Time to get myself into trouble

It has been too long since I posted here. Again, no excuses. I have been wondering how I was going to get back into the fray.  How about by getting in trouble with half the folks out there.

Like everyone else I was horrified by the shootings at Sandy Hook. I am not alone in acknowledging there isn't a gun law in the world that would have prevented this tragedy. This 'person' broke a bag full of laws to do what he did, and they didn't accomplish a thing.

There is a basic problem with the approach society currently takes.  When most people see a sign that says GUN FREE ZONE they think "I can't take a gun in here". That includes me. When monsters like the 'person' at Sandy Hook see these signs then think, "SAFE HUNTING GROUND".

Assist. Principal Myrick didn't like this situation. His actions, that probably got him fired in liberal happy day and age, prevented one such tragedy.

I think we can prevent a lot more!

Just about every school in the country has on it's staff and faculty former police and military with weapons training. Many of them would be more than willing to keep weapons in a safely secured location in their class room. The students need not know the weapons are there, unless...

We already have teachers willingly sacrificing their lives to defend their students. Why don't we give them the means to save their lives as well?

I imagine if this were to happen some schools would allow the staff to be armed, and others would not.

Which schools do you think the monsters would pick. I know which schools I want my grandchildren in.

Eye Protection

A few days ago I recieved the following E-Mail from Paul at Lucky Gunner:

Hey Art
Andrew & I tested both cheap and expensive ballistic eye protection,
"box-o-truth" style, to see how well they stand up to hardcore damage.

Many sryofoam heads later, we learn't that older lenses are much more
easily broken (probably because of exposure to UV light), and cheap eyepro is
cheap for a reason!

Because of these tests, I have decided to upgrade the cheap eyewear I carry
in my range bag for guests.

If you think your readers would find this interesting, perhaps you could
share it on your blog.

Kind regards,
Paul

It certainly makes me think twice about the eye protection my guest and I have been using here at HomePlace. I believe you will find this well worth checking out.

Art

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/eye-protection-shooting-glasses-review/

English .65 Double Barreled Flint Lock Handgun

.One of the joys of the Internet (for me anyway) is a weekly E-mail from INTERNATIONAL MILITARY ANTIQUES listing wonderful specials I usually can't afford but love to look at. I think of it as a weekly visit to a museum. Personally I think there is an advantage to IMA's website. At the museum you look at the objects behind glass. You have no way to turn it this way and that to look for details.

IMA gives us eighteen beautiful, large images of this icon exposing loads of detail.

Perhap it isn't as good as actually holding the weapon, but how often will a museum let you do that?

OK, some of the smaller museums...maybe.

This week one of the offered items was, as the title suggest, an English .65 Calibur Double Barreled Flintlock Handgun.

The barrels are about nine and a half inches long.

The weapons over-all length is fifteen and a half inches.

The weight isn't listed, but one look and you know it isn't going to be light.

As ono of my old friend used to say, if it wasn't love at first sight it was very serious lust.

This beauty would have been a personal purchase item for a British Officer. They were built in the Napolenic Wars and saw service for some years after.

The maker was Durs Egg of London.

I confess to a second reason for being so fascinated by this weapon.

Of late I have been re-reading S.M. Stirling's Nantucket series.

I can't help wondering if Mr. Sterling had seen one of these before writing, or while researching the books.

You can bet Marian had.

If anyone is interested, it's available. I don't recall the exact price, but it was between $14,000.00 and $15,000.00. I won't be inquiring about it at this time.

Should International Miltary Antiques object to me using these photos let me know and I will take them down at once.

Strange Bed Fellows

Apologies for my absents of late friends and neighbors. I won't bore you with excuses, I have been a touch preoccupied. An incident occured a few minutes ago that got my heart racing. Once I calmed down a bit the thoght came to me "This would be an interesting blog." So here it is.

Being a plesant Texas day of not terribly over 100 degrees I became restless and could think of nothing that would be more relaxing than shooting holes in something. Running down the list of hole punching aids I thought of my trusty Colt 1917 revolver.

This loyal companion currently spends most of it's time under my pillow where it is readly to hand in the evenings should the need arise. Before any of you say anything, there are no children of any age allowed in our bedroom, so no lectures about gun safes and trigger locks please. But I digress.

I walked down to the bedroom to fetch the colt for our outing. Most of the time I would simply run my hand under the pillow to get it. I am SO glad I didn't this time and picked up the pillow instead.

The main difference between this photograph and real life is that the scorpion was under it, right in the path my hand would traveled to get to the revolver. Here's a better look.

This boy and girls is the Bark Scorpion, a well known villian in these parts. I have lived in the West and South West all my life and have encountered these guys on a regular basis. I never got stung until we came here to HomePlace. My poor, long suffering Helene has been stung twice.

BUT NOT THIS TIME

In this case the villian was dispatched by the enthusiastic, adrenaline driven application of another battle tested weapon, the house shoe.

Helene frowns on me shooting anything on our bed. By the time I was finished the vile creature was an unrecognisable stain on the sheet, which is now in the washing machine. I'll go shooting once I get it into the dryer.

Saturday At Camp Hearn POW Camp

This Saturday (05/19/2012) Helene and I spent a very pleasant day at the Camp Hearn POW Camp Museum open house. An Amateur Radio Club from College Station had come out with a portable Antenna and radios. In the course of the day they talked to other Ham Radio Operators all over the world.

The Museum is in a newly constructed barracks building of the type that housed German POW’s during World War Two. Helene and I were in the first room of the museum with a display of firearms that would have been used in and around the camp by the American Guards. Another gentleman brought a World War Two Jeep that delighted the crowd. In addition to answering questions about the guns I also shared stories about the Second World War, both the war it’s self and the home front.

One of the highlights of the day was an address given by former POW, Mr. Heino Erichson. Mr. Erichson was a serving with the Africa Corps when captured by British Forces. Due to overcrowding in British Camps he was send to the United States. After a short time in Camp Hearn he ended the war in a POW Camp in Kentucky.

If you find yourself anywhere near Hearn, Texas you might consider stopping at the Camp Hearn POW Camp Museum. Its well worth your time to stop and explore a part of history seldom covered in the detail it deserves. They are open Wednesday thru Saturday 11:00AMto 4:00PM.

Assume it's loaded!

We are told from the time we start shooting to assume all firearms are loaded. When we're new shooters most of us are rigid about safety rules. Then, we become "old pro's" and don't sweat the small stuff.

This photo came to me from a friend in re-enacting. I will add quickly that it's not my shoe. I don't know who this is or when the photos were taken. According to the story that came with these photos the guy was testing the trigger on a handgun. It worked!

As bad as this looks the guy was lucky, the bullet - a .45 I believe - passed between the toes - after a fashion. It looks like a little bit of bone is showing on that big toe. When the shock wears off he ain't going to believe the pain.

As bad as the first photo looks, this one looks worse. It only takes a second of thoughtlessness for disaster to strike. The last time I wrote about a accidental discharge (It Only Takes One - 02/04/2010) a good man died.

Please be careful folks, this kind of thing happens in a split second you can never take back.

The Sedgley Glove

Looking back it seem a fair number of my blogs of late have started off by referencing
something I saw at hellinahandbasket. This is another one. There was an article discussing gimmick weapons or systems. This odd ball came up in the comments.

The curious device above is known far and wide as a Glove Gun. More properly it is a Sedgley Glove or Sedgley Glove Gun if you prefer. For years they have appeared in books or articles about the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) with a one paragraph description. As the name suggest the implement attached to the back of a standard cowhide work glove is a fire arm. To be exact it is a single shot .38 caliber fire arm. The plunger extending past the barrel is the triggering device. To discharge it, you punch the dude where you want the bullet to go – can’t miss!

Sources differ as to whether these are chambered in .38 Special or .38 S&W. I know the part of the block containing the barrel would rotate up for loading and unloading. I have no idea how it is cocked. Is there a safety? I can see arguments for and against it. One would assume there is a manual on this beastie somewhere but I have never encountered either the manual or the weapon it’s self in the ‘flesh’. In the day it would most certainly have been classified. If anyone out there can address any of these points I would love to hear from you.

My best information is that the weapon was designed by the Office of Naval
Intelligence. There are several theories about how it was employed.

One is that Sedgley Gloves were provided to heavy equipment operators with the Sea Bees. Reason being that bulldozer operators were unarmed due to the requirements of their jobs. The story goes that Sedgley Gloves came in right and left hand pairs. In case of a surprise attack by the Japanese this gave the Sea Bees a way to defend themselves.

With all due respect, I wouldn’t even have mentioned this one if I hadn’t encountered it several times in my research. Japanese soldiers tended to lead with their bayonets during an attack on what they thought to be an unarmed opponent. A glove, even a Sedgley Glove, against a bayonet looses. I have talked to a lot of Sea Bees. Some of them have mentioned side arms, others spoke about finding a way to keep a rifle or shotgun handy if they felt the need. Sedgley Gloves never came up.

I would offer two other arguments against this practice. First, in all my years of research I have only seen pictures of Sedgley Gloves made for the right hand, never the left. Second, if they had been issued in quantity to the Sea Bees we would be seeing a lot of them at gun shows. This is not to say the idea wasn’t suggested, maybe tested, but there has to be a reason Naval Intelligence designed them and the OSS ended up with them.

The Sedgley Glove pictured above is from the World War Two Museum in New Orleans. It was the property of Lawrence Ney Hanna. Lt. Hanna had been an officer with a unit called the Beach Jumpers and is the only case I know of where a Sedgley Glove was carried in combat.

The Beach Jumpers were the brain child of none other than Douglas Fairbanks
Jr. Fairbanks was that rare Hollywood type that existed outside officers clubs and PR appearances. His like traveled to dangerous places and made them more dangerous when they got there.

The job of the Beach Jumpers was to convince the enemy that a major force was attacking an all but empty beach. Their ride was a 63-foot double-hulled plywood air-sea rescue fast boat. Each boat was crewed by an officer and six enlisted men. The boats were equipped with twin 50 caliber machine guns, 3.5 inch window rockets, smoke pots and generators, and floating time-delay explosive packs. They also carried the unit’s specialized deception equipment: the multi-component "heater," consisting of a wire recorder; 5-phase amplifier, and 1000 watt, 12 horn speaker; and ZKM and MK-6 Naval balloons to which strips of radar reflective window had been attached. The latter could be towed behind the boats to enhance their radar cross-section.

This boat could convince the enemy a task force was landing in their back yard. By the time the defenders responded they were long gone – they hoped!

The glove had been issued to Lt. Hanna in case his boat was ever boarded. He was to hold his hands up as if surrendering until someone got close. With the fire arm component on the back of the glove it would not be seen by anyone in front of him. Once a boarder was close enough Lt. Hanna would punch them with the Sedgley Glove. The theory being that the punch and unexpected weapon report would take the man out and could create enough of a diversion for the crew to take back the boat.

So what are the chances of surviving such a stunt? Slim, but considering the kind of interrogation these folks could expect, being taken alive wasn’t an option. Luckily for Lt. Hanna he never had to use the Sedgley Glove.

In the half century plus since World War Two the only time Sedgley Gloves have been used in a movie was INGLORIOUS BASTARDS. I am pretty sure these were re-pops.

The Sedgley Glove reminds me of a saying my Grandmother used to have, “Book smart
and horse stupid!” Someone put a great deal of thought into this beastie, but never stopped to ask themselves if it was worth the effort to build it. This is the kind of thing I would expect a street thug to cobble up, not Military Intelligence.

I would love to have one for my collection, but would never fire it.

Winchester 1887 - 1901

I had no idea what kind shotgun the old man had for the longest time. Dad had seen a notice posted at a little general store on the road between Winnemucca and Battle Mountain, Nevada: SHOTGUN FOR SALE - $50.00. Now, Dad wasn’t really looking for another shotgun, but then he was ‘never not’ looking for a shotgun. A trait my Wife insists I inherited from him.

After getting directions from the store/bar keeper we followed what claimed to be a road to a shack in the desert. It was like something out of a movie. The owner, a slender stooped old man, heard us coming and was waiting in the door as we pulled up.

When Dad told him why we had come the little old man looked my Father up and down then said, “Well, you might be able to handle my shotgun,” and disappeared inside the shack.

This galled my father; he was over six feet and had done hard physical labor every day of his life. The man reappeared in the door with a huge lever action shotgun and a handful of BIG brass shotgun shells. He showed Dad how to load it through the open breach and pointed out a gas can several yards away that had outlived its usefulness.

Dad cycled the lever and took the first shot. I’m guessing these must have been black powder cartridges, based on the roar, smoke and fire that erupted from the weapon. I had never heard anything like it. Dad rocked back from the unexpected recoil.“Had enough?” the Desert Rat asked from his doorway of his shack. With a grim set to his jaw Dad cycled the action and fired off the next three rounds. After the second shot there really wasn’t much left of what had been the old gas can!

Dad handed the shotgun back to the old man saying he didn’t really think he was interested. He seemed to favor his right shoulder for the next couple of days. For the rest of his too short life Dad told the story about the big old lever action shotgun that kicked like a mule.

Today I know the old man’s shotgun was probably a Winchester 1887, perhaps a 1901, but definitely a 10 Gauge. I didn't see a weapon like this again (to recognize it) for the better part of ten years. It was on a short lived TV show called Dundee and the Culhne. I didn't realize what the scary on man on the show (he looked A Lot like the guy I met in Nevad) had until he fired and cycled the lever for a second shot.

In years since I had seen a number of these fine old shotguns. I even had a chance to fire one in twelve gauge belonging to a friend. When I would see them at gun shows I wanted to sit down in the isle and bawl, remembering Dad could have gotten one for $50.00.

For years the 1887 had been on the wish list under "It would be nice someday." Then out of the blue some years back Helene, my wonderful wife, presented me with a Winchester 1901 shotgun for Christmas.

For those not in the know it’s a version of the Winchester 1887 that started production in 1901. I believe the primary difference was the 1901 had some stamped parts and was only available in 10 Gauge. The big lever action shotgun never fails to draw interest when we are displaying Western Firearms, or lecturing on the subject. I have always treasured it, not just because it is such a wonderful addition to my collection, but because it brought back a shadow from my past.

Of course most folks today know the Winchester 1887 not from its Old West or long sporting history, but from the 1991 movie TERMINATOR 2 – JUDGEMENT DAY. The fact is, my 1901 narrowly escaped the ‘Terminator Chop’.

It was at one of our favorite gun stores in Houston when Helene and another customer found it at the same time. This 1901 had been marked down because it had been re-blued.

Helene knew I couldn’t care less about re-buling, we have a teaching and shooting collection. The other guy was delighted he had “one of these things” cheap enough to convert to the “Terminator Gun”. Both were going to have to put the weapon on lay-away. Helene (and I) got it because she wasn’t going to cut it up.

With the popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting the Winchester 1887 is back in production by a couple of companies, notably Chiappa Firearms. Folks have rediscovered its fine handling, and there is a supply of weapons available for the ‘Terminator Treatment’ without cutting up the old timers. The fact is, cut down 1887s go back a lot further than the Terminator movies. A number of them turned up in shootouts and raids during the roaring twenties. Even police found it handy to have such a lethal weapon that could be hidden under a coat.



Not too long ago Steve at THE FIREARMS BLOG announced Chiappa is coming to the aid of those needing to channel their “inner Arnold” with the T-Series 1887 shotgun. In some news releases this has been described as “Shotgun Pistol” but the 18.5 inch barrel makes it a shotgun and spares buyers the hassle of Class 3 or AOW paperwork.

The forearm is wood, but the grip is rubberized to aid in recoil issues. I had read somewhere (and now can’t find it to reference) that they were also planning a version called the “Bootlegger” that would have all wood furniture.
I’m delighted that my 1901 was spared the chop and wouldn’t change it. Still, I wouldn’t mind having one of the T-Series in my collection. As I said, cut down 1887s were quite popular in times past. A bootlegger T series would fit some of my programs nicely – not to mention being all kinds of fun!

UPDATE - My thanks to a reader who sent me a link to a photo of the "Bootlegger".

Also, my friend Hangman reminded me on facebook that the 1901 was stressed to handle smokless powder. I can't believe I forgot to mention that.

Folks like these make this Blog much more special than I could alone.