Guns I Wish I Had - Part 4 - Steyr Scout 7.62 NATO

The Steyr Scout is unconventional-looking like most other Steyr weapons. And like them, it owes many of its strengths to the that type of "outside the box" thinking. Based on Jeff Cooper's Scout Rifle concept, it is intended to be a medium weight weapon able to take on several different types of tasks.

The Scout is a bolt action rifle, most often chambered in 7.62x51 NATO (.308 Winchester) although it is also available in the .243 Winchester, 5.56NATO, 7mm-08 and .376 Steyr. It is fed from a detachable box magazine with a capacity of five rounds, although a kit exists to boost that to ten. It features a heavy 20 inch barrel for accuracy and flutes cut into the barrel to make it as light as possible. It is known for having a fairly stiff bolt action. Steyr made the stock out of durable polymers to make the weapon light, strong, and impervious to the elements. The Scout also has an integral folding bipod. The Scout features an user-adjustable trigger that is factory set to 3.5lbs.


The Scout also has Picatinny mounts for optics forward of the action. This type of long eye relief, far forward mounting of a scope is known as "scout" mounting and is usually used with a low power scope that can be used for many applications. The rifle also has flip up ghost ring sights and a slot in the buttstock for an extra magazine. The Scout is also a very safe weapon featuring a Roller tang safety and bolt handle that locks into the receiver when in "locked safe" mode.

Note the heavy fluted barrel and integral bipod

The extra magazine slot in the stock

In recent years Steyr has released an updated version called the Steyr Elite that features an
extended STANAG optics rail, an adjustable cheek rest, and an enlarged bolt knob. Most impressively, the Elite has a heavy 22.4" barrel with a "fast" rifling that allows it to achieve a higher velocity and increased effective range.

Medal of Honor- Pvt Rodger W. Young, US Army

Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division.

Place and date: On New Georgia, Solomon Islands, 31 July 1943.

Entered service at: Clyde, Ohio. Birth: Tiffin, Ohio. G.O. No.: 3, 6 January 1944.

Citation: On 31 July 1943, the infantry company of which Pvt. Young was a member, was ordered to make a limited withdrawal from the battle line in order to adjust the battalion's position for the night. At this time, Pvt. Young's platoon was engaged with the enemy in a dense jungle where observation was very limited. The platoon suddenly was pinned down by intense fire from a Japanese machinegun concealed on higher ground only 75 yards away. The initial burst wounded Pvt. Young. As the platoon started to obey the order to withdraw, Pvt. Young called out that he could see the enemy emplacement, whereupon he started creeping toward it. Another burst from the machinegun wounded him the second time. Despite the wounds, he continued his heroic advance, attracting enemy fire and answering with rifle fire. When he was close enough to his objective, he began throwing hand grenades, and while doing so was hit again and killed. Pvt. Young's bold action in closing with this Japanese pillbox and thus diverting its fire, permitted his platoon to disengage itself, without loss, and was responsible for several enemy casualties.


What is not said in the citation is that Rodger Young had joined the National Guard because his hearing and sight difficulties were so great that he thought he would not be accepted into the Regular Army. He attained the rank of Sergeant and then, when his unit was called up for service in WWII, he felt that his sight and hearing would make him a liability as the sergeant and requested rank be reduced to that of a private.

Science fiction author Robert Heinlein pays tribute to Pvt. Young in his novel Starship Troopers, a ship bears the name of Rodger Young in honor of Pvt. Young.

Armored Vehicles: Nagmachon

The What?
Well, this:

The Nagmachon is an Israel Defence Forces Armored Personnel Carrier. It evloved from earlier NagmaSho't APCs and both are Sho't Kal tank hulls with no turrets, modified to be infantry carriers and specialist vehicles. Manufactured by Israel Military Industries, the Nagmachon was conceived from the beginning as a Counter Insurgency (COIN) vehicle. Nagmachon is an acronym for Nagmash (APC) and gashon (belly).

Th Nagmachon carries 10 infantrymen and has a crew of 3. In line with most other Israeli military design philosophy, it is extremely heavy at nearly 50 tons (almost twice as much as a WWII tank) and sacrifices mobility for protection. This works fine for the IDF, which operates in a small area, but would make the vehicle quite unsuited for expeditionary or maneuver warfare practiced by the United States military. It has extremely heavy armor on the belly to protect it from anti-tank mines and IEDs. Hence the name. Its sides are fitted with Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) to counter rocket propelled grenades. The Nagmachon is equipped with four IS-10 grenade launchers. These contain ten smoke grenades each. Early versions fitted three armor panels with vision blocks of bullet resistant glass were attached to the superstructure's roof. Between the panels, two pintle-mounted 7.62 FN MAG (the M240 in U.S. service) machine guns were placed to enable the crew to engage infantry and soft skinned vehicles.

Early version with open shields

As a multi role vehicle, the Nagmachon is sometimes equipped with different engineering devices on its glacis (area of front sloped armor). In conjunction with its specially reinforced belly, this can make it an excellent engineering and anti-mine vehicle. Systems such as the Nochri and Magov anti-mine systems give the Nagmachon the ability to breach mine fields to allow the advance of other vehicles.

Later models were modified with a very notable pillbox on top of the fixed superstructure, providing all round small arms protection.

NagmaSho't and early Namachon

The Nagmachon has been used extensively not only in the Second Intifada, but also in the occupation of Lebanon in the 1980's and the 2006 Lebanon War. It is used as an engineering vehicle to clear lanes for other APCs and vehicles, although it is used primarily as a infantry carrier. Nagmachons are often used to escort the Armored Caterpillar bulldozers on their missions to clear road blocks (and destroy homes). While their protection against small arms fire and older RPGs is good, lack of mobility and light armament hurt the vehicle in many possible scenarios. I would also suspect the elevated superstructure may be extremely vulnerable to the top down attacks of guided antitank weaponry like the IDF encountered in Lebanon in 2006.

A Path to War

Normally, I wouldn't post a quote from Hermann Goering, but I found this so scary, given our current wars, my last post about how the media influences the world, and who it is coming from, that I decided to post it.

The Worldwide History of Arms Confiscation

Some more interesting facts that I ran across and thought I'd share with you.


In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
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China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated

B-25 Nose Art

A Journalist's Guide to Firearms

Anyone who knows anything about guns and watches or reads the news should get a good laugh out of this.


I believe that the major media companies and outlets have fallen into a trap of their own making, refusing to think for themselves, enforcing political stereotypes to keep people from questioning authority. Since 9/11, the main job of the television media has been to keep us scared enough to be quiet and maintain the status quo. They hide behind false claims of impartiality to make tens of millions of dollars a year selling us shampoo and financial advisers while ignoring their high-minded ideals or prostituting them for Pulitzers, turning them into something that reminds me more of televangelists than the search for the truth to enlighten the masses.
OK, rant ended.

The Giant Blimp of Kandahar

I have caught a couple of Internet reports in the last of weeks about a large white blimp that has been flying over the Afghan city of Kandahar.

"Many people believe it's a spy blimp that can see through walls to look at our women," -- Ghulam Ghami


What could be it is a scale model technology demonstrator for Lockheed Martin's LEMV, the long endurance, multi-intelligence vehicle.

The LEMV is being designed to meet the need for a vehicle capable of staying on station for dozens if not hundreds of hours while accomplishing a variety of intelligence, reconnaissance and technical support missions. It will orbit the battlefield at around 20,000 feet for up to three weeks without coming down. It will be 250 feet long and house all sorts of spy gear.
I would expect high resolution cameras, infrared cameras, motion detectors, and radars. Other equipment and sensors such as magnetic anomaly detectors and chemical sniffers might also be mounted on such an aircraft in the future. It will takeoff from a short runway. The LEMV will be a hybrid airship, s heavier than air with a semi rigid hull. It will have gas compartments to get some of its buoyancy and belly mounted turbines to help launch it into the air.


So far the info is that Lockheed has not yet built a LEMV, but it has completed and tested a half sized model called the P-791, which flew in 2006. Reports state that this blimp is lit up at night and it is obviously quite visible in the daylight, and one might expect more stealth out of a spy ship. This could also be any other type of weather balloon or something, but I find it is more interesting to imagine what something might be. Plus, we have been spending enough money on this stuff to get some benefits.

Bullet impacts at 1million FPS

Here is something crazy. This is video different projectiles shot at purportedly shot at 1 million frames per second. It has jacketed hollow points opening up, frangible bullets striking angled surfaces, air gun pellets, and I think paint balls hitting bullets in flight. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Best Cop Car ever?

Well, it is not Military, and it is not history, but it is an Italian Lamborghini Police car.
I think it is sweet and I don't even like cars like that.

Medal of Honor- GST Daniel Daly, USMC

Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Daly was born in 1873 in New York. A warrior by nature, Daly enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps to fight in the Spanish-American War in 1899, but the war was over by the time he finished his basic training. Instead, he was deployed to China in 1900 to put down the Boxer Rebellion. Defending a wall bastion by himself and suffering numerous wounds, Daly inflicted 200 casualties until reinforcements arrived, and received his first Medal of Honor.
For his second Medal of Honor, his citation reads:

"Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly, United States Marine Corps, on the night of October 24, 1915, three officers and 35 enlisted men were attacked by 400 Cacos while crossing a river in a deep ravine concealed in bushes about 100 yards from a fort. The Marine detachment fought its way forward to a good position which it maintained during the night, although subjected to a continuous fire from the Cacos.

"At daybreak the Marines in three squads under the command of Captain Upshur, Lieutenant Osterman and Gunnery Sergeant Daly advanced in three different directions, surprising and scattering the enemy in all directions. Had one squad failed, not one man of the party would have lived to tell the tale. Gunnery Sergeant Daly, 15th Company, during the operations was the most consipicuous figure among the enlisted men."


Daly is famous for yelling, in this battle, "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"

(So no, it wasn't Johnny Rico of the Mobile Infantry for you scifi nerds)

Daly saw his service in the Marine Corps as a vocation and never married. After serving on the front lines for almost two years in WWI, he moved to the Marine Reserve and spent the last 17 years of his life as a bank guard. He turned down numerous offers for officership because he preferred to be an "outstanding sergeant" than just another officer.

You have been warned

OK, folks, I'm gonna lay it out for you.
There are some guns that are way too unpredictable and dangerous to have around. Way back in June, I advised you, my gentle readers, to take such guns, carefully unload them, fill them with concrete and throw them in the nearest body of water. Well, a couple in Florida paid the ultimate price for all those who do not read Homemade Defense at least twice a week. They got shot.
Yup. Better set this as a favorite. Or better yet, your homepage. Can't be too careful.

Anyway...

Polk County sheriff's deputies say it's not entirely clear how many times Michael and Sherri Thourot's 9mm accidentally went off Saturday, or what caused the handgun to fire. The pistol was a Jennings make.

The man in an adjacent stall, 29-year-old Gary Flynn, of Ireland, was most seriously injured. He underwent surgery after being hit in the shoulder and throat, and was listed in stable condition.

Michael Thourot was shot in the left hand, and Sherri Thourot was hit in the left arm. Both were also listed in stable condition.

do not own this gun. or be in its presence.

So, let me make very it clear: Jennings, Bryco, Raven Arms, and Jimenez Arms semi-automatics will malfunction. They are made of inferior metals, unable to take the strain of modern ammunition. Their design and manufacture are seriously flawed. Carefully unload them, apply a crowbar judiciously, and take them to the nearest blast furnace.

These guns often have magazines that need to be taken out with pliers, they have been proven to to fire as soon as the safety is disengaged, fire when set down, and it seems here, to fire continuously without the trigger being pulled.

I know guns are expensive and some people just want something affordable with which to defend themselves. But, nothing is more expensive than regret. Even if you do not kill yourself or others, keep in mind that gunshot wounds maim people on a daily basis in our world.

Military Technology- Vehicle Camouflage

In recent years, especially after the 2006 Lebanon War, military strategists and engineers have been working feverishly to find some way of reducing the effect of Anti-tank guided missiles or ATGMs. Many of these systems use infrared imaging or radar to track the target and as the missiles themselves are very difficult to destroy in flight, hiding the tanks' IR and Radar signature seemed like the way to go .

Saab Barracuda and Fibrotex have both made multi-spectral camouflage systems that seek to hide or disguise the visual/near Infrared, thermal and radar signature of the tanks. They also use heat transfer materials to hide the heat that accumulates on the tank in the day.

Saab's Mobile Camouflage System (MCS) seeks to hide glossy materials and flat surfaces with a three dimensional textiles with appropriate colors and infrared signatures in line with the environment of the area of operations. The 3D nature of the system is also hoped to have an effect on laser targeting and ranging systems of land and air based threats. The most recognizable part of a tank is the turret and main gun and the MCS seeks to camouflage the distinctive outline of these structures with contour disrupters. The radar camouflage hopes to diminish or eliminate the detection by synthetic aperture radar, but I think that is wishful thinking for the most part.

Danish Leopard 2 tanks

The Fibrotex system, seen here on IDF tanks, is similar, but uses a network of tiles rather than a textile cover. They state that it is effective in hot and cold environments, wet or dry conditions.

Israeli Merkava Tanks with Flexible Camouflage System

This is a German Leopard 2 tank in Afghanistan, it is painted in a disruptive, digital pattern designed to camouflage the tank, at least at distance. Once again, I am not sure how effective this would be on a 50 ton vehicle that makes about as much noise as sending a school bus through a chipper shredder. I have heard some rumours and that the paint used has some thermal qualities that are intended to lower its IR signature, but so far no proof of that has surfaced.

History's Greatest Fortifications- Krak de Chevaliers

In 1095, Pope Urban II declared a Crusade for the Holy Land. This was the beginning of 8 major wars and countless smaller ones that consumed the Mediterranean for three hundred years. The First Crusade conquered much of modern day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and parts of Turkey. The land was divided and new countries based on the European feudal system were developed. One consequence of this was the construction of large and advanced castles and fortresses to guard the Holy Land and the pilgrims and trade which gave it life.

The greatest of all Crusader castles was the Krak de Chevaliers, in modern day Syria. It guarded the main mountain pass leading to the Muslim city of Homs. It sits atop a 650-meter-high hill along the only route from Antioch to Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea. Crusaders captured the site in 1110 and handed it over the Knights Hospitallers, an order of militant monks. The Hospitallers upgraded the defenses constantly and it is today the one of the best surviving examples of Crusader architecture.
The Krak de Chevaliers was invested several times and did not fall until 1271, shortly before the collapse of the Crusader States in the Holy Land.



Many of the greatest defensive architectural ideas are seen in the ruins of the Krak. It has what is known as keep-centric construction, where the keep, the last bastion of the castle is in the center and can be reached from all the other defensive areas. This allows the defense to be continued even of the outer wall is breached. Notice the angled walls on the outer towers. This makes them immensely strong, less likely to be seriously damaged by siege engines of the day. It would also give the walls strength to avoid being undermined by enemy engineers or damaged in an earthquake, a common occurrence in the Middle East. The outer wall is close to 100 feet thick on the south side. It has seven guard towers that are more than 30 feet in diameter.

The Krak de Chevaliers was besieged by the two greatest Muslim Generals of the Crusades period, Nur-ad-din and Saladin. Both failed to take it. Its archectural success were copied by Edward the I of England who saw the castle while on the Ninth Crusade in 1272 and copied it in his many castle on England and Wales.

Range report- Winchester Model 74 .22LR

I went out to the range the other day and took along Pap's old Winchester 74 .22. I wasn't there to do any serious shooting, but decided to take some photos of the targets and show them to you, my adoring audience.

The Winchester 74 is a semi automatic rifle, chambered in the .22LR rimfire cartridge. It has a 24"round barrel and is loaded from a gate on the right side of the buttstock. The tubular magazine holds 14 cartridges. They were produced from 1939 to 1955 and more than 400,000 were made.

All targets were at 25 yards, all shots from the standing position

Well to be honest, this is all error on the part of yours truly, I think due to the light weight of the rifle, I was holding a little high at first. I realized my error and tried to correct my stance at the end.



Here I corrected my stance and let a little lead fly, with improved results.


Once I got used to the rifle, I was able to put rounds on target in rapid fire from a standing position. Overall, this is a great little rifle and would be wonderful for rabbit or squirrel hunting. You know, if you are hungry. Hopefully I will have a chance to take it to an outdoor range soon and see what it can really do at 100 yards from a sandbag and bench. I expect great things from it.

I would like to thank the Buffalo Bill Museum and Winchester Club of America in Englewood, CO for some help on the specifics of the '74.

Warhawk Air Museum (again)

A glider fuselage

Early P-51C Mustang before the distinctive bubble canopy and ventral intakes were added

The pilot was an Ace four times over

Wing mounted .50 caliber machine guns

Fairburn-Sykes Commando dagger

A knife made from a propeller and Plexiglas from a downed aircraft

9th Air Force Willys Jeep

1916 "Double Date" Luger

Guns I Wish I Had - Part 4 - AKS-74U

Some might think that the AK series are ugly, inaccurate rifles that are only fit for Communist conscript armies and terrorists.
Well, I don't have a good argument against those charges, actually.
But I like them. The AK series are rugged, reliable, and accurate enough for field use.

This brings us to the latest gun I would like you nice people out in internetland to buy for me: The AKS-74U. (Avtomat Kalashnikova Ukorochennyj)

The AK-74 is a AKM assault rifle chambered in the 5.45x39mm cartridge. The 5.45mm was developed after the Vietnam War, when it was seen that more of a lighter cartridge with a flatter trajectory was superior to fewer of a heavy cartridge. Whether or not this is the truth is still hotly debated today.


The AKS-74U was intended as a weapon for armored vehicle crews, artillerymen, truck drivers and anyone who would be overly encumbered by a full size rifle. The AKS-74U is mostly the same as its larger brother, it has a simpler sights and a shorter forearm, as well as a folding metal stock. The main difference is the very abbreviated barrel. The barrel is 8.3" long and is fitted with a special muzzle brake with an internal expansion chamber that is intended to increase the reliability of the weapon. The brake also is meant to allow unburnt powder to dissipate inside, before it has a chance to make a large muzzle flash, destroying nightvision and letting enemies zero in on your position. The 8.3 inch barrel was not simply adopted because it was shorter, though. The length allowed the 5.45mm cartridge to achieve the muzzle velocity of the older M43 7.62x39mm AKM, which the designers felt would give it sufficient killing power.

One problem of making a shorter automatic weapon is that the original weapon was developed to cycle the bolt with a certain amount of pressure. Shortening the barrel lowers the amount of gas pressure in the weapon and makes malfunctions much more likely. Also the AKS-74U loses a great deal of velocity from the full size AK-74 from 2,952 fps to 2,411fps. This resulted in a decrease in effective range from 625 to 350 m. Although I would guess that making a offhand shot on a man sized target at 350m with this weapon would be a nice shot.


This is the "Special Forces" variant of the -74U, it is fitted with a sound suppressor and the BS-1 "silent" grenade launcher. The BS-1 was developed specifically for the AKS-74U and fires a high-explosive dual purpose (HEDP) grenade. The grenades for the BS-1 are launched by blank cartridges and the rifle is cycled manually in this mode of operation.


Why do I want this gun? It is not very accurate, extremely loud, fires a weird little bullet, etc. To be honest, I want this gun just because it looks cool. To be sure, it is an assault rifle with the effectiveness of a submachine gun, but it is much more compact than most weapons with its level of power and probably more reliable than almost any similarly sized AR-15 variant.