Meet Ken Clark and Matt Sidley. These men are the proprietors of a modest shop and gunsmithing operation called TPM Outfitters in the town of Carrollton, Texas and between them have two decades of experience tinkering and working on firearms. While there are many gunsmiths and custom shops in America, the men who run them typically seem to be much older guys who act like it is a privilege for you to be doing business with them, not to mention their absurd turnaround times. I have never written about a gun shop or gunsmith before, but after having utilized the services of TPM Outfitters and been given quick shop tours and a look into how they do things, I was blown away by these guy’s attention to detail and services offered. Before I get into it, let me lay out a bit of history.

Ken worked professionally in the steel industry for six years in Europe before moving back to the States where he worked for none other than Murray Urbach. For those who don’t know, Mr. Urback was to H&K guns what Carroll Shelby was to Mustangs. He was well known for his attention to detail, quality builds, and good nature. Ken began working for Urbach in 2002 for a sum total of six years, where he learned the skills necessary to start his own operation when Murray retired. Matt’s background is also interesting; Before his foray into TPM he was a stunt driver, which he still does on the side! While that doesn’t necessarily prepare you for gunsmithing, he also came from the steel industry and did work for Urbach. The one negative thing people have to say about Murray Urbach was his turnaround times, so what Matt did was found out about the backlog (which included many of his own firearms) and got to work on them. Now I have called gunsmiths to inquire about the status of a firearm before, but I have never felt compelled to say “hold it, I am coming up there to help you guys”. After working together, Matt and Ken decided to start their own operation out of Ken’s garage in 2008, but in 2009 moved to the current Carrollton site and TPM Outfitters was born.

The way I found out about TPM was very serendipitous too. When I was working on my SL8 to G36 conversion I was browsing a local message board looking for someone who could pull the barrel and do plastic welding on it. A man responded who is a local and reputable AK builder saying that he could probably do it, but after we exchanged a few emails he said I should probably take it to Ken and Matt. I had no idea that some of the country’s best H&K specialists were just short drive from my house, and this was the first time I met them. I must say that I was expecting a pair of grumpy and condescending guys and a 6 month turnaround time, but when I walked in the door I was greeted with a smile and congeniality. Matt and I talked for a while about my gun and what needed to be done, but he also was happy to show me other wares, even post-sample stuff that is only available to law enforcement and military buyers. If you have read my G36 conversion article, you can see that it turned out great and the turnaround time on their work was about a month and a half or so.

The second time I used their services, I dropped off an MR556A1 upper I bought to have cut down to 10.4″ and given the 416 treatement (which includes welding and refinishing the gas bleed-off port). Turnaround time on this: a day. Not even kidding here. I dropped of the upper, and got a call the next morning from Ken saying that my upper was done! I was blown away by this, and the upper looks perfect.

So what, America has plenty of gunsmiths and gun shops, what makes this operation unique? Well, any gun lover would walk in and have to wipe the drool off their mouth after seeing their inventory:

The funny thing is that this is only a portion of it, as it was all I could fit into a photo! TPM stocks transferable machine guns and all kinds of other NFA items, which in it of itself is very unique. They even make their own in house suppressor that has outperformed cans from many popular and big name manufacturers:

I of course also had to stage a photo op with their Beretta 93r. These guns are just too cool!

And I couldn’t resist doing the same with the SAW. Boy do I feel bad for the guy in the squad who gets chosen to lug one of these around instead of an M16 variant!

However, as I said that these guys both have experience with Murray Urbach, their bread and butter remains the 90 series. They can work on or build from scratch the entire series of roller delayed blowback guns, and of course do conversions (such as converting a 93 to a 53 and properly remarking it).

Here is an example of a G3 type rife they built from scratch. This gun features one of the old polygonally rifled barrels too, as well as the newer shell deflectors:

They also had a stack of conversions ready to go back to customers that I snapped a photo of:

Those six barreled receivers will undoubtedly result in six very satisfied customers too!

Of course you can’t call yourself an H&K builder without being able to make stellar MP5s, and TPM certainly does that:

They will even make an MP5/SD, and I had the opportunity to see one in the process of being built for a customer. The holes in the barrel are there to bleed off excess propellant gasses in order to make every round subsonic. This receiver is also going to be remarked:

They even had a real MP5/SD can laying around. This is the only authentic one I have ever seen. While they unfortunately cannot sell this to the public (the 1968 Gun Control Act ruled all foreign NFA items as not suitable for sporting purposes, and thus not transferable) it was very cool to see:

Their work goes beyond typical H&K stuff however, as they had some really cool prototypes in the works that they plan to market and sell. While not unheard of, here is an HK51 they whipped up with a ludicrously high capacity magazine. If the 7.62×51 round doesn’t do the job, the flame/muzzle flash should:

Now that has been done before, but this hasn’t:

That’s right, Matt and Ken are in the process of making an MSG90 Kurz DMR type rifle! I cannot wait to see how this turns out, but the idea itself is very cool.

Also on the docket is an integrally suppressed 300 blackout HK53 type rifle:

However when I asked them about this one, they said that they really wanted to place the suppressor farther back into the handguard, so they have made their own barrel in house with threads set farther back:

Again this is another very cool concept that I cannot wait to see come to life.

Now here is where things get real. If you are an HK guy you know that there are many gunsmiths out there that do conversions, upgrades, and modifications. I looked both the guys in the eye and asked why should a customer choose them over another builder. Their response was “let us show you”.

To remark, say, an HK94 with MP5 you have to TIG over the existing rollmarks, grind the weld down, and then remark it properly. Ken has devised a way to dissipate the heat from welding over rollmarks (to prevent any changes in the receiver’s integrity) that is a little trade secret of his. Also, to make the new rollmarks look perfect, Ken and Matt use one of these whetstones… for four or five hours:

These guys are perfectionists to a level that I have not seen before. Without naming any names, they blasted other builders for taking shortcuts such as leaving the factory cocking tube on an MP5/SD conversion. Of course this is something most enthusiasts would not notice, but Ken and Matt would so they make/modify their own cocking tubes in house:

Going this extra mile to make things right has obviously paid off too, as the duo told me that their business has been generated almost entirely by word of mouth, and in my experience this is the mark of a quality operation.

So these guys really know H&K stuff, but that is by no means all that TPM does. Matt was anxious to show me an RPK they built. This is a post sample full auto gun that is graced by some of the most beautiful furniture I have ever seen on an AK variant:

With so many post-sample guns around the shop, I asked if they do many sales to the government or law enforcement, and they said absolutely. One of their hot sellers is their integrally suppressed Ruger pistol that they said local police use to take out lights and such!

Lastly one of the coolest services they offer is incognito barrel threading. To explain this term you need to see it. This precision rifle is hiding a little secret:

Ken and Matt use the end of the barrel as the thread protector so it looks nice and flush with the gun:

And this is a service they offer for all kinds of different rifles:

So that is a quick look into TPM Outfitters and some of their wares, and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for these guys. If you would like to learn more about TPM, visit their website at http://www.tpmoutfitters.net/ and have a look. You can contact them via their website to inquire about any of the services listed above or if you have something special you need done. I am sure they would be more than happy to try their best to help you out!

An exhibit of Philip Luty’s famous homemade design previously displayed at Dortmund Bodegam in Oslo, Norway. Produced by engineer and artist Cameron MacLeod.

“A Book and a Pistol comprises of an installation, both of a homemade 9mm submachine gun and the manual that provided the instructions on how to make it. The manual was found online and the printed version which provides all the instructions required to build the gun with tools commonly found within hardware stores and plumbing supply stores.”

There was a period of time in the 20th century when H&K was producing 2,000 G3 battle rifles a day. These rifles served not only the West German armed forces, but many of the West’s armed forces and remained the top competitor with the FN FAL as far as proliferation is concerned. The MSG90 is the highest evolution of the G3 battle rifle, and is itself a PSG1 rifle with a few more features to make the rifle more than a stationary precision rifle.

As stated, the MSG90 is based on the famous PSG1 which was developed after the German government’s failure at the 1972 Munich Olympics at which 17 people (including 11 Israeli coaches and athletes) were killed due to a very bungled response. The Germans recruited marksman who were not professionally trained, but rather police officers and such who shot recreationally on weekends, and equipped them with G3 rifles with iron sights. The men selected even declared that they were not sharpshooters, but regardless they were placed several hundred yards away and a lot was expected of these individuals. The Munich Massacre unfortunately resulted in the loss of many innocent lives, but as a result, the Germans realized they needed to be better prepared for something like this in the future. Many things were created in response to Munich, including the P7 pistol, the elite GSG-9 counter-terrorist unit, and a new rifle to aide in precision shooting; The PSG1.

The PSG1 gave marksmen a tool that they desperately needed in order to neutralize a threat with success at a distance. The Germans realized they needed a semi-automatic rifle with a large capacity too for quick follow up shots, so a bolt gun was out of the question. In response, H&K took what they had (the G3 platform) and radically altered it to shoot more accurately. The PSG1 has:

• Receiver reinforcement rails to increase strength and reduce flexing
• A special trunnion that wraps around more of the barrel to reduce whip
• Special bolt group that includes serrations for the bolt closing device and a special locking piece
• A polygonal cold hammer forged barrel that is free floated
• An extended cocking tube with the handle placed far forward
• Half moon shaped “rollers” for consistent lockup and bolt gap
• 6x Schmidt and Bender optic

With these modifications the PSG1 was a true sub-MOA rifle that was quite remarkable for a semi-auto in the early to mid 1970s. Considering that roller lockup is very crude compared to a system with a rotating bolt, it is impressive that precision rifles based on the famous HK roller delayed blowback system can perform the way they do.

So where does the MSG90 play into this? Well, all the above points are true of it as well, but the MSG90 is a lighter and more mobile version of the PSG1. The rifle that is the subject of this review is the MSG90A1, a rifle that was commissioned by the United States Government to arm the Marine Corp Security Force and FAST teams. The A1 features a 10x Schmidt and Bender optic, iron sights borrowed from the HK21 machine gun, an improved stock, and a barrel that is threaded and has a harmonic stabilizer to reduce barrel whip. The rifle is still in production too, but the MSG90 has never been made available to civilians due to one simple fact: it features a swing down lower and the ATF considers any of the G3 derived firearms with a swing-down to be a machine gun. However, twenty year HK emplyee Jim Schatz has said that there are four MSG90s out there in civilian hands and that the ATF originally deemed these not machine guns, so who knows where these are today?

Anyways on with the show. Here we can see the side profile of the MSG90 with its silent bolt closing device, which works wonders relative to the noise produced by the “HK slap”.

Notice also how the scope is mounted to two picatinny rails welded on top of the receiver rather than the old claw mounting system.

Here you can see the trunnion:

Very odd looking compared to a G3′s (which ends inside the receiver).

Next up is how the barrel is free floated. The cocking tube is extended and the traditional H&K 3 ring front sight tower is not present. It looks like they just cut one in half and welded it on!

And lastly, here is a close up of the bolt head with the exposed rollers. The rollers are made of titanium and are crescent shaped rather than true cylinders:

For comparison, here is a regular G3 bolt and carrier:

So the MSG90 has some really cool features that would make a G3/91/PTR/JLD etc. owner do a double take, but how do these contribute to accuracy? Well for that I would have to arrange to get this gun out to the range.

Let me preface this by saying that I have very little experience with precision rifles. I have no formal training, have never shot in bench rest or an extreme accuracy oriented competition, and have never really been behind a big fancy DMR/precision rifle so I was really excited about this one. I bought some SSA 168 grain ammunition and went to town. I figured me behind the trigger would be a good measure of accuracy since I am not a complete newbie, but new to this kind of rifle (I have always been an “accuracy by volume” kind of guy).

First of all I feel bad for the designated marksman who would have to lug this around; The MSG90A1 weighs 15.4 pounds (7 kilos), just a pound and a half shy of the M249 SAW. I got a quick crash course in how to shoot this thing properly, and proceeded to get behind the rifle, using the factory equipped bipod and my shooting bag as a rest for the stock.

The trigger breaks at 3.3 pounds and is very comfy with the nice wide trigger boot. I had set a target at 100 yards to perform five 5 shot groups on after I got comfy with the gun (I dialed it in and put a hurting on some steel first).

Here I am ready to try and shoot:

And here the rifle is in full recoil flinging brass into the next county:

I must say that the big rubber recoil pad helps significantly with felt recoil, and the rubber grommet on the scope prevents any possibility of leaving the range with a nice big scope kiss on your noggin. Shooting this gun was a real pleasure, and I had a lot of fun doing it, but how did it perform?

Well the calipers don’t lie! Here is my best of five:

At 0.444 inches that translates to 0.424 MOA, making this a legitmately sub-half MOA rifle, especially in hands more capable than mine. The best part however is that I was able to consistently shoot sub MOA, with an average group of 0.625 inches! I feel that I could have done better with more magnification too, but the fixed 10x optic is very clear and adheres to the DMR principle.

So onto the bullet points:

The Good:

• Accurate
• Reliable
• Great trigger
• Fun to shoot
• Familiar G3 controls

The Bad:

• Fixed 10x magnification
• Heavy rifle to field
• Mangles brass (like all G3 type rifles)

The Ugly

• The ATF considers these semi-auto rifles a machine gun
• Not importable into the USA for civilians to own due to the 1989 ban
• A set of the special titanium rollers are $300!

So the MSG90A1 is a fantastic rifle that provides an incredible shooting experience, and it is a real bummer that this thing has been deemed a machine gun by the United States.

The Providence Journal has a fascinating article about the many layers of subcontracting that took place during WWII. Richard Parker writes about his time as a driver for the Pantex Pressing Machine Company. During the war the company was sub-contracted to make clones of the famous Oerlikon 20mm cannon and other weapons. Once a week Mr Parker would drive an incomplete torpedo across town to the home of an elderly machinist …

To deliver it, I then drove to a working-class section of Pawtucket. Arriving at my destination, instead of formidable gates of a giant defense plant, I’d ring the bell of a three-decker wooden tenement and be greeted by an elderly man with a strong British accent. After chatting a bit we’d lift the warhead off the truck, roll it across the courtyard to the cellar door and, an old man and young one, carefully slide it down the stairs and roll it across the floor to his lathe.

Machinists usually love their work. Like many, this retired machinist had a well-equipped workshop to do precise and difficult grinding operations. At the lathe we’d lift off the warhead previously worked on, boost up the new one, lock it in place, roll the completed one across the floor, up the stairs, across the courtyard and hoist it onto my truck. And that’s how subcontracting won the war.

One of the most famous guns to be outsourced was the M1911 pistol. It was made by a typewriter manufacturer (Remington Rand), a sewing machine maker (Singer) and a railway signaling equipment manufacturer (Union Switch & Signal).

Many thanks to Earl for the tip.

Who doesn’t love a sub-gun? Blasting through cases of cheap pistol ammo is my favorite way of turning money into noise, and I imagine with the new Sig MPX series that amount of fun would be amplified.

The MPX is an extremely compact, magazine fed, selective fire SMG that fires from a closed bolt, and is extremely suppressor friendly (which seems to be the selling point). Of course the MPX has been spotted before in the hands of Sig employees and at shows like SHOT, but I figured I would give my impressions of the weapon system.

First, the MPX comes in two flavors: Regular and kurz. Both are very lightweight and I could see myself competing quite well in a sub-gun match with them. Here is the larger gun with a suppressor installed:

For those familiar with the AR platform, you will feel right at home on the MPX. The charging handle, mag release, bolt catch, and selector are all right where they should be. Also the stock is quite sturdy considering it is a wire design.

As for the kurz model, everything is the same, but shorter as the name implies:

While short, it isn’t MP5k short. Here is me with each gun so you can see how more or less each sizes up:

My smiles always look so forced.

Each gun was insanely light, and I would say the suppressed full size MPX is as light as a 9mm UMP (if not a tad lighter).

Now usually mini and micro SMGs compromise shootability for compactness. While the MPX Kurz is no exception, I did find it easier to point and manipulate than an MP5k PDW with a castle rear sight and clumsy stock/foregrip:

I will do whatever it takes to get a demo-letter for a post dealer sample, as they are just too damn cool!

For information about the civilian legal MPX, click here!

The H&K booth at SHOT had a remarkable display of the MP5 series of SMGs, from genesis to current day.

Here we see the result of “Project 64″, the very project that create the MP5. This is gun number 31, still a gun in prototype phase. It is very easy to spot the differences between this one and a current model!

Next came the K model with it’s odd front grip:

Then here is a rare full length barreled MP5. This idea didn’t pan out:

And I don’t know about you folks, but I really like cutaways!

On the flip side we have a UMP prototype (or what became the UMP):

The Legendary MP5/10. The 10mm MP5s are legendarily powerful, but when the 10mmm fad of the 90s went away, so did this gun:

And last, but certainly not least we have the latest MP5 equipped with all the bells and whistles:

Click to expand and read the placard about updates to the MP5.

For me it is hard to believe that the MP5 has been around or 50 years, an remains the gold standard when it comes to sub guns!

The Taiwanese military have been developing a modern assault rifle since 2008. Four years ago they unveiled their first prototype, named the Type XT97. The latest prototype has just been unveiled and we were lucky enough to have been sent detailed photos of the new rifle. It bears a superficial resemblance to the original prototype but looking closely a lot has changed both externally and internally. The new prototype is a lot more polished and looks production ready.

The upper receiver is a one piece aluminum extrusion. The lower will be polymer but the prototype lower is metal.

The the stock folds and has an adjustable cheek rest. The stock has holes to hold the rifle’s takedown pins during field stripping, like some of the H&K rifles. In fact, the takedown pins themselves look H&K inspired.

The bolt head is based on the AK design, rather than the Stoner design featured in so many of the new assault and semi-automatic rifles on the market. It has a short stroke gas system similar to the FN SCAR. The charging handle is ambidextrous and can be locked forward so that it does not reciprocate when the action cycles. The gas system is not adjustable.

The compensator / flash hider is designed for use with a quick detach suppressor. Multiple barrel lengths were on display.

This rifle looks very promising. It merges many of the features from the AR-15, AK, SCAR and Bushmaster ACR. The current Taiwanese service rifle, the T91, based on the AR-15 and AR-18 designs, has only been in service for a decade so this rifle is probably not intended to replace it. I suspect this rifle will be issued to Special Forces, vehicle crews, airborne and mechanized infantry who require a more compact rifle or a rifle that has more customization options.

Many thanks to Sam Cheng for the photos and information.

Despite setbacks, SOFREP.com reports that the XM25 is set to be adopted by the US Army and named the M25 …

The XM25 has a range against point targets (e.g. a window) of 600m, and 700m for area targets. The M203 has a 150m/350m range for point/area targets. Maj. Shawn Murray, Soldier Weapons Assistant Product Manager at PEO Soldier said, “Our studies indicate that the XM-25 with HEAB (High Explosive Air Burst) is 300 percent more effective at incapacitating the enemy than current weapons at the squad level.” The M203 and M32A1 are squad level weapons. Check out this video for weapons effects, and notice the recoil of the weapon.

The BOI (Basis of Issue) being discussed is one M25 per rifle squad.  The system will be fielded to conventional Infantry and SOCOM units. From now until next year around this time the Army is improving the fire control system, magazine size, battery life and weight. If Congress funds it the M24 should go into low rate production late next year of about 1,100 systems and ammo.

Earlier this year the XM25 was removed from service after a double feed caused a round to fire out of battery injuring a solider.

Thanks thanks to Nic for the tip.

This article was written by Claymore.

Hold onto your seats TFB readers you are about to see something that I’m 99.9% sure has NEVER been seen before.

Like most people interested in firearms I was working under the incorrect impression that the first AK-47s came with a “milled” receiver. I was an NFA and FFL firearms dealer and had researched this subject just to learn more about my passion “NFA firearms.

I was soon to learn just how wrong that impression was.

In the late 80s my partner and me had just returned from the Pakistan/Afghan border region where we were working for an NGO, doing training and administration chores for Afghan freedom fighters, when we got “the call” To see if we would be interested in doing the same thing for Hmong freedom fighters.

We, being the “adventurous” types, we agreed and we were soon on our way to the area where we would be working on our new adventure in South East Asia.

It turns out we would be working with General Vang Pao (who died earlier this year, RIP). To learn more about General Vang Pao and his Hmong fighters search the web for something along the lines of “the secret war in LAOS“.

Our training course was soon set up and while one of us was teaching the other was free to wander around the area doing our “other” jobs. One of my jobs was weapon evaluation and repair, so I was always looking at the vast hodgepodge of weapons used by the Hmong.

One afternoon I came across this AK-47 looking weapon (see title photo above) and it had me scratching my head as to just what it was.

It sure looked like an AK-47 model of some type but I had never seen one with half sheet metal and half milled receiver before. If you look closely at the photo above just forward and above the magazine well there is a portion of milled receiver bulging out and that is what had me puzzled.

I asked the Hmong owner of the firearm if he knew anything about and and the only thing he knew was “OLD”. He will never know just how accurate that description is.

I took a couple more photos so when we went home I could investigate it a bit more to try and find out just what is was.

In the photo above the milled bulge can be seen in greater detail. This strange weapon had a straight wooden stock which would become more interesting later in this article.

To me personally the most interesting thing about this “mystery firearm” was the serial number that was stamped into the bulge. 729 was my police badge number at the time and that is the serial number on this firearm.

If you look very closely at the selector lever you will notice small “holes” or dimples instead of the more recent “slots” that you normally see on AK family of weapons. These holes would help me identify it later.

We went about our training and evaluation mission and soon were back in the USA and I started looking through my big pile of firearms reference books and military field manuals to see if I could identify this “mystery firearm”.

I came on a very few mentions of the TYPE ONE AK-47 and began to think I had come across a VERY rare weapon still being used in active service about 50 years after production.

The few mentions I came on were very short but at that time in the early 90′s the web wasn’t yet the stock pile of info that it is now so I had to rely on reference books in my quest.

Finally I found a mention with a line drawing, if I remember correctly, was somewhere buried in the “Smithsonian museum” material somewhere. So there it was the very first version of the infamous AK-47 and it did indeed have a sheet metal receiver and this was the same type firearm still being used a long long time after it’s manufacture. This reference made mention of the dimples for selector position.

I was amazed that I had taken photos of a firearm that had never shown up in any reference I could find anywhere, at the time, including the famous Jane’s firearms references.

Cased closed as one would say in “Cop Talk” but I was soon to be given another chance to see another TYPE ONE in person. I passed this information along to the “appropriate agencies” that might be interested and no one had seen one also.

My partner and I ran a few more missions with VP and his people but got a call from “someone” who asked if we wanted to do the same thing with another group of Hmong Freedom fighters.

Our introduction to the “Chow FA” (sky soldiers in Hmong) was “interesting” to say the least.

We were advised that the leader of this group of Laotian Hmong PA Kow Her ( he was assassinated in 1993) had worked for the USA in Vietnam but had been abandoned there like many of “our” people had been in our rush to get out.

Pa Kow walked from Vietnam back to Laos and the name Chow FA came to him when it was just him and the sky when we was making the very long on foot trip back to Laos.

We would be the very first “Americans” to make contact since his abandonment, at our hands, and it was unknown what kind of welcome we would get would he still be holding a grudge or not was the question we had on our minds while making the trip into his area of operations.

After a long hump through the mountains we got to the area where they were fighting with the Lao government and our welcome couldn’t have gone better much to our relief.

Like our other missions we soon got down to business of training and evaluating the Chow Fa and as usual I was walking around looking at weapons when I came upon this ANOTHER TYPE ONE AK-47 in the hands of Hmong fighters.

I couldn’t believe my luck here was another one right here in my hands and it had a folding stock. I was ready this time because I already knew what I was looking at and I took a bunch of photos this time.

This photo of the early “open top” butt plate shows it is a very early version. The sheet metal extension of the lower section of the receiver that comes upward and closes the rear of the receiver shows that this is a true folding stock model not a straight stock cut off modification.

Here is a much better shot of the small “holes” or dimples that stop the selector lever in the correct spot rather than the familiar “slots” in later models.

This photo also shows much more detail of the milled bulge.

It also has some weird looking hieroglyphics for the selector makings. They are faint but the top one looks like a 6 or a “G” clef used in music.

Anyone out there reading willing to hazard a guess why this one is “different” than the straight stock one?

Give up? “Look ma no serial number” on this one where the other one is marked.

So which is correct or is this one a clandestine “sterile” model given to the Hmong.

But the commies forgot the serial numbered parts inside. It looks like these two are from the same run because the first one is 729 and this one is marked 769 on the bolt.

It’s internal surfaces show very little wear even after about 50 years of service. And the Hmong is keeping his firearm nice and clean.

These photos were taken with a good old fashioned 35mm then scanned so in this one I was concentrating on the springs and working parts. Unfortunately that puts the markings near the chamber out of focus. But you can make out the very optimistic 800 meter marking on the rear site.

We are at the end of our journey with this one showing the internal parts still looking shiny and clean after 50 years of service.

So that is the story on how you readers of The Firearms Blog got to be in on the first ever public showing of these very rare photos of not one but two type one AK-47s.

All photos the property/copyright of claymore and any commercial use other than this site is forbidden.

A reader sent in these photos allegedly taken of a Syrian arms bazaar in the rebel controlled city of Deir ez-Zor. The photos show a 12 year old boy, with a 1911 pistol in a shoulder holster that is to big for him, manning a stall selling loose 7.62x39mm ammunition, gun cleaning supplies, a RPG launcher  SA7 anti-air missile/launcher, a variety of machine guns and a Mosin bolt action rifle.

Another reader tipped us off to this video showing a rebel manufactured single shot 12.7x108mm anti-material rifle manufactured from a DShK heavy machine gun barrel (although an expert told me it could have been made out of a Chinese HMG barrel). The approach they took to making it is very similar to the DIY .50 BMG rifles made in the USA by gun enthusiasts also using surplus machine gun barrels.

Thanks to our readers who sent us these tips.

The Dillon Aero DGP2300 Gun Pod combines a 7.62mm M134D-H gun with a 3,000 round magazine. How long does it take to shoot 3,000 rounds you ask? Just 1 minute.

The system is entirely self contained, so it can be mounted on any aircraft that can handle weight, rotational torque and recoil of the gun (190 lbs of recoil). It has its own battery which can be wired into the aircraft to trickle charge.

Heckler & Koch has an MP5 and an MP7 in their new RAL-8000 Green-Brown color scheme. I first recall seeing a complete H&K rifle, including optics, in this color scheme when they unveiled the H&K G28 DMR last year. Since then we have seen H&K machine guns and now we have submachine guns in the same colors. Also note that the MP7 has a red dot sight in the same color scheme.

Here are some more H&K photos from the DSEi show …

The poor neglected H&K G36 does not get a new coat of paint. Still H&K matte black polymer.

We still have not seen a specification sheet for the new Beretta ARX-160 A3, but judging from the promotional image above and with the redesigned heat shield/handguard I think the A3 version is a sustained fire, or Infantry Automatic Rifle, version of the ARX-160.

Here are some more photos of the ARX-160A3 from the DSEi show floor …

In 2003 a British Colonel found two British WWI 18 pounder field guns hidden in the desert sand at an Iraqi Army base. The guns were taken back to Britain and BAE restored them back to “service condition”.

During my impoverished college years I had friends who regularly went “dumpster diving” late at night in the dumpsters behind supermarkets to find fruit and vegetables which had been thrown out that evening. I never joined them. I was not as hungry as they were. Years later I think I might have missed out finding some really nifty junk in the trash. The Metro.co.uk reports on a MANPAD launcher found in a Canadian dumpster …

The military-grade weapon appeared in a recycling bin in Victoria, British Columbia, leaving local residents stumped as to how it got there.

Staff at Hartland recycling landfill called Saanich Police as they were ‘concerned it may be usable’, Sgt Steve Eassie said.

‘At this point it is inert; it is no longer housing what was once a rocket inside the missile launcher,’ he added.

Police have said the ‘Guided Missile System Intercept’ is around four feet long and weighs less than ten pounds (4.5kg).

They believe the weapon was designed to be fired once and it would have been used by the US military to take down aircraft in the 1960s and 70s.

Those sneaky Canadians to the north pretend they don’t have as many guns as us but now we know they are closet gun loving nuts ;) I can understand why someone would want to secretly dispose of an illegal weapon, but I can’t understand why they would put it in with the recycling. Are there free recycling dumpsters in Canada? Maybe they were trying to save a few dollars.

The MANPAD is a  General Dynamics FIM-43 Redeye. Dating back to the Vietnam War these single use missile launchers were used by the US Military and allies until it was replaced in the 80s by the Stinger missile system. Canada never adopted it, how it ended up in Canada is a mystery.

Many thanks to Karin for the link and info.

Ah, the STK Ultimax 100 Mk5. The darling of gun bloggers and youtubers, but alas never given the chance to prove itself in the real world. General Dynamics entered it into the USMC IAR competition but it lost to the HK IAR. ST Kinetics continue to promote it at arms shows so maybe one day it someone somewhere will adopt it.

ST Kinetics has been developing their 40mm ABMS (Air Bursting Munitions System) for a while now. The ABMS Upgrade Kit can be installed in a wide range of 40mm automatic grenade launchers, such as the Mk19 Mod 3, H&K GMG, CIS 40 and STK LWAGL. The company now developed a 40mm airburst system that can be attached to regular rifles.

Airburst system mounted on STK SAR 21 Rifle.

A 40mm grenade is going to have a lot more power than the 25mm grenade found in the XM25 or the 20mm grenades found in some other airburst systems. The limited payload of those small caliber grenades has been their chief criticism. On the other hand they can travel on a much straighter trajectory than the 40mm rounds.

To the soldiers and vets reading this blog, is this a system you would have found useful? Or is the extra weight something you would prefer to go without?

STK under barrel grenade launcher.

Earlier this year we reported that the Peruvian military had decided to adopt the FN SCAR-H. Only the SCAR-H was able to read the final round of the competition. MKE dropped out because they were not willing to guarantee a 20,000 shot lifespan, LWRC’s rifle failed the beach and sand test and H&K’s entry failed the mud test. The SCAR-H passed all these tests but in video footage obtained by Peruvian website Elcomercio.pe, it appears to fail the final test. You can see the test in the video below …

In the test the rifle was unscientifically dropped 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) onto concrete seven times. I assume this is the same rifle had already been subjected to all the previous torture tests. Given that it appears no rifle entered into the competition was able to complete all the tests, I think it is safe to say that the tests were at fault rather than the rifles.

We would all like an accurate and light rifle that required no maintenance, could be used as a hammer, thrown off buildings and submerged in mud and still continue to function with sub-MOA accuracy. Instead we make compromises because a modern full/semi-automatic rifle built like a tank with loose tolerances would not be a pleasant rifle to carry nor would it be accurate. Peru will probably be mounting expensive optics on their new rifles that anyway would fail all or most of the tests.

What do you TFBers think? Are modern rifles all junk? Should we be using the AKM or a Lee Enfield? Or is Peru looking for a magical unicorn rifle that does not exist?

Matthew Cox reports on the GD Lightweight Medium Machine Gun …

OK, so we all know the Pentagon has no money. But if it did, General Dymanics’ Lightweight Medium Machine Gun, chambered in .338 Norma Magnum might be worth a look.

GD’s Ordnance and Tactical Systems division was showing off the 23-pound LWMMG at Modern Day Marine 2013, touting it as the needed bridge between the M240 and the M2 .50 caliber machine guns.

“We wanted a round that could provide capabilities to eliminate the gap between 7.62mm and .50 cal,” a GD official said. “We needed a round that could provide accurate, effective fire on target beyond 1,500 meters.”

The LWMMG fires a 300 grain .338 caliber bullet and is capable of effective fire out to 1,700 meters, compared to the M240 round which is effective out to 1,100 meters.

The time to introduce this gun was early or mid-way through Operation Enduring Freedom. For better or worse, the military is not going to adopt a new machine gun cartridge in the immediate future.

Of all the things I never thought I would write in the same sentence, “Remote Control” and “Sturmgewehr 44″ must be at the top of the list. The above photo shows a Syrian rebel controlling a Sturmgewehr 44 with a wired joystick. A cheap CMOS video camera with a Component video output is mounted behind the scope (at the correct distance to account for eye relief) and is wired into a LCD screen.

Excluding the batteries and motors, the electronics could be purchased for less than $200 on ebay. They are the same type of components used by amateur drone hobbyists to remotely fly aircraft at extreme distances, although they use wireless transmitters and receivers rather than wired connections. In this application wired communications probably give the operator longer range through thick concrete walls than a cheap 2.4ghz/5.8ghz video system would (and it cannot be jammed, or worse, hacked into).

Last year Syrian rebels claimed to have captured a weapons cache containing 5,000 Sturmgewehr 44 rifles.

Thanks to Patrick for the tip.