What it is like to drive there on the Freeways of Los Angeles! But I digress, As I bought myself a new toy!!!
Yep! It is a Uberti Single Action in the stout caliber of 44 Magnum. Hopefully soon I will be able legally take it home! Then to the Range and some more War Stories for you Grand Readers of mine.
The Happy Grumpy
I have never been able to understand the thought process of the WSSM idea. Maybe somebody a lot smarter than me out there can explain it to me!
The United States Army is reportedly developing a new machine gun capable of withstanding higher chamber pressures and allowing for rifle-like bullet velocities out of firearms both lighter and shorter than the M4.
The firearm will use a new breech and bolt design that allows the action to cycle even under extremely high chamber pressures. This added pressure will, in turn, allow projectile velocities to increase, improving terminal ballistics even in compact, short-barreled weapons. In one test, Army researchers achieved a muzzle velocity of 2,900 feet-per-second from a 10-inch barrel using a cartridge holding only 15 grains of powder. For context, most rifles with 10-inch barrels can only push a 5.56 NATO round 2,500 fps, which limits the round’s effectiveness.
“The goal is to get rifle-like velocities out of a very small weapon that is high capacity, that’s either adaptable for room-clearing or confined spaces,” Zac Wingard, a mechanical engineer at the Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, told TechLink. “Like you’re getting in and out of vehicles or a subterranean environment, but also applicable for remotely operated systems, so think like perimeter security or ground robot or even a drone.”
The Army is hoping the technologies can be developed for use both in small, lightweight firearms like the FN P90 and in full-size sniper rifles and belt-fed machineguns. The breech and bolt design would make smaller firearms more effective and would substantially increase the muzzle velocities of larger firearms.
According to TechLink, the U.S. Army’s new 24-inch prototype barrel produced muzzle velocities of 4,600 to 5,750 feet per second. The combustion chamber pressure was increased from 65 ksi to 100 ksi (100,000 pounds per square inch), almost double the pressure seen in the M4 carbine.
“The powder used now in most ammunitions can be tweaked, so it runs at a higher pressure, but the guns can’t handle it,” Alex Michlin, the Army research engineer who invented the new design, told TechLink. “That’s why we designed the new breech, so we can take existing propellant and turn the knob all the way up to 11.”
To accommodate these higher pressures, Michlin developed a bolt that screws into the barrel breech. He also developed a collet that surrounds the cartridge while it’s seated in the chamber, which allows the spent casing to be extracted after firing. The tapered wedges, according to TechLink, reduce extraction forces by 50%, leaving more energy for cycling the bolt.
Velocity matters because, as Clay Martin outlined in a 2016 article, short-barreled rifles chambered in 5.56 struggle to push rounds fast enough (around 2,700 fps) to turn the .22-caliber projectile into a “tissue blender.” If researchers can increase velocities, infantrymen can enjoy the benefits of small calibers like the 5.56 without having to carry rifles with 16+-inch barrels.
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One weird looking piece if you ask me! But if it works, why not!?! Grumpy
I would not mind owning one of these! Grumpy
Your Army
Medal of Honor announced for soldier who fought through three floors of insurgents in Fallujah
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Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, left, in Iraq. (Army)
The president will award the Medal of Honor on June 25 to a soldier who fought through a nest of insurgents during the second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, the White House officially announced Monday.
Then-Staff Sgt. David G. Bellavia originally received the Silver Star for his actions, but his citation was revisited as part of a review of valor awards and determined worthy of the nation’s highest combat award.
The award will give Bellavia one of now seven Operation Iraqi Freedom Medals of Honor, and make him the only living recipient from the Iraq War.
During the battle, Bellavia single-handedly killed multiple insurgents, including one during hand-to-hand combat.
A squad leader at the time, Bellavia, now 43, was clearing a block of buildings when his platoon was pinned down on Nov. 10, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq.
The first nine buildings were found to be unoccupied, but were filled with rockets, grenade launchers and other weapons. When Bellavia and four others entered the 10th building, they came under fire from insurgents in the house, according to his Silver Star citation.
The ensuing gun battle injured several soldiers. Bellavia switched out his M16 rifle for an M249 SAW gun and entered one room where the insurgents were located to spray it with gunfire, forcing the Jihadists to take cover and allowing the squad to move out into the street.
Other insurgents on the rooftop of the building began firing on his squad below, forcing them to seek cover in a nearby building. Bellavia then went back to the street and called in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to shell the houses before re-entering the building to assess the scene.
Upon entering, Bellavia gunned down one insurgent who was loading an RPG launcher. A second enemy fighter began firing as he ran toward the kitchen and Bellavia fired back, wounding him in the shoulder. A third insurgent then began yelling from the second floor.
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Cache of weapons confiscated in Fallujah by Staff Sgt. David Bellavia and his unit. (Army)
Bellavia then entered the uncleared master bedroom and emptied gunfire into all the corners, at which point the wounded insurgent entered the room, yelling and firing his weapon, the citation reads. Bellavia fired back, killing the man. Bellavia was then shot at by another insurgent upstairs and the staff sergeant returned the fire, killing him as well.
“At that point, a Jihadist hiding in a wardrobe in a bedroom jumped out, firing wildly around the room and knocking over the wardrobe. As the man leaped over the bed he tripped and Sergeant Bellavia shot him several times, wounding but not killing him,” the citation reads. “Another insurgent was yelling from upstairs, and the wounded Jihadist escaped the bedroom and ran upstairs. Sergeant Bellavia pursued, but slipped on the blood-soaked stairs.”
Bellavia followed the bloody tracks of the insurgent up the stairs to a room on his left. Hearing the wounded insurgent inside, he threw a fragmentary grenade into the room, which caused the insurgent to flee to the roof. Two more insurgents began yelling from the third story of the building.
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This soldier is about to be the Iraq War’s first living Medal of Honor recipient
Staff Sgt. David Bellavia, who originally received a Silver Star, will receive his upgraded award this month.
Bellavia grabbed the wounded insurgent and put him in a choke hold to keep him from giving away their position.
“The wounded Jihadist then bit Sergeant Bellavia on the arm and smacked him in the face with the butt of his AK-47. In the wild scuffle that followed, Sergeant Bellavia took out his knife and slit the Jihadist’s throat,” the Silver Star citation reads. “Two other insurgents who were trying to come to their comrade’s rescue, fired at Bellavia, but he had slipped out of the room, which was now full of smoke and fire.”
A final insurgent dropped from the third story to the second-story roof. Bellavia saw the fleeing man and fired at him, hitting him in the back and the legs and causing him to fall off the roof and die.
By this point, five members of the platoon had entered the house and took control of the first floor. Before they would finish off the remaining insurgent fighters, however, they were ordered to move out of the area because close air support had been called in by a nearby unit.
The White House release said that Bellavia’s actions that day rescued an entire squad, cleared an insurgent strongpoint, and saved many members of his platoon from possible death.
Bellavia originally enlisted in the Army in 1999 and served in Kosovo, before deploying to Iraq in 2004 with Company A, Task Force 2-2, 1st Infantry Division. After leaving the service on Aug. 16, 2005, he has engaged in New York state politics and continued to serve the military and veteran communities through various advocacy groups.
Bellavia now has his own daily radio talk show for WBEN in Buffalo.