — now clear and plain, now tangled and illegible — where every traveler has left his mark upon the clean, white surface for you to decipher.
The first question is: Who is he? The second: Where is he now? Around these two points you must proceed to construct your story.” –Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), Indian Scout Talks, 1915

Now that you know what the tracks look like, how do you follow the trail once you’ve identified it?
When following an animal’s footprints, try to track towards the sun if possible, as the shadows will make the impressions stand out more. The sun’s position in the sky during the early morning and late afternoon will particularly enhance the tracks.

As you follow an animal’s tracks, don’t just focus on the discrete sets of prints themselves, but continually take in the trail as a whole — which may in fact be easier than finding individual footprints. For example, by looking ahead, instead of having your nose to the ground, you may see a trail of bent grass through a field. Also look for other disturbances like cracked twigs, or pebbles and leaves that have been overturned to reveal their darker, wetter undersides. If you lose the trail, place a stick by the last set of prints you discovered and then walk around it in an ever widening spiral until you pick up the trail again.

Eastman lays out other considerations for your hunt:

“It is essential to estimate as closely as you can how much of a journey you will undertake if you determine to follow a particular trail. Many factors enter into this. When you come upon the trail, you must if possible ascertain when it was made. Examine the outline; if that is undisturbed, and the loose snow left on the surface has not yet settled, the track is very fresh, as even an inexperienced eye can tell…It will also be necessary to consider the time of year. It is of no use to follow a buck when he starts out on his travels in the autumn, and with the moose or elk it is the same.”

Conclusion: What the Trail Gives — The Secrets of the Woods

Animal tracks are the alphabet of the wild — an education in their language can help you read more of the nature all around you. As Seton concludes, knowing this language opens books of the woods and its inhabitants that would otherwise be closed to you:

“There is yet another feature of trail study that gives it exceptional value — it is an account of the creature pursuing its ordinary life. If you succeeded in getting a glimpse of a fox or a hare in the woods, the chances are a hundred to one that it was aware of your presence first. They are much cleverer than we are at this sort of thing, and if they do not actually sight or sense us, they observe, and are warned by the action of some other creature that did sense us, and so cease their occupations to steal away or hide. But the snow story will tell of the life that the animal ordinarily leads — its method of searching for food, its kind of food, the help it gets from its friends, or sometimes from its rivals — and thus offers an insight into its home ways that is scarcely to be attained in any other way.

The trailer has the key to a new storehouse of nature’s secrets, another of the Sybilline books is opened to his view; his fairy godmother has indeed conferred on him a wonderful gift in opening his eyes to the foot-writing of the trail. It is like giving sight to the blind man, like the rolling away of fogs from a mountain view, and the trailer comes closer than others to the heart of the woods.
Dowered with a precious power is he,
He drinks where others sipped,
And wild things write their lives for him
In endless manuscript.”

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Smith & Wesson Model 1905 4th Change DA Revolver .32-20 Win.

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Mauser Pocket Pistols

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Mauser Pocket Pistols – an Introduction

(Revised 14 Feb 2005)
By A. Winthrop
Photographs by Ed Buffaloe
unless otherwise noted

6.35mm Mauser 1910 "Sidelatch"Identifying your Mauser pocket pistol can be a little tricky. It could fall into one of four categories: a Mauser Pocket Pistol 1910; a Mauser Pocket Pistol 1914 (or its slightly modified 1934 version), a Mauser Vest Pocket Pistol or the Mauser HSc.

The Mauser Pocket Pistol 1910, somewhat larger and with a longer barrel than competing pocket pistols and therefore considered more reliable and accurate, was chambered only for 6.35mm (.25 ACP). There were two basic versions of this pistol: one made between early 1911 and July 1913, and another, updated version introduced in January 1914. Those made before 1914 have serial numbers between 1 and 61,000 and those made during or after 1914 have serial numbers between 61,000 and 152,000 (1914-1917) and between 200,000 and 403,000 (1919-1934). The latter figures include 1914 models in both 6.35mm and the larger 7 .65mm (.32 ACP), added to Mauser’s pocket pistol offerings in July 1914. No numbers are known to exist between 152,000 and 200,000 for the 6.35mm*.
6.35mm Mauser 1914 Pocket PistolThe pre-1914 versions have come to be known as the “Side Latch” or “First” models. The side plate on these pistols incorporates a latch that allows the plate, trigger\sear assembly and trigger bar and spring to be removed, without having to remove the slide. The pistol had a very good finish and was from the beginning a commercial success in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Mauser reported the following total sales figures: 1911, 11,012 sold; 1912, 30 ,291; 1913, 18,856. These early 1910s are scarce and it is very difficult to find parts for them. Even the largest North American parts dealers failed to identify my early 1910 and none had parts for it.
In July 1914, Mauser came out with the second of its pocket pistol line, a scaled-up version of the 1910 chambered for 7 .65mm. This version was revised slightly in 1934, allowing the use of stamped rather than more costly machined internal parts and sporting a curved, more comfortable grip. Otherwise, the 1934 models were nearly identical in construction to the 1914s. Numbering of the 6.35mm 1934s started around 403,000 and about 25,000 were produced. Production of the 1934s in both calibers continued until 1939.
At about the same time the scaled-up 1914 came out, Mauser modified its smaller 1910s to conform in design (but not in size) to the new 1914s, incorporating improvements in both models that were originally realized during testing of a Mauser 9mm 1912\1914 automatic military model. The 1910s produced in 1914 and later, sometimes called the “Second” or “Neues Modell” (“New Model”) 1910, do not have the side latch of the earlier 1910s and the barrel retaining (or takedown) rod is secured by a spring catch on the underside of the front of the frame. The early 1910’s barrel retaining rod was held in place by a slot cut into the underside of the barrel, just behind the muzzle.
Because of the changes in the way the barrel is retained, pre- and post-1914 6.35mm barrels are not interchangeable. In fact, few if any parts of the 6.35mm 1910s made during or after 1914 are interchangeable with those of the early 1910s because of a number of other design modifications (different sized striker, different trigger bar pivot design, different trigger sear design, etc.) Exceptions may be some springs (recoil, et al), and grip screws.
The 1914\1934 models in 7.65mm as well as in 6.35mm are often incorrectly referred to as simply 1910s, without distinguishing them from the earlier 6.35mm 1910s. For example, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Pistols and Revolvers Assembly manual uses a picture of a scaled-up 1914 model to illustrate its section on the 1910 and discusses the two models as if they were the same. However, since the 1914\1934 model design is derived directly from that of the 1910, all models are similar in external appearance, the size differences notwithstanding. The 7.65mm 1914\1934s are 6 .1″ in length and 4.5″ high, while the 6.35mm 1910s (both the 1914 and pre-1914 versions) are 5.4″ in length and 4″ high.
A line drawing of the early “Side Latch” 1910 can be found on the web site of a Canadian gun parts dealer, Marstar, under its catalog heading, Mauser Pocket Pistol 1909\1910. The exploded view of the gun’s parts linked to the drawing, however, is of a post-1914 version of the 6.35mm 1910. So if you have a 1910 and it matches the drawing in EVERY detail, including the latch shown on the side plate (left side) above the trigger, then the parts depicted in the exploded view won’t do you much good. However, if your gun does not have the side latch, then the parts in the exploded view will match yours and Marstar can provide you with a full range of parts.
Properly matched profiles of Mauser’s pocket pistol offerings and exploded parts views can be found in the archive section of Gerhard Schoenbauer’s excellent website: http://www.vestpockets.bauli.at/.  Production information in German (D) and English (E) on all Mauser’s pocket pistols accompany the model profiles.

Mauser WTP I

Mauser’s Vest Pocket Pistol was patented in 1918 and introduced for sale in 1921 to take advantage of a rapidly growing market for VERY small pistols for personal defence. The WTP (Westen Taschen Pistole) fitted into the palm of the hand and was chambered only for 6.35mm. It came out in two models: the WTP I and the WTP II, the latter coming into production in 1938 and featuring smaller, improved grips, a relocated safety and a “signal pin”, like those on Mauser’s larger models, that protruded through the rear of the slide to indicate by sight or feel that the striker was in firing position. The earlier model’s black, hard rubber grips were replaced after 1938 with brown plastic grips. There were about 50, 000 WTP I’s produced (on sale in 1926 for 36 Reichsmarks) and far fewer WTP II’s made, as production ceased in 1940 to make way for military manufacture.If your gun is a WTP  I, its grips stop well below the slide and it is marked “W.T.P. – 6.35 – D.R.G.”. If the grips go nearly all the way up to the slide and the gun is marked “T. – 6.35” you have a WTP II.
Before moving on to the last of the Mauser pockets it should be noted that in 1922 Mauser changed its name to Mauserwerke A-G from Waffenfabrik Mauser A-G and this change is reflected in the identifying slide markings.  During this transition, the Mauser banner, which appears on the side plate, was also changed but only slightly. Some Mauser pockets made during the transition have no Mauser banner, perhaps reflecting some indecision on what the new design was to be.

Photograph by Ed Harris

The Mauser HSc came out in 1939 and was produced by Mauser at least until 1946. The HSc was not derived from Mauser’s earlier pocket pistols.  It was a totally new design, being more streamlined in appearance. Its quality is considered to be inferior to the 1910s and 1914s but still good. It was chambered for 7.65mm (.32). HSc serial numbers started at 700,000 and ran to around 952,000. After the war, during the French occupation, about 17,000 more were produced from leftover parts and numbered sequentially up to about 970,000.Those HSc Mausers in the 745,338-781,415 serial number range that were marked with the Eagle/135, about 4,000 in all, had the high-polish blue finish of earlier commercial models and are among the most prized by collectors. Later military models, marked with the Eagle/135 Waffenamt (801,145 – 885,126 serial number range; about 31,000 made), were left unpolished before blueing and show machining marks.
The Eagle/N proof mark indicates commercial production. There were only about 30,000 of these made for the civilian market as most firearms manufacture during the war years was dedicated to the military or police. This was especially true of HSc-production and even most commercially produced HScs found their way into the military as they were purchased privately by higher-ranking officers who by 1944 were required to wear pistols instead of the traditional sword or dagger.
As for Mauser pocket pistol value, I have read on the Web that the range for the post-1914 6.35mm 1910s runs between about US$150 for one in average condition to US$450 for one in excellent condition. This is probably true for the scaled-up 1914\1934s and for the HSc. Special military or other markings can boost these values greatly. The early 1910s are very scarce so my guess is that a Mauser collector might pay somewhat more for these. The early 1910s originally sold in North America for US$13.50 each, according to a Mauser rifle and pistol brochure published in 1912.
While the monetary value of most Mauser pistols is not very high, every source I have come across in two months of on- and off-line research says that Mauser 1910s and 1914s are among the best made and finished pistols ever produced. This is why any of the Mauser pocket pistols are worth the effort to restore.
With only a little work, I got my early 1910 looking and working great. After carefully sliding its wrap-around walnut grip off to the rear of the frame, I cleaned it gently with white car polish, wiped it dry and applied a few coats of high quality car paste wax to it, making it look nearly new. The metal parts just needed cleaning with a little Hoppes No.9 and then I gave everything a light coat of oil before reassembly.
My task was made easy because the pistol had been well maintained (and little used, judging by the internal\external condition) by my father and its two previous owners, a father and son, both German officers who carried the pistol in WWI and WWII. The gun was surrendered to my father by the son, an army captain, shortly after his US Army 155mm gun battalion moved into a German village during the early days of occupation following the war.
By far the best single Internet source of images (side views, field stripped and complete parts layouts) and historical\tech information on Mauser’s 1910s\14s\34s and WTPs is the Web site of Gerhard Schoenbauer, an Austrian collector (http://www.vestpockets.bauli.at/). Mr. Schoenbauer’s downloadable .JPG images are scans of pistols from his own collection. Some of Mr. Schoenbauer’s historical\tech information has been incorporated here. Mr. Schoenbauer’s Web site also offers images and information (in English as well as in German) on many other handguns in his collection.
Marstar’s exploded view can also be of help to you in disassembling and reassembling your gun if it is a 1914 or 1934 model and they also have images of and parts for the HSc. And the NRA’s Pistols and Revolvers Assemblymanual will be even more helpful as it also includes images, parts lists and other information on the HSc and the Vest Pocket, as well on the 1910s and 1914\1934s. It costs about US$14.
Other references on Mauser pistols include Roy Pender’s Mauser Pocket Pistols: 1910-1946; Walther H.B. Smith’s Mauser Rifles and Pistols, and Pistols of the World by Ian V. Hogg and John Weeks. Pender’s book is out of print but suddenly in GREAT demand, perhaps an indication of collectors’ growing interest in Mauser pocket pistols. Pender’s son told me that his mother and uncle are trying to reprint the book, which was selling at gun shows last fall for $100. Rutgers Book Center, Highland Park, NJ, is offering copies at $200 each! Rutgers, a gun book dealer, has most good publications on Mauser pistols and rifles at reasonable prices.
Aside from Marstar (http://www.marstar.ca/index.html), you might find parts for your gun at SARCO, a New Jersey parts dealer; World Wide Gun Parts, San Diego, CA; Milarm, a Canadian gun parts dealer, and Gun Parts Corp., Hurley, New York.
Jack First of Rapid City, SD (contact information below), the only person able to identify my early Mauser 1910 correctly, is also a good parts source but he is not on the Web. Thomas Heller (contact information below) specializes in parts for Mauser and other European handguns.  Like Jack, Tom is not on the Web.
I offer this information because a lot of people on the Web helped me in my search for information on my Mauser pistol and how to find parts for it and I would similarly like to help others. These people were mostly gun dealers and collectors so they know what they’re talking about. Still, it is always a good idea to keep an open and critical mind because even the experts are sometimes wrong. And since I’m no expert, view my information with an especially critical eye. I’ve checked and double-checked my information but there still may be errors. If you find any, please let me know.
Below are spec sheets for two of the pocket pistols mentioned above as Mauser presented them in a 1912 sales brochure (the early 6.35mm 1910) and a 1914 owner’s manual (for both the 6.35mm and 7.65mm 1914 Mauser Pocket Pistol models). I have also included specs for both WTP models as they appear on Mr. Schoenbauer’s Web site. Should you run across similar information for the other Mausers discussed here, I would appreciate receiving it.

Also below, is a guide to on- and off-line reference materials and parts dealers.

MAUSER POCKET PISTOL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

MAUSER POCKET PISTOL 1910 – 6.35mm (.25 ACP)

  1. “First” or “Side Latch” model (early 1911-July 1913); about 61,000 made.
“Second” or “New” model (1914-39)
2. Manufacture date: From early 1911 (Revised in 1914, 1934)
3. Action: Blowback\striker
4. Length: 5 1\2″ (Barrel: 3 1\8″)
5. Height: 4″
6. Pistol weight, magazine empty: 15 oz
7. Pistol weight, magazine full : 17 oz
8. Empty magazine weight: 1.23 oz
9. Thickness: .85″
10. Length of line of site: 4.6″
11. Cartridge: 6.35mm (.25 ACP)
12. Weight bullet: 49 grains
13. Charge of nitro powder: 1.23 grains
14. Muzzle velocity: 750 feet\sec.
15. Muzzle energy  :  61 foot\lbs.
16. Penetration:
in pine at 10 yds., 2 1\2″
in pine at 25 yds., 2 1\4″
17. “Guaranteed” shot pattern:
at 10 yds., 2″ circle
at 25 yds., 6″ circle
18. Nine-round magazine (ten-shot if one in chamber).
19. Wrap-around walnut grips.
20. Markings (These can vary):
a. Manufacturer: Waffenfabrik Mauser A-G.Oberndorf A.N.Mauser’s Patent
b. Serial number: Stamped on back end of frame, front left
side of slide. Last three numbers only on takedown rod catch
and internal parts.
c. Mauser logo stamped on side plate, left side of gun, above grip.
d. One small crown, over another small crown, over a U on front
right side of slide.

MAUSER POCKET PISTOL 1914\34 – 7.65mm (.32 ACP)

  1. First introduced in 1914 (Revised in 1934)
2. Manufacture date: July 1914 to 1939
3. Action: Blowback\striker
4. Length: 6.1″
5. Height: 4.5″
6. Pistol weight, magazine empty: 21 oz
7. Pistol weight, magazine full : 23 oz
8. Empty magazine weight: 1.75 oz
9. Thickness: 1.1″
10. Length of line of site: 5″
11. Cartridge: 7.65mm (.32 ACP)
12. Weight bullet: 74 grains
13. Charge of nitro powder: 3.08 grains
14. Muzzle velocity: 1142 feet\sec.
15. Muzzle energy: 148 foot\lbs.
16. Penetration:
in pine at 10 yds., 4.5″
in pine at 25 yds., 4.4″
in pine at 50 yds., 4.25″
17. Shot pattern:
at 10 yds., 1.4″  circle
at 25 yds., 3.4″  circle
at 50 yds., 5.75″ circle
18. Eight-round magazine (nine-shot if one in chamber).
19. Wrap-around walnut grips.
20. Markings (These can vary):
a. Manufacturer: Waffenfabrik Mauser A-G.Oberndorf A.N.Mauser’s Patent
b. Serial number: Stamped on back end of frame, front left
side of slide. Last three numbers only on takedown rod catch
and internal parts.
c. Mauser logo stamped on side plate, left side of gun, above grip.
d. One small crown, over another small crown, over a U on front
right side of slide.

MAUSER VEST POCKET PISTOL 1918 (WTP I) – 6.35mm (.25 ACP)

System………  Self-cocking pistol with mass system and firing pin
Cartridges…..  6
Caliber……..  .25 ACP
Barrel Length..  60.7mm, 6 grooves right hand twisted
Weight Empty…  340g
Total Length…  115mm
Total Height…  79.5mm
Total Width….  20.6mm
Trigger……..  Single action
Sight……….  Fixed, groove with notch
Safety………  Lever
Finish………  Blued
Grips……….  Hard rubber

MAUSER VEST POCKET PISTOL 1938 (WTP II) – 6.35mm (.25 ACP)

System………  Self-cocking pistol with mass system and firing pin
Cartridges…..  6
Caliber……..  .25 ACP
Barrel Length..  51.5mm, 6 grooves right hand turning
Weight Empty…  285g
Total Length…  102.4mm
Total Height…  71mm
Total Width….  21mm
Trigger……..  Single action
Sight……….  Fixed, groove with notch
Safety………  Lever and magazine-safety
Finish………  Blued
Grips……….  Plastic

MAUSER HSc – 7.65mm (.32 ACP)

Calibre: .32 ACP (7.65 mm)
Action: Hammer – Double or Single Action
Overall Length:   162 mm
Height:           110 mm
Width over grips: 28 mm
Length of barrel: 85 mm
Distance between front and rear sights: 128 mm
Weight of pistol with magazine: 585 grams approx.
Weight of magazine:  50 grams approx.
Magazine capacity:   8 rounds
Weight of cartridge: 4.7 grams
Weight of powder charge: 0.16 grams
Muzzle velocity: 290 m/sec
Number of parts completely stripped: 40

MAUSER INFORMATION\REFERENCE MATERIALS AND PARTS

BULLETIN BOARDS – INFORMATION EXCHANGE:

MAUSER BOOKS:

  • Roy Pender , Mauser Pocket Pistols: 1910-1946
  • Belford & Dunlop (1980), The Mauser Self-Loading Pistol
  • Walter H.B. Smith, Mauser Rifles and Pistols
  • Breathed & Schroeder, System Mauser
  • R.J.Berger, Know your Broomhandle
  • Korn,  Mauser Gewehre und Patente
  • Ian V. Hogg & John Weeks, Pistols of the World
  • Joseph J. Schroeder, Gun Collector’s Digest
  • Jan Still, AXIS Pistols
  • Compiled by John Olson, The Famous Automatic Pistols of Europe – Vol. I,   Published by JOLEX
Categories
Gear & Stuff

Ridiculous Army / Cavalry Helmet

Inline image 1
I could not imagine staying on a horse during a charge.

Inline image 2
Let alone fighting with this thing on my noggin!
Inline image 3
Plus this is the enlisted model. The officers model must of been even worse.
Inline image 7
Inline image 6

Pickelhaube

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bavarian military Pickelhaube

Prussian police leather Pickelhaube

The Pickelhaube (plural Pickelhauben; from the German Pickel, “point” or “pickaxe”, and Haube, “bonnet”, a general word for “headgear”), also Pickelhelm, was a spiked helmet worn in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by German military, firefighters, and police.
Although typically associated with the Prussian army who adopted it in 1842-43,[1] the helmet was widely imitated by other armies during this period.[2]

History

Origins

Otto von Bismarck wearing a cuirassier officer’s metal Pickelhaube

 
The Pickelhaube was originally designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia,[3] perhaps as a copy of similar helmets that were adopted at the same time by the Russian military.[4]
It is not clear whether this was a case of imitation, parallel invention, or if both were based on the earlier Napoleonic cuirassier. The early Russian type (known as “The Helmet of Yaroslav Mudry“) was also used by cavalry, which had used the spike as a holder for a horsehair plume in full dress, a practice also followed with some Prussian models (see below).

Adoption

Prussian infantry Pickelhaube in 1845 (at right)

Frederick William IV introduced the Pickelhaube for use by the majority of Prussian infantry on October 23, 1842 by a royal cabinet order.[5]
The use of the Pickelhaube spread rapidly to other German principalities. Oldenburg adopted it by 1849, Baden by 1870, and in 1887, the Kingdom of Bavaria was the last German state to adopt the Pickelhaube (since the Napoleonic Wars, they had had their own design of helmet, called the Raupenhelm (de), a Tarleton helmet).
Amongst other European armies, that of Sweden adopted the Prussian version of the spiked helmet in 1845[6] and the Russian Army in 1846[7] (although see above for Russian/Prussian controversy).
From the second half of the 19th century onwards, the armies of a number of nations besides Russia (including Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Venezuela) adopted the Pickelhaube or something very similar.[8]
The popularity of this headdress in Latin America arose from a period during the early 20th century when military missions from Imperial Germany were widely employed to train and organize national armies.
Peru was the first to use the helmet for the Peruvian Army when some helmets were shipped to the country in the 1870s, but during the War of the Pacific the 6th Infantry Regiment “Chacabuco” of the Chilean Army became the first Chilean military unit to use them when its personnel used the helmets—which were seized from the Peruvians—in their red French-inspired uniforms.[9]
These sported the Imperial German eagles but in the 1900s the eagles were replaced by the national emblems of the countries that used them.

Tsarist Russian Pickelhauben, with detachable plumes, mid 19th century

 
The Russian version initially had a horsehair plume fitted to the end of the spike, but this was later discarded in some units. The Russian spike was topped with a grenade motif. At the beginning of the Crimean War, such helmets were common among infantry and grenadiers, but soon fell out of place in favour of the fatiguecap.
After 1862 the spiked helmet ceased to be generally worn by the Russian Army, although it was retained until 1914 by the Cuirassier regiments of the Imperial Guard and the Gendarmerie.
The Russians prolonged the history of the pointed military headgear with their own cloth Budenovka in the early 20th century.

Derivatives

The Pickelhaube also influenced the design of the British army Home Service helmet, as well as the custodian helmet still worn by police in England and Wales.
The linkage between Pickelhaube and Home Service helmet was however not a direct one, since the British headdress was higher, had only a small spike and was made of stiffened cloth over a cork framework, instead of leather.
Both the United States Army and Marine Corps wore helmets of the British pattern for full dress between 1881 and 1902.

Design

The basic Pickelhaube was made of hardened (boiled) leather, given a glossy-black finish, and reinforced with metal trim (usually plated with gold or silver for officers) that included a metal spike at the crown.
Early versions had a high crown, but the height gradually was reduced and the helmet became more fitted in form, in a continuing process of weight-reduction and cost-saving.
In 1867 a further attempt at weight reduction by removing the metal binding of the front peak, and the metal reinforcing band on the rear of the crown (which also concealed the stitched rear seam of the leather crown), did not prove successful.
Some versions of the Pickelhaube worn by German artillery units employed a ball-shaped finial rather than the pointed spike. Prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914 detachable black or white plumes were worn with the Pickelhaube in full dress by German generals, staff officers, dragoon regiments, infantry of the Prussian Guard and a number of line infantry regiments as a special distinction.
This was achieved by unscrewing the spike (a feature of all Pickelhauben regardless of whether they bore a plume) and replacing it with a tall metal plume-holder known as a trichter.
For musicians of these units, and also for Bavarian Artillery and an entire cavalry regiment of the Saxon Guard, this plume was red.
Aside from the spike finial, perhaps the most recognizable feature of the Pickelhaube was the ornamental front plate, which denoted the regiment’s province or state.
The most common plate design consisted of a large, spread-winged eagle, the emblem used by Prussia. Different plate designs were used by Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, and the other German states. The Russians used the traditional double-headed eagle.
German military Pickelhauben also mounted two round, colored cockades behind the chinstraps attached to the sides of the helmet.
The right cockade, the national cockade, was red, black and white. The left cockade was used to denote the state of the soldier (Prussia-black and white; Bavaria-white and blue; etc.).
All-metal versions of the Pickelhaube were worn mainly by cuirassiers, and often appear in portraits of high-ranking military and political figures (such as Otto von Bismarck, pictured above).
These helmets were sometimes referred to as lobster-tail helmets, due to their distinctive articulated neck guard.
The design of these is based on cavalry helmets in common use since the 16th century, but with some features taken from the leather helmets.
The version worn by the Prussian Gardes du Corps was of tombac (copper and zinc alloy) with silver mountings. That worn by the cuirassiers of the line since 1842 was of polished steel with brass mountings,

Cover

1892 Überzug on 1895 Pickelhauben

U.S. Marine Corps helmet of similar form, 1881–1902

In 1892, a light brown cloth helmet cover, the M1892 Überzug, became standard issue for all Pickelhauben for manoeuvres and active service.
The Überzug was intended to protect the helmet from dirt and reduce its combat visibility, as the brass and silver fittings on the Pickelhaube proved to be highly reflective.[11] Regimental numbers were sewn or stenciled in red (green from August 1914) onto the front of the cover, other than in units of the Prussian Guards, which never carried regimental numbers or other adornments on the Überzug.
With exposure to the sun, the Überzug faded into a tan shade. In October 1916 the colour was changed to be feldgrau (field grey), although by that date the plain metal Stahlhelm was standard issue for most troops.

In World War I

All helmets produced for the infantry before and during 1914 were made of leather. As the war progressed, Germany’s leather stockpiles dwindled. After extensive imports from South America, particularly Argentina, the German government began producing ersatz Pickelhauben made of other materials.
In 1915, some Pickelhauben began to be made from thin sheet steel. However, the German high command needed to produce an even greater number of helmets, leading to the usage of pressurized felt and even paper to construct Pickelhauben.
During the early months of World War I, it was soon discovered that the Pickelhaube did not measure up to the demanding conditions of trench warfare.
The leather helmets offered virtually no protection against shell fragments and shrapnel and the conspicuous spike made its wearer a target.
These shortcomings, combined with material shortages, led to the introduction of the simplified model 1915 helmet described above, with a detachable spike.
In September 1915 it was ordered that the new helmets were to be worn without spikes, when in the front line.[12]
Beginning in 1916, the Pickelhaube was slowly replaced by a new German steel helmet (the Stahlhelm) intended to offer greater head protection from shell fragments.
The German steel helmet decreased German head wound fatalities by 70%.
After the adoption of the Stahlhelm the Pickelhaube was reduced to limited ceremonial wear by senior officers away from the war zones; plus the Leibgendarmerie S.M. des Kaisers whose role as an Imperial/Royal escort led them to retain peacetime full dress throughout the war.
With the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, the Pickelhaube ceased to be part of the military uniform, and even the police adopted shakos of a Jäger style.
In modified forms the new Stahlhelm helmet would continue to be worn by German troops into World War II.

Current use

The Pickelhaube is still part of the parade/ceremonial uniform of the Life Guards of Sweden, the National Republican Guard (GNR) of Portugal, the military academies of Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and
Ecuador. the Military College of Bolivia, the Army Central Band and Army School Bands of Chile, the Chilean Army‘s 1st Cavalry and 1st Artillery Regiments, and the Presidential Guard Battalion and National Police of Colombia.
Traffic police in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan also use a form of the Pickelhaube. The modern Romanian Gendarmerie (Jandarmeria Româna) maintain a mounted detachment who wear a white plumed Pickelhaube of a model dating from the late 19th century, as part of their ceremonial uniform.

Cultural icon

As early as in 1844, the poet Heinrich Heine mocked the Pickelhaube as a symbol of reaction and an unsuitable head-dress. He cautioned that the spike could easily “draw modern lightnings down on your romantic head”.[15]
The poem was part of his political satire on the contemporary monarchy, national chauvinism, and militarism entitled Germany. A Winter’s Tale.
In the lead-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, a moulded plastic version of the Pickelhaube was available as a fanware article.
The common model was colored in the black-red-gold of the current German flag, with a variety of other colours also available.
The spiked helmet remained part of a clichéd mental picture of Imperial Germany as late as the inter-war period even after the actual headdress had ceased to be worn.
This was possibly because of the extensive use of the pickelhaube in Allied propaganda during World War I, although the helmet had been a well known icon of Imperial Germany even prior to 1914. Pickelhauben were popular targets for Allied souvenir hunters during the early months of the war.
A World War I German Pickelhaube was used as a prop in the television series Hogan’s Heroes set during the second world war; it was supposedly issued to the prison camp commander during the first war and he kept it atop his desk.
It appeared as one element of the show’s “logo”, shown (with a U.S. Army officer’s service cap hanging from its spike) as background for the show’s end credits.

  • Ceremonial nickel-plated Pickelhaubeof the modern Swedish Royal Life Guard Regiments.
  • Colombian military band at Monument of Fallen Soldiers and Police in Bogota